Self rescue (climbing)

Self-rescue is a group of techniques in climbing and mountaineering where the individual climber(s) – sometimes having just been severely injured – use their equipment to retreat from dangerous or difficult situations without calling on third party search and rescue (SAR) or mountain rescue services.[1]

Abseiling is often an important part of serious self-rescues

Self-rescue can save the climber(s) being charged for SAR services (e.g. full helicopter rescue can be expensive), can avoid putting SAR team members in harm's way, and also speed up the rescue time thus saving lives.[2]

Not all climbers are familiar with or skilled in self-rescue techniques, which sometimes involve carrying out unfamiliar or unexpected actions and/or without the correct equipment (e.g. having to complete extended abseils without normal abseiling devices, having to ascend up a fixed rope without an ascender device, or having to extract a fallen climber from a deep crevasse without a pulley system), and under difficult circumstances (e.g. with broken limb(s), or in a lightning storm).[3] Self-rescue can be particularly complicated on multi-pitch climbing and on alpine climbing routes, where the climber(s) are hanging from ropes on exposed rock/mountain faces.[4]

See also

References
  1. Black, Christian (12 December 2022). "Save Yourself! A Guide to Self-Rescue". Climbing. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  2. American Alpine Club (2012). Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Golden, CO USA. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-933056-77-7. ISSN 0065-082X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Davis, Shannon (26 November 2012). "Save Yourself! A Guide to Self-Rescue". Climbing. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  4. Ellison, Julie (23 May 2023). "Climbing Multipitch Routes? Better Master the Art of Self-Rescue". Climbing. Retrieved 15 September 2023.

Further reading
  • David Fasulo, Self-Rescue: How to Rock Climb Series. ISBN 978-0-934641-97-5
  • The Mountaineers Books, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills_. 8th Ed. ISBN 978-1-59485-137-7
  • Andy Tyson, Molly Loomis. Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations. ISBN 978-0-89886-772-5
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