http://www.topropecertification.com/Course_Overview.html

"It is designed to show each top rope instructor how to totally eliminate the numerous risks and errors that have already claimed the lives of top rope climbers in every top rope climbing area around the country."

P.T. Barnum would be proud.



Edit to add: to miss his bio... it's only 114 pages long!

http://www.topropecertification.com/files/38197778.pdf

http://www.topropecertification.com/Course_Overview.html

"It is designed to show each top rope instructor how to totally eliminate the numerous risks and errors that have already claimed the lives of top rope climbers in every top rope climbing area around the country."

For over 43 years, I and my assistant climbing leaders, have been taking, what would eventually tally, more people than anyone else in the World, into more outdoor mountain regions in eleven mountain states and to seventeen Alpine countries throughout the world, involving 58,928 participants, averaging 10 days per each participant, and guiding over 68,192 people to 1,330 of the World’s most famous and most technical mountain summits, which is more people to more technical mountain summits (1,330 technical mountains) located in more Western Mountain States (11 Mountain States) and in more (17) Alpine countries than any other mountain guide, climbing school, guide service, mountaineering club in the world, combined, 1967-1996.

If I had to pick a single sentence to characterize that web site, I think it would be this one:


Jay

I think the lowercase version of BURT BRONSON is running the site.

If I had to pick a single sentence to characterize that web site, I think it would be this one:


Jay

Wow, the whole site. I love the PDf with life goals at 25 years old.

Jim Ebert is the World's most accomplished mountain climbing guide, wilderness hiking trip leader and mountain skills instructor[..]

http://www.topropecertification.com/Course_Overview.html

"It is designed to show each top rope instructor how to totally eliminate the numerous risks and errors that have already claimed the lives of top rope climbers in every top rope climbing area around the country."

7 days, 100 hours to learn how to top-rope? Are they mad?

I have a great personal relationship with my Heavenly Father by way of Jesus
Christ, who I claim as my Lord and Savior. He is alive and is with me always. I have spent my entire lifetime depending on Him for safety and to keep each and every participant under my care, completely protected from all harm. I know that if I were to die today, I already have Eternal Salvation. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I see this as the most important truth, that I have ever learned, known and believed during my entire life. Not one single new piece of information, not one single additional bit of knowledge that I will ever learn, will surpass the significance and the greatness of this personal knowledge and this relationship that I have with Jesus Christ and the significance for what He has already provided for me, by His dying on the Cross and in His rising again, i.e., that I have Eternal Salvation, that I have the Forgiveness of my Sins, that I have Eternal Life Forever with my Heavenly Father, by doing nothing more, than believing and accepting this incredible gift. I see each and every new day as a wonderful gift from God, to be able to share, all of His, most beautiful outdoor world, with all of the people that I can, especially those who have never before had a chance to see or to experience, first hand, God‟s greatest and most beautiful natural outdoor handiwork.

There was no other „like‟ experience on Earth. To have Iowa
Mountaineer groups of 65 to 75 mountaineers listening to and singing with Joe and
Paul Stettner‟s great singing and yodeling, with Hans Gmoser‟s great singing,
guitar playing and his superb yodeling, our Austrian climbing leader‟s singing and
playing their guitars and their incredible yodeling, Herman Jauch‟s accordion
and harmonica playing, Charlotte Hubert‟s guitar and her great singing, and
Dr. Jim Osborn‟s guitar and singing, Gail Hartwig‟s guitar and singing,
were all nighttime campfire experiences that will never again be duplicated
in any of the mountain ranges throughout North America.

But they totally eliminate the risk

Hmmm.....7 days, 100 hours of training.


7 into 100.......3.....drop the 0.....4...carry the 2.....



14 hours a day?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?



Edited to add:


This is the hardest division problem accomplished in less than 30 seconds, by a person with no calculator, in this post.

Hmmm.....7 days, 100 hours of training.


7 into 100.......3.....drop the 0.....4...carry the 2.....



14 hours a day?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?



Edited to add:


This is the hardest division problem accomplished in less than 30 seconds, by a person with no calculator, in this post.

Ooooo...are you going to offer a program in becoming a certified divider? How long will it take? Is there any risk involved?

http://www.topropecertification.com/Course_Overview.html

"It is designed to show each top rope instructor how to totally eliminate the numerous risks and errors that have already claimed the lives of top rope climbers in every top rope climbing area around the country."

If I had to pick a single sentence to characterize that web site, I think it would be this one:


Jay

He takes redundancy so seriously he uses it wherever possible.

He takes redundancy so seriously he uses it wherever possible.

He takes redundancy so seriously he uses it wherever possible.

Jim believes that "lead climbing" is not a necessary, or a needed top rope skill or proficiency, that it is a totally separate skill and proficiency, that is not, in any way, related to top rope climbing in America, and it has never been, since top rope climbing first began in the United States.

Yeah, anyone skim the "Why take this course, instead of the very dangerous Single Pitch Instructor Course, that requires lead climbing" pdf? It's here: http://www.topropecertification.com/files/38546729.pdf and it's long.

I think he sat down for 15 minutes every day to write a little about why he doesn't like the AMGA's single pitch instructor course. Every day he would add a little bit more without remembering anything that he had just written down. It's pretty much the same three things just written in slightly different ways.



really?

http://www.topropecertification.com/Course_Overview.html

"It is designed to show each top rope instructor how to totally eliminate the numerous risks and errors that have already claimed the lives of top rope climbers in every top rope climbing area around the country."

Don't dismiss this so casually. Who among us has not witnessed top-ropers perishing all around us with alarming regularity?

Curt

Isn't endless repetition a brainwashing technique? Say something enough times and it becomes true?

I'm going to wager a guess Jim's "Assistants" simply failed to escape the compound. I'm picturing attractive 20 something blond females renamed Aspen and Cedar, with braided hair, mountaineers knickers and hand-knitted wool socks with edelweiss flowers. Queue up the celestial music, and in they come, laying 45 meters of 1/2" static line and six locking steel biners at His feet.

I don't want to fall off the edge like I am definitely destined to do, like countless others...

You know that I am due a royalty every time you use my name, right?

10 cents a pop. I have a family to feed.

You are really walking a razor's edge there.

Edit: for grammar.

20 cents and it's only 10:30! w00t!

Keep it up boys, I can foresee an extra onion in the cabbage soup.

20 cents and it's only 10:30! w00t!

Keep it up boys, I can foresee an extra onion in the cabbage soup.

Do I write a cheque or do you accept Pay Pal?

I was under the impression that it was 10 cents for use of your real name. real or another nickname, maybe?

I'll put you on account and let me know when you can send a cam.

It's pretty awesome to read in the voice of William Shatner.

http://twitter.com/summiter

Endless amusement

funny how he's the world,s most accomplished guide but I've never heard of him, and he doesn't mention by name any of the "most technically difficult" ascents he's led.

Kirk, is in love, with the guide.

DMT

Kirk, is in love, with the guide.

DMT

Another fun quote from the site: "We do not take lightly any top rope skill, especially anchor systems, considering over 50% of all top rope anchor systems used for top rope climbing and rappelling in all of the Nation’s top rope areas, are unsafe. "

???

G

Many of Jim’s 3,600 course graduates were still making deadly/fatal mistakes with their anchor systems, three days into his National Top Rope Instructor Certification Course, and this involved people who had been climbing outdoors for four or more years.

Here's his justification for the length of the course:


If his teaching delivery is as overblown as his writing, it's little wonder he takes 7 days to cover top-roping. Actually teaching leading would take him years.

Damn, MANY of his 3,600 students DIED THREE DAYS INTO HIS COURSE!

Probably of boredom.

Jay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ

Nooooo!!! Now it's stuck in my head.

If I had to pick a single sentence to characterize that web site, I think it would be this one:


Jay

Probably of boredom.

Jay

Hoping he wouldn't notice.


So.....how long does it take him to update his bio after every class? I mean, if it were me....I'd put something like "over 58,000 people" rather than an exact number.



Of course, he might just like reading his bio over & over again.

Like many of you I have never heard of Jim Ebert either, but I do not know everyone that has been climbing over the past 50 years. That does not mean he does not have a life time of adventures or is more than a top rope climber. In 1940 no one toped roped anyway. http://www.alpenglowadventures.org/ourteam.htm, in the future you should check out the person before you step into what you don’t know what you are talking about.

in the future you should check out the person before you step into what you don’t know what you are talking about.

You'd think by day 3 the death rate would begin to decline.... simple supply and demand!

DMT

15. Jim is one of America's most experienced outdoor educators. Jim has been involved with the instructing, training and guiding of over 62,100 clients on as many as 1820 10-day mountaineering camps

I would suggest that you do a little more reading about the The Iowa Mountaineers ( http://iowamountaineers.tripod.com/) and Idaho, a climbing guide: climbs, scrambles, and hikes By Tom Lopez; it looks like the Ebert family had some pretty good company, unless you think Paul Petzoldt is a fraud also.

The difference is that Petzoldt was actually a real climber.

Curt

http://topropecourse.tripod.com/...r_qualifications.htm

funny

Are you sure you're not Jim Ebert?

Curt

Like many of you I have never heard of Jim Ebert either, but I do not know everyone that has been climbing over the past 50 years. That does not mean he does not have a life time of adventures or is more than a top rope climber. In 1940 no one toped roped anyway. http://www.alpenglowadventures.org/ourteam.htm, in the future you should check out the person before you step into what you don’t know what you are talking about.

For people that do not know there climbing history,

Paul Kiesow Petzoldt (January 16, 1908 – October 6, 1999) was one of America's most accomplished mountaineers. He is perhaps best known for establishing the National Outdoor Leadership School in 1965. In 1938 Paul Petzoldt was a member of the first American team to attempt a climb on K2 and made his first ascent of the Grand Teton in 1924 at the age of 16. He and a partner were possibly the first climbers ever to traverse the Matterhorn twice in one day. During World War II Petzoldt served in the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division.[1]

Petzoldt's other accomplishments in the outdoors are also considered major advances among wilderness enthusiasts. Before the establishment of NOLS, he had a hand in creating a Colorado addition to the Outward Bound program as well as the first guide service in the Tetons. Noted in his introduction to The New Wilderness Handbook, his experience in NOLS, Outward Bound and love of the wilderness, evolved into the Wilderness Education Association. WEA courses, certification and knowledge are still helping many advocates of the environment learn ways to have low-impact adventures in the environment.

Here's my problem:

"For many years, Jim instructed from 5,500 to 6,300 University of
Iowa students who participated on his training courses that were taught at Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin, USA."

Based upon the lower number of participants, he'd have to teach a group of 15 every day of the year. We're talking about Wisconsin, not southern California. These are University of Iowa students, and Google Maps lists the drive at nearly 4 hours each way to Devil's Lake State Park. Mr. Ebert may be a fantastic human being, but it would be kind to say I find his numbers suspect.

Thing is....if that was the ONLY number he had, nobody would blink an eye. That one sounds reasonable. Look at the math I did....and that's just ONE of many stats he gives. Key to being a good liar is to make the lie sound plausible. He fails.

Some one with more time then me should take this class and report back, to get those numbers he must have a class going every week. I wonder if he would even contact you back, and if he did would it be 10 pages long?

I would suggest that you do a little more reading about the The Iowa Mountaineers ( http://iowamountaineers.tripod.com/) and Idaho, a climbing guide: climbs, scrambles, and hikes By Tom Lopez; it looks like the Ebert family had some pretty good company, unless you think Paul Petzoldt is a fraud also.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!