The ARIZONA VORTEX WORKSHOP is meant to assist the rescue practitioner with information relative to the use of manufactured high directionals. The AZVW is a hands-on workshop on the use and correct implementation of artificial high directionals for industry and wilderness settings.

TRAINING OPTIONS:
Buy v.2 from RTR and save on this training!
Contact us for details! Email RTR

Some specialized personal equipment needed to participate in this program (see bottom right)

• Use of high directionals to eliminate or reduce edge forces
• Extensive slide shows with valuable lessons on physics
• Proper set up (A to Z) of AZV v.1.0 or later
• Anchoring the AZV for static and dynamic events
• At-the-edge, and back-from-the-edge AZV set up.
• Guying the AZV with rope
• Working with the AZV bipod (A frame or Sideways A frame); guying concerns etc.
• Working with the AZV monopod (gin pole); guying concerns etc.
• Lazy leg SA frame set ups (optional)
• Similar and paradoxical motion when entering the hazard zone under the AZV at the edge
• Much, much more...

Rigging Analysis Workshop (Instructor Update) Three days in length and taught by RTR's lead instructors with 6 maximum students. More hands on! This instructor level RAW will take the participant through an analysis of common systems and critical thinking in regards to rope rigging. It will focus on innovative teaching techniques that will arm the serious instructor/practitioner with valuable information to the questions "why" we do what we do in rope rescue. In addition to detailed analysis and application of knotcraft, anchors, and pulley systems, this workshop will study, test, review, and critique applicable standards, and equipment. Although there are no prerequisites for the RAW, it is highly advisable that the participant have a desire to teach and possess a strong understanding of knots, anchors, and MA's. Some specialized personal equipment needed to participate in this program (see bottom right)

• Critical thinking and analysis
• Student driven. Bring your concerns and questions.
• 6:1 student-to-instructor ratio
• Advanced knotcraft
• Teaching techniques that work with "plate spinners" (today's fire fighter)
• Newly developed gadgets and equipment for rope rescue
• Recent testing and developments
• The new Arizona VECTOR tripod developed by RTR's Reed Thorne
• Advanced anchors (see photo)
• Applicable standards review
• What you should worry about—and what you shouldn't
• Much more...

"I would like to thank you for a great seminar. The amount of knowledge and information you put out was terrific. I cannot remember taking part in a course which was as intense as yours. While being labor intensive I gained a great deal by participating and hope to put it to use in the future. I feel the seminar was well organized and laid out to effectively build skills."

Hondo Nobel
Crew Chief
Tobyhanna Army Depot

The Personal Skills Rescue Workshop is considered by many past students as our most enjoyable and interactive.Ther is no shortage of on rope fun at this seminar! The PSRW, and the Team Skills Rescue Workshop are the courses which fulfill the 90% solution on most rope rescues within industry and wilderness locations. It is designed for the serious rope rescue practitioner wishing to improve their personal rigging skill. This seminar is sometimes mistakenly perceived as a beginning program due to the personal nature of many of the evolutions. In fact, it is for those that never seem to get enough on rope experience or time over the edge. The PSRW begins with valuable, yet simple lessons on physics, safety in the vertical realm and then moves into practical and fun-filled days where multiple rope stations keep the practitioner busy throughout the day. The final day of the seminar involves the discovery, medical treatment, packaging and extrication of a patient planted in a secret location in the wilderness. Students in the PSRW practice their skills and learn to work together as a team in successful retrieval of this patient in a non-threatening environment. The PSRW goes well into often overlooked personal skills that are taken for granted on most rescue teams. Students also learn the classic differences (in risk) associated with belays, self belays, conditional belays and conditional self belays.
Warning: There is a very very strong emphasis on knotcraft in this seminar! Students are tested throughout the program for proficiency and the ability to tie under pressure. All in fun, of course!

• Ideal for rope access technicians (those that work at elevation) For more on rope access open programs, click HERE
• Strong emphasis on personal skills
• Improvisation and minimalism "What do you do if the gadget does not show up?"
• Knotcraft to the extreme (There is a strong emphasis on knot skills)
• Introduction to pulley systems (simple through complex)
• Physics of rope rescue
• Two tensioned rope systems
• Beginning litter work in high angle evacuations (practice at "attending")
• Multiple methods of descending on rope (including improvised)
• Multiple methods of ascending on handled ascenders
• Rope-to-rope transfers
• Rope problems needing strong personal skill base
• Emergency escape
• True belays/escaping belays after loading
• Self rescue techniques / Buddy rescue techniques
• Complete AZTEK kit orientation for personal and team operations:
  • Single and double part hasty rappels
  • Belays and self belays
  • Dynamic fixed and traveling brakes
  • Dynamic directionals
  • Personal travel restrict and fall protection
• Solo rescuer pick off ("gecko" and hanging)
• Semi-solo rescuer pick offs ("gecko" and hanging)
• Lead climbing (optional) and down climbing techniques
• Sound anchoring principles: simple through advanced system anchors
• Slack backups vs tensioned backties
• Patient tie in techniques
• Split coil carries; low angle carries
• Caterpillar passes and role rotation during litter carries
• Much more....

Speaking to a another RTR student—
"Like you, I was humbled that first day of the course. I had come in thinking I knew plenty of cool stuff. The next day I began to get a little of the (RTR) "lingo" going, and started to understand the diagrams, etc. By the end of the 7 days, I had expanded my rescue paradigm more than the complete decade preceding it. That experience was truly a watershed event in my rescue career. And I already knew more than anyone I worked with or for before I went to the class. So that speaks to Reed and his excellent program, but you already knew that.

Gary Haynes
Arches National Park, Utah
Chief Ranger

The Team Skills Rescue Workshop is ideal for industrial and wilderness rescue teams and is designed to review some practices from the PSRW, yet carry on into more demanding rescue practices and team-building skills. This, and the PSRW, are the seminars which fulfill the "90% solution" on most rope rescues within industry and wilderness locations. Lectures on intermediate physics and how it relates to rope rigging are common throughout the duration of this seminar. Emphasis is places on "why" we do something, rather than "how". Students, as a team unit, learn how to build seemingly complex arrangements for reaching, treating and extricating a patient from the vertical high angle environment whether in industrial locations or in the wilderness.All the while, emphasis is placed on building everything from the basic materials most teams will have along: rope, carabiners, pulleys, accessory cord, webbing and know how. Specialized equipment, while certainly handy and interesting, is discouraged in this rigging-intensive course. Some rescuers also feel that an intermediate-level program should include highlines. The TSRW includes an extensive lecture and practical section on alternatives to highlines in the form of "offsets". Ropes That Rescue has become known for it's projection of these offsets as an alternative to training intensive highlines in the past 10 years. Offsets employ standard high angle techniques that most rescuers already know and so are more forgiving in the training curve than more elaborate systems.
The TSRW is not by any means a beginning rope rescue program. It is a serious venture and complete immersion into rescue systems that can sometimes be overwhelming to some less experienced practitioners.

• Safety factors / Safety margins
• Strong emphasis on team-oriented skills
• Knotcraft
• Intermediate pulley systems (simple through complex)
• Physics of rope rescue
• Two tensioned rope systems analysis
• Artificial high directions:
  • Gin pole monopods
  • A frames
  • Sideways A frames
  • Easel A frames
• Directionals and anchor angle force calculations
• Batwing compound pulley systems-AZ Progression
• Complete AZTEK kit orientation for team operations:
  • Single and double part hasty rappels
  • Belays and self belays
  • Dynamic fixed brakes
  • Dynamic directionals
  • Personal travel restrict and fall protection
• Mid face attendant-based and team-based litter scoops
• Team-based pick offs
• Belays, self belays, conditional belays and conditional self belays
• Sound anchoring principles: intermediate through advanced system anchors
• Focused and focused-floating anchors using opposition anchors
• Patient tie in techniques
• Hot and cold changeovers
• Non-highline solutions to rescue scenarios
• Offsets for the high angle evacuation:
  • Tag and guiding line offsets
  • Deflected offsets
  • Tracking line offsets
  • Skate block offsets
  • Two rope offsets
• Much more....

(Above) Students erect a high directional at Harpers Ferry, WV., in east coast TSRW. (Right) Industrial TSRW training at Rancho Cucamonga Fire Dept (Calif) in 2001 Students are practicing a deflection offset high atop Etiwanda Steam Generating Station

Frank Mendonca
UTAH Grand County SAR

The Advanced Skills Rescue Workshop is held only one time during any given year and is a seven day seminar dealing with the remaining "10% Solution". This rigorous course "for wizards" applies some aspects of the TSRW yet goes well beyond these both in intensity of rigging, and application of physical principles. The course begins abruptly with an impromptu field exercise to assess existing skill level within the "team". Emphasis is placed on low tech solutions to rescue scenarios before heading into technical solutions in the form of highlines. The seminar then explores all the available possibilities for setting up a horizontal, sloping or steep highline for removing, transporting or inserting rescuers or a patient.
The main event of the eight day ASRW seminar is an extreme highline of over 600' station-to-station high above the valley floor treetops. The ASRW also explores all aspects of advanced rigging including fall factors (ideal and practical), and reviews the belay drop test data more acutely than previous courses. The ASRW is rigging intensive!

• Complete highlines:
  • Standard transportation-type highlines
  • Drooping highlines
  • Swiftwater highlines
  • Reeving highlines (for varying trackline angles)
  • Extreme highlines over 600'
• Highline logistics and teardown
• Advanced pulley systems
• Various pilot and messenger delivery systems:
• Advanced anchoring for highlines
• High strength tie offs using mechanical and natural means
• Standard and advanced artificial high directionals:
  • V frames
  • Double A frames
  • Over the edge AHD's
• Mid span litter package bypasses on transecting highline obstructions for single and double carriage yokes
• Hot loading (with patient in litter) double carriage litters on steep angle highlines
• Single, twin and quad trackline highlines
• Single and double yoke carriages
• Passing bends on the taglines
• Tagline prusik bypasses
• Tagline hanger variations
• Ideal and practical fall factors
• Sedona BC Drop Test data (1989: Larson, Thorne, Dill)
• Extreme litter lowers (>300')
• Much more...

"Thank you both for an excellent course on rope rescue held at Rancho Cucamonga (Calif) Fire Department. I learned a great deal in the course. The curriculum and excellent delivery by Pat was first class. Your scientific and systematic approach to rope rescue was refreshing and obviously well thought out.
Thank you both again for a meaningful training experience."

JIM PEARSON, Captain Technical Rescue San Bernardino County Fire Department