Rigging for Rescue Blog

The second week of our trip to Iceland included a Refresher Workshop for previous RfR Fundamentals attendees. The weather continued to be dry and cold, and we had some excellent training sites for pickoffs, litter work, and volcanic crevasse rescue.  The old lava flows have numerous cracks in the surface

We wrapped up our first course in Iceland with a nice drooping horizontal Kootenay Highline System over a scenic river gorge near the end of the fjord. There was a humorous misfire of the line delivery device that resulted in a small delay in establishing the messenger line. However, the

The Icelandic Search and Rescue Association (ICE SAR) has been attending Rigging for Rescue seminars going back to 2007. Our trips to Iceland have covered many cliffs and crags on this spectacular island nation. 2021 marked our 7th trip to Iceland and one that was hard-earned after a couple of

Recently, we hosted Tip Top SAR from Sublette County, WY at our home base in Ouray. Tip Top responds to a large swath of the Wind River Range, which involves some very remote terrain oftentimes accessed by helicopter. The team prefers to hone their ground rescue skills in Ouray each

It was our honor and privilege this past week to host military mountaineers from the 10th SFG out of Fort Carson at our home base in Ouray. The 10th Group has a long and prestigious history dating back to WWII. The 10th Group’s members are often some of the American

Last week we hosted a SPRAT Training and Evaluation with four Level 1 candidates and three Level 3 candidates. After a quick week of training we are please to say that everyone passed their evaluations and are now certified SPRAT Rope Access Technicians. RfR will be hosting more training and

Last week, we hosted our first SPRAT training/certification for calendar year 2021. We had a nice mix of welders, construction trade personnel, a firefighter, curious rope rescue practitioners exploring SPRAT certification, and a Level 3 recertification candidate. All of the Level 1 candidates successfully passed their SPRAT evaluation and are

Just prior to the big dump of snow we got this weekend, Jared and I squeezed in a day of adventure climbing high in the Amphitheater overlooking Ouray. The route was first put up nearly 25 years ago. This was my fifth trip up the face and it never disappoints.

We have just posted new SPRAT Training and Evaluation dates on the calendar.  Our next training and evaluation sessions are February 2-6, 2021 and April 20-24, 2021 in Ouray, Colorado. The February session is filling up fast. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to get registered. We will be

On Saturday, we wrapped up our first ever SPRAT rope access training and evaluation session at the newly minted Rigging for Rescue Superstructure. The vision for the Superstructure was to be able to not only offer SPRAT rope access trainings, but also have an indoor facility for dry land practice

West Metro Fire Dept. based in Lakewood, Colorado responds to a number of rope-related callouts on an annual basis. Their area of response is where Denver recreates. As such, there are an inevitable number of incidents and accidents that occur in semi-backcountry settings around the western aspects of the greater

The RfR superstructure is pretty well finished. There are just a couple of minor remaining items to button up. However, the structure is functional and we have taken some laps on it at this point. Last week, the engineer came down to test all of the anchor points and various

[fusion_text]What an outstanding week we just had with the Jenny Lake climbing rangers at Grand Teton National Park!  We have had the great privilege of being the preferred rope rescue training organization for the Jenny Lakers for many years now.  The climbing ranger cadre at Jenny Lake regularly conducts some

This past week we were treated to an outstanding RfR seminar experience in the High Sierra of California – a super dedicated group of volunteer SAR members who were keenly interested in expanding their skills, flawless weather, and incredible mountain scenery as a backdrop to the granite crags. The Inyo

[fusion_text]The Skol Studios crew are almost finished with the install. We now have some “RfR red” pieces going in. We will be painting the rest of the structure red later this week.    

[fusion_text]The Skol Studios crew has been working hard to get the training tower up and ready. They are particularly skilled in moving their big machine around some relatively tight quarters. Those beams are big, heavy, and hard to move. Here is a quick video update of the progress.   [/fusion_text][youtube

At long last we are installing the RfR “Superstructure” this week. Local architectural metalworker Jeff Skoloda and his team at Skol Studios in Ouray were hired to fabricate and install a new training structure for RfR. We will have a large platform for over-the-edge scenarios, an inside drop tower for

The 131st RQS Pararescue Team visited us in Ouray this past week for a waterfall ice rescue workshop. Ice climbing conditions in Ouray this winter have been as good as we have seen for many years.  The focus of the week was on a small team rescue approach coupled with