Founder and consultant at Over The Edge Rescue. Rescuer, instructor, guide, author, designer, and adventurer.
Let’s lighten the load After a particularly arduous 24hrs underground and 1000m of hauling on a deep cave SAREX(Search And Rescue EXercise) we started our journey towards asking the right questions about lightweight rope rescue. Could we lighten up the backcountry rope rescue gear we use while keeping acceptable safety margins? We knew we had […]
Double fisherman’s vs. overhand rethread Tying Prusik loops with a bend for your Prusik Minding Pulley For tying Prusik loops I have always used the double fisherman’s bend. However, the double fisherman’s is bulky and as a result, never sits quite right on the body of the Prusik Minding Pulley (PMP). I decided to try […]
A knot that drives you around the bend! On a cave excursion through Bulmer cave system (New Zealand) I noticed, on two occasions, a single sheet bend rigged at the top of a fixed handline but being used as if it was a bowline knot. I suspect the person rigging these handlines meant to tie […]
Build a 9:1 pulley system with a Jigger Something I am always looking to do is find new ways to make gear more useful. For rescue one of the great tools in the toolkit is the jigger (aka set-of-fours). This is a pre-constructed pulley system made, in this instance, with two double pulleys. It has […]
Rig a big canyon pitch Over the past few years, we have been descending some bigger canyon pitches. By this I mean the pitch is longer than half the length of your rope where you need to join another. You may get away with doubling your rope until the day you need to do a rescue, and […]
When anchor acronyms go bad There are a lot of anchor acronyms out there in the rigging, rope and rescue world. A few examples include: SERENE: Solid (or strong), Equalized, Redundant, Efficient, No, Extension ERNEST(A): Equalized, Redundant, No, Extension, Solid (or strong), Timely, (Angles) STRADS: Solid, Timely, Redundant, Angles, Distribution, Shockload They are all basically variations […]
Get more friction with a double Munter A number of organisations (e.g.ski patrols and glacier guiding) use a 6mm Spectra or Dyneema line for escape or access. The upside of using this type of system is it is lightweight and easily carried all day. One of the downsides is that you need to use a […]
More and more about less and less. This idea has been rolling around between the ears for some time – so time to release it to the world. If we have more and more information about finer and finer detail that makes no difference to our practice then why do we need it? This finer […]
Or risk management in the real world. For the past few months, I have started to use the term ‘risk priority’ to describe how to manage emerging risks in the moment. A lot of the places we work are dynamic in nature. Maybe we are moving through an environment or we are in one place […]
Pulley versus carabiner efficiency. It’s always a good idea to be prepared for self-rescue when you are out and about climbing, caving, canyoning, or mountaineering. Make sure the gear you have can do the job and you have tried it out. One question that comes up is: Can I use carabiners (to save weight) instead […]
