Hey people.
Sunday night and I’m looking over the internet for some information to print out for a friend I’ve convinced to start tree climbing. I found some interesting pictures. The pictures are off the "Huntsville Cave Rescue Unit" webpage of their tyrolean traverse training exercise. (www.hcru.org/)
In a few of the pictures I noticed a lack of some simple safety procedures I follow when using a tyrolean traverse.
1) No double pulley, or at least two single sheave pulleys
2) No distance between saddle TIP and pulley
3) Placing a hand in front of a moving pulley
Personally I think there just playing with fate and time here.
To me these are simple things I can watch out for. Am I just being pedantic? Or are there some serious safety concerns here?
One other thing, do many of you guys set up a tyrolean often? How do you rig it?

One more image,


Matt

That setup is asking for injury or death! I use safer systems when I zipline dead logs/branches out of trees.

That cable at neck level is kind of scary looking too. :o

It’s odd to see a group of grown men making the kind of mistakes that would be expected from a group of unsupervised boys in their early teens.

Interesting find ATC!

Thats what I thought. I was really suprised at the lack of saftey precautions used in their system.

Thanks for the replies.

Matt

I agree its a dodgee set up.
And it also looks very uncomfortable and awkward to hold yourself in that horizontal position away from the wire.
Aussie do you tension your rope? If so, how?
I have used a set up similar to the R.A.D system (gri gri, pulley, ascender). I have only done this low to the ground. I am really interested in how people have set up a tree to tree traverse via tyrolean.
Cheers

Hey Aussie,
You did not mentioned the hand in front of the pulley to "brake". That is definitely asking for someone to loose a couple of fingers in this joy ride.
Are these guys seriously "training" for a rescue events????
They look like "joy ridding" to me.

Agreed, that looks like an accident waiting to happen. Incidentally, aussietreeclimber did mention in his third point that you shouldn't put your hand in front of a moving pulley.

- Link

Ok, so we've established that the system looks unsafe. So how should it be set up? First off, two parallel stacked static lines, trolley on one, biner backup or trolley on the other? Ascender on one line to assist movement up inclined end of traverse (assuming use to get from point A to point not "downhill" ride.

Also... in rec climbing in general is this type of traverse more useful as a way to get from point A to point B over an obstacle (river, canyon etc.) than for any other purpose? I see traverse rides as a completely different animal than roped tree climbing. It's typically seen in ecotourism canopy tours or ropes courses for thrill rides, requires no skill to use, just skilled setup and babysitting. It verges on being a passive recreational activity and could even demean the canopy as the adrenaline buzzed tourist flies through without noticing what's going on around them. The self-empowerment and contempletive (through incremental climbing process) aspects of rec tree climbing are huge, without it there's much less there. (elitist editorial over)
-moss

The site these came from are of a SAR group. Would you want these guys "saving" you? I can imagine all sorts of Keystone Cops stuff happening.

Moss, I think your "elitist rant" is quite appropriate!

When I make zip lines, I insist on on having a lanyard from the pulley to the zipper. The lanyard that should be long enough that the zipper can't reach the pulley.

When working/playing with experienced climbers/riggers, I don't mind having it set up so that the zipper can climb up to the pulley set up if need be. An example would be if you zip down to the mid point of the line, but then you have to "ascend" up the other side w/ ascenders. Might be hard to do that if you can't reach!

love
nick

This is all the information they provide on their website (that i could find) about the day.

HCRU Tyrolean Traverse
Annual Training Event at DeSoto Falls State Park, Alabama
A 230’ long High Line in front of DeSoto Falls, 100’ above the water.
Safety Comes First.

Equipment Needed
Approved helmet (4 point suspension)
Boots (preferred) or sneakers or sandals (no flip-flops)
Leather gloves
Seat harness
Locking carabiner(s)
Optional sling (seat carabiner to pulley)
2” Rescue Pulley *
* Your 2” pulley must accommodate a 5/8” rope.

No ball bearing pulleys. No “racing” pulleys.
A few pulleys may be available to borrow.
Alabama State Park & HCRU release forms must be signed.

The HCRU has final say on all safety issues.

I believe they should revise their critera a litle bit.

Ziontree,

I tension the rope slightly, I have the rope run through a pulley with acts as a tender for the four wrap prussic which ends up holding the line. I sit (tied in) below the line and pull down on the rope appling my body weight untill sufficient tension is reached. For every 10m of length I have approx 1m of weighted sag in the line, if on a horizontal run. 'down hill' runs have a little less sag.
I've included a pic of my set up. Any comments? I would love to hear some feed back on my set up. I'm pretty sure i've included all the details.
I apologise in advance for the size of the image if it is too large, I’m unsure if it is.

Oh i almost forgot, i carry my ascenders with me to climb out of the sag in the traverse

Matt

Damm, sorry bout the pic size, thought it would have been a lil smaller.


Matt

Nicely done diagram, if it was any smaller it wouldn't be legible.
-moss