Let Me Tell Ya Somethin’ For Free: Why and How this is going to work…

During the past week as more people have heard about T.R.I.P. and expressed interest in our mission, the same questions seem to arise in almost every conversation:

“It’s a great idea… Why are you doing this? How are you going to do it? What is the end goal?

I’ll field this inquiry by beginning an explanation of why we have our vision, what our vision is,  and how we will do this, a breakdown of our strategy for our first mission.

Why
   
As an organization of individuals, we at T.R.I.P. believe in the inherent value of self- reliance. 

Self-reliance is such a fundamental value in most climber's lives, that developing the ability to rescue oneself, as well as make a more informed assumption of risk almost seems to need little justification.

Not only is our goal to increase safety, but we also strive to enable the boldness that comes with the confidence fostered by true self-reliance... In the mountains, in urban rescue response, in our lives.

Self-reliance and individual competence is at the heart of every great team, and at the heart of everything T.R.I.P. strives to accomplish. 

We believe self-reliance strikes a chord in our audience (you) as well, and that is why this will work.

Vision

T.R.I.P. has three primary goals, sequential by nature. They follow:

1. We are going to increase technical (and self) rescue competence within the recreational climbing community.
2. We will work with municipalities to increase the amount of available training for public safety officers nationwide, with the goal of increasing professional rescuer competence within each individual, in order to enhance rescue response efficiency.
3. We will work with organizations and communities in developing countries to provide technical rescue training and assistance to help make them less dependent on international support in disaster situations.

Strategy: Mission 1: Recreational Climbers

Perhaps the most challenging of the T.R.I.P. objectives is the first phase of our operation. Many climbers have expressed hints of skepticism in the ease of convincing recreational climbers to take time out of their climbing to learn some rescue techniques.

In response to this skepticism, I have to agree. Gaining the interest of the climbing community is going to be a challenge, and one that I do not intend to tackle on my own.

Our strategy focuses on building awareness for the need to seek rescue instruction. We will do this through marketing, influence, and incentive.

Marketing

Our marketing will deal with heavy amounts of networking through social media, as well as the development of high quality media products designed to illustrate the complexity of many rescue scenarios. These media products will be informative and instructional, but more importantly they will tie the skills learned in our courses back to real life situations.

After watching our videos, most climbers will realize the need to get out and practice these skills. The quality of these products and the caliber of climbing that will be captured through the eyes of exceptionally talented videographers will enhance their instructional value as well as entertain the audience. 

Influence

Of course, all the marketing in the world is really just talk. Anybody can talk about their best intentions. Over time, without substance, marketing becomes just that. Talk.

Our influence must solidify the marketing and interest generated through our media. This means that there must be trainings… Everywhere.

In order to make this happen, T.R.I.P. must gain the respect and cooperation of the competent and respected members of virtually every climbing community. We need to win over those climbers that are in fact the hardest to teach because they are already highly regarded members of the mountain culture, and we need to let them know that T.R.I.P. is their organization as well.

This is a challenge I am comfortable taking head on. Yesterday we held our first course. One of the participants was a very qualified and talented climber that carried AMGA certifications, and has made a living in the professional rigging industry for quite some time.

Not only did we have a blast going through increasingly more complex rescue scenarios, but I was pleased to hear from our highly trained participants that the training they received exceeded their expectations. 

Our professional rigger/AMGA guide said that many of the scenarios covered were for situations he had not contemplated before, but were very feasible. He was glad to have spent the day with T.R.I.P., and said he learned a lot of new skills. Many of the skills he picked up, he hadn’t even realized he needed, but now he knows. He definitely sees a need for this organization in the climbing community, and not just for beginning climbers.  

That’s huge for T.R.I.P. because we just gained the respect of one critical member in our community…

And we just earned a right to his positive influence for the organization.

I will post his interview later on this blog.

Incentive

And then there’s incentive… It gets the people going.

Back when I first thought of the concept behind T.R.I.P. I had two things on my mind regarding my career. I wanted to create a job for myself that I felt would make a positive difference in the world around me, and I wanted to be able to climb more.

I was getting burned-out that season on all the industrial settings I had been hanging out in, trying to earn my dollars. In that thought process, I concluded that I would gladly take a pay-cut to engineer a dream-job that would encompass those two lifestyle improvements.

And thus, in that moment (rather, moments) I became entrenched in what became my vision of the dream-job. Travel to climbing areas, interact with friends (old and new) and teach the things I know, which could save someone’s life.

It’s only natural that as we reach out to respected and competent members of the climbing community, the level of instruction delivered to those individuals will be of the intensity and pace well suited for instructor development. T.R.I.P. is in the process of completing the final details of its instructor compensation plan that will ultimately provide a job with the flexibility of becoming whatever the T.R.I.P. instructors choose to make it.

It will not be long before T.R.I.P. will be known as one of the premiere climber gigs, designed by a climber, for climbers.

We’re off to a good start, but don’t just wait and see.

For more details, drop me a line at theRescueProj@gmail.com

Thank you for reading this blog,

Scott Archibald

Managing Director

Technical Rescue Instruction Project, Inc.

theRescueProj@gmail.com

P.S.   Stay posted for our Strategy on Mission 2: Public Safety Organizations