Every year as we take a new bunch of student helpers out to the glaciers with us we arrange a crevasse rescue course. This year Benjamin and Christoph Stern were our guides at the Stubai Gletscher ski area where we slid down steep faces to be rescued s part of a larger rope team and practiced rescuing conscious people on a smaller 3 person rope team. Then we went to the stairs to practice self rescue:

I love doing these courses every year as I always learn something new, or refine my skills or get another idea of something to think about while undertaking glacier travel. There is much that i already feel quite adept at – judging the landscape, assessing dangers, setting anchors of various kinds, direct haul rescuing using a z-pulley system, self rescue, but, for example, this was the first year I ever practiced a rescue with a larger rope team (as we usually travel with just 2-3 people for fieldwork), and we also discussed how dangerous it can be to leave someone hanging unconscious in a crevasse and how to get to them fast and rig a little chest harness to get them into a stable position. I practiced using the Garda hitch which is nice, as although I usually have a Petzl microtraxion with me, you never know when you might have to work without it. Especially when you are ham-fisted like me, and likely to drop valuable gear into crevasses …

Stay safe out there!