Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:41:02 -0800
From: Chris Chan <cgchan [AT] stanford.edu>
To: Ryan Paganelli <ryanp1 [AT] stanford.edu>, Colin Kuehl <ckuehl [AT] stanford.edu>,
     climbing [AT] lists.stanford.edu, alpine-club [AT] lists.stanford.edu
Subject: [SAC] Self-Rescue + Self-Medicate Workshop

Stanford Alpine Club presents...

*How To Get Yourself and Your Climbing Partner Out of the Backcountry 
and to the Hospital Alive*
You're at the belay 17 pitches up the face of Cerro Torre in 
Patagonia... watching as ominous clouds begin to descend upon you. Your 
climbing partner is leading up  5.14c fingers on a new route when he 
pauses, looks down at you, and says, "Watch me." He starts to lieback up 
a thin crack, going up 10 feet above his pro... then 20 feet... 30... 
You can't do anything but watch and hope. He continues up the strenuous 
lieback, too strenuous to place more pro, until his calves begin to jump 
uncontrollably in classic sewing machine fashion, and then the 
inevitable happens. He pitches off, flipping end over end, tossed 
further outward by a protruding ledge, and bounces several times as the 
rope stretch works itself out, and finally hangs suspended, still and quiet.
...FORTUNATELY, you've gone to SAC's self-rescue workshops and you know 
what to do!!

This year we are holding our Self-Rescue workshop in 2 parts, on 
Wednesday, November 19, from 7:30-10p:
I. "Self-medicate" - what do you do when you've gotten your climber to 
the bottom? How do you assess head/spinal injuries? Loss of 
consciousness? Is it safe to continue climbing? Do you need to/can you 
reduce dislocations in the backcountry? Ryan Paganelli,a Stanford ER 
doctor with a specialty in wilderness medicine, will be presenting a 
variety of techniques for what to do under different climbing accident 
scenarios. There will be some hands-on demonstrations and practice.

II. Self-rescue - The ropework you need to know to escape the belay, 
rescue fallen leader, the knots and rigs for emergency ascending and 
descending, Z-pulleys, etc. The Stanford Climbing Wall has generously 
agreed to host our practice session. Because we only have an hour, we 
are holding this session as a PRACTICE, not a full instructional 
session. We will e-mail out a few things that you should review before 
you come to the wall. The wall session will assume you have read through 
the basic steps for the self-rescue techniques we will be practicing. 
Anyone is welcome, whether or not you have prior self-rescue experience, 
but we just ask that you have a basic understanding of the material 
before you come to the session. It won't be a lot, so don't worry.

PLEASE RSVP and sign up if you would like to attend (and which 
session(s)). Because of resources and space limitations, we need to be 
able to plan ahead.
If you can't make this session but are interested, please let us know so 
that we can try to organize such events in the future.

I. Wilderness Medicine Component with Jan Vobecky, M.D.
Date: November 19, Wednesday
Time: 7:30-9p
Location: TBD

II. Self-Rescue Skills Practice
Date: November 19, Wednesday
Time: 9-10p
Location: Climbing Wall at Arrillaga

Hope to see you there,
Chris