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Topic Date User

Comments sought on natural anchor design 31-Jul-2012 At 10:11:56 AM muki

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On 31/07/2012 pmonks wrote:
>On 29/07/2012 muki wrote:
>>a slump onto a top rope which is being touted as severe and dangerous
>by
>>others here on the forum @ pmonks, which is untrue,
>
>A slump may not be dangerous, but how about a 50cm fall? A 1m fall?
>A 3m fall?

as I said a slump is not dangerous..... 500mm 1m 3m these are not slumps and as I said do not allow slack to enter the system.

>I've experienced all of these while top-roping, for a variety of entirely
>normal reasons, and I'm fairly certain I wouldn't want to have taken any
>of them on a static rope.

bad habits need breaking pete, you should never allow this to happen using a solo top rope system for a variety of very good reasons.

>An example from just this weekend: I was solo top-roping a route (the
>one in the background of this
>photo, for anyone who gives a crap), and didn't have enough weight
>on the bottom of the rope.

classic beginners mistake number one.

> As a result I needed to pull rope through the
>mini-traxions from time to time. The route is a sustained slab for the
>top 3/4 though, so the only stances where I could stop to pull slack through
>were where there were (infrequent) edges.

at the point of noticing the problem,you should have stopped, and taken the time to rectify the problem before it was too late, classic begginers mistake number two.

> As a result there were a few
>sections where I would have fallen (slid) a metre or two before the rope
>would have taken.

this would create the high loadings (even on a dynamic system) that you are trying to warn other about.

>Thankfully (a) I didn't fall and (b) the traxions started feeding themselves
>(due to rope weight) about halfway up the slabby section

shock loading traxions on a rope is quite unhealthy for said rope due to the teeth inside a traxion, infact it is a major concern to all rope access profesionals and as such is regarded as an instant fail in testing tthe competancy of profesional rope access personel....... I would not like to do this to a rope regardless of dynamic or static as sheath seperation from the core can be the result.

>but I would have
>been a lot less happy if I'd been on a static rope (which I wasn't). And
>I learnt my lesson: ensure the weight on the rope is completely off the
>ground, including rope stretch, before leaving the ground.

well even this late stage in the game it is good to see you learning valuable lessons that might save your life and the lives of the people you choose to climb with.

>Now with all that said, I expect you'll continue doing whatever the fark
>you want and I wish you the best of luck with it.

sounds to me that with your near miss the other day, you could do with some of that yourself !

>All I can do is point
>out the dangers of climbing on a static system so that others who are less
>informed don't jump in without understanding the risks and risk ending
>up in a body bag.

the things you mention that you did wrong recently are a great example and im sure that it will help others stay safe in the future, thanks pete.