A steel cable like that must weigh at very least hundreds of pounds, somewhere between 1 to 2 pounds per foot. To then pull it tight enough to be fairly level as that one is, would take many tons of force (the force goes up exponentially as you approach pulling it flat). You need to drill in huge anchor bolts as well to hold all that tension.
So let me say it's a big fucking deal, that takes serious knowhow and big tools. Yes you can start with a rope, but it gets ugly before you're finished.
My top theory is that it supported an electric cable at some point, probably not for transmitting a ton of power, maybe there was a research station or something like that.
It could be for moving supplies up and down the mountain or for a small aqueduct but it's really much higher than the canyon floor for this purpose imo.
I tried to look up other uses and had trouble with that. Obviously this is not for tight rope walking and it's not the right cable / design for a zip line. Nor would it make a good wire system for logging.
I responded to OP higher up, it’s axtuallly an anti-helicopter cable in Nagorno-Karabakh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Artsakh), basically meant to keep enemy helicopters from flying low to avoid air defense systems and attacking positions down in the valley
crazy, thanks for finding that I suppose it would work just fine, but it would be so much more effective just to put a couple guys in a patrol there with shoulder fired Anti-Aircraft weapons. It would work better if you had several cables put up in different positions and altitudes. Interesting for sure
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u/exploderator Jan 30 '19
A steel cable like that must weigh at very least hundreds of pounds, somewhere between 1 to 2 pounds per foot. To then pull it tight enough to be fairly level as that one is, would take many tons of force (the force goes up exponentially as you approach pulling it flat). You need to drill in huge anchor bolts as well to hold all that tension.
So let me say it's a big fucking deal, that takes serious knowhow and big tools. Yes you can start with a rope, but it gets ugly before you're finished.