Day 10: Help Yourself

Today was a terrifically short day. We started by finishing our pick-off. I messed this one up a bit. When doing a pick-off rescue you lower yourself to the victim on a rope. Then you transfer the victim to your rope by attaching the six-to-one pulley system to the rope you’re hanging on. I had trouble with this one because I attached the six-to-one to the wrong rope. The instructor clued me in on this. But once I got that sorted out, the rescue went smoothly.

After that came the simplest and coolest rescue, the self rescue. With the self rescue, you use a kit that you bring up with you to the tower. In the kit is a smaller version of your rope rider. We were told this one was military grade. Attached to your fall arrest is a rope ladder. When you find yourself hanging from your fall arrest, you can deploy this rope ladder and then climb it in order to reach up and attach the small rope rider to an anchor attached slightly above the clip that caught you. At this point you should have enough slack on your fall arrest to unattach the clip on your dorsal d-ring and then you can slowly slide to safety on your mini rope rider.

The group moved quickly through this and we were done for the day at about half-past twelve. I volunteered to go up the tower and gather some of the anchors and ropes we used to prevent any falls. Once I was safe on the ground, I headed to Oklahoma City to hang with the family.