Rope Rescue Awareness / Operations

Rope Rescue Awareness/Operations is a 40-hour course that gives personnel the knowledge and practical skills to recognize, assess and safely operate at incidents involving rope rescue systems and high-angle or steep-angle environments.

At the Awareness level, participants learn to recognize rope rescue incidents, identify hazards, establish scene control and support technical rescue teams. At the Operations level, they build the hands-on skills to work as part of a rope rescue team under a rescue leader: inspecting equipment, building anchors, running belays, handling litters, rappelling and ascending, and basic raising and lowering.

Throughout, the emphasis is on scene size-up, PPE, knots, patient packaging and team communication, so responders can operate safely within their level of training while minimizing risk to rescuers and victims.