Page 159 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

CHAPTER 9

A HISTORY OF LIFE SUPPORT KNOTS

Charles Warner

Probably since the invention of rope, people have been suspending themselves
on ropes when climbing trees, cliffs and so on. It is likely that the Australian
Aborigines who entered Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain to obtain flints
and create their rock art about 20 000 BP used rope in some form to get
to the bottom of the 24 m steep or overhanging entry sinkhole. With or
without rope, people have been climbing mountains and entering caves since
time immemorial, but doubtless only for utilitarian or ceremonial purposes,
not recreation. There are no readily available records of any special knots or
tricks of ropework associated with these activities. Over the last couple of
centuries the adventure sports of mountaineering, caving and rock climbing
have grown and flourished, generating many books and magazines. They have
been joined more recently by the sport of canyoning; and also the activities
of specialist rope rescuers and abseil engineers have developed considerably.
These have demanded specialist ropes which are increasingly being called life
support ropes. In the absence of any other common name for the group of
ltnots used in these and similar activities, I am calling them lzfe support knots.
The European Alps were climbed in searches for transport routes for
anything from armies to smugglers; chamois hunters were sometimes lured
even higher. Cliffs were climbed to obtain birds' eggs or the birds themselves.
Early records of climbs just for fun are rare, but it is known that Mt Etna was
climbed during the Roman Empire for the sunrise view; and the first recorded
rocli-climb, up Mt Aiguille near Grenoble in 1492 seems to have had little
more serious purpose. Early visits to caves were to obtain flint or gypsum,
later guano or saltpetre or, in SE Asia, edible birds' nests for sale to China.
Scientific interest in how caves and cave formations developed, and in tracing
underground water, started in classical times; scientific interest in mountains