Reddit reviews Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert)
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CLIMBING SELF RESCUE
practice is everything
;)
Recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X as a good book for this stuff.
First off don't fall on 5.0. The run outs are there because the climbing is easy and anyone on the route should be competent enough not to fall.
That said, depending on the severity of the fall, the distance from the ground/top and the condition of the climber/belayer there are a few options.
Those are just some go to options but everything depends on the situation at hand. Also, don't take advice from anyone online, read this instead:
https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X
Both of these are good.
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Rescue-How-Climb-David-Fasulo/dp/0762755334
https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X
A few pointers:
Feel free to PM me with specific questions...I have over a decade of climbing/mountaineering and outdoor experience on everything outside of the Himalaya. Snowfields, Rock, Ice, Bouldering, Backpacking, summer, winter, poor weather, perfect weather...I've been there.
As for costs:
REI credit card may actually be worth looking into, and an REI membership is a one-time $20 fee that will pay literal dividends for life. Other than that, the standard online comparison shopping methods are your best friend.
DO NOT purchase used life-critical equipment. Let me repeat that DO NOT purchase used life-critical equipment. You do not know how it has been stored, cared for, maintained and thus do not know if it will do it's job when you really really need it to.
A lot of great advices. Few more. Tie knots at the end of the rope. Too many people are dying because of this. And use autoblock. Extra 15-30 seconds to tie it. But adds a lot of safety.
Read Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situation. Try to practice some of the scenarios in safe conditions.
I would first follow several trad climbs and inspect your leader's placements. Then practice placing a ton of gear on the ground and practice making anchors on the ground. Get somewhat comfortable with placing cams and nuts, have your trad friends inspect them, and pull really hard on them while you're on the ground. Then do several mock trad leads where you're on top rope, but pretend you are leading. Connect yourself to your gear and jump on them while on top rope to test your placements. Then go lead a very easy single pitch route. Always have your more experienced friends give you critiques on your placements. When you feel comfortable leading pitches, building anchors, and belaying from the top, go lead a multipitch. Congrats, you're a multipitch trad leader!
These are basically the steps I followed, with my more experienced wife helping me all the way through, and it worked well for me. Now I'm leading 5.7/5.8 multipitch trad routes. I followed about 5 trad routes, mock lead about 5 routes, and placed a couple hundred pieces of gear on the ground before my first lead. Later on, I read through this book, and practiced the self rescue techniques, which was really helpful and made me more confident that I would be able to deal when the shit hits the fan someday.
The climbing self rescue book is quite good. I don't actually know of any other ones though that is specifically climbing self rescue.
edit: I don't own it but this one looks pretty good. The difference is going to be in the pictures vs. illustrations. The pictures in the first one are pretty good but can be a little confusing. The illustrations in this one look clearer and might be easier to follow.
You might want to try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rVY3sLQqA for a quick intro on lead climbing.
A double rope system uses two full length ropes, and you alternate clipping them into protection. This helps eliminate rope drag.
A twin rope system uses two full length ropes as well, but you clip both ropes into each piece of protection.
See here for info on rope systems: http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/howto/ropesystems.asp
You will almost always be using a double rope rappel on any of your local crags. Single rope rappels are more dangerous and are usually used to rap down from the top of a crag to clean a route, photograph, ascend, etc. With the single rope rappel method, you will not be able to retrieve your rope from the anchors unless you use a smaller cord as a pull cord, although that is not a reccomended technique.
As for climbing rescue, check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X
hope my answers helped.
In addition to /u/hdboomy, for some next-level skills, if you're going to belay off your harness you may want to look into how to escape the belay should anything go wrong and you need to get hands free.
Look into it. I do know some people that learned to lead trad from friends. If so, make sure you do the following:
Good luck, and climb on.
http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XBKDMNTBPXDRR0GMPJZ
This is a great book
I strongly suggest to pretty much anyone interested in climbing outdoors to read up on climbing rescue and self-rescue. Once you have a solid grasp on the techniques, test them out in a gym setting. Knowing how to properly lock off a belay device, take the tension off of it using a friction hitch above it, then escaping the belay to ascend the rope can literally save a life. I've heard that if a climber is unconscious and upside down, in general he has about 15 minutes to live. This means that a good grasp of these techniques is critical to ensuring the survival of the climber is such situations.
Suggested reading:
Be safe out there!
Here's a couple of books that i found useful when learning. For the cost of your class, you could buy some gear. I bought my rack and went out and started leading the easiest things i could find. I asked my partners to look at my placements and didn't climb anything where i wasn't at ease fiddling with my placements. After a season of this, i spent a day with a small group climbing with a guide and a pro climber. It was really useful then to have someone evaluate my placements and look at my technique. In short, spend the money on a rack. Get out and play with it.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Rock-Climb-5th-Series/dp/0762755342/ref=pd_sim_b_2/191-6286848-7768056
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762782072/ref=pd_sim_b_1
These two will get you started. Once you're comfortable with your gear and are starting to think about multi-pitch climbing, it's a really good idea to read this one as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395103810&sr=1-3&keywords=self+rescue+for+climbers
There are many books out there on these topics. I've read the three above and can vouch for their quality. When looking for the Jon Long books, be sure to get the latest edition.
Maybe this is too practical - but I expect all my partners to at least know the basics of self rescue. This is a great supplement to taking a multi day rescue class. They can be expensive but worth EVERY dollar.
http://amzn.com/089886772X
Prusiking is tiring, and it takes a little practice to get the rhythm down. I'd imagine that the skill could be life-saving, someday.
I've found the ascending videos by the Cornell Tree Climbers to be really informative: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FED1B889E749C21
The "Texas Kick" video illustrates the most common ascending technique.
As for self-rescue, I have this book. It has a lot of information, but I found it really difficult to read or learn from. I think the best way to learn the complicated self rescue stuff is hands on with a trainer. Black and white pictures of knots didn't really work for me, but you might find the book
helpful!
Strangely, I really liked the climbing anchors book from the same series. I thought that its layout was more textbook-like and easier to understand that the frequently recommended Climbing Anchors by John Long. They're both good if you want resources on anchor-building.
Best bet would probably be some kind of Wilderness First Aid course along with learning some rope rescue skills.
If you're in an area with lots of backcountry activities close by, finding a Wilderness First Aid course shouldn't be an issue. There's also tons of information online and in books to read up about, though book smarts are no substitute for putting those skills to the test in mock scenarios (which is hopefully the extent you'd end up using those skills in).
For rope rescue, depending on where you are, local guide companies, outdoor centres, etc. likely have rope rescue courses you could take.
In regards to rope rescue books, I can't personally recommend a specific one, but a bunch of books on the topic exist such as this one. Though I'm sure someone else here can recommend a book they've personally read.
Also based on your Canada flair, joining the Alpine Club of Canada would be a great idea. Your local chapter would likely offer tons of opportunities not only for courses such as first aid and rope rescue, but also organized climbing days along with various other activities.
Others have mentioned key points. Getting comfortable with such things like multi-pitch sport (to get into the mental headspace), single pitch trad (need that gear knowledge), multi-pitch trad with bolted anchors (last step before going for completely trad).
What I'll add, and this is good for all climbing disciplines, is knowing some self-rescue techniques. Its just good stuff to know.
This book and this one are both good options. It will in general up your confidence in the mountains.
While I'm sure someone will jump in with their favorite, I've read through this one:
https://smile.amazon.com/Climbing-Self-Rescue-Improvising-Mountaineers/dp/089886772X?sa-no-redirect=1
Your library might even have a copy. Also, look for a copy of Freedom of the Hills. 8th is the latest, but 6th & 7th are not all that old.
For navigation, eventually you'll want to be able to pinpoint & track yourself along a bare hillside, no trail.
Simple comfort & awareness, especially, I have found consists of a lot of trial and error. Learning when to switch layers to stay warm but not sweaty. How to pack a heavy pack. Where to find water. Knowing when you're getting dehydrated. Plenty of this can be learned on ordinary hilly trails, no massive peaks required.
I know some of these skills will be quite difficult to work on living in the city, but they're a super important place to start, and you don't need to hire a fancy guide to teach you. Plus, if you do take a class like you linked, you'll get a lot more out of it if you've already learned a lot of the fundamentals yourself. Be the guy who already knows how to tie every knot, knows exactly where he is on the map, and is comfortable in the environment. Don't be that guy who is too busy learning how to tie munters and clove hitches to pay attention to crevasse rescue practice.
As far as improving your headgame goes, leading easy but long runouts is super helpful, as well as falling onto (well-placed) gear. Alpine multipitch is an admirable goal, but it is a far cry from what most people think of as trad climbing. You should be confident on long runouts, with potential no-fall zones. There are a lot of skills that are important for alpine climbing that often are not learned in a typical trad climbing mentor relationship, such as self-rescue, alpine route finding, and depending on your goals, snow climbing skills. There are several ways to learn these skills such as books or hiring a guide. Ultimately, your safety is much more dependent on yourself when alpine climbing. I say this not to scare you away from alpine climbing, as it has been responsible for some of the most amazing memories I have, but it has also been responsible for some of the scariest.
Some books that you might find beneficial:
Climbing Self-Rescue - Just what it says in the title.
Vertical Mind - I found this book useful for improving my head space.
Training for the New Alpinism - Probably the best book to help a climber transition into the backcountry.
[Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills] (https://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaineers/dp/1680510045/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=freedom+of+the+hills&qid=1562736585&s=gateway&sr=8-1) - This book is excellent, but probably isn't extremely helpful until you are climbing more serious alpine routes.
As far as advice, just get as much mileage on lead outdoors as you can, with 1-2 indoor bouldering sessions per week. If it doesn't impact your bouldering, you could add a couple strength sessions as well. If you want to get into alpine climbing, or even just multipitch climbing, practice your systems at the top of single pitch routes. Belay your partner from the top, practice building an anchor at the top off of the bolts, set up simple pulley systems. Just spending 15 minutes per session will help you get muscle memory down for when it really matters.
Edit: As you get into more alpine climbing, you should increase the strength training and cardio. Climbing efficiently after four hours walking with a pack full of gear and food is harder than it sounds. Increasing your physical strength will reduce the mental load a lot, allowing you to think more clearly and be more confident.