Skate Block

There are many ways to safely recover a casualty from height in a stretcher from tension line lowers to, straight lowers with or without a stretcher attendant.

In this addition we are going to look at the Skate Block method.

This method with lower the casualty from height but away from the edge of the structure or cliff, there for not always needing an attendant to stop the stretcher moving or catching during the lower.

A Skate Block is very easy to set on the ground and then just raise the top set of anchors and pulleys. Due to only having the weight of the load on the lines it will never be over tensioned like a tension line.

When using a SB you should set your top anchors above your area where the casualty will be lowered from or packaged, the SB will only reach about 2/3 of your max height, needing the anchors to be placed higher as mentioned.

There are different methods of SB from using single pulleys or a Kootnany, but the principles of the method remain the same.

You could have tails from the lines for an operative to be on with 2 POC Or a Kootnany or rigging plate with the lines attached to with knots.