Life On A Line
Second Edition
Welcome to the official home of Life On A Line, the Underground Rope Rescue Manual.
The Second Edition of Life On A Line is available in B&W or full-colour paperback.
About the book
Underground rescue from caves and mines is the most extreme form of technical rescue in the world, and demands the highest levels of skill in caving, engineering, excavation, geology, trauma medicine and of course ropework. Life On A Line was the first specialist rope rescue book written for and by cave and mine rescuers, and has become the standard text for hundreds of rescue teams, both underground and surface, across the planet.
The Second Edition contains over 200 pages of expanded information and updated techniques for all aspects of ropework, from equipment selection and basic rigging to the complex mathematics of friction and traverses. Entirely new chapters cover casualty care, stretcher selection and rigging, large animal and expedition rescue, plus in-depth explanations of the standards and legal frameworks affecting today's teams. It remains an international textbook, with techniques and explanations aimed at both European EN/CE, American ASTM/NFPA and international ISO/UIAA standards.
We concentrate on adaptable and proven techniques that can be applied by teams using their existing equipment, covering the full range of skills needed for rescue in the modern world:-
- Equipment selection (rope, anchors, stretchers and everything in between)
- Casualty care and stretcher management
- Essential knots and anchoring systems
- Rigging systems of all types, from the simplest abseil to highline traverses
- Planning and management of expedition and large animal rescues
- Maintenance, inspection and disposal of equipment
- Legal policies and standards
