Embarrassment. That had to be what the operator of this Olympic zipline was feeling after the Mayor of London went on rope to do the zipline and got caught at the bottom of the catenary. I have not hound video yet of how the Mayor was retrieved, but will be sure to keep an eye out for it.
As ziplines gain in popularity, there will be sure to be one popping up near you soon. If anybody has any thoughts on rescuing somebody from a zipline that is above the reach of ladders, I’d be interested to here about it. My first thought is to send somebody down the zipline to do a pickoff of the suspended rider. This would raise the concern of having a decent safety factor. Suspending a two person load on a zipline is probably not the greatest idea, a cursory glance at different zipline operators shows the maximum allowable weight to be somewhere in the 250-350 lbs range.
Maybe a simple rope toss to the victim so they can hang on while you drag them to the low side station? What if they are over water? Just food for thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwH5y5lPvvk&feature=player_embedded