Rock Skills Training at Donner Summit

BAMRU converged upon Donner Summit this past Saturday morning for its annual rock climbing skills training. Throughout the weekend, several stations were run at any given time to teach personal climbing skills, such as ascending and descending with prusiks and mechanical ascenders, ascending and descending past knots, escaping belays, ascending a loaded line to a leader (with angled line and redirects), ascending a line in free space, munter-hitch rappels, and other climbing self-rescue skills. BAMRU's newly initiated trainee class as well as other BAMRU members moved between stations in a self-directed fashion ensuring everyone devoted the time they needed to master each skill. Saturday night was spent at a member's house in Truckee, discussing proper decision-making techniques and reviewing reports from Accidents in North American Mountaineering.

The weekend provided an excellent foundation for several upcoming BAMRU trainings, including the Alpine Skills Training (July 23-25) and Basic Technical Rescue (August 21-22).