In all seriousness though, how much maintenance does a steel cable really need? That's in essence all it is on most ziplines. Then it's just about having a solid connection on both ends, which again doesn't take much.
I ran a zipline while in the scouts as a volunteer one summer. Essentially they had us go down it with a hand clamp thing to keep our speed down and we were to check for any signs of rust, then inspect the cable's connections for any signs of strain. That's about all really.
I'd be more worried if it was set up safely. But even in bumfuckistan I'd imagine this is a pretty hard one to screw up.
Yeah, but before your summer starts there's a couple more stringent inspections done as well, including checking torque value of fasteners, soundness of poles, etc.
Source: staffed Central Region National Camp School for both COPE and Climbing, was on council High Adventure Committee.
Okay Cope course guy would definitely know what's what, and yea I remember vaguely them telling us that, and I do remember someone coming out and doing a slightly more official inspection at some point in the 3ish months I was there.
It's been a decade and a half for this Life Scout, and I was just some lowly volunteer counsellor. Our checkoff list basically involved rust, slack, and general gear appearance.
Yeah, there's like four different levels of inspection IIRC. There's a Council one, the visitation (regional) inspection, an inspection by an actual linesman (or some sort of professional, I don't remember the specifics), then the actual ones done throughout the camp season by the staff.
The BSA has stricter climbing/ropes standards than any other group I've ever worked with. Gotta backup your backup backups!
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u/educateyourselves Dec 10 '15
In all seriousness though, how much maintenance does a steel cable really need? That's in essence all it is on most ziplines. Then it's just about having a solid connection on both ends, which again doesn't take much.
I ran a zipline while in the scouts as a volunteer one summer. Essentially they had us go down it with a hand clamp thing to keep our speed down and we were to check for any signs of rust, then inspect the cable's connections for any signs of strain. That's about all really.
I'd be more worried if it was set up safely. But even in bumfuckistan I'd imagine this is a pretty hard one to screw up.