Hi

I came across this review of a self rescue book and I'm keen on learning more, but before I go and spend I'd like to get some opinions of any other books / sites that might be useful?

Chockstone review here
and another one I subsequently found on Kalahari.net

Fanks

I have the book and rate it highly. If you know the underlying principles of rescue, you might find it is a bit long-winded but for someone new to the concepts it explains things in very fine detail. The illustrations by Mike Celland is excellent and accurate (MikeC is IMHO the best mountaineering technical illustrator in the business - if you see his name on a book it is bound to be a good one).

This is a crucial skill for anyone climbing multi-pitch routes (esp. trad). A case in point: if you read between the lines of the Climb.co.za news article about the December 2008 Blouberg rescue you will realise that half the rescue was done by fellow climbers using standard climbing gear - by the time the helicopter arrived the situation was stablised already.

This is the best self-rescue book that one would occasionally come across in SA Book stores. There are others available abroad but you will not go wrong by buying this one.

To hone the skills I suggest you visit the local Search and Rescue team - it will be more than worthwhile in terms of skills learned. The Gauteng team's training schedule is at http://rescue.tabbott.com/db/publicdata.php I see there is a personal rope work session on 4 Feb where some of the self-rescue skills will be practiced. The training is open to anyone (incl. non-team members and non-MCSA members).

Learn how to use prussiks and you are half way there, learn how to escape the system and you are three quarters of the way there and finally learn how to build a z-lift/3:1 advantage system and you're home.

As DeanVDM said, rescue gear is pretty standard climbing gear, the only real difference is that we use pulleys to make life easier.

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Happy climbing
Nic

Thanks for the input!