Access Lines

[DrewB]

After heaps of discussion at work, management have agreed the purchase and use of access lines for all climbers. They want it to be a best practice at work and asked me to draw up some guidelines for there use. This is what i came up with and i am looking for some pointers as to how it can be improved/enhanced. Any help will be gratefully recieved

Use of Access Lines.doc

[Mark T]

Hey Drew,

 

It's a really good thing for your company to be doing, such an easy way to make tree work much safer.

 

Your access lines policy looks pretty comprehensive, the only thing I might suggest is some information about responsibility for the access line... Who brings it to site, inspects before use and is responsible for ensuring its installation and subsequent storage. Also, will friction hitches be pre-installed? Hope its of some use?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[DrewB]

Cheers gimmer. responsibility is a good one, site foreman will take overall respnsibilty. Pre installing the hitch is a can of worms i think as different climbers will ascend on diff systems-some of the guys cant footlock, some use a prussic, some use vt etc.... all this needs to ironed out. only sending capable crews (climbers with backup climbers) to do the bigger jobs is the first safety measure, hopefully we will start a new training program soon to cover all of this. cheers for the comments mate.

[atree]

Good stuff drew,We use access lines on large removals,and a harness at the ready (obviously)

[oakman]

Looks good Drew, the only thing you may want to include is a requirement for the crew to discuss how a rescue would be performed i.e. SRT or DRT technique, this rules out any confusion should a rescue be required. We have taken this one step further and have an in house document that describes the various climbing and climbing /rescue techniques know as our " climbing policy and procedure document " Which we require every climber to sign off on. Should an accident occur this document provides Workers Compensation with detailed documentation that every worker has received proper training and understands the companies policy This shows due diligence on behalf of the company owners. This may sound like a bunch of bureaucracy but Worker Comp is all about documentation

Hope this helps;

Oakman

[DrewB]

Looks good Drew, the only thing you may want to include is a requirement for the crew to discuss how a rescue would be performed i.e. SRT or DRT technique, this rules out any confusion should a rescue be required. We have taken this one step further and have an in house document that describes the various climbing and climbing /rescue techniques know as our " climbing policy and procedure document " Which we require every climber to sign off on. Should an accident occur this document provides Workers Compensation with detailed documentation that every worker has received proper training and understands the companies policy This shows due diligence on behalf of the company owners. This may sound like a bunch of bureaucracy but Worker Comp is all about documentation

Hope this helps;

Oakman

 

Thats the sort of bureaucracy that the company i work for loves so this is why a new comprehensive training scheme is to be implemented. It all starts with proper training. cheers mate.

[Rob Murf]

Looks good Drew, the only thing you may want to include is a requirement for the crew to discuss how a rescue would be performed i.e. SRT or DRT technique, this rules out any confusion should a rescue be required. We have taken this one step further and have an in house document that describes the various climbing and climbing /rescue techniques know as our " climbing policy and procedure document " Which we require every climber to sign off on. Should an accident occur this document provides Workers Compensation with detailed documentation that every worker has received proper training and understands the companies policy This shows due diligence on behalf of the company owners. This may sound like a bunch of bureaucracy but Worker Comp is all about documentation

Hope this helps;

Oakman

 

As long as its all not just a "BCE" butt covering exercise.

 

RjM

[DrewB]

i wouldnt be involved if it was.

[Rob Murf]

i wouldnt be involved if it was.

 

No Drew, I was refering to the " Signing off " part of Oakman's statement.

I don't know about you but when someone says " sign off on this " it seems that the concern is more for their skin if some thing goes wrong. Especially when, after going through the protocols etc you are told to do some thing entirely different ie the protocol is just not practical.

This appears to happen quite a lot in my part of the woods.

 

Back to access lines, we just purchased 90 meters of a static line for Srt( big tree access) are you saying i shouldn't use it in smaller stuff as a Back up line as well?

 

Ps Thanks for the pics of your Hitch climbers rig , I tried a similar setup today. It worked well.

 

 

 

RjM

Edited April 29, 2009 by Rob Murf

[DrewB]

No Drew, I was refering to the " Signing off " part of Oakman's statement.

I don't know about you but when someone says " sign off on this " it seems that the concern is more for their skin if some thing goes wrong. Especially when, after going through the protocols etc you are told to do some thing entirely different ie the protocol is just not practical.

This appears to happen quite a lot in my part of the woods.

 

Back to access lines, we just purchased 90 meters of a static line for Srt( big tree access) are you saying i shouldn't use it in smaller stuff as a Back up line as well?

 

Ps Thanks for the pics of your Hitch climbers rig , I tried a similar setup today. It worked well.

 

 

 

RjM

 

i know what you mean mate, it was an issue with us too. Ive no probs personally with static line in a rescue, as long as the people using it know its limitations ( this is where we want to do more training showing people how to climb off the static line, using a revolver as a mid line anchor off the footlock strop,etc..). TBH ina rescue situation, i think any line is better than none but when working in a big company you always have to cover all bases and this is why we are suggesting using a semi static line.

Are you heading to newc for the comp/conference? be good to meet up if you are, i fly over tomorrow.