Safety

Climbing or rapelling a 50' tower involves risk. But in almost 40 years S&R has never experienced a serious injury doing those activities. Just as there are degrees of difference between a perceived risk and the actual risk, so there are skillful and foolish ways to approach a challenge. With awareness and knowledge many high obstacles can be climbed, rivers run and summits reached. It takes desire, perception and skill. Our activities require knowledgeable instructors and receptive students who understand that they are responsible for their own actions and behavior, and that their own safety and that of their S&R Group depend on them.

S&R's instructors are qualified in each activity they undertake. All have appropriate medical training, have studied backcountry emergency situations, ocean rescues, hypothermia, and many other hazards possible in remote locations.

We ask each student and his or her guardian to sign a form that acknowledges that there are dangers on rivers, on mountains, and in some of the activities we do. We ask each student to understand that there is no substitute for his or her own common sense and good judgment, that indeed we expect to draw on those resources.

We have great times in S&R and a superb safety record because we take care to manage risks, plan ahead, learn skills before we need them, and watch for the unexpected. Each one of us does this, learns to do this.

• Mayo Clinic First Aid, includes movies: controling bleeding, Rescue Breathing, CPR, burns, trauma, more.
• Sustaining Health & Performance in the Cold: Environmental Medicine Guidance for Cold-Weather Operations, from the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, MA.