Grant Harris of Canopy Access Ltd. has kindly put together a document giving guidelines as to some common mistakes made with Single Rope Technique, and showing how to avoid those risks.  Grant’s company is involved in canopy access work for scientists and film-makers all over the world, so he has logged a lot of vertical kilometres on SRT and he really knows his stuff.  In addition, Grant’s document also demonstrates several techniques for conducting an aerial rescue when the casualty is suspended on SRT gear.

You can download a copy of the SRT safety notes PDF here.

Climbers who are not familiar with Single Rope Technique may like to check out the SRT PDF that is available in the Downloads section.

The results for the 2010 VTCC are now available, with apologies for the delay in these being published.  The VTIO would like to congratulate Tom Oldmeadow for winning the 2010 VTCC Master’s Challenge in the Men’s Masters Grade, and Jessica Knott for winning the Women’s Masters. 

Tom McLennan won the Men’s Open Grade with great scores in every event, and Quinton Garlick took home the prize for overall winner of the Student category. 

Masters Grade Preliminary Results

Open Grade Results

Women’s Grade Results

Student Grade Results

The 2010 VTCC Mens Masters Grade overall winners were:

Registration is now closed for the 2010 Victorian Tree Climbing Championship.

Gear check for the competition will be held at Cannings of Mt Waverly from 3pm to 5pm on Friday 22nd October.  Competitors are asked to download and complete the Draft PPE and climbing gear inspection record prior to attending.  Any questions relating to the record form please contact Kiah Martin on 0411 858984.  Any questions relating to the gear check please contact Greg Fowler on 0419 171595.

The competition will be held in Burke St Park in Warragul.  Competitors are asked to arrive on site at 7:00am, judges by 7:30am for a prompt start.  Coffee will be available on site! 

The competition is planned to be run across two days, with the Masters’ Challenge being held on the Sunday morning.  This may however be subject to change depending on weather forecasts and conditions.   Further details will be posted here closer to the date.

The VTIO is pleased to be able to make available a new document in our downloads section.  The draft PPE and climbing gear inspection record is an excel spreadsheet  for climbers to document monthly and bi-annual climbing gear inspections.

The spreadsheet is designed to make it simple and quick to record the results of regular documented climbing equipment inspections, which should be in addition to the daily inspection carried out by all climbers prior to using equipment.  For more information on recommended equipment inspection schedules, please consult the  VTIO Draft Climbing Guidelines.  The spreadsheet can be completed electronically, or printed out and filled in by hand. 

We hope that a more standardised equipment inspection record sheet will aid the practice of regular gear inspection across the industry, as well as making it easier for sub-contractors or visiting climbers to validate the inspection history of their equipment.  Climbers in the VTCC will be expected to produce this or a similar document for the competition gear inspection, documenting the date of issue of their climbing equipment as well as an inspection history.

Please note however that the document is currently in a draft format, and we welcome criticism and input from the climbing community.  Questions or comments please contact Kiah Martin(kiah@thetreeworks.com.au).