The winter weather gods have seen fit to deliver optimal ice-making conditions for the Ouray Ice Park ice farming efforts. Cold temps allowed the Ice Farmers to make ice 24/7 for the past week. Couple that with an abundant water source - that can be attributed to last year's big winter of snowfall topping off [...]
Fellow RfR instructor Tim Pasek and I got out for some November ice climbing in the San Juan's a few days ago. Southwest Colorado received a very cold blast of arctic air in the early part of October that contributed significantly to bringing in the high country ice climbs - about a month earlier than [...]
We just returned from the annual International Technical Rescue Symposium (ITRS) held in Albuquerque, NM. Rigging for Rescue has been attending and presenting at this event since its infancy in 1986 (NATRS at that time). The symposium is a gathering of around 170 attendees to discuss, dissect, and debate all things rescue-related. Having personally attended [...]
VT Prusik for Rescue Belays - Abstract Rope rescue teams typically operate redundant two-rope systems with inclusion of a fail- safe mechanism for fall arrest. Examples include the MPD, 540° Rescue Belay, Petzl I’D, and Tandem Prusiks to name a few. Teams operating in remote environments with longer ingress/egress distances often favor lighter [...]
We recently returned from our biennial visit to the spectacular coast of Maine on Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park. The training event brings together the handful of SAR teams that perform high angle rope rescues in the state. Given the small size of the state, it is not uncommon for the various [...]
The summer RfR season proved to be a whirlwind. We traveled near and far working with a variety of rescue teams from very different backgrounds and mission profiles. Continued areas of participant interest included: pros and cons of Two Tensioned systems and how/when/why to apply them effectively use of the VT Prusik in rescue systems [...]
On Saturday, October 5, a call came in from the North Rim ranger station that there was a SAR in the works. A climber on the 5.11 route Stoned Oven on North Chasm View Wall had taken a leader fall and injured (broken) their ankle after striking a ledge. They and their partner were self-rescuing [...]
We recently wrapped up one of our semi-annual Rigging for Rescue Self Rescue and Small Teams Response workshops. For the backcountry trad climber and mountain rescue “hasty team” respondent, it represents just about the best quality material that RfR offers in ropework and rigging. Our new indoor training facility provides an excellent venue for [...]
Conditions in the Northern Rockies were cool and wintery this past week during our training with the Jenny Lake climbing ranger cadre at Grand Teton National Park. After a review of system components/devices we focused on some of the more challenging rope rescue problem-solving missions such as highlines and multi-pitch. Both techniques require excellent logistics [...]
The month of April had us visiting a frequent port of call - Mt Rainier National Park. The climbing ranger cadre at Rainier responds to similar missions as the Denali NPS rangers - crevasse falls, hypothermia, altitude illness, and the myriad of others means of being incapacitated in the high mountain alpine environment. We worked on [...]
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