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.