Christine Rappelling - November 27, 2009
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Introduction note: Christine and Joe both volunteered to serve as Ski Patrollers at Pine Creek Ski Area for this winter. We both went through the certification for Outdoor Emergency Care so that we could join our friends Lorna & Marco on the ski patrol squad, enjoy the benefits of being members of the National Ski Patrol, and contribute to safe skiing. One of the skills that ski patrollers are expected to have is the ability to rescue themselves from a chairlift in the rare event of the chairlift failing. This self-rescue requires a patroller to rappel from the chair using a 5mm diameter line of cord carried at all times in the rappeller's backpack. Christine had never rappelled before, and we were only a week away from our on-mountain certification day. Lorna & Marco took Christine to a sheer cliff of sandstone named La Femme, overlooking Green River. Here, Christine was permitted to face her fear of heights under the reassuring tutelage of Lorna & Marco. After her triumph rapelling La Femme, lowering herself from a chairlift a week later was anticlimactic.
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Christine in control.
