Crevasse Rescue practice with friends, Guide book?

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PeakBeggar

 
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Crevasse Rescue practice with friends, Guide book?

by PeakBeggar » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:24 pm

Some friends and I have been getting into mountaineering fairly heavily this year and we would all like to go practice our crevasse rescue skills. I was wondering if there is an online/printable (preferably free or cheap) resource that outlines what a guided training program would complete so that we can imitate it during our practice session. I've got the freedom of the hills for references, just looking for something to supplement it.
Thanks!
-Peakbeggar

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kozman18

 
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by kozman18 » Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:01 am

Given the lack of crevasses in Vermont, I improvise. I take a boat anchor (150 pounds) and tie it to a tree limb through a rescue pulley, and then redirect the rope to the tree's trunk (another pulley). So instead of hauling a weight up a crevasse, I haul it up into a tree. Then set up an anchor (in the summer, a couple of snow pickets driven into the ground). From there -- set up any hauling system you want to practice.

Not perfect, but better than not practicing (and better than just reading about it).

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hamik

 
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by hamik » Wed Sep 08, 2010 2:07 am

Read Freedom of the Hills. If you already know how to trad climb, practice
- prusiking up. This is probably the only thing you will ever use in an actual crevasse fall
- snow anchors
- imitation of the following scenario (with two people), which includes everything you might need to do in the worst possible situation. Everything else is a subset of this.

You're walking around on a shortened rope with kiwi coils and knots along the rope connecting you to your partner. Someone falls into the crevasse. Self-arrest, make a bollard, deadman, or bang in a couple pickets, make anchor, transfer tension onto anchor, you are now free to do stuff. Take coils off, use coils to rap down to partner (after checking to see if it's necessary--i.e., if he needs immediate medical attention), help partner, prusik out, create 6:1 pulley system, haul him out. It takes practice to get the details ironed out, especially if you're not using convenience gear like traxion pulleys. Places where stuff can go slowly or wrong: getting him over the lip (prepare it), not having enough rope for the intended tasks, anchor being shitty (use a deadman). Remember, forces on the anchor will be multiplied, but it's not a huge deal because of snow-rope friction.

In the following excerpt, I described to a friend how we practiced this scenario on a college campus. It involved some "bungee" jumping off the roof of the dining hall, which was fun and probably decreased the lifetime of the rope involved.

What we did was: a group of two would tie in as if simuling with a shortened rope or glacier walking (kiwi coils on both climbers and tied into the ends of the rope), one would "jump" into the "crevasse" (walk off a roof to a courtyard), the guy on top would make an anchor (figure eight on big bight looped around a chimney instead of deadman/pickets), transfer tension onto the anchor, untie, prepare "lip" (pack over edge of roof), rappel down, attend to fallen climber (take pack off, etc), attach pulley to fallen climber, prusik back out, set up a 6:1 hauling system, haul fallen climber up. After practicing ascending, knots, and kiwi coils separately, people took about 1.5 hr to work through that process the first time and considerably less the second.

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Steve Larson

 
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by Steve Larson » Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:24 am

The best crevasse rescue drill I've been subjected to by far is to go with several people, find a nice, steep slope (safe, yadda, yadda, yadda), and start walking up as if you are doing the real thing. At some point everyone except the rope lead "falls". The rope lead gets to practice a real self-arrest, and gets the pleasure of constructing an anchor and transferring the load with actual weight on the other end. Set up the pully system, etc, as indicated in FOTH.

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fossana

 
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by fossana » Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:37 am

Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Andy Selters

Older edition on Google books here.

$10.50 for a used copy of the new edition here.

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SpiderSavage

 
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by SpiderSavage » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:21 am

As stated elsewhere I used to assist RJ Secor in a crevasse rescue seminar. Here is what we did: (on the Eton Canyon Bridge in Pasadena, our artificial crevasse)

1. Everyone prussic a free hanging rope 30 ft. Use and practice with the Texas Kick-Step sling. Every climber should have several hundred feet of experience with prussicing.

2. Using a bundle of one gallon jugs filled with water (about 200 lbs) as a dead weight attached to the end of a rope:

a. Attempt to directly pull the weight up out of the artificial crevasse. Impossible if you don't have a group. It takes like 6 or more.

b. Build a C-pulley system. Notice the body can be extracted by 2-3 people.

c. Build a Z-pulley system. Notice the body can be extracted by one person.

I think RJ was using "Freedom of the Hills" as a reference.

Definitely get a group together and practice. Doing this for the first time under the stress of an accident would not be fun.

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PeakBeggar

 
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thanks

by PeakBeggar » Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:44 pm

thanks for the suggestions everyone, sounds like there are several different options to work with.
"Practice stoned"... Fantastic plan, love it! haha

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mvs

 
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by mvs » Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:14 pm

fossana wrote:Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Andy Selters

Older edition on Google books here.

$10.50 for a used copy of the new edition here.


This book is great, it was the book that went with the AAI course I took many moons ago. It goes into more detail on ZxC pully setup than Freedom of the Hills.

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8kclimber

 
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Re: Crevasse Rescue practice with friends, Guide book?

by 8kclimber » Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:37 am

I have a manual designed for classes . Send me an email and ask Allen@Livinginswflorida.com

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MoapaPk

 
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Re: Crevasse Rescue practice with friends, Guide book?

by MoapaPk » Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:33 am


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8kclimber

 
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Re: Crevasse Rescue practice with friends, Guide book?

by 8kclimber » Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:29 pm

That one is missing my favorite for two man travel the drop loop 6:1. It does have the drop loop 2:1. The advantage with the drop loop is that you can prep the lip and are not hauling through the original lip and it is easy to haul the victims pack or lower anything they need prior to hauling.


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