Dates

Saturday March 29th        9am – 2pm
Saturday April 12th            9am – 2pm
Saturday April 26th           9am – 2pm

General

Technical Rope Skills is a course intended to help climbers and mountaineers advance their knowledge of gear, systems, and techniques with the goal of improving their safety and understanding in the vertical environment.

The course will consist of three 5-hour sessions. Each day will be indoor/outdoor hands-on practice at the PATC clubhouse and other locations such as Great Falls in the general DMV area.

The course is not aimed at brand new climbers/mountaineers. Instead, this is intended for students who have basic skills and some climbing experience, but want to push their knowledge into more intermediate/advanced concepts. So, perhaps single-pitch sport leaders interested in multi-pitch and/or trad climbing or mountaineers looking to improve their crevasse rescue skills.

Participants should have basic knowledge of knots, hitches, and gear used in climbing and mountaineering.

The course will first cover important knots/hitches, gear usage, and the basics of placing protection in rock, ice, and alpine environments. With those building blocks, we’ll move on to ascending and descending a rope, safely; raising and lowering someone else, safely; load transitions and self-rescue techniques; and roping up for glacier travel. Putting all those skills together, we’ll then cover crevasse rescue.

The intent is to show a couple of ways to safely accomplish each task with an emphasis on problem solving using the gear at hand.

Selection Process

Application link is here.

Application period ends on 9 March at midnight and responses will be back by 16 March

In applying for the course, you are indicating that you can attend all three sessions.  If that’s not true  please do not apply.

There will be a maximum of 10 participants plus a waitlist. Selection will be based on the responses to the application, which contains questions to determine experience level; knowledge of knots and techniques; as well as goals.

Instructors

The principal instructor will be James Stockton. He may be assisted by other PMC members.

James has been climbing and mountaineering for ~22 years.  Eleven of those years included volunteering with the Organ Mountain Technical Rescue Squad based in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He served as team Captain for 5 years; completed multiple 40 hour training courses with Rigging for Rescue, Strike Rescue, and the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC); and spent thousands of hours in the field participating in search and rescue trainings and missions.

James enjoys ‘going up’ via hiking, sport climbing, trad, ice, aid, skis, crampons, and most any other way humans have devised. He’s excited to meet new friends that will keep him from being lazy or getting rusty. He’s happy to have the chance to pay forward all the time others have spent passing knowledge to him.