Rope Rescue: Escaping the system

There is often a thread or two on UKClimbing on how you can go about escaping the system. In an effort to answer this question I literally threw this video together today, after filming it yesterday. Now its not polished, as I filmed myself, which ain’t that easy. I also did everything in one take, so there is one point that I slip at at, other than than though its pretty much as is. The video starts with an overview of the whole skill before going into the component parts of escaping the system.

This really is the start of self rescue, as the question you need to ask yourself is when you have escaped the system, how are you going to rescue the injury person or yourself. These skills take a long time to learn, and need a lot of practice in a safe environment to master. There have been several near misses on MIA courses when doing improvised rescue, so even the experts can get it wrong.

If you like a course on how you can develop these rope rescue skills then please contact me through this blog. If you have any questions on the video then please post a comment here, and if you found it useful and would like to see more video’s on coaching climbing skills then you’ll have to let me know that there is enough interest to warrant it!

The Very Big and the Very Small

A few weeks back I filmed and photographed Pete Robins on the one of the hardest slab route in the world. Pete kept being spat off on the crux, which he believed he’d have a one in ten chance of success, but the holds are so tiny you can only manage a few attempt each time you go for the lead. Here’s the footage of him taking a pearler. Hopefully He’ll get link the route sooner rather than later. Interestingly after failing on the hardest slab Pete did go on that same afternoon to climb the hardest roof problem in North Wales, Pool’s of Bethesda.