Climbing without aerial rescue?

[Craig Johnson]

On 09/08/2018 at 17:22, Pete Mctree said:

Sadly, having a qualified climber onsite guarantees nothing other than insurance.

There is a huge number of groundies who did there tickets & probably have not even put a harness on for 12 months, yet legally they are competent. It's a load of BS - you would bleed out whilst they remember which way round there spikes go on.

This is the way of modern business- as long as the boxes are ticked nobody cares about anything other than profit. There are always exceptions to this, but not enough.

true, but if they've not done any AR updating in that 12 months, it doesn't tick the box 

[eggsarascal]

It's all nonsense. I've got to refresh my Confined Space ticket next month. We have to have a person on top (reverse of a rescue climber) if someone is down the hole, there isn't a cat in hells chance I could drag a big bloke out...... But I'll have the ticket.

[carlos]

6 hours ago, Craig Johnson said:

true, but if they've not done any AR updating in that 12 months, it doesn't tick the box 

could you expand on this. " updating" is this in the form of a course or just an in house session, im guessing it would have to be all documented.

i wonder how many of the climbers on here have done documented ariel rescue training in the last 12 months???

carl

[Mick Dempsey]

6 minutes ago, carlos said:

could you expand on this. " updating" is this in the form of a course or just an in house session, im guessing it would have to be all documented.

i wonder how many of the climbers on here have done documented ariel rescue training in the last 12 months???

carl

This is me last week, mission accomplished!

[Acerforestry]

On 09/08/2018 at 17:22, Pete Mctree said:

Sadly, having a qualified climber onsite guarantees nothing other than insurance.

There is a huge number of groundies who did there tickets & probably have not even put a harness on for 12 months, yet legally they are competent. It's a load of BS - you would bleed out whilst they remember which way round there spikes go on.

This is the way of modern business- as long as the boxes are ticked nobody cares about anything other than profit. There are always exceptions to this, but not enough.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more and most climbers I have spoken to on this matter agree - if its a catastrophic bleed the quickest aerial rescue guy out there will be lucky to be able to do much by the time he is kitted up and in the crown. If it isn't that bad, chances are strong you can either get yourself down or wait a few minutes for professional emergency assist.  

 

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

This is me last week, mission accomplished!

i got it!!! in the end ha ha.

[TIMON]

A mate of mine tragically lost his life dismantling a large poplar about 11 years ago. He made about 5 mistakes which all converged at the same time resulting in him getting ripped out of the tree and being crushed, sadly he died on the way to hospital. He was a new climber, very fit, very confident but unwittingly out of his depth on a job of that size.
As you would expect the HSE were all over it
The main thing they picked up on was the fact that he had no second climber on site at the time and the employer narrowly missed a jail term purely because the climber made the decision to climb ‘alone’ without the employers knowledge.
It wouldn’t have made any difference in terms of a rescue because he was dragged out of the tree but I often wonder whether a second ‘pair of eyes’ on the ground could have prevented any of those mistakes being made?
In my opinion having a second climber isn’t just about the possible need for a rescue it’s about having a capable team that can keep each other safe and that the ‘weight’ of the job can be spread across the team.
Most of us have done it at one time or another, but if/when it goes wrong you’re on your own in more ways than one.

[Khriss]

Definately underlines havin a competent and aware groundsman- he sees things you may miss from the ground , and should be watching you everytime you start a cut K ( Like label on yr pants sticking out :P )

[Treewolf]

This may be a question that everyone else knows the answer to, but I don't....

 

If you are a freelance self employed climber, is the provision of appropriate rescue arrangements down to you (as you are your own employer)  or the outfit you are contracted to?

Edited August 14, 2018 by Treewolf
Spelling

[Gary Prentice]

3 hours ago, Treewolf said:

This may be a question that everyone else knows the answer to, but I don't....

 

If you are a freelance self employed climber, is the provision of appropriate rescue arrangements down to you (as you are your own employer)  or the outfit you are contracted to?

Would you have to take it on a case by case basis? Climbing for a non-arb company (a landscaper say) where you wouldn't expect any staff who can climb to be present, the onus 'might' come back to you but I doubt it. Anyway, it's something that the person writing the RAMS should be considering and that you (or any subbie) should be asking about. 

 

I don't know the answer, but think that the responsibility probably lies with the company contracted to do the actual work. They write the risk assessment and if they can't meet the rescue climber obligation, then it's down to them to organise it, whether that means getting an employee trained or organising for one to be present - either provided and billed by you or by them getting someone suitable on site for the duration of the climbing part of the job.