This weekend I took the NH AMC course that is the precurser to leading club trips.
Saturday the rain managed to hold off for most of the day, so we had the class outside in hot sunny weather. We reviewed how to set up top rope anchors. We went over a couple of knots and hitches. The new one for me was the munter hitch. Then we practiced rescuing people by ascending up the belay line using a gri-gri. We swapped belays without dropping the climber. And we learned how to tie off an ATC so you can take your hands off it.
Sunday was rainy from the start, so we ended up inside a gymn with lights on motion sensors that kept turning off. Quite the contrast from the previous day. We reviewed top rope setups from bolts. And then we learned the munter-mule knot and how to use it to escape from a belay. My partner and I got done early enough with that excersise, so I played around with ascending with prusiks and then rapelling past a knot in the rope. Lastly we went over some details of how to belay from the top of a cliff which differed markedly from what I had previous done.
I have to practice all this stuff this week for the exam next Sunday.
I need to practice the munter hitch someday. Then again, last time I went climbing, at one point I found I had *four* belay devices on myself, so maybe I’m immune to dropping them.