Training Night - Animal Bag

Monday Night was training night. This week’s learning was knotwork/ropework followed by a run through of the new ‘animal’ bag and how to attach this to the cliff man (cliff technician). The bag is bright red and is to be used if we need to lift a dog from the cliff face. The zip allows the dog to be put in the dark and controlled/ calmed down – which is a job easier said than done! A dog with a broken leg is not going to like the person shoving it in a bag!

As yes we do rescue dogs, but only if an owner is intent on retrieving them (no pun intended), and we have the resources to do so. It is also excellent training for when we need to go over in anger for a person. I believe Steve has been bitten once – by a dog, not a person obviously, while Austen is sent over if the dog looks really mean.

As part of his cliff technician training Gareth got rigged up in a cliff harness, while Tom and Dee sorted the equipment and attached the animal bag. We use a device called a PAW to connect the animal bag to the cliff man. Basically an aluminium plate in the shape of an animal’s paw that allows many carabineers to be connected.





Above: The PAW connector - available for £15.99 at all good climbing shops.

To make it realistic Austen and John put some weight in it, (can’t say what went in it, but it argued a lot and was equivalent in weight to a right podgy Labrador). The Sector Manager, Pip, looked on to make sure we were doing it right. No weight was actually lifted in on the bag as this was purely a rigging test.


Above: The Animal Bag with Podgy Labrador

Another useful session was concluded with tea and guess what, ….biscuits. Thank you to the chap who donated some Jaffa cakes to the team.