TGR International Pro Riders Workshop concludes in Utah
Teton Gravity Research’s (TGR)’s International Pro Riders Workshop (IPRW) wrapped up this week at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in Utah.
The four-day workshop assembles the TGR crew and discusses the various emergency situations that can arise in the field and how to best deal with them if they arise.
According to TGR Supervising producer Greg Epstein, “IPRW is our version of the NFL's preseason camps. This is a chance for the TGR team to get together, go over essential mountain skills and engage in some team building.”
The IPRW kicked off on December 19th, with the TGR athletes and production crew receiving a two-day Wilderness First Aid course by Jack Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute’s Marilynn Davis. The course concluded on 20th December, after
which the assembled team received education pertaining to avalanches, which included awareness about the snow hazard, the rescue procedure and snow-machine safety.
The lectures on avalanches and the rescue session were conducted from December 20-21, before getting started with the final part next day, where the focus of IPRW remained on trip and evacuation planning, international travel concepts and ropes and pulley
systems.
The idea behind organising the workshop is to help prepare the athletes and production crew to enter the field fully prepared to meet and handle the worst. Backcountry is a pretty risky place to hang out at as there is a lot that can go wrong over there,
such as getting lost, dehydration, hypothermia, getting involved in a critical accident, or coming face-to-face with one of the most common and deadliest threat, an avalanche.
Finding themselves in any of the mentioned situation, the athletes and production crew cannot completely rely on rescue team or other form of help to reach them. Instead, they need to be prepared to not only help themselves, but also help any distressed
party they come across, an act that serves to reduce emergency response time.
The suggestions by athletes and production crew members are welcomed by the IPRW, which they utilise to further develop their programmes and offer an even more comprehensive knowledge to the attendees.
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