Trad Climbing Self Rescue 20th May 2026

Meet Co-ordinator: Ian Inch

A group of 8 of us met for an evenings instruction on trad climbing self rescue - the first actions when you are belaying and your partner is injured or incapacitated, out of reach and hanging on the rope.

The instructor - Paul Smith , the 270 staff instructor & MCI led each pair through different scenarios at their own speed practicing how to escape from the system - i.e. how to get from being on belay with a dead weight on the rope to securing the dead weight to the belay and freeing yourself to get help or start to take other measures. The emphasis was on lateral thinking and using equipment you would normally have with you , and was a salutary reminder of issues you would face if this type of event occurred.

Everyone found the session really useful and good value , whether it was for revising existing knowledge or learning new techniques.

I’ll organise another session shortly , and after that arrange a session for a smaller group on what happens next - how to get to the injured  partner / hoists.