Self-rescue training

I had missed two Cave Rescue trainings in a row. It was time to show my face again in February. And I was fortunate; the training would be close to home, and also something interesting. A good time to show my face again!

We would do self-rescue on ropes at the old climbing wall of Plas y Brenin. And those who had organised that location had asked us to make some use of the bar; we were allowed to use that space for free, and it would be nice if we could show our appreciation by ordering some food or drink. So I decided to have dinner there.

When I got there I found a few people (and one dog) of our team there already, finishing off their meals. I added an order of soup to that. And when we were all finished, our training officer appeared with the equipment. And the key card to the climbing wall.

He quickly went up to rig some ropes. And then he explained what the idea was. He mainly wanted to practice what people thought they needed. I mentioned that I hadn’t really descended a rope on ascenders, so I decided to try that. I suppose it's just the subtler version of taking one ascender off and just putting it back on the rope a bit lower.

It also came in handy at the next exercise; passing a knot (another request from the floor), both going upwards and downwards. I did notice I am really out of practice! When do I ever do rope work? I was starting to wonder if I should even be in the team. But we are very far from gender equality, and if I would quit, that would be worse. So I'll hang in there, and just use these trainings to not get too far behind.

We then did one more round of just helping people who were a bit tired or otherwise struggling. We do encounter those on call-outs. There are ways of attaching them to a secondary rope with which you give them some additional pull, or use the end of their own rope to help them up. Or help them come off a pitch at the top.

After that it was time to take the ropes down. It had been a useful session! Some of the men were kind to the venue and retreated to the bar, but I went home. It was close enough to bedtime for me…