Self-rescue is a critical but often overlooked art—after all, how often do things go so wrong that you need to extricate yourself from a sticky situation? For the most part, we climb skillfully, safely, and within our limits, and it’s usually the exception and not the rule that things go south. Still, when they do, if we are caught unprepared, a bad situation can quickly become catastrophic.

In fact, self-rescue is mostly about having the tools and techniques to prevent your having to call for help from an outside source in the first place. And, for the less fortunate who find themselves needi...