Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations (Mountaineering Outdoor Experts Series)

This book was recommended by my certified guide for my self-rescue class. It is an excellent guide and reference. The book has a focus on real situations and improvised, real-world solutions which makes it engaging and more useful than a straight-up reference manual. The latter portion of the book presents scenarios for you to consider and then provides a recommended solution. This is excellent for learning how to think about the emergency and develop a sound approach. It is one thing to have the skills, but another to know when to deploy a certain technique. The book does a very good job on both.For someone new to most of this material, the subject of self rescue was somewhat overwhelming for me. There are a lot of scenarios with many variables. And, lots of steps to execute the rescues. In some cases, the book goes to the steps without enough explanation of what you're trying to accomplish. With a class, repeated readings, and more experience, I have a better handle on the context(s) and can focus on the steps.I highly recommend the book for anyone getting into lead climbing. Read this and you'll be less likely to get into trouble and a lot more capable of getting your team out of trouble.

I own Sylvan Rocks Climbing School here in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I see more epics (with other parties) then I care to admit. If you are going out climbing, the knowledge in this book is no optional. Gravity plays for keeps and when something bad starts and gravity takes over, its hard to stop. When it does stop, if you know how to pick up the pieces and use the knowledge offered up in this book, you will greatly improve your chances of getting yourself and your partner down safely.Sending your project climb is perhaps more fun, but taking the time to read and practice the techniques laid out in these pages is essential knowledge. Going climbing without understanding the basics of self rescue is like driving without a seat belt. Its all fine until you need it.When we have guest that comes to us wanting to learn how to use these skills I recommend they read this book before they spend the day with us.

I have several climbing books and this is by far the best organized and clearly written climbing book I've ever had. To echo what many other reviewers have already stated, this book is comprehensive yet easy to follow with step-by-step directions and diagrams/pictures to show you exactly what to do, covering all areas of self-rescue. I can't tell you how often I'll study other books where the photo sequences will skip steps in the progression, not explain what's happening, not give details on the gear, or change the perspective of the shots to further confuse the reader -- not the case at all with this book. I've tried in the past to educate myself through research on the internet, but this book will save you time and guesswork by not having to go through all the clutter and pages and pages of non-expert opinions on all the boards.

Ok, I'm fairly new to outdoor climbing, and if I got into some of the situations described here, I would just hang on the rope and scream like a little girl until someone more experienced told me what to do.That said, if you're willing to spend several hours practicing the techniques, this book will boost your confidence considerably. I think it's more applicable to multipitch climbs, however the techniques are applicable to rappelling as well.Don't expect to read it and know how to traverse a knot while rappelling. Until you try the techniques a few times and get familiar, you shouldn't trust them while on the rock.

If you plan to climb more then one pitch or with other climbers as you should be... take a few hours out of your day to learn this information. Escaping the belay is a important process, and this book shows how to do so in several different situations. Rigging for raise and lowering is also covered very well, along with rescue situations and Reppel setup and backup. I still refer back to mine regulatly to ensure im doin things correctly. If your not sure about how you would pass a knot or raise an injuryed second this book can help.

You would be surprised at how many salty old climbers don't know that stuff in this book. I recommend this to anyone who isn't already trained in vertical rescue. This book shows you how to make do without too much gear, if you do have the extra gear you can figure out how to make your systems better. I recommend every one get their climbing buddies to read this and then GO PRACTICE, you don't want to learn in a real emergency. One overlooked point is having the other people on your team read the book, you wont be saving yourself...

I really like this book. It does a good job explaining the techniques and covers quite a few. I feel way more confident after reading this book. A few weeks ago I saw a woman get evacuated from a back country climbing site because she had a broken ankle. With the lessons I learned from this book I was able to form a plan that would have gotten me out of that situation with a much smaller medical bill.

If you are an analytical mind or want to learn and practice analytical approach to solving tricky situations on rock, this is the book for you. It's focused heavily on rock (no ice climbing or general winter mountaineering) and it assumes you always have rope and rock gear available which is not always the case. All in all a great book!

The written step-by-step instructions are very complete and easy to follow. I found a lot of the pictures to be much less so - hard to sort out what I was looking it. The diagrams were much better than the pictures. The topics covered were bang on, and the case analysis of 30 different scenarios helped put the concepts into the real world.

Great book!!! Love it, many pictures so it's easy to follow steps!!!Love the scenarios at the end, to practice with friends!

L'extrait du livre semblait prometteur, le livre semblait centré sur des scénario mais le reste du livre est très décevant, ce n'est qu'une liste de technique, mais les illustrations rendent la compréhension impossible. On ne comprend pas la subtilité des différents système de sauvetage. Mon autre livre de self-rescu est très utilisé, je le relie sans arrêt, je l'étudie et je pratique les scénarios, mais ce livre reste bien sagement dans ma bibliothèque.

A very useful read for anyone trad climbing. I found it helpful to re-enforce practical knowledge with this book and the author's engineering background means the descriptions and Photographics examples are succinct and to the point.

good stuff in here