Escape the Belay Clinic Fundraiser

The new Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund of the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh will enable a few explorers every year to have the adventure of their dreams. At the June general meeting of the club, it was hotly debated how additional monies should be raised to sustain the expedition grant in future years. One of the ideas that was mentioned was to teach clinics for donations.

At our next climbing outing to the Mills, Sam Taggart and I were discussing how much we both love teaching. That evening I just happened to be practicing to escape the belay, while Sam offered to play my injured climber. The idea was born: we thought that we could put together an "escape the belay" clinic as a fundraiser. If successful, we would come up with a few other topics throughout the summer, and with the money raised, we could help beef up our new expedition fund.

We finalized our lesson plan over the weekend, sent it out with an invitation and a suggested donation of $5 per person on the listserve on Monday, and stood ready to teach the clinic yesterday evening (6/29/10). We had no idea how many people would show... We ended up with a satisfyingly sizable crowd!

The scenario we adopted was the following: You and your climbing partner are top roping. You are belaying off of your harness, and you are anchored in. Imagine your climber’s foot gets stuck in a crack, and s/he can neither climb up, nor be lowered down. What do you do? You need to “escape the belay” to provide assistance or to call for help.

 


 
To start off the clinic, Sam and I partnered up for a demonstration of the entire procedure. In the interest of the limited amount of time available, I had suggested to do a simplified version which involved the Mule hitch with and Overhand tie off (MO) as the only new knot participants would have to master. Both the belay rope and the Prussik sling would be clipped back into the anchor with a locker. Sam preferred and demonstrated a more advanced scenario, in which the belay rope and the Prussik cord were attached to the lockers with the Munter-Mule-Overhand (MMO) knot. After the demonstration, participants used strands of rope to practice their MOs. Then it was time for everybody to partner up and run through the complete procedure. There was a buzz of excitement in the air when people were being tied off, even just a few feet off the deck. Some participants practiced my simple version, some moved on to work with Sam on the advanced version. The clinic only stopped when it became too dark to carry on.

The good news: 11 participants raised $55 for the Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund. 

Thank you everybody for participating, for donating money, and for making this such a fun and educational evening. Suggestions for future clinics included: learning to lead, placing pro, more rescue material. We will give that some thought. Say tuned to your ECP listserve for the announcement of our next clinic.