Self-Rescue
How to Rock Climb Series

Format	Book	Category	Instructional
Title	Self-Rescue	Pages	112
Author	David J. Fasulo	RRP	$26.00 AUD
Publisher	Chockstone Press	Reviews	3
Edition	1 edition (February 1997)	Ave Rating	(4.50 of 5)

User	Comments
Mike 6/19/2002	Self-Rescue, by David J. Fasulo, is an exceptionally well put together volume. It provides clearly illustrated instructions for dealing with rescue techniques that most, if not all climbers would benefit from knowing. The drawings in particular are easy to understand, adding greatly to it's success. It starts out simple, describing such things as the knots used through-out the manual. Friction knots, hitches, joining and backing up knots, etc. Then it progresses into topics like escaping a loaded belay, backing up an abseil, ascending a rope, passing knots while lowering a victim and so on. Thus far many experienced climbers could well have handled these obstacles, however it soon gets into more juicy topics such as assisted and counter weight rappels, leader rescue (often a topic of conjecture over on rec.climbing), and assisted and unassisted hoists. Towards the end of the book Fasulo touches upon areas like evacuating the victim, aid soloing yourself out of trouble, and finally a few words on dealing with extreme tragedy should it all end badly. In summary Self-Rescue is well worth reading cover to cover more than once. I can't say I've practised all the techniques it describes, but have found the volume to be invaluable when confirming practices that had been taught to me, and in offering alternatives and solutions to situations that I hope I'll never find myself in. Definitely value for money!
melekzek 7/31/2002	One should not forget to mention about the beautiful drawings Mike Clelland has done for the book. Amazing! All together this book is far better than any book I have ever read/seen about rescue and rope systems. A must have book!
IdratherbeclimbingM9 8/9/2004	Mike has pretty well summed it up in his review, -> I agree! The magic of this book is its simplicity and the way it builds upon sound principles to handling increasingly (potentially) complex situations. It presents the reader with the absolute basics they need to get out of trouble with proven techniques. It is simple in its approach because it uses minimalist gear (pretty much what most trad. climbers would have with them anyway), to maximum advantage. I found that often the pictures told the story, but as the complexity of scenario grew then I needed to sometimes re-read the points in connection to the step by step illustrations, as a 1st pass viewing had the potential to miss things.

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