After six evening lectures in the fall and one classroom/planning meeting a few days ago the first field day in the High Altitude Mountaineering School (HAMS) arrived. However, we’d get broken in slowly to field conditions, since our initial day was held in downtown Golden at the CMC’s headquarters. The first two hours were spent in gear demonstrations (roping up for glacier travel and hauling sleds), plus talks on clothing and gear organization for longer expeditions.
Next we moved to the indoor rock wall where Bob Dawson demonstrated ascending a line with prussik hitches – one possible way to escape from a crevasse.
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The instructors then demonstrated how to go about rescuing a fallen rope team member from a crevasse starting with a) arresting the fall, b) building an anchor and c) communicating with the climber dangling below. If the climber couldn’t ascend the ropes themselves, then the team above could setup a z-pulley system to haul them out.
After lunch we moved to the treacherous lawn outside. While not steep or icy, the lawn was dotted with goose poop hazards that were best avoided. Breaking up in teams we alternated positions on a 3 person rope team and went through the above scenario. I first played the victim.
After falling into the deep sidewalk/retaining-wall crevasse my rope mates kept me from falling all the way into the busy intersection with a quick self-arrest.
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From inside the concrete crevasse I peered over the rim and watched as an anchor was constructed and the rope sorted out.
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Following the script they then came to check on me and see how I was doing amongst all the passing pedestrians and dog walkers.
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After verifying that I’d need to be hauled over the 3-foot concrete crevasse they completed the Z-pulley setup and restored me to the glacier, er, lawn surface.
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We switched around a few times, each playing a different role on the rope team. To pass the school we’ll need to be able to reliably complete the whole scenario (on snow, building real anchors) in under 15 minutes.
Our final skill of the day was running through a fixed-rope simulation with mechanical ascenders, moving both uphill and downhill. This is another skill we’ll practice in later weeks on more realistic terrain.
[...] HAMS Field Day #1 [...]