ROPE ACCESS NUMBERS - PODCAST - THE ROPE ACCESS AND CLIMBING PODCAST
Hello and welcome back to The Rope Access and Climbing Podcast. Today I’m chatting about Rope Access Numbers.
Not the number of people in the industry or the number of things that have gone wrong. But the Measurements we seem to talk about in our industry.
Last week (JULY 11/21) I posted a tech talk video on How to Right Large Y-Hangs. (Click Here: https://youtu.be/EkbjLWes6AU ). In this video, I used the Measurement 1.5m.
I would have to say that the industry norm is 1.5m for Y-Hangs, and such. Well, it’s not 100% correct.
Y-Hangs are defined as Small or Large:
IRATA: 1M
SPRAT: 2M
Re-Anchors – Small or Large:
IRATA: 1.5M
SPRAT: 2M
Deviations – Single or Double:
IRATA: 20Degrees or 1.5M
SPRAT: 20Degrees
Now with this being said, SPRAT and IRATA require you to Double up the Rigging on Y-Hangs or Deviations no matter the distance if there is a chance of a Failure of the Rope Access System if the one side of the anchor device were to fail. So, if you are rigging a Y-hang or a Deviation to avoid a super-hot surface. Then it has to be doubled up anyway, so the rule of distance goes out the window.
So, why are we so focused on the distance, when we should be focused on training/mentoring our techs better? The IRATA TACS and SPRAT Certification Requirements for Rope Access Work are only guidelines.
So, hit me up in the comments or on Instagram and let’s chat about this. Maybe make another episode on this about my findings. Should it be a big deal that the difference is ½ a meter or a meter? Or should we just agree to disagree that 1.5m is good enough across the board and IRATA/SPRAT should just meet in the middle? (1.5 METERS)
