You don't need to be able to get yourself down the rope.....do you?
I hadn't really thought about what I would do if something went wrong in the middle of the climb. I figured I would be surrounded by the right people and it would all be fine!!
Ah happy ignorance!! The truth is its up to me to make sure I'm safe so I was grateful for the offer of rope access tuition given to me by Petzl. Glenmore Lodge had put us in touch with each other and it became obvious that I was about to gain invaluable insight into exactly what it was going to mean to climb 137m!
Using the climbing equipment donated by Petzl we decided to explore Andy Kirkpatrick and Karen Darke's prusiking rig. Potential new climbing tehnology could make the rig more efficient and effective. We experimented with different systems, one which would allow me to self lower and one which wouldn't. Seems like an obvious choice you would think? Surely its more important to be able to lower myself down....otherwise I could potentially be stuck on a rope with no way of going up and no one around to hear me yelling for help!
Trouble was using the self lower device felt 50% harder than the without! Thats a hefty increase of an already difficult challenge.
I made an executive decision and have opted to gamble on not getting stuck on the rope! There will be NO self lowering device :-s
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