Search & Rescue Training

No sooner was boating over with and I was undergoing Search and Rescue training. This consisted of survival training in the Antarctic extreme conditions, patient care and rescue, rope skills and knot tying (Which would have been handy during the boating week!), abseiling and rock climbing. Now abseiling I have done before a number of times and it is no big deal. Anyone can climb down a cliff, it doesn’t take a great deal of skill and it isn’t terribly exciting – well it isn’t for me at any rate. But rock climbing, now that was a different matter altogether. I can see why so many people are addicted. It was awesome! I loved the mental challenge of it. You have to think quickly and constantly, planning each hand and foot hold. One wrong move and it is all over. It was very physically demanding as well. There is no help at all; it is basically you hauling yourself up the side of a sheer cliff. Once I had abseiled down I look back up the 35 odd metres I had descended and thought “How the hell do I get back up THERE?!!” The cliff was almost a sheer drop – it even had an overhang to overcome. So I set out, one hand and foot at a time and was quite surprised that I could actually do it. There were a few hairy moments on the first ascent where I felt my legs and arms giving out as I reach for a new hold. But I had no choice other than to keep going and just get over the struggle and get the job done. I ended up doing about 8 climbs because the boys all wanted to learn how to do Belay – which is the safetyman side of things. This left me abseiling down and climbing up over and over again. I was so sore and bruised and absolutely shattered by the end of it I have to say. But I enjoyed it immensely and was quite proud of myself at the end of the day.