Itinerary
Technical Rope Rescue Comprehensive Itinerary
Please keep in mind that this is a standard, yet loose, itinerary. It is subject to change depending on conditions, weather, group dynamics, pace, and learning strategies.
Program Details
The Technical Rope Rescue Comprehensive course provides intensive, hands-on training in advanced rope rescue systems for professional rescuers, including search and rescue teams, firefighters, and other technical rescue personnel. Participants develop skills in rigging, hauling, lowering, raising, and complex rescue operations while learning to assess hazards and make sound technical decisions in challenging environments. The comprehensive program integrates industry-recognized standards and certifications, including MRA and NFPA, to help prepare rescuers for demanding real-world scenarios.
Itinerary
Day 1
Students will travel to Bellingham, Washington, where they will meet at the American Alpine Institute at 8:00 a.m.
- Classroom Sessions: Course introduction, safety discussion/rules, NFPA Standards, scene management, systems overview, definitions, ropes and carabiners, friction devices, commands, physics of rope rescue
- Practical Application: Overview of basic knots and hitches, improvised harnesses, patient packaging with and without a harness, rope climbing with prusik system, classic rappel, main and belay demo.
Day 2
- Classroom Session: Introduction to the politics of rescue, simple litter lowering systems, belay systems, high points, tripod construction, physics of rope rescue, introduction of hybrid two tensioned rope systems.
- Field Session: High-angle lowering systems with a main line and a belay line.
Day 3
- Classroom Session: Introduction to helicopter operations, understanding hauling systems, physics of rope rescue.
- Field Session: Low-angle litter hauling systems with three attendants
Day 4
- Classroom Session: Communications, introduction to guiding lines, physics of rope rescue.
- Field Session: Steep-angle litter hauling with guiding lines
Day 5
- Classroom Session: Knot pass with a litter, improvised high-directionals, physics of rope rescue, pick-off techniques (B.C. Pickoff, B.C. Tilt Lift, Panorama Pickoff).
- Field Session: Practical use of improvised highpoints, practice pick-off techniques
Day 6
- Classroom Session: Difficult edge issues, pike and pivot techniques, floating focal point systems, physics of rope rescue.
- Field Session: Practical application of pike and pivot
Day 7
- Classroom Session: Physics of rope rescue, introduction to highline systems including and introduction to reeves (English and Norwegian).
- Field Session: Practical application of highline systems
Day 8
- Field Session: Ground school techniques – self-rescue knot pass, belay escapes, hauling systems (3:1, 5:1, 6:1), lowering systems (munter, tube-style device, assisted breaking device), rope climbing systems, rappel systems (extended rappel, tandem rappel, counterbalance rappel), multi-pitch transitions
Day 9
- Field Session: Practical application in a high angle setting – self-rescue knot pass, belay escapes, hauling systems (3:1, 5:1, 6:1), lowering systems (munter, tube-style device, assisted breaking device), rope climbing systems, rappel systems (extended rappel, tandem rappel, counterbalance rappel), multi-pitch transitions
Day 10
- Day Off – If students wish to practice skills that they learned during the program, they are welcome to borrow gear.
Day 11
- Classroom Session: The team will go over several topics including the strength of snow and ice anchors, bolts, two tensioned systems, plaquette systems, the diminishing loop, and the San Juan Pickoff.
Day 12
- Field Session: If the team decides to go into the backcountry, they will drive approximately 1 hour to the trailhead. From there, we will hike approximately 3 miles to a camp at 6,000 feet. Programs in the spring may go to the Mt. Baker Ski area parking lot instead of the backcountry. It will be a review of snow school techniques and snow anchors, introduction to steep angle litter haul and lower with attendants, backcountry patient packaging. If the conditions are not right, this day may be switched with Day 15.
Day 13
- Field Session: Crevasse rescue comprehensive – in-depth study of team rescue as well as self-rescue in a crevasse fall scenario; instruction will include descending into the crevasse to perform first aid on the client before hauling him out; systems will include the drop C, 3:1, and 6:1 crevasse rescue hauling systems
Day 14
- Field Session: The team will work on managing a litter on low-angle snow terrain. Develop techniques to manage litter through a crevasse field and an icefall. Once this is complete, the team will hike out.
Day 15
This day may be interchangeable with Day 12 depending on weather.
- Classroom Session: Discuss a high-end scenario. This scenario will have a pickoff and will require lowering and hauling systems in complex terrain.
- Field Session: Execute a difficult rescue.
Weather Options
The Cascades are a wet range, and a rescue team has to be prepared for wet conditions. However, sometimes rain and snow is a hindrance to the learning environment. This is especially true if everyone is cold and wet while trying to understand complex concepts. As such, this course has some poor weather options that will still provide participants with significant advanced level experiences.
Optional Front Country Day #1: Instead of going into the backcountry, the team may spend a significant amount of time working on highlines and reeves at a front-country location. The highline scenario will be designed to go over a serious chasm that will require advanced rigging techniques.
Optional Front Country Day #2: In the unlikely event that there is a second front-country day, the team will have a second difficult rescue scenario with significantly different problems than the scenario encountered on Day 5.
Note on Lodging
As the final 5 days may have up to 3 days in the backcountry, it’s important that your lodging is flexible. We will determine how many days we will go into the backcountry on the first day of Advanced Mountain Rescue so that you are able to make plans. Due to the significant snowfall in the Cascade range, it is common for the Advanced Mountain Rescue portion of the program to avoid going up onto the flanks of Mount Baker in the Spring. This is because it requires significant road walking. As such, the team commonly does many of the Advanced Mountain Rescue techniques on Spring programs near the Mt. Baker Ski area, commonly as day trips. For summer and fall programs, the team will hike up onto the flanks of Mt. Baker.