Hanging from Cables!

Hanging from the cables about 60 feet in the air is pretty exciting!  I enjoy physical challenges and always find it exhilarating to be high in the air climbing around on less than stable cables.  The cables wiggle and wobble and I just hold on and keep going to do whatever I'm there to do.  In this post I'm climbing up to show another guy how to string up the rope to use the "Flying Squirrel." For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a high element where someone is pulled quickly up into the air by the rest of the team pulling the rope they are attached to.  In about 2 seconds the person is dangling about 40 feet in the air... weeeee!

This is a carabiner and a daisy chain.

We call this system our "personal protection."  I love using a daisy chain because it has loops on it and allows me to hook in at a long length or a short length depending on what I'm doing.  It's very versatile for doing many different things.  I use this pretty much any time I'm out working.    

Heading out on the cables.

Getting set

Notice how I have two long yellow lanyards for safety?  I always have at least two safety lines, that way I can clip from one cable to another without ever being without a safety line.  Many times I have a third safety line for comfort.  Here I'm clipping the daisy chain pretty short so I can't fall very far at all.  

Moving out on the cables.

Almost to the pulley.

Climbing down to the lower cable to put the rope through the pulley.

 Climbing up in the cables is hard work!  Sometimes you are climbing across and other times you are climbing up and down between cables.  I find that it's a really good workout, but a workout that I can do pretty much all day because I enjoy it.  

Stringing the rope through another pulley.

 I ended up doing this climb 3 times as the "Flying Squirrel" was built.  First to put the pulleys on... then to thread the rope through the pulleys... and once again to double check everything to make sure we didn't overlook anything.

 Later in the week I got the chance to take a ride on the "Flying Squirrel."  I've been on this element several times in Salem, but here in Maringa it was kinda special because I got to experience going on something that I helped build.  It was AWESOME!