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Ascent New Brunswick held its second self rescue training session on Sunday, April 16th, this time at the familiar Lookout at Cochrane Lane Cliffs, Welsford, NB. Once again the event was a great success!

6 instructors led 15 eager and adept participants through Climber Self-Rescue II. Several rather involved skills were covered on a beautiful day that would have otherwise been spent climbing instead!

Self Rescue I & II are intended to give climbers the skills they need for situations that hopefully never happen. So many climbers develop their rope skills eagerly but slack off after learning to lead. Leading propels us into the situations where so much more can go wrong, and it is here that we need to know how to help ourselves without hesitation.  With Self-Rescue I & II, climbers can learn how to help themselves when the situation goes south and hopefully prevent the worst from happening.

All course fees go to support the Roped Rescue Team, an initiative borne of Ascent New Brunswick.  The funds raised by Self Rescue I & II have thus far raised over $1500 and have paid for two bomber static lines for the Roped Rescue Team.

A big thanks to the instructors, led by Shawn Bethune and Greg Hughes, with Steve Adamson, Joey Kennedy, Chris Hennigar, and Adam Morgan.

At this point we have full intentions of holding these training sessions next year, so stay tuned!!

Ascent NB recently held its first ever Climber Self-Rescue I course! A big thank you to CFB Gagetown and Renée Racine for hosting the event.

SRI was a success with 15 participants and 7 instructors spending the day at Base Gagetown's climbing wall covering the knots and skills necessary in self-rescue situations. It was a lot of information for one day, but everyone picked it up quickly and came away with a huge boost in their ability to help themselves when they are in trouble.

$730 was raised and will go towards purchasing ropes and other equipment needed by the Roped Rescue team.

Thanks to Greg Hughes and Shawn Bethune for doing a fantastic job as lead instructors, and to the other volunteers, Steve Adamson, Max Fisher, Chris Hennigar, Joe Kennedy, and Adam Morgan.

A Self-Rescue II course will be offered April 17th, and will build upon the skills learned in level I (more details to come).  SRI or an equivalent course is a prerequisite for SRII. We will schedule another Self-Rescue Level I course this autumn if we can get another 15 participants.

Contact Chris Hennigar at Chris.Hennigar@gmail.com to let him know you're interested in either course!

Ascent New Brunswick is pleased to announce more upcoming skills development courses. This time the focus is on self-rescue techniques for climbing!

Climber Self-Rescue Level I will be offered January 24th, and Level II will be offered in the spring of 2016.

Some equipment and prerequisite experience is required, but you definitely don't need to be an advanced climber to take this course.  Really, all climbers should have these skills to help keep themselves and their partners safe. You do need to be 18 or older, and it is only offered to Ascent members.

We have an all-star NB climber line up for instructors and a great location at the CFB Gagetown Climbing Centre. Come out and take advantage of this great training opportunity!

Click here for more details on both Levels I and II.

What: Climber Self-Rescue I

When: 8:30am - 4:30pm, January 24th (Sunday), 2016

Where: CFB Gagetown Climbing Facility

Cost: $50/person or $30/student

Instructors: Steve Adamson, Shawn Bethune, Max Fisher, Chris Hennigar, Greg Hughes, Joe Kennedy

Sign up: Chris.Hennigar@gmail.com

First come first serve; 15 participants

Do you spend time in the mountains? Snow mobiling, ice climbing, back country skiing and snowboarding, snow showing, or even alpine crazy-carpeting?  If the answer is yes then you should give yourself all the tools and skills to stay safe while having fun.

Ski Chic Chocs is coming to Fredericton to give their introductory avalanche safety training (AST-1) January 9th-10th, and this is extremely valuable training for all y'all snow freaks.

The class is a go for sure as it has met the minimum number of participants, but still has a few more seats so be sure to sign up soon!

Thanks to Scott Dubreuil for convincing them to come and offer this great course well below the treeline.

Ascent NB recently celebrated its 2nd birthday by holding the 3rd Annual General Meeting!

The morning started a little chilly but the sun was strong and so was the showing. The event was attended by climbers from across the province, and a number of important issues and updates discussed before the call of the cliffs overwhelmed us and the meeting was adjourned.

Elections were held we welcome aboard new blood with Kristy McClellan (VP), Mike Delaney (Treasurer), and Shawn Bethune (Director).

Thank you to Chris Norfolk for putting in a solid year of effort as President, and to Greg Hughes for stepping up to fill those shoes. We truly appreciate your efforts!

For a full run-down of the meeting, click here for the minutes.

It's great to see the continued and growing interest in shaping the future of our outdoor climbing microcosm here in New Brunswick!

The Rescue Team is riding a wave of support from the community with recent gear donations from UNB Rock and Ice and from Black Diamond.

On top of this comes more good news! The Radical Edge and Black Diamond have committed further support through special pricing deals for Rescue Team gear. Black Diamond has also pledged some gear donations for use in our fundraising for the team.

The Radical Edge supports so many groups in our region already so we're very happy they have been able to fit Ascent New Brunswick and the Rescue Team into their priorities. Similarly, Black Diamond really has come through where no other gear company has and for this we are truly grateful.

So, big thanks must go to Caleb Nunn at the Radical Edge and Ghislain Allard at Black Diamond for facilitating this partnership, and of course to Mike and Mary at Radical Edge for once again stepping up to the plate to support their local outdoor community.

More details on the progress of the Rescue Team are coming soon!

As you may recall, Ascent New Brunswick is organizing a high-angle rescue team as part of its commitments for the land use agreement with Base Gagetown. To be effective, the team has requirements for gear as well as people, and the cost of the gear was going to be a big challenge for Ascent.

Thankfully, Ascent New Brunswick truly has the community behind it. Recently, UNB Rock and Ice reiterated its support of Ascent and our mission when it donated an integral piece of rescue gear to the rescue team initiative.

The CMC Rescue MPD is not your average piece of rescue gear. It has been highly engineered to provide a state of the art mechanism for making rescues more simple and efficient.

So a big thank you goes out to UNB Rock and Ice! We really appreciate your continued support!

“The MPD’s high-efficiency pulley, with an integral rope-grab mechanism, allows it to be used as a lowering device on the main line and belay line systems and be quickly changed over to a raising system without switching out or replacing hardware.”

– CMC Rescue

“This device will greatly simplify rope rescue training and rigging and will serve a principal role in the overall rope rescue system.”

– Chris Hennigar, Rescue Team lead coordinator

You can also check out this video to see the device in action.