CGI Self Rescue Techniques

Self Rescue

A New Look at Self Rescue

Some time ago I found myself teaching numerous self-rescue courses to aspiring guides and recreational climbers. I used the same teaching methods used by the AMGA in it's guide courses and found that many climbers were overwhelmed by the complicated nature of the procedures. I felt that there had to be a better and more straightforward way.

Rescuing a second is essentially a transition from belaying, to either a counter balance rappel, a haul, or belay escape. For years the process by which we have taught and performed self rescue has remained the same. That process basically goes from the belay you are using to a point in the transition which has come to be called baseline. From baseline, we then transition to whatever technique is appropriate for a specific rescue scenario.

What we believe has made understanding self-rescue difficult for climbers is the traditional baseline. It is basically a belay escape (which is often not needed in a real situation) and going to this baseline usually only creates extra steps and confusion. So, by teaching this we have been having climbers struggle to get to a point in the transition they probably don't need to go to and then they must move in another direction to effect a haul or counterbalance rappel. The foundation of our progression is a new baseline, one that is directly along the path to an eventual rescue and doesn't sidetrack us along the way.

Having studied and experimented with the self-rescue process, we've found that being in a redirected belay gives us the most options and potential shortcuts. It's a very powerful tool. The new baseline has us go to a form of redirected belay instead of a belay escape. By going to this new baseline, the whole process is much less complicated and we've had much better success teaching this system to climbers than we had with the traditional system. For instance, the number of steps to go from a belay off the waist to a counterbalance rappel has been reduced from 23 to 14! Once you play with this system and get used to the idea of a baseline that is not a belay escape, we believe you'll have a much easier time learning and using this self-rescue system.

Baseline
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