high angle

All posts tagged high angle

Modern Technologies in Rope Rescue Open Enrollment

Posted by rescue2training on April 15, 2014
Posted in: appalachian doortex, firefighting, high angle, knots, rope access, rope rescue, technical rescue, vortex. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment
We have just added an Open Enrollment Class for our Modern Technologies in Rope Rescue workshop on May 17 and 18 in Lancaster, PA.This class covers a lot of ground in two days. We will discuss and use the AZTEK in many of its essential uses. We’ll also be using the Two Tension Rope System concept with the CMC MPD. Additionally, we’ll be using the Arizona Vortex in some of its traditional configurations as well as the Rescue 2 Training original: the “Appalachian Doortex” configuration for urban anchoring and elevator rescue.

Come out and try the newest equipment and techniques in rope rescue. Cost of the class is $295.

Email Kelly M Byrne at kelly@rescue2training.com or call 240-462-6610 for more information.

open enrollment lancaster may 2014.001ufo 2ufo 1
mpd 1

Easy Access with a Ladder

Posted by rescue2training on March 31, 2014
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The recent rescue by the South Walton Fire District’s Technical Rescue team in Florida is a great example of rescue where it is easy to access the victim by something as simple as a ladder, but where a rope based system might still be the best alternative for getting them down to the ground safely.

You can see in the pictures that the guys on the ground are able to guide the basket most of the way to the ground while it is supported on  the ladder and being lowered with rope.

Two quick points: If possible, I would have tried to line up my ladder with my anchors so that it was all in plumb. Maybe there is a good reason they didn’t. It’s hard to tell from just a picture.  Secondly, you can see how easily they overcame this by just having a rescuer on the roof do a very minor deflection by just pulling on the rope. It’s a good example of knowing how to easily overcome a problem by knowing a few physics tricks.

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/construction-worker-saved-by-swfd-1.297343#

Not all rope calls are high pucker factor incidents of life and death. Sometimes it’s just the simplest way of getting  the patient to the ground. Good job, guys.

 

swfd easy access

Skedge Protection

Posted by rescue2training on March 8, 2014
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

We were messing around the other day with some variations on how to better perform the best way to get a vertically oriented basket up over a 90 degree edge, which is know alternately as the “Pike and Pivot” or “V Strap” technique.

The issue of effective, efficient edge protection for our ropes and webbing was given us a bit of a challenge until our resident old man (and connoisseur of Miller Lite on his days off) , Mike S, suggested that we try and use a Sked as edge protection. It’s smooth, tough, has plenty of places to tie it off, and is much wider than standard edge protection. We’ve dubbed it Skedge Protection.

It can only be described as having worked perfectly for this situation.

I have no idea what the long term durability would be if used as edge pro all of the time, but for what we were using it for, I’ll definitely grab it without a second thought next time.

2014-03-06 11.31.20

 

Tying a Munter Hitch Around an Object (updated)

Posted by rescue2training on January 19, 2014
Posted in: accident, high angle, knots, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Something not quite right about this picture… I just can’t put my finger on it, though.

d1ObO0i

Seriously though, if you’ve never thought about the forces generated from a rope system, even something as simple as a Munter hitch… this should be all the warning you’ll ever need. I suspect that the climber was falling and got his finger caught in the hitch while it was slack , only to have it still there when the rope tightened again.

Updated:

Eric Ulner from Ropes that Rescue provided this response via Facebook:

“I use Munter and super Munter all the time in tree work for catching branches/logs to lower away from structures. While rigging the Munter, and BEFORE firing up the chainsaw, I will take up as much slack as possible while leaving the Munter in its “jumped” position. That involves pulling that strand coming out of the standing end’s first turn on the carabiner with one hand while the other pulls the opposite direction on the standing end. I developed a habit for doing this a long time ago, where I use a pinch grip on the 2nd strand with my thumb pressing the rope against the side of my curled forefinger (much like a fist). The thought of this very situation crossed my mind when I was tying off a brittle/dead branch…

So, the position of the finger and the palm down position of the hand says to me that this poor chap was trying to keep the Munter jumped while he took up slack while belaying, but with the mistake of wrapping the finger around the 2nd strand.”

 

I think he correct and in looking closer at the picture, we can see that the carabiner looks like it attached to a belay anchor. The owner of this finger was probably belaying a climber who fell while his finger was in the Munter. Thanks for the insight, Eric!

 

Thanks to Brian Kazmierzakof Firefighter Close Calls for send this in to us. We’re unable to find the origin of this picture and have no idea of the circumstances surrounding it. If you have any info, we’d love to know the particulars.

Debbie Downer

Posted by rescue2training on January 4, 2014
Posted in: accident, firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

While I’d love to start the year on a high note, this video of a rope rescue demonstration brought out the Debbie Downer in me. How many rope rescue guys does it take t screw in a light bulb? Answer: 7.  One to screw it in and 6 to point out how he could have done it better and more safely.

 

debbiedowner

With that in mind, I’d like to talk about the video below. There are a few things that jump out at me:

  • Firefighting gear isn’t technical rescue gear. I’d argue you are better off with the increased flexibility of your station uniform. The brim on the back of a firefighting helmet is great at keeping water and junk from falling down the back of your coat at a fire; it’s also great at hanging up on rope, railings, and everything else at a rope call.
  • While there are several examples of a worse edge transition, this one was successful, but had the potential for disaster. The mainline system was run under the fencing and the basket was placed over it. This created the potential for a pretty big drop. A belay line did not appear to be in place until the rescuer climbed over the fence.
  • There was no obvious edge protection for the main line. If the basket had dropped prior to the attachment of the belay line, it would have taken a pretty substantial fall on an unprotected edge.
  • The belay line was not along the same plane as the main line. If the belay line were to be needed, there would have been significant horizontal movement.
  • If using webbing to help lower a basket over the edge, consider wrapping a Munter (Italian) hitch around the railing rather than strong arming it.
  • A high directional would have solved most of these problems. Even just going over the fence would have helped quite a bit.  To reinforce the fence and keep it from collapsing back towards the anchor due to the resultant, a reinforcing strut could be put into place pretty quickly. Like this:

IMG_1403

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuBgM29mJgo

There’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way

Posted by rescue2training on December 7, 2013
Posted in: accident, high angle, highline, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

There’s a right way and a wrong way to move somebody over water. Being a rope geek, I think it should always be done with rope. There might be some debate about whether it always the right answer, but I would argue that almost anything would be better than what transpired in the pictures below.

A sick passenger on a cruise liner was being transferred to a smaller boat to be taken to shore for medical treatment. She was placed on stretcher and transferred to the smaller boat while both boats were under way ! 

Things are going along just fine (but just look at the snow and ice on top of the smaller boat):

boat transfer 1

Moments later, rescuer Bob “Butterfingers” Johnson knows that he will never, ever get rid of his nickname. This is the victim taking her unintentional swim test in 27 degree water:

boat transfer 2

Read the lurid details of the incident here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378935/Sick-cruise-passenger-dropped-sea-Janet-Richardson-falls-botched-rescue.html

For another option of getting people off of a boat, check out the rope operation called a “Breeches Buoy”. It’s the older brother of the high line and was used  for getting sailors to shore off of ships that had wrecked near the shore. It is basically a high line with all controls for lowering and retrieving the victim based on the shore.

The_Life_Line_1884_Winslow_Homer

Add Some Tension to Your Life

Posted by rescue2training on November 5, 2013
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

If you talk about adding a tensioned belay line to your system, you’re bound to develop some tension in your conversations with people who are not yet a fan of a tensioned belay line. The most common paradigm is to have a loaded main line and an untensioned, slack belay line; this is especially true in the fire service. Recently, however, there has been a bigger push towards sharing the load on both the main and belay line.

There are a couple of reasons for this push. On the fire service side of things, the advent of a device like CMC’s MPD which is able to serve as both a lowering device as well as a competent  belay device, has made it possible for departments to capitalize on the advantages of a two tension rope system while still having a piece of gear that meets the ubiquitous NFPA standard. The second reason for the recent trending towards having a tensioned belay line stems from some extensive research into the topic. At the forefront of this charge is Mike Gibbs and his company, Rigging for Rescue.

Just what are the benefits of having a tensioned belay? As you can see from the videos below, the load falls quite a bit less on a loaded belay line. This is because the stretch that would occur in the belay line is taken out by loading the belay line prior to its activation. This is a good thing! The longer you fall, the more likely you are to get run over by the basket or hit another object on your way down. In the case of a dual MPD system, you also get the added benefit of having a mirrored system at the anchor. It’s only one device to learn how to use, which is a nice added benefit if your team doesn’t get to practice as much as you might like. Check out a pretty in depth look at tensioned belays at :

http://riggingforrescue.com/files/Download/Rigging%20for%20Rescue%20-%20Rescue%20Belays%2C%20Long%20Lowers%20-2007.pdf

The following tests were all performed by Rigging for Rescue and used a 200 kg test mass, 30m of 11mm rope in service (except for the last one, which is 10.5mm dynamic) and a tandem prusik belay. The notable differences in how far the load dropped before stopping comes from tensioning the belay behind the prusiks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbDjC833Nz8&noredirect=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDNzlFg3EX8&noredirect=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_K9nXYocuE&noredirect=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrGCxwTKJkk&noredirect=1

Gallagher anybody?

gallagher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWCOHtaBSjk&noredirect=1

Be sure to check out RfR’s website for a lot of other great research and opportunity to learn from a very knowledgeable group.

http://riggingforrescue.com/index.html

Best way to traverse a highline

Posted by rescue2training on October 8, 2013
Posted in: high angle, highline, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

While it obviously is not for rescue, the concept of wedging the bicycle between two tensioned highlines is an interesting thought. If you have any thoughts on how to apply it to rescue, I’d love to hear them.

http://vimeo.com/76121144

Dude, I Just Sharded

Posted by rescue2training on July 28, 2013
Posted in: accident, high angle, rope access, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

What, climbing up the outside of the Shard in London is not what you were thinking?

Six activists from Greenpeace were protesting oil drilling in the Arctic and decided to let the world know about it by shouting it from the roof top. The roof they chose, however, was the top of the Shard in London which is 1017′ high. It took them 15 hours to make the climb up the outside of the building. From looking at all of the pictures, it sure looks like they were well prepared to make the ascent without trouble.

shard protest

As a rescue consideration, it sounds like there were several points along the route where a rescuer could have accessed a climber without having to start at ground level. Letting them get to the top to make their point and then arresting when they came in was probably the easiest way to deal with the situation without any snafus and without placing anybody in additional danger. Should it have been necessary though, this kind of climbing and exposure is certainly outside of the normal scope of the urban rescuer. All the more reason to train and be equipped for just such a rescue.

Here is some video from the climb:

Climbing that is a little less well planned is the focus of the story Height of Stupidity which highlights the exploits of British youth who free climb cranes and other high structures. Ah, the invincibility of youth ! Sooner or later the inevitable will happen and somebody’s grip won’t be as strong as it was yesterday or they had a moment of clarity and decided they were scared and are hanging on for dear life. Whatever the case may be, somebody is going to have to go and get them.  Just as with the Shard climbers it is going to take some lead climb skill and in this case, will also require a harness be put on somebody who doesn’t already have one. Hopefully your team is prepared for that. If you don’t have a manufactured victim harness, make sure the team knows how to fashion a webbing seat around somebody who isn’t willing or able to lift their legs up to slide into a harness.

brighton20

Stay Safe!