Aerial Rescue

I think cutting a rope could be a very useful technique, if done properly, we just don't teach it because of the risk of doing it IMproperly. I know a SAR guy who to can't wait to transfer you to a better line and then CUT away your puny arborist equipment.

It's sorta like the one handing a chainsaw argument.
 
There is risk associated with cutting ropes. There may be a time when it is necessary, but with the advances in climbing systems, it is unlikely.

Some of the desire to cut climbing lines is leftover from the old school of aerial rescue, where we put rescuers and patients in greater risk (approaching energized vehicles, throwing ropes over primary conductors, etc.)

Out with the old and in with the new!
 
Someone in the comments section wrote that that guy was a 'dumb bitch'. How insensitive is that? Youtube is full of serial killers and people who should be sectioned under the mental health act.
 
Any time you carry a knife into a tree beaware that it can come out of your pocket and fall. Just ask all of the individuals that helped Jerry on the Tree House project. We had three fall out of peoples pockets. Charley Potteroff is still wondering where his is? John Traverso is lucky his wife is alive because a knife fell out of someones pocket and it stuck in the table that she was sitting at. Lets not forgot Scotty who went up to get the gear and he also lost one that took out an outside light.Scary very scary.

Tie the knife off or just use hand pruners instead. Hand pruners work best in my opinion when it comes to cutting line under tension. Be very careful.
 
I always carry a silky when climbing, and I have yet to find a climbing rope that I cannot sever with it. Rescue should be planned using the minimal amount of kit, not what we all should carry in an ideal world
 
Years ago (over a decade ago) when I was our company's "safety officer" I facilitated an aerial rescue training day in front of our old shop.

One of the scenarios involved cutting the injured climber's blakes hitch and having the groundman lower the victim to the ground with the rescuing climber assisting the descent.

Everything was going according to plan, and I got to the victim (a live volunteer). When I cut the split tail and put the knife away, I looked back and saw that I had cut the poor volunteer just above his eyebrow when I had brought the knife back in front of both if us to put it away, and it started to bleed profusely.


It took me years to get over that one.

I personally do not condone the use of a knife in the Aerial rescue practice, but it can't be ruled out.



SZ
 
[ QUOTE ]
Any time you carry a knife into a tree beaware that it can come out of your pocket and fall. Just ask all of the individuals that helped Jerry on the Tree House project. We had three fall out of peoples pockets. Charley Potteroff is still wondering where his is? John Traverso is lucky his wife is alive because a knife fell out of someones pocket and it stuck in the table that she was sitting at. Lets not forgot Scotty who went up to get the gear and he also lost one that took out an outside light.Scary very scary.

Tie the knife off or just use hand pruners instead. Hand pruners work best in my opinion when it comes to cutting line under tension. Be very careful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Robert, that is very true, and has happened to me too. I lost a $70.00 Cold Steel pocket knife with a tanto edged blade out of my pocket. Those pocket clips suck!

I now carry an inexpensive riggers knife with a small biner clip attached to it. It has a marlin spike and shackle tightner on it besides a small 2-1/2" blade.
 
I always have a hand pruner with me. IF, and I stress, IF I ever need to cut something I would use that. Hand pruners, like trauma shears, tend to only cut what is placed between the edges before you cut.

Knives cut everything in the arc of your slice.

There are very few instances that I know of where cutting a rope would be required in an actual rescue. We have taken it out of the new aerial rescue protocol because it puts workers at an increased risk.
 
I'm a climber/rigger. I don't pack hand pruners, but I won't leave the ground w/o my Zubat.

Every click a different pic!
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<font color="green">The TreeHouse</font>
 
MB,

I rig too; I have multiple uses for handpruners and limited uses for a knife in the tree.

On the ground, that is a different story entirely. I have many uses for many edged weapons...
 
Sorry, I sit and type corrected. I read your post too fast.

My only concern is that the saw blade, like a knife blade, cuts everything in it's path. (as is evidenced by the scar tissue on my left hand, arm and knee!)

My work with the high angle rescue folks has also taught me to not have knives near lines that support lives. For me, it is my trauma shears or my hand pruners...if there were ever a reason to cut a rope.

Keep riggin' and writin' MB!
 
On a slight but relevant tangent. on a recomendation, I added a short piece of climbing line to the termination knot/spiced eye end of the rope . Then suspended about a foot above the ground I cut the rope with my silky. WOW! i used about 2 to 3in max of the blade before the rope was cut.


It is stark warning to us all when you hit the ground with minimal effort! I recomend trying this out, if only to understand how easy the rope is cut under tension.

Tie in twice when cutting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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