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Carabiner Types & Loading
Anchors Risk Assessment & Method Statement
Rope Anchors better than
Anchors on Lousy BuildingsAnclajes y Descuelgues Sandu Valentín (Vie.)
Wide Y‑Hang Rigging
Lethal Danger! Via Ferrata
• Steel Carabiners at Anchor
Prusik Friction Hitch
Pole Climbing with Prusiks &
Clip in
Technical Information (PDF)
Beware of Horizontal Tension Lines !
Rigging Tension Lines
Trucker’s Hitch with Anchor Hitch
Basic Manœuvres
Rapid Ascent & Descent without Chest Ascender
Pull Through from the Top
Pull Through from the Top
Roof Rope Access
Pull Through from the Ground
Throw Line Instructions
Industrial Rope Access Tree Climbing
Horizontal Aid Climbing
Work Positioning Lanyards
Don’t Use a Grigri
Pulley Systems
Haul with a Third Rope
Industrial
Rope Access Kit
Bystanders Below: Wear Hard Hats!
Basic
Alpine Butterfly Loop Hand Wrap Method
Barrel
Double Fisherman’s Bend Join Two Ropes
Rope Coiling
Animated Knots
Constrictor
Knot Strengths (PDF)
Ladder Safety Rope is Safer
Rescue
Rescue
Halbmastwurf-Sicherung (HMS, Munter Hitch)
Home
Especially in the United States, tower climbing suffers from a particularly poor safety record. Only since January 2017, American tower workers are required to be 100% tied off, all the time, using for example a double lanyard system.
For this reason, it is recommended to rather adhere to industrial rope access techniques. It is by far the safest climbing technique, which also caters for tower climbing. Industrial rope access techniques were first devised in the nineties to increase the safety of workers on European oil & gas drilling platforms in the North Sea. Nowadays, industrial rope access technicians are employed worldwide in diverse circumstances ranging from building cleaning and maintenance, over construction work to even dam & bridge inspection and installing steel nets on rock faces.
IRATA and SPRAT are the two most prominent certifying bodies for industrial rope access. However, following a week long certification course will be out of reach for most radio amateurs. Luckily, all level 1 course material can be found well explained in videos on the internet (see top of this page).
Falling from heights as low as 2.5 meter (8 feet) can already result in deadly injury or quadriplegia. In Europe, general or personal fall arrest equipment is mandatory at and above this height.
Personally, I find it unacceptable for large amateur radio societies failing to impart safe working at height practices to their members. Recently, the ARRL was even caught publishing unsafe fall arrest practices on the front cover of its QST magazine. Hence, I hope this page will contribute to correcting this situation and perhaps even save some lives. After all, serious HF and VHF contesters alike, all need high towers to render their antennas efficient. Even if you never intend on climbing any towers, many of the knots taught in rope access will result very handy for antenna construction.
Industrial rope access borrows a lot from other climbing techniques that appeared earlier in different settings. For example, Fernand Petzl was a metals mechanist by profession and a passionate caver in his free time. Later in life, he founded the Petzl company, the current market leader and innovator in rope access equipment.
Equally, industrial rope access employs many generic climbing terms and shops selling rope access equipment will typically also carry arborist and sports climbing equipment. It is good to know about these and, more importantly, differentiate between these equipment types. Arborist equipment typically has the highest breaking strength, followed by rope access and finally mountaineering. Moreover, mountaineers typically prefer extremely D-shaped carabiners for their strength to weight ratio, whereas rope access technicians prefer oval-shaped carabiners because these can be used with pulleys.
Industrial rope access remains eerily quiet about how to set out your initial anchors on existing structures. This is where experience and some traditional climbing techniques may proof useful. Contrary to other climbers, industrial rope access technicians are perfectly capable of (self) rescue.
Here is a brief list of somewhat related, but less safe (no backup rope, excessive fall factor) climbing techniques:
The fall factor \(FF\) is the ratio of the distance fallen \(d_{fallen}\) over the length of the securing rope \(l_{rope}\). Under no circumstances should the fall factor be higher than one!
\[FF = \frac{d_{fallen}}{\ell_{rope}}\]
This is Jeremiah. Jeremiah wore safety goggles while angle grinding. Jeremiah still has his right eye. Be like Jeremiah.
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