Vertical caving terminology and methods > Personal SRT gear
Personal protective equipment. Hardware that has been rated for use in hazardous situations (such as working at heights), to prevent injury. The rating may specify that it can be used for activities such as caving, but might not meet the requirements for rope access work. The rating will say what the minimum breaking strength (MBS) of the device needs to be, and the device will normally be supplied with details or either its MBS or its working load limit, which may be higher than the PPE rating requires. Often the same equipment could be purchased without being PPE rated, but for PPE rating, it normally must have instructions for how to use and maintain the equipment, and inspect it for safety. You are apparently supposed to read these instructions, and I know you will have read them thoroughly. PPE rated is the only way to go for SRT.
When selecting any equipment for SRT, and the product is rated as PPE according to one of the trusted regulations, it is important to check whether it is made or certified in a country that has PPE standards, and actually enforces them. Less trustworthy manufacturers can falsify PPE ratings, and use low quality materials that make the products unsuitable for use. Just because a product has a PPE rating certification stamp on it does not mean that it actually adheres to that rating. If a product claims to be UIAA certified, you can check if it actually is, using the UIAA website, but there is no equivalent for CE/CEN certification which applies to European products. Purchase only from trustworthy sources, which will have actually checked that the products are not counterfeit, and will actually have been tested for compliance with the relevant PPE standards that they claim to be compliant with. European, North American and Australasian manufacturers, no matter what country they have their products made in, have to adhere to regulations when stamping a product with a certified PPE symbol, so it is beneficial to purchase brands from those regions. If a product is made and branded in places that are renowned for low quality manufacturing, then you should consider whether or not you can trust them to have followed the PPE testing requirements properly. You literally have to trust your life, and that of your fellow cavers to SRT gear and tackle. Make sure it is worthy of that trust.
The British Standards Institution issued standards (BS 431 and BS 908) for Manila hemp and sisal ropes in 1931, which were updated in 1946. In 1950, the British Mountaineering Council stated that both British standards should apply to mountaineering ropes, and gave further requirements for strengths. Hemp and sisal were grouped with other natural fibre ropes (BS 2052) in 1953. Nylon was then covered (BS 3104) from 1959. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme, UIAA) standards were the first to cover sports like caving, particularly creating safety ratings for ropes from 1960 and safety standards for carabiners since 1965 (UIAA 121), and while not a legal body, this rating was used in many countries around the world, including Britain and other European countries, Canada, the USA and New Zealand (but not Australia). The British Standards Institution standard for hawser laid nylon mountaineering ropes (BS 3104) came into force in 1970, but they never completed their proposed coverage of the other synthetic fibres, or kernmantel ropes. The British Health and Safety at Work etc. Act came into force in 1974. However, this was aimed at working conditions and therefore rope access, rather than caving. The European standards for PPE were adopted in 1989, and came into force from 1992 onwards, where conforming products can be marked with a CE logo and standard number. The British version of that (Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations) started to be introduced from 1992 onwards, and came into force from 1993 onwards. However, each different type of PPE product has its own timeline from then onwards, and some items were not PPE rated for several more years. For example, the European rope standards for SRT rope (CEN EN 1891), dynamic rope (CEN EN-892) and carabiners (CEN EN-12275) were created in 1998. These then superseded all the relevant existing British standards. The UIAA also published their UIAA 101 standard for dynamic ropes in 1998, and since 2004, this has been based almost completely on the European standards. The same applies to many of the UIAA's other standards. The UIAA standard UIAA 107 for static ropes was first published in 2013, based on CEN EN 1891. The British UKCA and Northern Irish UKNI ratings are simply a reference to the relevant European standards, and apply from 2021 onwards. As a result, within Europe (and that includes Britain), the standards for most PPE are the same, with different ratings only for the different intended purposes, such as sport or rope access. (Though there are some different requirements for what has to be printed on a product destined for different regions, but that is for the manufacturer and suplier to worry about rather than the caver.)
The situation in the USA is a lot more complicated, since each field has its own regulations that are not based on each other. Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone's use cases. UIAA ratings and later voluntary standards covered non-commercial sports like caving since 1960. U.S. Federal Specifications covered rope specifications (TR-605B) since 1963. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards cover the fire service and rescue organisations since 1970, and specifically cover rope working equipment since 1985 (NFPA 1983). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations cover rope access work since 1991. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International) voluntary standards cover some aspects of rescue usage since 1999 (ASTM F1956-20 for rescue carabiners, ASTM F2116-01 2001 for static rope for rescue purposes), and rope access work since 2007 (ASTM E2505-07). The American Cordage Institute publish voluntary standards for ropes, starting from 2001. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards cover rope access work since 2021 (ANSI/ASSP Z359) as a suggested baseline for OSHA compliance, with the American Cordage Institute specifications used for reference. Some equipment used for caving might be covered by all of those, but this is not a requirement, since there are no mandated standards for caving equipment, so American equipment might have no certifications at all, if it is intended to be sold in the USA and not Europe.
The International Organization for Standardization published their standards for nylon ropes (ISO 1140), polyester ropes (ISO 1141) and Manila hemp ropes (ISO 1181) in 1990. Their standard for rope access work (ISO 22846-1) was created in 2003, and that is used in some countries such as Australia. Australia and New Zealand started to gain their conjoined AS/NZS PPE regulations in the 1990s, many of which are based directly on the European standards, but some of which are even more strict, such as the one covering climbing sit harnesses. Russia started adding its own PPE ratings with various GOST codes in the late 1990s. Eurasian Conformity (EAC) standard TR CU 019/2011 came into force in 2012, covering the Eurasian Customs Union, which consists of Russia and some former Soviet states, and replaced several GOST codes, or referenced them. The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) have their own regulations for rope access work, with CSA Z259.17 from 2021.
This history section only covers PPE. This article also has a detailed history of many of the other devices and techniques that are used for vertical caving.
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