cavermark
New member
doughobbs said:Iv'e been caving for many many years and started off on SRT from day one near enough and have done a LOT of SRT over the years and that is the only time I've ever had an issue..... of any kind
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Hanging on directly cows tails is something I don't and have never done - they are there as your life backup incase you cock up whilst getting on/off ropes or fail on a change over! I'm sure everyone has their own view of this which is fine; just I only use mine as mentioned when getting on/off or changeovers
These two statements suggest you have just been lucky not to have had a problem before.
Many people have been driving badly for years and haven't had a crash yet - this does not make it safe.
I feel very nervous being underground on ropes with people who resort to knives before acknowledging that they might need to improve their techniques.
My other bugbear is only having a single bolt at the rebelay - SRT rigging evolved for exploratory stuff where this isn't really a problem as the bolts are fixed by the people using them and it's usually for a relatively short period - but if the bolt fails whilst you are prussiking back up, not only will you shock load the ascenders but you will swing into the very position (may be a sharp rock edge) that the rebelay was set up to avoid (obviously the longer the bolt has been there the more likely this becomes).
Mike
Mike
