The intro course deals with problems that frequently confront recreational climbers and covers the skills necessary to keep minor problems from turning into serious incidents or injuries. You will learn an array of practical procedures, including how to lower a tired, frightened, or injured climber off a one or two-pitch climb, what to do when a top-rope gets stuck, and ways to assist an injured partner across steep terrain.

We thoroughly cover basic rescue techniques that every climber needs to know. We review anchors, equalizing protection, and rappelling and practice belay escapes, passing knots, and ascending ropes. We apply hauling and lowering systems as well as rappelling with an accident victim. The course also covers the issues involved in combining emergency medical services with the rescue procedures.

When you complete this course you should be well equipped with the management skills and the technical procedures needed for dealing with the accidents and problems commonly encountered in rock and ice climbing. This course can also be customized for specialized activities, missions, and settings.

Course Structure:
We will spend two days at a cragging area working on skills, then will move on to the one-day optional practicum, in which we will utilize our new found skills in a real-life scenario on a multi-pitch alpine climb.

High angle rescues are dangerous and demanding. Even climbers experienced in meeting the challenges of steep and glaciated terrain get confused when dealing with the added complications of an injured partner.

We offer this advanced course for skilled leaders of multi-pitch rock routes, experienced alpinists, those on mountain search and rescue teams, and any professional who may need to work on a high angle rescue. This course will increase your resourcefulness in accident response and help you develop the technical skills necessary to solve difficult rescue problems.

This course is designed to complement the life-saving skills of the WFR program. Together they provide the necessary foundation for technical proficiency and excellence in wilderness leadership.

We cover anchors and fixed lines, tension release mechanisms, lowering and compound hauling systems, and special techniques used in leader-fall rescues. You'll practice improvising and managing litters and discuss issues in incident command and helicopter support. By the end of the program, you should be very resourceful when directing high angle rescues, be familiar with "state-of-the-art" hardware, and understand the differences between operating from within a search and rescue group and the tight parameters of a small, self-contained climbing team.

Course Structure:
We will spend two days at a cragging area working on skills, then will move on to the one-day optional practicum, in which we will utilize our new found skills in a real-life scenario on a multi-pitch alpine climb.

All of the skills and methodologies from the Rock Rescue Courses can be transferred to both the glacier and waterfall ice environments. Please call us for details at 800-424-2249 for more details or to set up a High Angle Rescue course for either glacier or waterfall ice.

Here climbers practice their crevasse rescue skills. Joe Stock

A rescuer practices retrieving an injured climber from a crevasse.

The instructors of AAI's Rock Rescue program are staff members of the Institute and veteran mountain guides and rescuers with decades of experience in the vertical world. They have extensive field knowledge of what it takes to direct a successful rescue--years of professional rescue work and big wall climbing and mountaineering from Yosemite to Alaska's remote Wrangell St. Elias Range as well as in South America and Asia. They are Wilderness First Responder certified and have AMGA training.

AAI has years of experience helping develop rescue protocols for government agencies, designing rescue components for guide certification programs, and training volunteer and professional mountain rescue groups, military teams, and military trainers. Courses can be tailored to specialized backcountry, front country, or urban settings or to emphasize a particular type of climbing, terrain, or setting (please call for more information).

British Columbia: Squamish

Washington: Leavenworth, Index, and Mt. Erie.

California: Joshua Tree from October through May; the Eastern Sierra from May through September.

Nevada: Red Rock Canyon - September through May. Warm desert climbing within 30 miles of Las Vegas.

If you are interested in Rock Rescue, you might also be interested in learning about our AMGA Top Rope Site Manager/ Single Pitch Instructor Certification Course. This course was designed to help capable recreational climbers transition into capable and effective climbing instructors.

The AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) strongly suggests this course as a precursor to those interested in pursuing Rock Instructor or Rock Guide training and certification.