A thank you letter from a recent incident

Radium Release Hitch

Radium Release Hitch How To:

The RRH is one of the more complicated ties which combines hitches bights and knots but it is very ingenious and used in multiple rope situations.

Ingredients:
1 3.3 meters of static 8 mm cord
2 locking biners

The Steps
1) tie a figure 8 or overhand on a bight at the end of the 8 mm.
2) Clip that into a locking carabiner with the loop next to the spine.
2) loop through the second carabiner, back through the first, and then up again to the second,
3) Complete with a Münter hitch next to the gate of the second carabiner. The MH should be on the anchor side of the tie.
4) Conduct a standard tie off with a half hitch on a bight around the three strands keeping it snug to the MH.
5) Secure the half hitch with an overhand on a bight wrapping the 3 strands.

Results
A load-releasable 3:1 hitch that you can use between a pulley, passing a knot or untensioning a locked lowering device or locked up prussiks.

Knots To Know

Here is the list of basic knots to know for our technical rescue systems

+ Munter Hitch (extra credit: supermunter,monster munter, doublemunter)
+ Ringbend aka overhand follow through or "water knot" (Dont say that around Clark)
+ Bowline (extra credit: double bowline and interlocking bowlines: used for tieing in to the litter)
+ double fishermans
+ figure 8 (follow through, figure 8 on a bight; inline figure 8)
+ inline figure 8 (alternative for litter tie in)
+ girth hitch
+ clove hitch
+ overhand on a bight
+ prussik hitch
+ radium release hitch (the load releasing hitch we use)

Coils to know
+ Alpine coil
+ Butterfly

Extra Credit
+ alpine butterfly
+ garda hitch

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2010/01/12/Woman_dies_in_crash_off_Coal_Bank_Pass/
COAL BANK PASS - Authorities Monday were trying to identify a woman who was killed on Coal Bank Pass when her Lexus plunged 550 feet off an embankment.
The crash occurred sometime between Tuesday and Sunday on the north side of Coal Bank Pass at mile marker 57.5 where there is a pull-off for drivers to view Twilight Peak, said Capt. Martin Petrik, with the Colorado State Patrol.


The vehicle was found by a Durango snowboarder who pulled over on the side of the highway and noticed the crunched vehicle at the bottom of the cliff. He reported the crash at 4:10 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities confirmed the driver died Sunday night. Rescue workers in San Juan County retrieved the body Monday, and they hoped to positively identify the victim today.

It was unknown how the crash occurred.

Authorities were investigating the possibility the victim is a woman who was reported missing Saturday morning in Durango.

The missing woman was identified as Antonetta Massey, 43, of Las Vegas, who was visiting Durango, said Sgt. Dan Shry with the Durango Police Department. But he stressed that no positive identification had been made.

In the news...