Gifts For Rope Access Techs, From An Aberdeen Workshop
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I live in Aberdeen. Half the folk I meet at a market have either done a stint offshore or know somebody who has, and a fair few of them have hung off a rope for a living.
Which means I spend a lot of time thinking about where all that rope goes afterwards. The answer, mostly, is a skip.
Rope access rope is retired on paperwork
This is the bit that separates the trade from recreational climbing. A climber retires a rope when it feels done, or when it is old enough that they stop trusting it. Slowly, reluctantly, and usually years late.
In rope access, rope comes out of service on inspection and procedure. It goes when the paperwork says it goes, whatever it looks like, because the alternative is a conversation nobody wants to have. That is exactly the right call for safety.
It also means a lot of rope leaves service with plenty of life left in it for anything that is not holding a person up.
Gifts for a rope access tech
Do not buy them kit. Their kit is specified, inspected and usually not theirs to choose. Buy them something for the other twenty two hours of the day.
Rope belt, £28 or £33. Made to exact waist, 22 to 50 inches. Goes on over a boiler suit or under a fleece and will not die. Recycled climbing rope belts.
Cup cosy and can cooler, £30. Goes in the bag for a trip. Keeps a brew hot on a cold platform and a tin cold when they get home.
Carabiner keychain, £15. A working clip, not a novelty. They will clip it to a bag on day one.
Dog lead, £30. For the dog that goes mental when they get back off a three week trip. Climbing rope dog leads.
Keychains, £3 to £4. Cheap, useful, and made from the same stuff they trust with their life at work. See them here.
If you run the store, read this bit
The North Sea gets through a staggering amount of rope and sling and nobody counts it or asks for it back. If you are the person signing off decommissioned line, I would genuinely love to hear from you.
Here is how to send me your rope. It comes out the other end as something a person uses every day, and you get a photo of what it became.
Made in Aberdeen, from rope that has already worked for a living
Every quid goes to a real person, which in this case is me, in a workshop, with a very sore back.
Shop the giftsLess waste. More miles.
Stay classy and remember,
Make Waste Useful.
George