UKC

Greetings!

I'm a beginner in climbing. I want to buy a rope and I have searched and found one that seems good: http://www.amazon.de/Tendon-Smart-Lite-8mm-Kletterseil/dp/B009PLI5U2/ref=sr... (the site is in German, but I hope it's understandable what kind of rope it is anyway).

I want to start by checking with people who know climbing if this rope can be recommended. Please tell me if you think it's good.

Then I have a question which is quite specific, but I would really appreciate help with it. I want to climb down a ~10-15 meter brick wall as fast as possible. I'm wondering what would be the easiest way to do this? The upper part of the rope will be inside an apartment building and the rope will hang down outside the outer wall of the building. The wall doesn't have any balconies or similar, the wall is almost completely flat.

So, for a setup which is "good to go" as fast as possible, what would you recommend to have besides the rope and how would you make the setup?

Thanks in advance!
Climb Westwood

In reply to ClimbWestwood:
Don't climb, jump. It'll get you to the bottom far quicker than climbing.


(Well, you did specify "quickest", not "safest". Besides, I suspect the billygoats you have milling around at the bottom will provide a suitable crashmat.)

Failing that:
Recruit a suitably goat-loving friend to move the goats out of the way, attach the rope securely to the bridge you are lurking under, and abseil. Try to stop before you hit the bottom.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

did you want to abseil with the TV in the other hand or will you have both hands available to work with.

What are you going to tie the other end of the rope to, Coffee table, dining room chair?

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

the slowest way is climbing. Abseiling is faster and jumping is faster still.

I guess you could try some commando style abseiling using a Super-8 (http://int.barrabes.com/kong-classic-figure-eight/p-22863), but be aware that if you screw up it's not much better than just jumping straight off.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

These devices are pretty new on the market...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NEW-10-00m-3210-Extension-Stabiliser/dp/B008OHWUJA/...

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

Called at 14:08!

Where's my £5?

In reply to Fraser:

I rather think it was called in the first reply. Have a read.

In reply to sbattams:

Me and some friends discussed this once, and we reckoned houses have almost no decent anchors inside so you'd need to find a heavier friend in a climbing harness, sit them on the floor and ab off them, being careful not to shock load.

Neil

In reply to Neil Williams:


Radiators. Newel posts. Beds if pushed up to the wall. Joists by the hundred. etc.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=575402

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

Here's what you need.

http://www.eby.co.uk/itm/Elastic-shock-cord-bungee-rope-8mm-black-white-red...

In reply to ClimbWestwood:


Has her husband just come home unexpectedly or something?

Westwood, why not pimp your house by constructing a zip-wire to the bus stop?

its a bit mad to try this if you have that little climbing experience but heres what you need if you want to risk abseiling it.

Something rock solid to tie to using a figure 8 knot rewoven
a suitable rope (static) e.g. 10mm
figure 8 abseil and a klemheist prusik to back it up

Some people might think it wrong to give you this information, but Id rather you try and do it with the right gear if you are going to do it anyway.

But my advice is dont do it! You need someone to teach you the basics really to do it properly.

In reply to John_Hat:

...if you don't weigh much.

Joists aren't designed to take a loading in random directions. Floor joists might be big enough but you'd have to kick holes in the floor/ceiling. The others I would only consider[1] if the stairs were on fire as an alternative to jumping.

[1] Not in my house as you can (and I have) step out onto the roof of both the front and rear porches, talking figuratively only

Neil

In reply to owena:
>>using a figure 8 knot rewoven

Nah, Thrappleworth Hitch!

what about a rope/wire ladder?
They coil up inside the window and you chuck it out in an emergency and climb down.
15 meters is still a long way down

In reply to owena:




Na, not really, ask JCM, there's heaps of people on here jump that kind of height all the time. Apparently.

In reply to owena:

You would be hard pushed to find one that went any further than 5m, as far as I recall from a previous search I did.

In reply to Removed User:


Link 'em together.

BINGO!!

In reply to Cambridge-Climber:

If I was desparate I probably would. As it is I'm now sorted out with my harness, 30m of static line, large hook, and descending device (helmet if I've got time to put it on).

I've got no idea though what the OP would use to solve his problem.

In reply to Removed User:

I work in a job requiring me to go into burnt down buildings.

I've seen, from the second floor (ground, first, second), uPVC windows with three tied together bathroom robe belts round one of the centre partitions used to escape.

It worked.

In reply to ClimbWestwood: Have fun !

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

Hi there,
Do you want pass the rope through the window?
in that case make sure the rope does not touch sharp edges.
Once my friend wanted me to belay him when he did some installations.
The rope was cut at once. I wonder what would have happened if I did not use double rope.It was 11th floor.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

Put your trousers on first.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

A lot of people including me think you are joking here.

If you are not, it is very hard climbing brick walls, even harder to down climb them. I don't think many people in the world would back themselves to downclimb a brick wall, so beople have suggested abseiling. The problem is that without experience (of climbing and building) you are going to have no idea if the anchor is strong enough.

There looks to be nothing wrong with that rope except for the price, which looks worringly low to me. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I might be wrong but it just looks too cheap to be the real thing and it's not worth risking your life that it's as strong as it should be ifyou think there is something wrong with it.

Get a rope from a reputable uk supplier such as http://needlesports.com/Catalogue/Rock-Climbing-Equipment/Ropes/Single-Rope...

If you want to get into climbing rather than escaping I suggest you go to an indoor wall or join a club.

In reply to ablackett:

that's only a 20m rope price. Looks a fair rope tbh. I've always thought of having a rope on the 4th floor where I work incase of fire, however you can't just save yourself and lowering non climbers down over and over would be hard.

In reply to wiwwim:

OK, not super cheap, but 80 Euro for 50m looks too cheap to me. I would imagine once you paid postage etc you could get something nearly as cheap from the UK, assuming the OP is locked up in the uk.

In reply to ClimbWestwood:
If your username is a subtle hint towards your intentions and you are a student at a university in the South West of England then don't get caught as they'll throw you out

In reply to Reach>Talent:

If you are at that uni have a chat to the mountaineering club as I'd be very suprised if they've not already done it (and most of the other buildings on campus).

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

I jumped from the 5th floor of a hotel once.

I was 13, it was in a Swiss ski resort and my landing was about 6ft down.

Easy really, when the cosmos aligns

In reply to wiwwim:



Says who?

So you're really high up in a burning building, with a non climbing relative/friend, and the only exit is an abseil out of the window.

There is no way on this little green planet that your friend/relative can or will go out the window. Are you going to stay and burn, or save your own life?

In reply to The Lemming:



You could do what Robert Wagner did in 'The Towering Inferno', and announce that you'll be back with the whole of fire department before running through a burning room with a damp towel over your head. And then jumping through the window.

In reply to The Lemming:
If I had the gear to set up a tandem abseil I'd shove them out of the window and drag them down with me. Or tie them to the end of the rope, shove them out and lower them off. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, as it were.

It's not overly dissimilar to the last resort (because it will put them off) of pulling a stuck climber off the wall onto the rope. Except that is just to save them hanging on until they run out of energy, this is to save their life.

Neil

In reply to ClimbWestwood:

Good anchor
Rope protector
Belay or Fig of 8
Crab
Sling for wristloop

In reply to becauseitsthere:

no prusik?

In reply to owena:


Probably not in an emergency but in a test run for sure.
It would certainly feel like a very strange abseil.