The fastest rope workers in the West are… Team France!

The 2016 US edition of the Petzl RopeTrip is now over, and it was in all respects a truly marvelous event! For 4 days, 31 teams of rope workers from 17 countries gathered in Salt Lake City to share their experiences and put their rope skills to the test.

Final stages: Team France gains the upper hand on the Russian VAR team

After the qualification rounds, the Salt Lake City Public Library represented the perfect venue for the final competition, allowing hundreds of spectators to line the streets. The finals pitted the 2014 winners, Team VAR from Russia, against the newcomers, Team France. Each team had to ascend a 25 m fixed line, passing multiple anchors, cross an intimidating chasm via tyrolean traverse, and ascend to the roof. From there, the teams descended the exterior of the library and hung 24 large vinyl banners to recreate a bookshelf motif. This, of course, was to be done as quickly as possible and without incurring any safety penalties! The final was hectic and action-packed, but in the end, the French team narrowly edged out the Russians. Congrats to Antoine Quidoz, Yohan Garcia and Ivan Muscat!

Amazing skills and real work situations

The 2016 edition proved that the technical level of the competitors has improved tremendously. Most of the rope workers succeeded in mastering numerous complex technical situations: passing intermediate anchors, tricky work positioning, 3D triangulation, partner rescue using a hauling system... All of these tasks were extremely varied but always similar to situations these workers could potentially face on real worksites: bridges, cliffs, buildings... 

To be as efficient as possible, some competitors trained heavily before the event. This was especially true for the Climb Up race (individual speed competition, open to everyone), won by Vladimir Akimov in the men’s category and Tatiana Akhmetshina in the women’s category.

Petzl RopeTrip Symposium: a promising first edition!

During this Petzl RopeTrip, the rope access community also gathered to participate in several presentations. This provided a very rare opportunity to share industry knowledge and tackle a variety of topics: rope access standards, certification processes, unique rope access environments...

Stay tuned for the complete event movie, to be released on petzl.com in June! The next Petzl RopeTrip is scheduled to take place in Germany in 2018.