Rescue Skills.

This course is designed to equip you with essential rescue skills, critical for dealing with emergency situations in adventurous climbing environments. These skills are particularly valuable for those planning to visit remote or challenging crags, where mountain rescue will take a while.

This course will give you the skills to manage emergency situations with confidence, enhancing your safety and self-reliance in the mountains.

  • We’ll start the day by meeting in the morning for a coffee and a chat, giving us a chance to get to know you and understand your current level of experience. From there, we’ll plan the day around your goals and needs.

    We’ll begin by looking at some essential rescue skills, starting with how to tie off a belay device—an important first step if you need to call for help. We’ll then work through escaping the system, so you can safely leave your belay to go and assist or get help if needed.

    As the day progresses, we’ll cover different hauling techniques—first using the help of your climbing partner, and then unassisted methods for when you’re on your own. You’ll also learn how to abseil past a knot, an important skill in multi-pitch scenarios.

    If you already have a foundation in rescue techniques, we’ll step things up and look at more complex scenarios. These can include crag evacuations, rescues involving traverses, or counterbalance abseils—skills that are particularly useful in more remote or adventurous climbing settings.

    By the end of the course, you’ll have a solid understanding of what to do if things go wrong at the crag. With the core principles of climbing rescue under your belt, you’ll be far better prepared to get yourself—and your partner—out of most tricky situations.

  • Climbers should be confident in seconding trad routes up to grade Diff and have a solid understanding of how to build anchors at the top of a crag or pitch.

    This course is ideal for aspiring Mountain Climbing Instructors (MCIs) and Rock Climbing Instructors (RCIs), as it provides practical, hands-on experience in managing climbing emergencies.

  • We run this course throughout the year in the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.

    A day of climbing will typically last from 8 in the morning until 4/5 in the afternoon.

    For 1:1 Guiding we charge £250, For 1:2 Guiding we charge £300. It is an extra £50 per extra person on this course.

    • Guiding

    • Use of helmets, harnesses and other technical kit
      Not included:

    • Climbing Shoes

    • Transport to and from the crag (exceptions can be made, let us know in the booking form)

    • Food and drink for the day

University of Manchester students learning rescue skills at the Arcteryx Academy in the Lake District

Practicing passing a knot while abseiling at Craig y Forwyn in North Wales.