UKC

Oooops, Santa got stuck....next time it could be you!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-20386903

This reminded me of why, when setting up an abseil used for pure entertainement (as opposed to getting off some rock when abandoning a climb, for example) we always set up using a releasable abseil and safety line.

Sxx

In reply to Sarah G:

The article did say that he was quite capable of getting down by taking off the fake beard, but was "too much of a professional", which doesn't sound too bad to me.

In reply to davidbeynon:

It does seem surprising that they (presumably) didn't use a releaseable abseil though...

Neil

In reply to davidbeynon:
And not at all like a lame excuse made up to cover his embarrassment when asked about it later?

In reply to davidbeynon:
Not entirely sure he could have, to hbe honest- it looks like there is only a single line, and he is weighted on that line with the belay plate 9or whatever he was using) being jammed full of beardy stuff. He would have needed to take the weight off the belay device in oder to get the beard out and free it up....

Sx

In reply to Neil Williams:
I'm not surprised. I've seen charity abseils set up without safety lines or releaseable ab.

Sx

In reply to Sarah G:

Hilarious.

Call me a wuss but I'd ask that army chap to attach to me before poking scissors into my belay plate

That looks so sketchy! Santa abseiling with no type of back up whatsoever, then the rescuer waving some scissors around a taut rope.

In reply to trouserburp:

Those trainers don't say army to me, I think he's just one of those chaps who likes to dress as if he might be in the army. Reminds me of that dodgy character who popped up on here a while back pretending to be an MRT type.

In reply to deepsoup:

Definitely a squaddie, the shaped beret gives it away. Note also that Santa was wearing combat highs (boots) also.

In reply to jonny2vests: pongo's haven't got a clue.....

In reply to dale1968:

I'd say you're right. They bloody love abseiling though for some reason.

Bootneck?

In reply to jwa:

I recently had cause to cut a fully weighted rope and found it to be nothing like the catastrophic failure at the merest touch described in 'Touching the Void.' It was actually more of a prolonged sawing process that could be eeked out to the point of leaving a single strand of core if you so wanted.

But I would have set up a releaseable abseil as it could after all have been Santa's fingers in the belay device, not a fist full of slightly smelly, off white nylon beard.

In reply to Sarah G: This came out a couple of years ago in response to a similar incident

http://www.petzl.com/files/fckfiles/file/PetzlAmerica/Holiday_Tech_Notice/H...

In reply to Eric the Red:

Having recently cut a fully weighted 5mm cord it was exactly like teh catastrophic failure in touching the void. Maybe it deoends on the rope/rope thickness.

I definiately wouldn't be letting anyone near my weighted rope with a pair of scissors, not without securing me to another rope first!

In reply to Martin1978:

I guess if I was abseiling on 5mm cord I'd think the same. On a 9mm kernmantle I'd probably still feel the same but I was just sharing my experience!

In reply to jonny2vests: guilty, as charged!

In reply to Sarah G: That is really bad, at about 50 seconds he actually lets go of the dead rope which could have ended very badly.

I can't ever remember reading in a book that an effificent abseil rescue is to nevously hack away near the rope with a pair of nail scissors .

This could have been an avoidable situation had an ID,Stop or Gri Gri been used or if they had hired a trained qualified company to do this.(Or simply got someone in who knew what they were doing)

In reply to dale1968:

The hometown gave it away

I am an ex-pongo. Engineers 15 years + 7 in the STABS. But I f*cking loath abseiling.

In reply to muppetfilter:

Yeah. The services often get approached for this sort of thing, on the assumption that they do this sort of thing all the time. Dale might, most don't.

That was quite funny though, I agree, I'm not sure how keen I'd have been on someone using a pair of scissors around a weighted rope ...

In reply to muppetfilter:


Agreed, the whole thing looks amateurish in the extreme. No safety rope, nobody tailing on the ground, Santa not knowing to take a wrap round his leg before the problem got worse, rescuer not transferring Santa to his own line, hands off the dead rope, etc, etc, etc.

As you say, there are operators who do these kind of gigs routinely and with much better contingency planning than is exhibited here.

In reply to Jamie Bankhead: I'm just glad it wasn't a story about someone decking out infront of a large crown.As you say so many ways this could be avoided but also remedied safely and quickly. Why didnt the rescuer just drop a pre rigged haul rope down and lift the stuck santa enough to release him?

In reply to muppetfilter:

Presumably because if he'd been thinking that far ahead, it would have been a releasable abseil (as in the title of the thread) and no "rescue" would have been necessary. He could simply have lowered Santa, who would have appeared to the crowd to still be abseiling.

Last year's viral 'inept abseiling Santa' video was much more cringeworthy than this one: youtube.com/watch?v=s9Qg39Fvg1c&

In reply to deepsoup:

Wow, I agree, that was loads worse.

In reply to jonny2vests:


If only because of the suspense element of not knowing what he was going to crash into if his efforts to free the beard by letting go of the dead rope had been "successful"..

In reply to Jamie Bankhead:
Yup. It reminds me of Wile E Coyote jumping up and down on the trapdoor that failed to open when the roadrunner ran across it. :O)

In reply to Sarah G: Thank you, gave me a laugh this fine evening!

In reply to Sarah G:

.....
Stephanie Maynard, **marketing manager** at the centre, said Santa was not hurt.

"He could have just taken his beard off and let himself down but he was such a professional and he didn't want to let the children down," she said.
.....
Think the bit with 2 *s either side of it explains a lot. ()

In reply to Sarah G: Presumbaly Santa could have self rescued without loss of face(beard) if he'd just had a large prussik loop he could have stepped into to unweight the belay plate and free his beard... seems prefereable to the scissors...

In reply to Oujmik:
Ideally he should have used a prussik/sling to place the belay device above his beard in the first place...

The options are endless, hey. I suppose we should be glad that Santa didn't go splat after the intervention with scissors etc from the squaddie and/or letting go of the dead rope....

there's just no excuse.

Sxx