Paul alexander

It seems that the HSE want us to adopt the 2005 WAH regulations immediately. No ifs, no buts. You will not be insured if you come a cropper, while working on just the one line. You have to gain a qualification for the purposes of climbing using a rope & harness. Surely, because using 2 ropes has completely different implications for the climber, there must be the same requirement for training and understanding the differing scenarios that may be encountered, and ways of dealing with emergencies. This is all very different. You may adopt the 2 rope working system, but are you doing it correctly? Until you have been trained, are you willing to put yourself in that situation? Shouldn't there be a period of grace, until proper training and guidelines have been implemented? That way, at least you can make an informed decision, even if it be the same one I'm thinking of ie, I've been doing this for 30 years(accident free), it's hard enough already, don't know if I can be arsed with throwing a load more spanners in the works. Might just call it a day. What do I know though?

Me again. At the beginning of 2019, we put 5 climbers through refresher training at our nearest training provider. Not cheap, but you feel worthwhile. Seems like it was a waste of money. Not only have the frontline climbers had 14 years to comply, but so have the training providers. If anything, they should have been the ones banging it home. Not a whisper on our refresher. All over the country, letters are dropping onto doormats, telling us we are probably falling short of the requirements and should book ANOTHER training course with the same provider of course. Will there be any discounts for climbers who have attended refresher training in good faith, and not been sufficiently updated by training providers? They should have shouldn't they? Just out of interest, before this raised it's head recently, has anyone been on a refresher training course, where 2 rope has been insisted upon?

First post. Bear with me. A couple of questions and a couple of observations. Is the reason for having two lines, to do with inability to select a sufficiently strong anchor, or to have a back up in case one gets severed? If the former, what are the implications for rigging? Do we know what is safe to rig off, but not know what is safe to prevent us falling and suffering a life changing injury or worse? Work positioning covers the cutting ropes scenario...you could also call it evolution! The scenario of being on two ropes, suffering a bad cut and having to bail out quickly has been mentioned elsewhere. One handed is possible. Two ropes? Nah! Ain't gonna happen. Heaven forbid the next fatility is a bleed out because someone was trying to do the right thing, but due to the limitations put on them by the suits, was unable to save themself. That will be an interesting court case nobody wants to see. Especially for the HSE people who are responsible for insisting we comply. At the end of the day, I do my pre-start site specific risk assessment, and I'm afraid, that is a consideration, in the section about rescue. How could anyone send another climber into a tree if that scenario is a possibility? On large trees, we sometimes put a rescue line in ready to go, should we need it. Do we now need 2? I'm not clear on that. It's also apparently ok to rescue on 1 rope? Hold up, we can't be trusted to select a decent anchor for one person to work off, but we can put the weight of 2 people on one? Man alive. Anyone would think they don't want us to climb trees. ? Rant over...