Mountain Rescue Workshop – RTR

Intro

The Mountain Rescue Workshop (MRW) is a minimalist approach to mountain rescue procedures. It teaches the access, stabilization, and extrication of patients involved in mid-face free or aid climbing accidents. Also, it highlights those where the accident site is only accessed from below. There is a heavy emphasis on advanced knotcraft (several boutique bowlines) in this workshop.

The student will learn how to design and build system anchors from bolts, pitons, and active and passive rock climbing camming devices. We strongly emphasize wilderness improvised techniques. Specialized or heavier equipment has no place here. We encourage using whipped and frapped wood frames as high directionals. Sometimes, if students prefer, we also focus on the Rock Exotica Arizona Vortex. Reed Thorne developed this vortex in Sedona, AZ. For example, in the 2022 Alaska MRW, most students were mountain SAR members. They wanted to use only wood frames, and we encouraged this. Other MRW classes wanted diversity because the timber is more scarce. It depends on the location of the MRW.

Details

This workshop is designed for the serious mountain environment rope rescue practitioner wishing to improve their personal and team rigging skills. The MRW goes well into often overlooked personal top-down skills involving solo (one rescuer) and semi-solo (two rescuers) victim evacuations employing the rescuer’s personal AZTEK kit. Also, the workshop explores the use of improvised low-edge techniques for very difficult litter evolutions as well as artificial high directionals in the remote wilderness location. Gin poles, A-frames, and sideways (SA) frames are common from wood or metal. Also, advanced anchoring with “bombproof,” substantial, and marginal (contributory) anchors is used on rigging pods, bipods, and sometimes tripods (see photos).

Students in the MRW practice their skills and learn to work together as a team in the successful retrieval of this patient in a non-threatening environment. These concepts appear in the Seven Minimalist Rescue Archetypes (7 MRA). They provide a framework. This framework helps understand how solo and semi-solo rescues differ in rescuer risk. The MRW delves into often overlooked personal skills. Most rescue teams take these for granted. Additionally, participants spend considerable time learning to climb and descend rope. They practice multiple methods, even improvised ones, in case they drop their friction appliance.

Passing knots, deviations, rebelays, rope-to-rope transfers, aid climbing, and problem-solving are all part of the Personal Skills Rescue Workshop. Proficiency through repetition to mastery is encouraged. There is a very, very strong emphasis on advanced knotcraft in this workshop! Students are tested throughout the program for proficiency and the ability to tie under pressure. All in fun, of course!

Expectations

Beyond the standard top-down 7 MRA, our more recent Mountain Rescue Workshops sometimes delve into highly demanding bottom-up solo rescue techniques. For instance, we demonstrated this in the 2022 Juneau, Alaska, workshop. Similarly, an earlier New York “Gunks” climbing area MRW also showcased these methods.

We teach several techniques. These include the well-known “pitch head solo rescue.” We also cover the more severe and lesser-known “pitch toe solo rescue.” Finally, we instruct students in the “counterbalance solo rescue” methods. We perform all of them using an AZTEK and hand-tied Purcell prusiks. These techniques challenge students to become self-sufficient in mountainous terrain.

In a notable 2012 Mountain Rescue Workshop (MRW), students executed a crucial free climb. They used the bight-carry technique to place a high directional above a simulated victim on a wall. Students free-climbed the famous “Queen Victoria Spire” (5:8) on Sedona’s Mitten Ridge to complete this challenging task. This method allows rescuers to bring a heavy rescue adjunct, like a litter, to a victim high on a wall. Once positioned, they lower it downward, using techniques similar to tower rescues. Additionally, students also learn classic differences between belays, conditional belays, and conditional self-belays. The MRW in Prescott’s superb Granite Dells involves more personal movement on stone and individual rigging skill. It includes lots of climbing and offers great fun!

Bottom line: EVERY Mountain Rescue Workshop is different according to the needs of the students.

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