TIMON

23.5c in Bham, this afternoon. Very enjoyable. [emoji41]

23.5c in Bham, this afternoon. Very enjoyable. [emoji41]

Petzl Zillon... is very good. Can also be used as a secondary friction device on a climb line. (A good choice in the light of upcoming legislation)

Also..... the inevitable expectation on the part of the HSE, and maybe to a lesser extent the AA, that there will be ‘pushback’ from within the industry.... “after all, no one likes change, but then they’ll get used to it and the fuss will die down”. I think that in order to get this decision overturned or at least reviewed by the HSE, there would need to be some pretty loud and influential voices shouting in their direction. Or some very concerted effort from the industry to make a strong and clear case, demonstrating the negative effects this decision will have on the overall safety and well-being of climbers.

Definitely don’t do it after a few beers. I understand the nerves thing, but it could come across disrespectful and it’s the kind of thing people remember for a long time. It doesn’t have to be a polished performance. Some kind words, an anecdote or a special memory shared of the deceased. The object of the eulogy is to help everyone present gather their thoughts collectively and to honour his memory. Ask two questions of the speech. 1. How would your mate like everyone to remember him? 2. What do you want people to walk away with? You’ll be fine Eggs.

The minimum breaking strength of the large pinto is 50kn which converts to 5000kg. ( just add two noughts to the KN value to get the KG ) That’s half either side of the pulley which takes you to 2500kg. Work in your safety factor of >5 and that gives you a WLL of 500kg. The pinto is a good economic pulley for light rigging.

Thanks. I used to play with him a bit when I was younger around Oldham and Manchester. He’s getting on a bit now of course, but still got it.

Drums

Went there to set up today.. but no rehearsal, straight in the deep end tomorrow. Haven’t played any blues for a while so I’m raring to go.

I’m playing with this guy tomorrow at a wedding... can’t wait.

Also agree with this. It’s a lose/lose situation. I think it would be very hard for an employer to defend a prosecution in court if the HSE could prove that an extra rope would have prevented a fall. The time constraint/ reasonably practicable argument would struggle to hold water in the event of a serious injury prosecution. Like you say, until the industry, especially the domestic sector catches up it looks like we are are in for a tough time ahead. However, if the HSE and AA were to re-visit this and conduct some further research/demos in order to gain a truer picture and a more realistic insight into the real life day to day work of everyday climbers.......from all sectors of the industry. (As opposed to the masterclass of excellence, demos by world class climbers in park trees kind of thing that you see at the ARB shows) Then, maybe the HSE would see the many downsides to the new proposals and give some serious consideration as to how introducing more, effort, stress, complication, difficulty, additional hazards and the inevitable added pressure to get the ‘job done quicker’ would actually have the opposite effect of what they are trying to achieve. Hopefully, a more nuanced approach could be taken that would see some genuine H&S benefits to the industry.

Or this......

It’s hard enough trying to win jobs at the ‘going rate + vat’ as it is in the domestic sector. Seems to me that the only winners in this will be the firms that are willing to cut corners. Compliant firms will find it much harder to operate and compete with increased costs and slower productivity.

Bet you were glad of the mewp. Either that or it would have to be Mark Bolam’s neck plunge technique.

Maybe this is why the new treemotion harness has 2 bridges? They obviously ‘saw this coming’. No doubt this will mean that harness manufacturers can entice us with new ‘bridge tidy’ systems to counteract the inevitable congestion of so many caribiners. This new ruling will certainly benefit some sectors of the industry. (Just not ours, he says rather cynically) I suppose you’ve got to see the silver lining somewhere.

Bercow exhibits all of those traits on steroids, with rabies.

What does that say about Bercow?

There’s very, very few I would trust. Yes, homelessness has risen. In my line of work, the centres that see the least positive outcomes in people turning their lives around, are the places where the authorities make unemployment and addiction a ‘career choice’ because it’s financially rewarding. But, yes. More needs to be done and it isn’t. (That’s another conversation perhaps) Hope you’re well. [emoji106]

We have the 5th biggest economy in the world. I don’t understand what you (or any remainer) means by a ‘deal’. They (EU) have openly admitted they won’t allow us to be better off by leaving. If you went to quote a job, would you let the customer know that you wouldn’t walk away from the negotiations, no matter how little they were willing to pay? How would you feel if your bank manager told you that you had to acquiesce to any of the customers demands and price they set? It seems to me is basically what is happening now. It’s not really that hard to see what our remainer majority parliament is trying to do is it?

Can you explain how trying to implement the will of the voting majority is treacherous? From where I’m sat it’s very obviously the elitist, self serving, remainers that have totally gone back on their word to honour the referendum result and who instead are trying to sell the whole country and any prospect of a negotiating position down the EU river who are the blatantly treacherous ones. Treachery | Definition of Treachery at Dictionary.com WWW.DICTIONARY.COM Definition of treachery from Dictionary.com, the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more.

Hi Paul, I don’t think anyone has mentioned that climbing with a second mainline would/could hinder any attempt at a self-rescue to the degree of making the system potentially unsafe. That would have to be a factor in any RAMS process. Add that to the fact that it is not reasonably practicable in a lot of climbing/cutting situations and it shouldn’t be too hard to justify not using a third line. (Particularly If a ready installed rescue line is employed). It would be good to know your thoughts on this as we are looking at how to navigate these new requirements in a way that, A, isn’t going to kill our business. B, isn’t going to nullify our insurance. C, will allow us to operate with integrity. I’m all for making climbing safer, we all want to go home to our families in one piece at the end of the day. Would appreciate your thoughts on this. (Just trying to avoid getting strangled by bureaucrats, with both red tape and excessive rope) Thanks.

Hi Paul. Are the HSE even interested in why these accidents are happening? It seems to me that they aren’t arriving at meaningful conclusions that will be welcomed by the industry because they aren’t asking the right questions.

Evening Paul. Can’t help wondering how ‘pragmatic’ the insurance companies will be in the event of a claim?.. Funny you should mention utility companies. (I wonder if this is where it’s come from?) I recently heard about a utility company insisting on their climbers using two points of connection at all times (3 when cutting). Apparently it was because they’d had quite a few climbers falling out of trees. (?!) The worrying thing about this (IMO) is that some guy in an office, responsible for safety issues a knee jerk reaction (3 tie in points) rather than a systematic investigation tackling the real causes of why their climbers were repeatedly falling . Surely there must have been something fundamentally wrong in their basic climbing/working practices? By introducing the new policy they have merely ‘covered over’ why it was happening in the first place and not addressed the real issues. Surely the HSE would be serving the industry far better if they could establish the specific causes behind these accidents and address the issues through training and implementing better work practices, rather than just saying “We don’t know why people fall out of trees so you’ll just have to use another rope” Sorry for the rant,

Lightly reduced and deadwooded this elm in Southern Spain two years ago and also removed a 3’ high raised bed that someone had built round the stem. The tree was really struggling back then, was chuffed to bits to see it thriving again now.

Sorry to hear of your mates passing. Eggs.