Trip Report: High Angle Self Rescue
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High Angle Self Rescue By Steph Stamm & Paul Gettings |
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| CLIMBING | 05/27/2025 | NTD |
| Every Tuesday this May, Paul Gettings ran his 9th annual high angle self rescue training. Each class covers a rescue scenario, and successively builds on the last class: first is escaping the belay, then ascending a fixed line, next is hauling a climber, and finally tandem rappelling. Paul also covers some basic principles of a rescue, with the chief one being not to make it worse. Second principle is to "start with smoking a cigarette" - take time to figure out what happened, and what you want to do about it before springing into action. The series kicked off on May 6th where participants learned how to escape the belay at The Speed Trap in Big Cottonwood Canyon. In this scenario, participants were connected to a ground anchor while their climber was "unconscious" and weighting the rope. Students learned how to transfer the load of the climber to the ground anchor so that the belayer could escape the system with low to no impact to their injured climber. Students then got back into the system after the climber "woke up." After a suitable amount of learning, some of the participants moved to the Porcupine for more discussion over food and beer. On the 13th, club members joined instructor Paul Gettings to learn to ascend a fixed rope at Dogwood Crag in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Each lesson builds upon the previous, so in this situation, students have already escaped the belay, and now need to ascend the line to attend to their injured climber. Participants learned to set up a friction hitch with a foot loop, as well as a hand line with a prusik or an ascender, and then ascend the rope by stepping down on the foot loop, and pushing up the hand friction hitch. Students also learned how to pass a piece of protection while ascending, in scenarios where the rope might divert away from the protection at a steep angle. After the training, many participants went for food and beer at the Porcupine. On the 20th, participants attended training at Ledgemere in Big Cottonwood. Everyone learned to rig a 3:1 pulley system to haul an "injured" climber up to them. Students learned tips and tricks for rigging friction hitches to capture progress, and were surprised to see how easy hauling even a much heavier climber could be with the right setup. As with many climbing outings, after everyone got a chance to haul their partner up a wall, we adjourned for food and beer, to continue discussing other rigging options. On the 27th, the series concluded with tandem rappels. Groups of 2 participants took turns being the injured climber unable to rappel themselves, and their partner rigged both climbers to a secure rappel. Techniques for rigging the rappel system, attaching the injured climber to the partner, and ensuring safety during the multiple rappels were demonstrated and practiced by each group. The group discussed various options for getting down the cliffs, and various alternate techniques for the rigging. After everyone got to be the injured climber and the rescuer, part of the group headed to the Porcupine restaurant for food and beer. |
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