Friday 25 March 2011

Safety alert on abseiling with prussik on leg loops

Safety alert on abseiling with prussik back up on leg loops
This came to me from Pat Littlejohn in the British Mountain Guides newsletter and makes interesting reading:
Summary - Using a prussik loop back up on your leg loop can open the buckles which are 'cinched' tight (by pulling), now increasingly found on modern harnesses, with dangerous results.
" Last summer on a Technical Alpinism course I taught clients how to protect an abseil with a French prusik clipped into the harness leg loop, a standard technique used almost universally. While using this later abseiling from a gendarme, one client allowed the prussik to bite whereupon the harness leg loop opened and he was left dangling from his waist belt with the prussik jammed against his belay plate. Luckily he was nearly at the end of the abseil and other clients helped him to unweight and free himself.
Wanting to see how this had happened I tried it using his harness and the leg loop undid every time. We then tried other harnesses in the team (which were not identical but similar construction) and again this happened.
All were new harnesses which had leg loops with buckles which 'cinched' tight (by pulling) rather than being back-threaded in the old style (as the leg loop buckles on the harness I was wearing). What happens is that the karabiner of the prussik lodges at the buckle, which then opens because it is being pulled at an angle which 'cinching' buckles won't take, i.e. a force from behind the buckle. This is much easier to demonstrate than to explain!
So many modern harnesses now use 'cinching' buckles on the leg loops, or are in the “Bod” style, that we may have to revert to the method of protecting an abseil with a prussik by clipping the prussik into the belay loop of the harness (usually with a quickdraw or cow’s tail to extend either the prussik or the belay plate), I have always thought this was a safer method anyway, but a bit less convenient and involving more gear.
What worries me is the number of people out there who have been taught to abseil with a French prussik clipped into leg loops with 'cinching' buckles - a lot of people I suspect. "
I've tried to get this to happen on a new Wild Country harness without success - see pictures below. Climbers and instructors should, however, be aware of this possibility.




Sunday 6 March 2011

Mountain Leader Training (MLTUK) board meeting

As Chair of the AMI one of my roles is to represent the association at the MLT board meetings. These happen four times a year and yesterdays meeting was at Glenmore Lodge near Aviemore. With so many people around the room and a large agenda I was surprised how efficiently the day went. Decisions were made and jobs for boards and associations before the next meeting at Tollymore in Ireland in May.

After this meeting members of the ACWG (Associations Collaboration Working Group) which comprises of the British Mountain Guides, AMI, BAIML and MLTA got together with Steve Long the Chair of the group from MLT to discuss how the projects we have are moving alone. This again was a successful meeting.

I then had a mad drive home as my kids were being looked after by my parents as Anne, my wife, is away skiing.

Filming in Easegill cave

On Tuesday 1st March I trained Mike and Dave who work for Icon films to SRT (Single Rope Technique) at the Lakeland Climbing Centre (AKA Kendal Wall). This was in preparation for a descent of Link Pot in Easegill the next day in search of Bats with Professor John Altringham. The filming was for the One Show, I'll post when it is due to go on telly.
The training went very well and both Mike and Dave picked up the skills very quickly.

The next morning we met Professor John, Anita who works with John, Ian Burton the cameraman (Asgard Project and Onsight fame) and Mike, Dave and Charlie (from Icom) in Casterton.
The weather was fantastic and to cut a long day short we descended found hybernating bats, filmed all day and ascended in darkness - a very successful day.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

ML refresher

An excellent day on Monday with Clare and Moray in preparation for their ML assessment. The snow from last week has pretty much disappeared from the lower fells so we were back to summer conditions.
 They were both keen to concentrate on navigation so we spent the afternoon and evening on the excellent Coniston Moor area.