Outstanding mountain safety education programs
CLMRG’s Child Safety Programs
There is nothing more devastating for a rescue team than an unsuccessful search for a child. After a number of these in the 1960’s, Elizabeth Anderson, a member of the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group (CLMRG), decided to take preventative action. She produced a script and slideshow illustrating the principles of keeping children safe in the wilderness. Her program was aimed toward adults – what they should know and do to keep their children safe. It was shown to many groups of adults who are responsible for children – scout leaders, PTA’s etc.
In the early 1980’s, after an unsuccessful search for a nine-year-old boy in San Diego County;Ab Taylor (a member of the Border Patrol) and a friend of his produced another slideshow with a script and called it Hug-A-Tree. The title reflected one of the principles of safety in the wilderness: if you are lost, stay in one place. This program was aimed at young children. Several members of CLMRG took the required training and became Hug-A-Tree presenters. Each spring, the group has made an effort to present the program to as many elementary school children in our area as possible.
Three years ago, we acquired an updated presentation of the same principles contained in Hug-A-Tree. It is a DVD, produced by the Association of National Park Service Rangers called “Lost…But Found Safe and Sound”. Typically two members of CLMRG go to a school, show the DVD, do some activities with volunteers from the audience like making a shelter with a garbage bag and recording their footprints on a piece of aluminum foil and demonstrating how much better a whistle is compared to the child yelling for help.
We provide brochures explaining the program for the students to take home to their parents. We make these presentations to 2000 plus school children each spring. Now we have acquired an updated version of the Hug-A-Tree program, which we will start using in alternate years.
Talking to school children isn’t as spectacular as rescuing someone off a cliff, but we do believe that educating children about safety in the wilderness is a significant part of our mission. We have not done a careful analysis of searches state wide year by year, but it is very clear from our data that the number of searches for children has been significantly reduced.
CLMRG’s Summer “Basic Mountaineering” class
As a part of our Community Education programs, the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group has been teaching a summer “Basic Mountaineering” class since the late 1950s. It was originally devised to train and recruit members for the group, and still continues to be a great source of members for our group. It is open to anyone over 16 years of age with a general interest in learning how to safely do basic mountaineering and rock climbing.
Our class has evolved over the years, but the format we’ve been using for the past 2 decades involves lectures on Tuesday evenings, and then climbing practice at various local sites on Wednesday evenings, for 7 weeks of the summer. The course includes one day hike/climb and one overnight hike/climb into the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains, and each is offered for various skill levels from fairly easy to fairly strenuous. Our Team leaders lead these hikes, assisted by several other members of the group, with the emphasis on safety and enjoyment.
We use the most current edition of Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills as our guiding textbook. Tuesday lecture topics are given by members of CLMRG and include First steps, safety and leadership, wilderness travel, mountain maladies, snow travel and climbing, mountain weather, leave no trace, navigation, camping & bivies and equipment topics including clothing, packs, food & stoves. We give slide presentations on Big Wall rock climbs, Sierra peak climbs, and Expeditions (as many of our members have climbed walls in Yosemite – Half Dome, El Capitan, etc. and peaks around the world – McKinley, Aconcagua, Logan, the Mexican Volcanoes, etc.).
Knots are an essential part of climbing and mountaineering, so we test our students on a variety of essential knots, e.g. Figure 8, bowline on a coil and grapevine. They also are tested on the most important aspects of mountaineering as well as the climbing terms to use for belaying and rappelling.
Basic climbing skills are carefully taught, including bouldering, top rope climbing, belaying, and rappelling, with and without a harness. The locations we use offer all levels of experience.
Wednesday climbing sessions are at various locations around Ridgecrest, including a conditioning hike up a local peak, bouldering at Wagon Wheel, climbing at Robbers Roost, and rappelling at Fossil Falls.
Our enrollment is usually 35-40 students, and we give completion certificates to the majority of these. This program has introduced hundreds of enthusiastic locals to the sport of climbing and mountaineering in a safe and controlled manner. Along the way we have recruited many new members for CLMRG.