 Had this emailed to me. It's from yesterdays Telegraph Online. What ever next?
HSE has no head for heights
Because of a bizarre decision by the Health and Safety Executive - that a European Union directive designed to promote safety on building sites must be applied to rock climbers - British mountaineers will have to endanger their lives by fixing two separate ropes up rock faces instead of one. It will also be necessary to fix safety notices on mountains to warn climbers when they are approaching icy or snow-covered surfaces.
For two years Britain's leading climbing and mountaineering organisations have pleaded in vain with the HSE that the "Working at Heights" directive, 2001/45, laying down safety rules for working with ladders and ropes, was never intended to cover outdoor activities such as rock-climbing and caving, to which it is wholly inappropriate. In all other EU countries, such as France, Germany and Austria, this was taken for granted. Only in the UK have the authorities insisted that the directive, designed to promote safety on building sites and for workers such as window cleaners, should also apply to recreations such as rockclimbing, whenever a professional is involved, for example as a guide or instructor.
Among the experts who advised the HSE on the directive were Iain Peter of the National Mountain Centre in North Wales, John Cousins of the United Kingdom Mountain Training Board, and Marcus Bailie, the head of inspection at the Adventure Activity Licensing Authority. They pointed out that when climbers use a rope they do not climb up the rope itself but the rock face. The single rope is only needed as a safety device should they fall off. The directive's requirement that a second rope must be fixed alongside the first would therefore not only be unnecessary but dangerous. Climbers would have to waste effort carrying and installing a heavy second rope which is irrelevant to their safety.
Initially these experts, who formed the HSE's Adventure Activity Industry Advisory Committee, were under the impression that the people they were advising had grasped the points they were making. To their astonishment, when the draft regulations were published, it was obvious that the officials had disregarded everything they had been told - to the extent that they insist on the erection of warning notices when climbers must cross "fragile or brittle surfaces", such as snowfields and icy rock.
What particularly incenses these professional bodies is that they are acknowledged as experts on mountain safety all over the world, which was why the HSE originally invited them to sit on its advisory committee. Yet now that the HSE has persisted in issuing regulations which, as Mr Bailie puts it, "would constitute a reduction in safety standards", the committee is to be dissolved. It seems our safety officials no longer need advice, despite being laughed at by the rest of Europe for devising an application of the directive that they alone could have been crazy enough to conceive.
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 Surely only using two ropes is taking it too light-hearted. Maybe a ladder, or better still some scaffolding would make things safer. Additionally, a huge inflatable mattress should be positioned underneath.
As for the climbing surface, I've seen some rock that looked really dangerous, so maybe someone could chisel huge holds into the surface, or maybe a nice set of steps.
Did I miss anything?
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 I expect they will make it illegal to climb anything that isn't bolted next.
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 Maybe they should install lifts and escalators at all climbing sites, so we don't get tired?
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 I now have to make my trainees wear hard hats on the "low ropes" course that I take them on at work. It's just 8" off the ground. But the HSE have said there is a "crebile risk for head inguries."
BOLLOX. Ther is more danger involved in going down the stairs to get to the bloody course than anyone falling off and smashing their head on all that really nasty hard mulched tree bark that is around each of the rope sections.
H&S gone MAD!
(Sorry) <rant off now.>
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Ah - thin end of fat wedge...
Cold conditions - dangerous.
Windy days - dangerous
Becks, Lakes, rivers and beaches - dangerous.
And even a fluffy kitten can give you a scratch that can become infected, leading to gangrene, amputation, cat scratch fever,tetanus, rabies, coma and death.
All fluffy kittens should have warning notices stuck on them and be put in glass boxes with a little toy mouse and a piece of string to play with.
Ah! Bless.
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And anyone who confesses to finding the idea of "risk" appealing should be incarcerated for their own protection until they have been re-educated in modern health and safety concepts.
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 With a box full of rats fixed to their heads no doubt....
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 Bunch of Arse
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Me???
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You after a slap, Newbold?
;oP
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What's wrong with using double 9mm ropes instead of a single 11mm rope ?
Wouldn't that satisfy them ?
I like the idea of an inflatable matress, I'm sure you could market that to boulderers. How about a suit that's like an airbag that you could inflate instantly if you fell off. A bit like that airbag around that martian lander thing they sent a couple of years back.
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From a selfish point of view Jane's idea of installing lifts and escalators is the ideal solution, at least it would generate work for us construction types, problem is of couse building them would be too dangerous in the first place. So why not just give up climbing and ride lifts instead, they could have ratings based on heights climed, glass walls inside or outside the building. How about a new website Elevator Magic ?
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But elevators are scary!
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And specs that turn completely black on sensing danger. I think that one's been done before, though. Personally, I dont like lifts - its that scary disembodied female voice who announces she's about to go down - or is it just me that hears that?
"6th Floor. Going down. That bloke's laughing at you, by the way.... Doors closing" Oooer.
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