General Rigging Archives | Rigging Lab Academy

The Fitness of Mastery: Why High-Angle Rescue Teams Need More Than Just Technical Skill

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Coaching, Fitness, General Rigging

In times of distress, when lives hang in the balance, technical skill can only get you so far. High-angle rescue teams are experts in rope rescue techniques, rigging, and safety, but what keeps them ahead of the game is their fitness, both physical and mental. They need to be able to scale heights, stay focused …

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Balancing Act: Navigating Highlines in Rope Rescue and Life

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Designing Your Processes, Equipment, Fall Safety, General Rigging, Safe Practices, Team Competencies, Technical Learning

I love the parallels between highline systems in rope rescue and the challenges of everyday life. “In the world of rope rescue, the concept of ‘highlines’ holds a profound parallel to the challenges we encounter in life. Picture this: a highline system, suspended across a perilous gap, serving as a lifeline for those in need. …

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A climber falling 60′ while checking the route at the edge before roping up – In Critical Condition

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Designing Your Processes, Elevated Anchor Systems, General Rigging, Horizontal Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations, Patient Packaging, Portable Anchors, Principles of Learning

This illustration features a climbing outing gone awry with a climber falling 60′ while checking the route at the edge before roping up. The Rescue Response Team responds employing a high angle raise with the Arizona Vortex side A-frame in tandem with a backboard immobilization lifting harness and litter to bring the fallen climber back …

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Jiggers Are Compact 4:1 Pulley Systems and are The Rigger’s Future

By Lance Piatt / AZTEK ELITE, Blog, General Rigging, Pulleys & Mechanical Advantage / 5 Comments

Generally, these beauties are considered pre-rigged pulley systems used mainly for hauling, but can be very important in lowering heavy loads as well. The advantage of these systems is in their rapid deployment, and straightforward operation without advanced levels of training or expertise. They are low maintenance and high yield work horses and have been …

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A FRAME | QUAD BUNDLE HIGHLINE | Horizontal Rigging

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Elevated Anchor Systems, Equipment, General Rigging, Highline Rigging, Horizontal Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations, Pat Rhodes, Prusik Strength and Use

Let’s look at the floating A-frame of our quad system right now. The floating A-frame is being guyed forward and backwards with the prusiks directly connected to the track line system. Okay. So this is our guying system front and back. This is pretty clean right here the way the guys put this together… a …

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A Frame | TWIN BUNDLE HIGHLINE | Horizontal Rigging

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Elevated Anchor Systems, Equipment, General Rigging, Highline Rigging, Horizontal Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations, Pat Rhodes, Portable Anchors, Prusik Strength and Use

We’ve moved over to the floating A-frame, very much like the floating A-frame that we used for the single track line, but as we said, we’ve added the second track line here. It’s very important that these two track lines be tensioned the same. We would never mix products, for instance. We would never have …

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Gin Pole | TWIN BUNDLE | Horizontal Rigging

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Elevated Anchor Systems, General Rigging, Highline Rigging, Horizontal Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations, Pat Rhodes, Prusik Strength and Use

We’ve moved ourself down now looking at, the opposite end of the control side. We’re on the gin pole side, the “A” frame being the other side. And, let’s just talk about this real quick. Again, very similar to what we had with the single track line. We have the the twin bundle track line …

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English Reeve: Control Side & Carriage System Highline Systems

By Lance Piatt / Blog, Designing Your Processes, Dynamic Directional, Elevated Anchor Systems, General Rigging, Highline Rigging, Horizontal Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations, Mechanical Advantage, Pat Rhodes, Portable Anchors, Principles of Learning, Prusik Strength and Use, Pulley Systems

We’re back here at the lab, and this is a continuation of what we’ve done, the past couple of days with high lines. In quick review, We had, and we built the track line, and we had the control line for our basic high line system. Now what we’ve added to it is a third …

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The Top 5 Most Popular and Viewed Topics in Technical Rope Rescue for Fire Departments and Search and Rescue Teams

By Lance Piatt / Belaying, Blog, General Rigging, Leadership

Technical rope rescue is an essential skill for fire departments and search and rescue teams. It requires specialized knowledge, tools, and techniques to safely perform a variety of high-risk operations in difficult environments. With the right training and equipment, technical rope rescuers can save lives when all other options have failed. But what are the …

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Mainline Rescue Systems: Pre-plan the Working Line

By Lance Piatt / Designing Your Processes, General Rigging, Mainline Systems and Operations

Pre-plan the Working Line All too often, teams rig their haul system with the progress capture device (the ratchet) at a directional anchor located in front of the mechanical advantage system. This ratchet position is most often due to the lack of pre-planning the layout of the working/haul line system. Usually, the rigger will build …

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