Leader Rescue for Rock Climbing

The more frequently you climb, the more likely you will be involved directly or indirectly in a rescue. Having some basic rescue skills can reduce the amount of time between an accident and evacuation. This time reduction can decrease your exposure to the elements, as well as reduce depletion of food, fuel, water, and energy. This improves the comfort of both rescuers and patients, and in many cases contributes significantly to more positive patient outcomes.

In remote and austere settings, where emergency medical services are far away and rescue may be unavailable, self-rescue could be your only option for survival. This introductory video presents self-rescue techniques that can be used in the event a lead climber is injured during a fall and is unable to assist to a great degree with their own rescue.

In some circumstances an injured lead climber can simply be lowered back to the ground on a single-pitch climb or to a belay on a multi-pitch climb. However, if the length of the pitch is greater than half the length of your rope, then a lowered climber will not reach the ground/belay. For example, if a climber's fall is caught by a piece of protection 40 meters above the ground, and you are belaying on a 60m rope, then you will only be able to lower 30 meters before running out of rope, thus leaving the injured climber dangling 10 meters above the ground/belay. Likewise, in multipitch terrain it is very common for pitches to traverse somewhat. This means that even if your rope is long enough to lower, you may not be able to lower the injured climber back to the belay, as they would be far to the right or left of the belay where there may not be any ledges to rest on or anchors to attach to.

In other words, there are many variables in leader rescue, and there is no single rescue system that addresses all scenarios. This video is intended as a simple introduction to techniques that can be used in one rescue scenario. I have purposely chosen to avoid introducing more complex skills such as munter-mule-overhands and flipping belay devices into guide mode in order to keep things simple and efficient for this specific scenario.

The scenario and steps are as follows:

SCENARIO:
A lead climber is on the first pitch of a multipitch climb. They take a lead fall shortly before reaching the anchor, and are caught by a piece of protection about 40 meters above the ground. The lead climber injures their leg in the fall, is conscious, but unable to assist with the rescue. The rescuer is belaying from the ground on a 60 meter rope, so there may not be enough rope available to lower the injured climber to the ground.

RESCUE:
The rescuer locks-off the belay to take stock of the situation. No other climbers are present, and no other gear is available. The rescuer can use this time to call EMS if necessary. The rescuer then lowers the injured climber as far as possible. This is prudent because even though the lead climber was caught by protection placed 40m up, it is common for the rope to wander along the pitch, or the pitch may have traversed, making the plumb-line distance to the ground less than the amount of rope taken-up while leading the pitch. In this scenario, the rope is still not long enough for the injured climber to reach, and they are dangling in space. The rescuer then lets the rope come tight to their knot, and begins to climb up the pitch- thus lowering the injured climber at the same time as they climb. As the rescuer climbs they clean gear out of the pitch, and additionally take gear off of the injured climber as they are lowered past (if within reach). Once the injured climber reaches the ground, they put the rescuer on belay. The rescuer can then use this belay to continue to climb up the pitch to a place where there is excellent rock quality and opportunities to build an anchor with the gear that has been cleaned from the pitch and acquired from the injured leader. The rescuer constructs an anchor, attaches to it, and lowers onto it, using the belay from the injured climber to lower. The rescuer then unties and pulls the rope out from the upper pieces of protection (which will be abandoned on the pitch) so they can use the rope to build a rappel on the anchor they have constructed. They construct the rappel and rap to the ground where they can assist in caring for and evacuating the injured climber.

[robstone]

hi glen, great video but there is a fundemental misunderstanding of the forces on the top anchor. When you are holding him static (you are on the ground) there is twice his weight on the top anchor (minus friction) so if he weighed 150lbs there would be ~300lbs on the top anchor, (150 on each strand in balance). If abbing there would be only be 150lbs. You can think of it as 2 stands - your weight on one his on another, if they are in balance neither of you moves. You will add to the load if/when dynamically moving (eg jumaring up the rope), so smooth is best.

[booger]

Really well done video! You’re a great instructor - l like all your vids. They are well thought out, clearly explained, and easy to follow. Who are you guiding for now in the PNW?

[AndrewDale]

Thank you very much for this detailed and helpful video! You have a great teaching style

[celestincheze]

6:26 in fact the top piece always see the same weight except during a dynamic fall. The piece is always holding a rope that hold two people

[thaivan]

Thanks for a great video Glen. Can you at some point make a leader rescue on a traverse(less than half rope length or more than half rope length out) where a leader falls and needs a rescue. I imagine this situation can be very complicated.

[ChrisSchaecher]

Could you make a video on how to make a V anchor with a tether or life line?

[vlaaady]

If your body weight is not on the rope when you climb, your partner would be in free fall. So there is always double weight in the bolt.

[lennmusicman]

Lovely video! What are your options for a similar scenario on a bolted route, without having any cams or nuts at your disposal, just quickdraws? Try to improvice an anchor with a bolt + a sling around a rock or something?

[JeremyMcLain]

Great video! I don't quite understand something though. At the beginning of the video you said that the lead fell from 50m up and you had a 60m rope. Let's say the lead was above the last piece 2m when they fell, fell 4m, and is now 2m below the top piece. that puts them 46m off the deck. You can lower them 10 meters with your remaining rope so that puts the lead 36m off the ground. To get them to the ground you must climb up at least 36m. You can only build your anchor there or higher. How do you double rope rappel 36m on a 60m rope?

You can of course do a single rope rappel and add 12m of cordelette (if you have it) to the other side as a tag line or you could make two rappels out of it if you have enough gear, but I didn't see you do that.

Of course this isn't a problem if they fall from lower or you can lower your partner to 30m or less. If they fell from much higher than that (say from 55 down to 52 then lowered to 47), I don't see how this technique is possible if you need to retrieve the rope for the next rappel, unless its multiple rappels or using a really long tag line. Please correct me if I'm missing something because this really was a great video.