As climbers we operate in a potentially dangerous environment and need to take personal responsibility for ourselves and the consequences of our actions. But only Rube Goldberg could imagine all the weird and difficult situations that climbers might find themselves in as a result of an accident or other emergency while climbing. Rather than learning by creating and then solving complicated rescue scenarios it's more important to be familiar with improvised rescue tools such as knots and cordelettes and to understand systems that including rope ascending or rappelling with an injured person. Familiarity with these techniques will give you the skill and confidence you need to be able to handle an emergency rescue, should the need arise.

Self-rescue is a complex problem. Every situation is different and it will never be possible to give a complete list of solutions to an infinite variety of problem. You will be encouraged to self solve the problems and the most common phrase you will hear will be, “Well what do you think?”

There may be a number of ways to achieve a given goal and you will be encouraged to develop a wide range of skills. The technique we have developed is not to attempt to teach solutions. Our progression introduces a variety of different tools and once you are comfortable with these you will be shown how to combine them into a variety of techniques. Then it is up to you to apply these techniques in various combinations to arrive at a solution to your problem. These problems may include; rescuing a second, rescuing a leader, evacuating a victim off the cliff by descending or raising or simply solving a climbing problem.

Additionally, we will discuss how not to get into these situations to start with which is by far the most elegant solution.

Itinerary:
Day One:

We will work through a lot of different skills including;

• Equipment necessary for prepared self rescue anchoring and knot skill check
• Rescue overview
• Belay escape using various systems
• Ascending ropes with friction hitches
• Long lowers with two ropes tied together including how to pass the knot
• Rappelling safety, passing knots in rappels
• Descending with an injured person.

Day Two:

• Haul systems
• Putting it all together in scenarios with problem solving.

Instructors
Our guides are American Mountain Guides Association trained so you can expect the highest level of climbing and safety knowledge combined with solid instructional skills and professionalism.

We highly recommend that you spend at least one night at moderate altitude (higher than 8,000') just prior to the trip. Spending a night in Mammoth would do the trick. Please refer to our Planning for Success info sheet for more info.

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