Monday 20 October 2008

Problem solving for climbers




Over the weekend Lynsey, Kate, Peter and I were looking at the problems that we can run up against as climbers and what to do about them. We spent some time at a cold and blustery Kingussie Crag and also visited Glenmore Lodge's climbing wall where the learning environment was a little warmer and less windy.

After a refresher on rigging belays with both the rope and slings we discussed optiond for protecting an abseil retreat from the crag and what to do if your ropes are stuck. We looked at how to help your partner over little steps on climbs that are too hard from them, with and without their help. We loked at different types of prussiks and how they can be used to ascend a rope and we looked at what to do if your partner sustains a more serious injury during a climb, how to get to them and how to accomplish a retreat with the casualty. We looked at how to abseil past a knot or damaged section of rope and we even found a little time to refresh Lynsey's SPA training toolbox.

By the end of our time together their brains were fizzing with new found ropetricks to practise!

Kirk and Tom were on Angel's Ridge on Saturday and reported hail, rain, gales and a dusting of snow - it certainly feels as if winter is approaching in the Highlands.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alan, thanks for a brilliant weekend and sticking with us through a cold and wet day on Saturday Definitely learnt a lot and had a really good weekend at the same time. I forgot to say that the highlight of the two days was seeing the smallest violin in the world. Best wishes to you and your family.

Alan said...

I enjoyed it too Katie - remember to laugh like that every time you abseil!