In TAASC we focus a lot on teaching students rescue skills. These are all important skills to have in the outdoors and they transfer to increasing student responsibility in general. When you’ve experienced how difficult it can be to perform a vertical rescue, it makes you realize how important it is to learn the necessary skills to stay safe and not get into a situation like that in the first place.
With this rescue workshop, our older group got to perform a vertical rescue and sent one of their own off the upstairs balcony in the TAASC climbing gym. About as technical as it gets! The group was divided into different teams and had specific roles to ensure all was safe and correct! There were a lot of technical skills to learn, which really bumps up students’ general rope management, climbing skills and overall systems thinking. It’s like doing a giant puzzle except it’s real and you’ve got to work in teams, communicate and create a system to safely transport someone.
These folks did an awesome job! Look forward to getting outside and practicing this on a real rock face. Creating a rescue squad for the future!
Also, the transference of learning rescue skills in a rock climbing or river situation provides people with confidence to solve problems in our every day lives. These problems may not be saving a life or helping an injured person on a river however, the confidence I have from knowing and practicing these technical skills allows me to have confidence to solve daily problems. To be there for a friend, or figure out how to solve a problem with a family member or a bully at school. All of these skills transfer to helping me in all my endeavors!