Belaying to Stakes
By Roger Dyke
And from the man who has adventures, more? is this Neville's influence?
Great risk of teaching grandmother to suck eggs here, but we have several new members so maybe this little note won't be totally wasted.
Steel stakes, wooden fence-posts, trees, municipal railings - the principle is the same in all cases: get the attachment as close to where it emerges from the ground as you can. This minimises the bending moment on the thing, so it is less likely to break off. If you have any doubt about this, drive a dahlia stake into the lawn, and experiment for yourself. Makes an amazing difference, doesn't it? Same principle as tying off a half-driven peg.
In a hurry to finish a route at Lawrencefields as a blizzard blew in, Keith had belayed with the rope to a decaying fencepost. When I came to retrieve the rope, my frozen fingers couldn't undo his knot and I solved the problem by lifting the foot-long rotting stump of the post out of the ground. But it was probably an adequate belay for bringing up a second, because he'd put the rope right down in the grass.
To be sure the tape/rope is going to stay down at ground level, a clove hitch is a good idea. Or if Neville isn't looking, perhaps a larksfoot.
Is this stake/post/tree adequate to belay to/abseil from?
Live trees and bushes are amazingly strong. But it is essential to pad them well (or they won't be live next year) and as always attach as close to ground level as you can. As a guide to how big they need to be? once in emergency Jesse James and I abbed very carefully off an inch-diameter shrub. [How about 3-4 0.4" Gorse bushes? Ed.]
A hawthorn hedge with two inch diameter stems? You can grub it out with a chain to a Landrover - but only by snatching at it. That must be several tons.
Dead trees - it was amazing how long some lasted at Tremadoc and in the Pass, but most have now pulled out. Very dodgy.
Stakes rarely fail by pulling out: they break off where they have corroded at ground level and just below. It is less painful to check them while you still have big boots on. Do try to examine at ground level? especially over sea-cliffs?
Take care!
