Bradley Wood, High Ropes Training 2

Today I attended a training course at Bradley Wood Scout Campsite. The aim was to teach us how to use the high ropes structure with groups in safety.

This is what greeted us out of the gloom on arrival.

High Ropes Structure at Bradley Wood

The structure has three elements. From left to right:

• Jacob's ladder - logs suspended horizontally at increasing distances from bottom to top. A team work activity.
• Balance features - inclined log, horizontal log and high wire with "monkey ropes".
• Leap of faith - pole mounted platform with trapeze.

We completed elements of the structure (to get a flavour of what our clients experience), belayed one another and carried out rescues (using a Petzl I'D device, which I'd not used before) from high on the structure.

Escapable traversing belay system

Belaying involved using chain or cable ground anchors (tied in with a clove hitch), an escapable belay loop and a Petzl Grigri device.

Later the day warmed up (slightly) and it was fun to play on the structure and catch up with colleagues from Bradford Met Adventure Activities Development Unit and Wild Ways Adventure.

Shooting the breeze under Jacob's ladder