Vertical caving terminology and methods > SRT basic terms
A traverse over a long distance with anchors only at each end, not in between, and no ledge to stand on. Crossing it involves clipping a cows tail to the rope, or a pulley on the rope, and pulling yourself along the rope. The rope needs to be kept under fairly high tension, to prevent it from sagging too much, as progressing uphill is very demanding, and this can cause extreme stress (several tonnes) on the rope, depending on how much sag is allowed, and the length of the Tyrolean traverse. The rope is usually tensioned using a Z-rig. A Tyrolean traverse may use two separate ropes, a tight one to connect a cows tail or pulley to, and a loose one to prusik along, in order to make progress. The loose one also acts as a safety line in case the tighter line snaps from the stress (a serious consideration). Cows tail carabiners can sustain significant damage from the abrasion while crossing a Tyrolean traverse, so a pulley is suggested. Tyroleans should be avoided in almost all cases, and should ideally only be used with steel cables or Dyneema. Unless there is a specific hazard (such as fast flowing water) that needs to be avoided, one alternative is to have a long loop, so that you have to abseil down one side, then perform a mid-rope changeover, and prusik up the other side. A tension traverse is an adaptation of a Tyrolean traverse that is less stressful on the equipment.
It is tempting to think of a Tyrolean traverse as a zip line, also known as a death slide, where it can be at a perfect angle to allow gravity to pull cavers across at high speed. However, a Tyrolean traverse does not have any braking system to slow them down at the far side, so it really might turn into a death slide. Such a steep angle also would largely prevent a return across the Tyrolean traverse, except by prusiking at a very awkward angle. A Tyrolean traverse is not a zip line. It is also not a slackline, highline or tightrope.
In rare cases, a Tyrolean traverse might also have a foot rope which is also tensioned, so that the lower one can be walked over while the upper one is used like a normal Tyrolean traverse. This is more common with commercial adventure courses, where it is commonly called a postman's bridge, two-rope bridge or double rope bridge, but all of these terms will get you funny looks with caving.
In British English, it is normal to call it a TIH-ruh-LEE-un truh-VERSE (emphasised syllables in upper case). However, language is a fluid thing, and there are numerous incompatible pronunciations used globally, with Australians and some Americans typically calling it a TIE-ROLL-ee-an TRA-verse. Many Americans and some British cavers or climbers use British pronunciation for Tyrolean, but use TRA-verse instead of truh-VERSE.
However, it is important to note that Tyrol is an actual place in Austria and Italy, and in both German and Italian, they pronounce the name teer-OHLL. The pronunciation TIE used in Australia is absolutely incorrect, resulting from reading it in the wrong language. The name likely originates in Celtic (where it was spelled differently), where it would would have been pronounced far closer to the German and Italian pronunciation. The common British pronunciation is much closer to being correct, but the wrong syllable is emphasised. So we are all wrong in English, but the Australians are far more wrong than everyone else.
The maximum force on the anchors at the ends of the Tyrolean traverse (or a slackline or tightrope) can be approximated as:
load on the Tyrolean × length of Tyrolean / ( 4 × sag )
or calculated accurately as:
0.5 × load on the Tyrolean / sin( angle of the sag below its normal )
where:
angle of the sag below its normal = tan-1( 2 × sag height / length of Tyrolean )
so:
0.5 × load on the Tyrolean / sin( tan-1( 2 × sag height / length of Tyrolean ) )
However, it is worth noting that the force changes as a person crosses the Tyrolean traverse. The maximum force is experienced when the person is in the middle. The force when they are near one of the ends is significantly lower, perhaps just two thirds of what it is when they are in the middle. With a Tyrolean traverse whose ends are at the same height, the anchor that they are closer to sees a slightly higher force than the other anchor. With a significantly sloping Tyrolean traverse, the force on the upper anchor is always higher than on the lower anchor, and the force on the upper anchor is slightly higher when the person is at the lower end rather than at the upper end, while the lower anchor sees the same pattern as normal. As a result, the sag needs to be measured when the person is in the middle of the Tyrolean traverse. The forces can double if the person crossing the Tyrolean traverse bounces around, and this effect increases further with non-stretchy materials. After it has been used once or twice, the rope normally relaxes to a slightly longer length, and will need to be re-tensioned again to get back to the desired tension. Once the tension is removed, the rope will then relax slowly back to its original length. To give a general idea of the numbers, with slacklines and highlines (which you might see people walking across above gorges), tensioning is normally kept to between 200 and 400 kg without anyone on the line, and the forces under load are normally kept to under 700 kg even if someone bounces around or falls on it using their safety line (a similar idea to a cows tail). However, in extreme cases, the tensioning forces might be 700 kg at each end, 800 kg when loaded, and a person bouncing around could add another couple of hundred. Common safety advice is that the highest forces should be kept to a fifth of the minimum breaking strength of the anchors, knotted rope and other equipment. If you cannot work through all of that to determine if you are able to safely rig a Tyrolean traverse with the equipment you have, then do not rig a Tyrolean traverse.
Aerial ropeway transportation systems first appeared in 250 BCE in southern China, and were used as a way for people and goods to cross rivers or gorges. The earliest known one was used exactly like a modern Tyrolean traverse, with a static rope, and a person hanging from it using a sit harness. Aerial ropeways then spread throughout the world, and were being used in Japan by the 1300s, and Europe by 1411, with Johannes Hartlieb depicting one in Holy Roman Empire (now Germany). In some versions, the ropes would be moved, while in others the ropes stay still, and another rope is used to pull a person or goods across the traverse. German Paul Stephan described in 1926 how a similar rope transport system of some kind existed between 1536 and the 1890s between Santanda and Merida in South America (sometimes mistakenly quoted as South Africa), but without citing any evidence. It was installed by the Spanish explorers, and was probably between the Santander region of Colombia and the Mérida region of Venezuela, which at the time straddled the modern border of those countries. Croatian Fausto Veranzio designed a ropeway in 1616 (which later developed into aerial ropeways for mining and cable cars).
A 1795 engraving of fowling in the Orkney Islands showed a person sitting in a basket on top of a Tyrolean traverse. In 1837, French explorer Stanislas Marie César Famin described and depicted Colombian Tyrolean traverses known as "tarabite", which were used by the Colombians to cross rivers if a more substantial bridge was not available. They would hang from a hook on the rope, and would either be pulled across with a second rope, or would pull themselves along the rope, exactly like a modern Tyrolean traverse. The modern Tyrolean traverse is said to have been developed by climbers in the Tyrolean Alps in Austria and Italy in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but it is essentially no different from what was already used in China 2150 years before, and Colombia 65 years before. The earliest known mention of their use is when Austrian climber Antonio "Deo" Dimai used a Tyrolean traverse on Torre del Diavolo in 1902, in the Cadini di Misurina mountains of Italy, along with Hungarian companions Baroness Ilona von Eötvös and Baroness Rolanda von Eötvös. It is perhaps interesting to note that while Antonio "Deo" Dimai was from the historical Tyrolean area in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Italy, the actual Tyrolean traverse was done between rock pinnacles that are just outside that region in Cadore, Italy, so perhaps it should be called a nearly-Tyrolean traverse or Cadore traverse.
In 1912, 15 year old French caver Norbert Casteret rigged what he described as a Tyrolean traverse over a pitch, made from a tree which he had cut down and dragged a very long way into the Gouffre de Planque. Rather than walking over it as a bridge, he assumed it was not strong enough to take his weight, so to make himself magically lighter, he swung underneath it from his hands, to cross the pitch. This is the first known example of someone using monkey bars underground. Mountaineers are depicted using a relatively simplistic Tyrolean traverse in 1922, in Anwendung des Seiles, published by the Bavarian section of the German Alpine Club in München. One end was fixed, while the other was tensioned by a person putting their weight onto the end of the rope after passing it through a carabiner. This would not have worked well, and was quite risky, so the person crossing the Tyrolean traverse needed a belayer at each end. Mountaineers were then depicted using a more normal Tyrolean traverse in 1930 in Anwendung des Seiles, using a method very similar to cavers, with a cows tail made from a lifeline and carabiner. It is not known when cavers first used Tyrolean traverses. However, in 1941, French cavers Pierre Chevalier, Fernand Petzl and François Guillemin explored a passage in the Dent de Crolles system near Grenoble, and named it Galerie de la Tyrolienne, with a Tyrolean crossing shown on it (in Subterranean Climbers, 1951). They did not explicitly state if a Tyrolean traverse was actually used there, but it is extremely likely, given the name. Tyrolean traverses are depicted as being used by cavers in the Grenoble region of France, in Henry P. Guérin's 1944 book "Spéléologie, manuel technique; Le matériel et son emploi Les explorations".
This history section only covers Tyrolean traverses. 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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