Page 186 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

176 History and Science of Knots

abseiling down beside or in waterfalls, jumping into and swimming along cliff-
girt pools, traversing boulder blockups and other activities, all in narrow gorges
from which there are often few escape routes, so that the canyoner is definitely
committed to the route. Most canyons can be traversed in a few hours. To
date, ropework and knots have been adopted from climbing and caving, but
perhaps traversing waterfalls may spur invention of something new.
Rescue work for the adventure sports has become more and more tech-
nological since World War II, making use of lightweight stretchers adapted to
use in mountainous areas or in caves, helicopters, electronic navigation and
communication apparatus and the increasingly technical equipment and skills
of rock climbing, mountaineering and caving. The various technical experts in
these activities are being increasingly integrated into special emergency ser-
vices, available for rescue work not only in the adventure sports but also in
some kinds of accidents on roads, industrial and construction sites, and in
natural disasters and the like. Often people from the police, fire and ambu-
lance brigades and the armed services are closely involved, and given training
in the use and application of life-support ropes. Most use is made of static
kernmantle rope, because of its minimal stretch under moderate load. There
seem to be few knots used exclusively in rescue work. However, there have
been developments in the preparation of lightweight tackles, operated by hand
alone and involving sometimes long hauls when only short tackles can be used,
and all the manipulations are confined to small and exposed areas. There has
also been a need to develop anchor systems where no single anchor point is
strong enough for the load, so that several weaker anchor points have to be
used. Anchorages have to be linked so as to spread the load and cope with
any failure of a single point. These tackles and anchorages are now also used
in ordinary climbing, caving and canyoning.
Finally, I will describe a new industrial technique, sometimes called abseil
engineering, which is now being developed. This involves aspects of the con-
struction, maintenance and repair of industrial sites such as oil rigs, bridges
and high buildings where access by ordinary means is particularly difficult,
time consuming, unsafe or even impossible, but where access using the life-
support equipment and techniques developed by climbers and cavers is rel-
atively safe, easy and quick. Practitioners are sometimes called spidermen;
most are recruited from the pool of experienced climbers and cavers, though
some are industrial riggers acquiring new skills. Perhaps the night climbers of
Cambridge, and other university students who surreptitiously scale the out-
sides of their colleges (and also their more recent non-academic imitators), can
now be regarded as training themselves for respectable occupations, not just
being irresponsible pranksters.
All the usages of life-support ropes are clearly closely related. The present
considerable interchange of information between rescue workers, cavers, moun-