Rope walk

“ No! they had not availed themselves of that process. Then, with the conviction that an indirect way must exist, we examined the walls a few feet below the pitch, and at last hit upon a way of mounting higher. I was belayed by a rope passing round the upright block already referred to, and proceeded to walk along the horizontal edge of a thin crack on the right wall, leaning across to the other side of the gully for general support on the hands. I had implicit trust in the rope and the man at the other end of it, or the manœuvre would have given me agonies of apprehension. ”

“ To walk a rope, signifies that you will engage in some hazardous speculation, but will surprisingly succeed. To see others walking a rope, you will benefit by the fortunate ventures of others.
To jump a rope, foretells that you will startle your associates with a thrilling escapade bordering upon the sensational. ”

“ Forming and Laying of Ropes and Cables—Ropewalk Method Before taking up the strictly modern machines so largely used now in the final processes of rope-making—the forming of strands, laying of common ropes and closing of cable-laid goods—we shall describe the ropewalk method of performing these operations as it is practised today.
For making tarred goods in all but the smaller sizes the walk has certain advantages not afforded by more advanced methods. It also provides efficient equipment for turning out the largest ropes, which would otherwise require special machinery. ”

“ In the case of a common right-laid rope, the forming twist is left hand. A change to right hand can be made simply by shifting clutches. The amount of turn or twist depends on the diameter of the drum, which is adjustable.
Behind the machine follows a man who swings out the stakes, placed at intervals along the walk, and throws the strands over them. When the process is completed the strands are cut away at either end and transferred to the laying ground, the stakes being pushed back to allow the return of the forming machine for another trip. ”

“ The workman in our picture is Johnny Moores, an old-time expert hand-spinner, who could walk off23 backward from the wheel with his wad of hemp, spinning with each hand a thread as fine and even as could be asked for. In the photograph, in order to show the process more clearly, one large yarn is being spun.
The large wheel, usually turned by a boy, is used to convey power to the “whirls” or small spindles carrying hooks upon which the fiber is fastened. ”

“ The windlass, as I have said, revolved slowly, but it revolved persistently. If I would remain with my head above the well-rim—which, I freely confess, I had a morbid desire to do—I must swarm as persistently up the rope. That was an eerie and airy sort of treadmill: to climb, and climb, and always climb, paying out the cord beneath me, that I might remain in one place. ”

“ I feel good. Now
a stoic ice shines
in me.
It makes me laugh this ruby
rope
grinding in my body.
Rope without end,
like a
spiral
descending
from
evil...
bloody and left-handed rope
formed by
a thousand daggers in support. ”

“ All we know so far about the breaking-point of mountaineering ropes, is that they may break under a shock which will leave a man unmoved in his steps though, on trial, they may resist a tension far greater than can be put upon them by the dropping suddenly into space of a man’s weight.
An athlete may burst a taut chain by muscular effort. A horse may burst his girths by a little inflation. What about a slack rope? ”

“ If we have fair room to balance, we play the rope [Pg 222] entirely free with our arms and the spring of our body, using only an anchor to the rock if we need it. If we have not room, and especially if we are protecting a leader, whose fall would jerk us off most positions of free balance, we put the rope over the point and play it round with both hands, ready to grip and spring it upon our arms if a jerk comes. Or we pass the active rope round our forearm or over the thigh or across the shoulder, on its way to the belay-point. ”

“ In view of the fact that we were all novices at rope-climbing, each of us submitted, before starting, to having a leather thong tied under the arms, and made fast to the sliding cylinder, so that if loss of nerve or other cause had made us let go we should not have fallen into the river, but hung limply on the rope until rescued. ”

“ On all smooth snow and ice slopes, unless we are moving short-roped over safe and fairly even glacier, the rope-lengths between us should be allowed to ‘travel’ lightly on the surface. This lightens the draw of a heavy rope carried on the waist or hand, and avoids the strain upon the balance. Too much travelling rope is a drag; too little tightens on us like a brake. The hand must get to know by feel when there is just enough down to let it travel lightly and freely. ”

“ The strain of the rope round one’s waist, threatening to effect a complete change in one’s internal anatomy, a vague clawing at air with one’s hands and an equally vague searching for foot-hold with the nether limbs as you dangle in space at the end of a forty-foot rope with precipices and snow slopes of over a thousand feet below, have a chastening influence on the most seasoned mountaineer, and, however exhilarating the experience may be, it is always with feelings of supreme satisfaction, and almost of devout thankfulness, that he once more comes to close grips with mother earth. ”

“ The man got it under his arms, and after hauling him along for a hundred yards at the least—and one may judge of the velocity with which he was dragged through the water, by the fact that it took the united strain of ten powerful men to get him in—he was brought safely on board, pale and blue, when we found that the running of the rope had crushed in his broad chest, below his arms, as if it had been a girl’s waist, indenting the very muscles of it and of his back half an inch deep. ”

“ On traverses or zigzags, unless we can reach a very good turning or anchor step from which to pull in the rope of the man following, we do better to divide our stance between two steps. Our feet are then well planted to resist a pull coming diagonally or from straight behind us. On a traverse, if we are facing forward, standing either on one or two steps, it is best not to turn and watch the man following, which will prejudice our balance, but to trust to the feel of the rope to tell us what is happening. The rope on ice with its smooth movement is even a surer telegraph than on rock. ”

“ The last ten feet are the danger, for the short, swinging loose end may at any second jam or catch round the taut rope in its dance. To break any slight friction or hitch, and give the end of the rope a springing release from its belay, these last few feet should be rushed with a sharp continuous pull by two or more of the party, who must then look out for their heads! ”

“ Arrived at this point, where the ropes will have cut deep into the snow, the engulfed man has only to rest his whole weight on the rope round his waist, and he can then jerk the other rope free from the snow, and get fresh hold higher up, and, little by little, extricate himself. ”

“ Again, and again the guide rope, dangling 100 yards below our basket, touched earth; and soon even the basket began to graze the tops of trees.
What is called “guide roping” thus began for me. M. Machuron and I each held a sack of ballast, and when some special obstacle rose in our path—a tree or house—one of us would throw out a few handfuls of sand, to make the balloon leap up and pass over it. More than half the guide rope dragged behind us, and so we scudded comparatively close to earth at a wonderfully even altitude. ”

“ Everyone is responsible for the portion of the rope between himself and the man ahead. When paying out rope to the man ahead, keep it clear of cracks. Keep your portion of the rope away from loose rocks. On rock-faces and dificult traverses, only one man should move at a time, the others being ready to hold him if he slip. Always make use of projecting rocks for belaying pins, after making sure that it is secure. Test the rope occasionally, especially before trusting your weight on it. When a party is moving steadily upward, carry a small loop of the rope in one hand. ”

“ For the indirect belay we loop the active rope of the man climbing round a convenient point, and then make it our business to interpose our hands, arms, legs, shoulders, or any part of us which may prevent a jerk of his rope from coming uninterruptedly on to the solid rock. ”

“ They immediately threw a thick rope across the chasm, which was made fast to a neighbouring tree—another rope was fastened within a foot of it—over these, two strong hoops were sent across, connected with each other, and affixed to a strong rope, and by resting the body within these, and holding the ropes by the arms, each individual of the party was dragged in safety to the other side of the rock. ”

“ It was imperative for one only to move at a time, and the perpetual 230 roping and unroping was most wearisome. In one place it was necessary to pay out 150 feet of rope between one position of comparative security and the one next below it, till the individual who was thus lowered looked like a bait at the end of a deep sea-line. One step and the snow would crunch up in a wholesome manner and yield firm support. ”

“ Having nothing on but shirt, trowsers, and hat, the common sea-rig of warm weather, I had no stripping to do, and began my descent, by taking hold of the rope in each hand, and slipping down, sometimes with hands and feet round the rope, and sometimes breasting off with one hand and foot against the precipice, and holding on to the rope with the other. ”

“ During all the intricate manœuvres incidental to combined climbing, the watch on the rope may never be relaxed, and a few further hints as to its management may be useful to leaders and followers alike.
With a rope, as with a horse, anticipation is the secret. Once it catches, or kinks, or entangles, the result is nightmare. Of its control, when men are moving together, I have already spoken: the perpetual glance, and flick, and swing, to keep it free, that must become subconscious. ”

“ Crossing a steep snow or ice-couloir where it is necessary to cut steps, let the leader go the full length of the rope himself. Those-behind can hold the rope securely. Never attempt a dangerous place without at least one good anchorage within the length of the rope. ”

“ For a man below, [Pg 224] it is of more assistance that we should be able to give him the immediate pull or steady with his active rope which a free stance or body belay allows us to do, and which will prevent him slipping at all, than that, when for lack of this instantaneous touch he has slipped, his active rope should be rock-belayed, and should be thus more stonily certain of stopping him in his further fall. ”

“ The right method is to turn sideways to the rock, slightly raise the outside thigh, pass the double rope under it high up between the legs, and grip the farther lengths of rope so passed with the outside hand, palm upwards. The inside hand grasps the tightened ropes above, with bent arm, at about the level of the head. ”

“ It was rope, and it gave way beneath my grasp. I caught at something again. It was a wheel and it turned round, but, as strange sounds, shouts, and cries reached my ears, I got hold of the cross beam, and somehow, by help of the wheel, managed to reach my old position, but crouching down and holding on for dear life.
"Below there!" shouted a familiar voice, but hollow and strange, "who is it?"
"I! Help! Help!" I gasped, now thoroughly unnerved.
"Right; can you hold on till we send you down a rope?" ”

“ The impact of one coming down throws the other up into the air some three or four feet. A rope is drawn above their heads like a clothes-line, and to this they cling as they go up in the air, in order to insure their equilibrium. ”

“ If there is no corner to help, we must lean the whole weight of our body upon the rope where it runs out to us round the belay on our axe; so crushing the racing rope into the snow and reducing the final tug upon the driven axe shaft. ”

“ Such an aspect of the utility of the rope need scarcely be commented upon, but I was not surprised a day or two after hearing the story to be characterized by a non-climbing acquaintance in town as a desperate venturesome individual, one who went about climbing mountains with a rope. By non-climbers a rope must indeed be regarded as a source of danger. ”

“ With such energy was that strong man cannonading himself through the air that at each extremity of his increasing arc his body, standing in the swing, was almost horizontal. Should he once pass above the level of the rope's attachment he would be lost; the rope would slacken and he would fall vertically to a point as far below as he had gone above, and then the sudden tension of the rope would wrest it from his hands. ”

“ A common rope is stretched upon two pair of crossed spars, about twenty feet distant, and four-
PASTIME. 101
teen feet from the ground. A man piies six water- pots upon his head, and thus accoutred, ascends the rope by means of the spars, or of a sloping cord on the outside of them; the rope is not quite tight, but left with a slack of about three feet; he then, with a balance pole in his hand, walks backward and forward, and swings the rope to its extent without letting a single pot fall. ”