Small Mistakes Add Up To Catastrophy

[Starscream]

 

It was tongue in cheek fella, bit of a leg pull! Only mentioned since it seemed a bit ironic to make a clear statement of not following "standard / recognised" staffing levels / experience / qual's in a thread with such a strong safety theme.

 

I totally understand about the job sometimes not having the £'s in it to warrant a second climber (under pricing - well that's been done to death elsewhere!), and it's the dynamic risk assessment that each individual does as to wether it's potentially complex enough to demand one. Of course it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny if it all went wrong but that's life when there are bills to pay!

 

As Huck says, and I've often thought (dependant upon the circumstances) on many occasions the best rescue scenario will be getting yourself down by the fastest means. The requirement to have a rescue climber is a ridiculous administrative burden that adds little to the risk reduction process. Apart from unconsciousness, in just about all other scenarios the climber would be better off getting them self down rather than waiting for someone to come up after them.

 

Ha, no worries Kevin! I can see the irony! Yep, I'd like to think I'd fly down pretty quick if I cut myself for instance. In fact, I did once when I cut myself with a silky. Hit the back of my hand with it and it opened up like a raw bit of chicken. I looked at it for a while then glazed my friction hitch on the way down! Just goes to show really, all my cuts have been made with a silky but not with a chainsaw; which I use a lot more than a handsaw. I associate a lot more risk with a chainsaw so put every effort into handling it safely. With a handsaw its kind of "meh, it's only a handsaw" but as we all know, silkys are absolutely vicious!!

[Billhook]

Ha, no worries Kevin! I can see the irony! Yep, I'd like to think I'd fly down pretty quick if I cut myself for instance. In fact, I did once when I cut myself with a silky. Hit the back of my hand with it and it opened up like a raw bit of chicken. I looked at it for a while then glazed my friction hitch on the way down! Just goes to show really, all my cuts have been made with a silky but not with a chainsaw; which I use a lot more than a handsaw. I associate a lot more risk with a chainsaw so put every effort into handling it safely. With a handsaw its kind of "meh, it's only a handsaw" but as we all know, silkys are absolutely vicious!!

 

I think you may need some fast rope training!

 

 

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[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Try and avoid "Blackburn's" technique....

 

[phedders]

My old man was a pilot and did a fair amount of "flight deck management" training. In studying many past air disasters and near misses(!) the common theme was "a catalogue of minor errors and mis-communication". Catastrophic hardware failure was statistically low.

 

I suspect it is the same in most walks of life and endeavour - wherever fallible/lazy/fatigued/distracted human beings operate...