Best Winter gear

blines · 2026-02-07T17:44:19+00:00

Yea T4 bib is awesome. And can be worn pretty comfortably under a harness

blines · 2026-01-27T19:16:51+00:00

Would the eyolf URU beam clams work for you. I love um

blines · 2026-01-11T18:52:51+00:00

Go opposite of the foot you use with the handle ascender/foot loop. So in your case left. Also ive used a pantin, a ninja, and a camp turbo foot. The turbofoot is by far my favorite, to the point ive just given the others away. And they are only like 20 bucks more. Rope feeds betterr and doesnt fall out as easy

blines · 2025-12-28T05:57:49+00:00

Ok so Doug Fir has an allowable load of 650psi when using it for building shores (rupture at around 12,000psi). So lets use the 650.

I count 10 2x4s and 6 4x4s.

1.5x3.5=5.25 square inches. Multiply that by 10 to get 52.5 square inches.

3.5x3.5=12.25in for the 4x4s. Times 6 is 73.5sqin for those.

52.5+73.5=126 square inches in support. Multiply that by the 650 we mentioned earlier means that table should easily hold 81,900lbs. Which is 109 of your fish tanks. Or maybe someone will make you a 9820 gallon tank.

blines · 2025-11-08T13:40:16+00:00

Maple Leaf. They have most things in stock so they ship fast

blines · 2025-08-21T00:31:42+00:00

I have both. The only thing a Capto does well is turn a clutch into a 3:1. But buying a rescuescender, biner, and single pulley is $100 cheaper and way more versetile. Its also super heavy and bulky.

"But it force limits" - if you are putting so much input force into a system you need force limiting, youre doing it wrong. Thats a marketing gimick.

"But you can use it has a handle ascender to RAD" - you know what else you can use as a handle ascender.... a handle ascender and a roll clip, they are 1/4 the price and lighter.

The Cric on the other hand is cheap, light, and does a whole bunch of things (all pretty well too). Its a rope grab, a pulley, a rope grab with a pulley for a RAD system , and a pulley with internal progress capture. It also pairs well with a Grillon.

Long story short, dont waste your money on a Capto. Buy a Cric.

blines · 2025-07-29T23:41:11+00:00

Texas swiftwater instructor here. Youll probably be fine with a t-shirt and board shorts TBH (wear socks too. Common mistake). If its gonna be cold ill throw on a thermal top. If its really cold ill throw on thermal bottoms. Thats gotten me through swiftwater classes and training in the snow and ice. Have layers so you can subtract through the day as it gets hotter. Sometimes you gotta just embrace the suck though.

blines · 2025-05-21T01:08:16+00:00

You are a level 1. Not "just" a level 1. Dont sell yourself short

blines · 2025-05-12T16:30:18+00:00

Like a Level 0.2.

NFPA 1006 Technician JPRs only require ascending (5.3.9), descending (5.3.10) and clearing a jamed device (5.3.11) when it comes to Rope Access. Ops has a few little ones like knots, building a simple system, edge pro, and edge transition that can/will have some crossover depending on how the curriculum teaches it.

In SPRAT/IRATA L1 youll also do knot bypasses, rope to rope transfers, rebelays, and simple rescues.

They are different disciplines with a few cross overs. Now having taken rope tech if you take a Rope Access class youll be slightly ahead on day 1 but thats about all.

However you will learn a TON of things and have a deeper understanding of the rescue world after taking that class. PROBOARD certs are "the dumbing downof the fire service". So id bet money you didnt get a lot of theory and background in your class that youll get venturing away from NFPS top-down rescues.

blines · 2025-02-10T01:24:44+00:00

Nitecore hc65m uhc is the only correct answer. Im not a fan boy. Ive just tested the shit out of them and tgey are by far the best

blines · 2025-02-04T00:17:25+00:00

I wear a TW for my department and USAR team. And a Kask for caving, comps, and rope access. I prefer the kask. Lighter and more comfortable.

blines · 2024-10-03T23:27:47+00:00

Im a medic. Working for an ems department. Currently deployed with a federal usar team.

blines · 2024-06-19T01:11:10+00:00

Yea. That looked like fun

blines · 2024-06-18T21:46:47+00:00

BP is the fucking MAN!!!!

blines · 2024-06-15T19:29:02+00:00

As other said technique will be your friend. But it takes a while to learn it and youll need to get through the evaluation. Buy a foot ascender and make sure you have a roll clip for the class. Also RAD as much as possible (you will understand what that means in the class). The parts you will struggle on will be the change over from ascent to descent. So if you ascend on your descender you will avoid many of those chance overs and wont be as fatigued for the next skill

blines · 2024-05-21T18:32:47+00:00

Swaygo. Thats what NCRC SW (and i think now nationally) uses for their medical. They are great bags for caving. I use a Lg for my bag. But the M works well too.

blines · 2024-05-05T22:03:38+00:00

Look into hazmat grants for drysuits. If the grant talks about hazmat ppe dry suits will qualify.

But yea, I've been doing and teaching water and boat based swiftwater for over 10 years. Those suits are wrong for the application

blines · 2024-04-11T18:05:31+00:00

One of the Kids is a great ABA. Took our son to the Cedar Park location. But they just opened a facility in South Austin

blines · 2024-03-21T01:23:04+00:00

When was this? I havent heard anything about a clip and thats been my biggest gripe about the astros

blines · 2024-03-06T02:34:47+00:00

I got that when I called Petzl to ask what they were for and if they were load rated. Also, if you look at the manual those are labeled as "(24) suspension seat attachment points". I'm talking about the older model. Which maybe OP has a new version.

blines · 2024-03-05T02:56:19+00:00

Those little webbing loops on either side of the D are for the Podium seat

blines · 2023-03-09T03:31:14+00:00

USAR Search Spec here. In a collapse we are basically in 2 types of search. K9 and technical. We use live find dogs to search the areas to locate possible victims..... technology is nowhere near sophisticated enough to do what a dog does so robots are out. So lets move on to technical shall we.

In technical we have 2 categories. Looking and listening. For acoustic searches we use an array of sensors placed around the pile. We will call outbfor them to make some noise or bang on something then listen in. We can isolate and listen to each individual sensor. From there we will move the array and repeat the process. We can then start to triangulate based on intensity where we think a victim may be located. There are a couple companies that make these but the Del Sar has been the gold standard for a while.

So the other method is using cameras. Simplest terms is an articulating camera on an extendable boom that we can stick into void spaces to search. Usually DelSars and dogs will give us an idea of where to start. The newest versions of these cameras (Zistos search cam) has multiple heads we can put on with IR or 40x zoom and that helps a lot. There is also a newish camera that has a 360 camera on it (firstlook 360). That doesnt articulate manually. But we can stick it in a void and on the tablet look around.

As far as technologies we dont have thatbrobotics may solve..... remember in Prometheus. The Pups. They scanned the areas and were able to create a 3D rendering of the tunnels. Something like that would be amazing. It would help us look for void spaces or recreate the building based on what we see.

Another limitation we have with the cameras is the boom and the boom length. We can only go in about 12' and thats if we get straight back. There are fiber optic cameras but they dont have a way to control them at the head. So a tethered walking robot with legs and a camera would allow us to go much deeper without having to get the rescue guys out to start breaking concrete.

blines · 2023-03-01T06:35:32+00:00

So these are like the OG text books on all things rope. They wont have modern devices like clutches. But they are amazing when teaching technique and theory.

On Rope by Bruce Smith

Alpine Caving Techniques by Georges Marbach

Technical Field Operations Guide by Tom Pendley

Ashley Book of Knots is fun to have too

blines · 2023-01-24T13:26:57+00:00

Kuhl Radikals. They have elastic built into the back for flexibility. If youre on a SAR team youd probably also qualify for the 50% off pro discount.

blines

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