Monkey Bridge Safety Guidelines?

[AnaMaria]

This is not necessarily a Cub Scout issue, but my interest is as a Cub Scout leader. At our day camp this week there is a "ropes" area set up. There are 5 different items, one is a monkey bridge. It's fairly long, but the central rope you walk on is no more than 4 feet high. What kind of spotting should be going on? Is it ok to have multiple people on the bridge at the same time?

 

I'm going to do a general google search, but if you have knowledge or better direction on where to look for some guidelines, please share.

[shortridge]

These are the official rules from the Guide to Safe Scouting.

 

When I construct and run a monkey bridge, especially for Cubs, I have two adult spotters, one on either side; allow one kid on at a time; and constantly inspect the ropes and anchors.

 

Rope Monkey Bridges

When constructing monkey bridges, observe the following safety rules:

 

1. Always follow the steps for constructing monkey bridges outlined in the Pioneering merit badge pamphlet.

2. Before beginning the project, inspect your rope, looking at both the inside fibers and inner strands. Know the size and strength of the type of rope you are using, and its safe working load.

3. Monkey bridges should not be constructed higher than 5 feet above flat-surfaced ground nor longer than 40 feet. Initially, beginners should not span more than 25 feet.

4. Know the effect the knots will have in reducing rope strength and the proper care that rope requires.

5. Rope, especially rope carrying a load, should be checked each day before using. Rope carrying a load and left in place tends to become slack from fatigue and will break under stress. Tighten rope as necessary to maintain the integrity of the original construction.

6. Exercise special care when members of the public are allowed to use these monkey bridges. Establish controls when monkey bridges are constructed outside the camp environment. Station Scouts at each end to control access to the bridge. Allow only one adult at a time on the bridge. Never allow unaccompanied children on the bridge. Shut down the bridge when any repairs are being made and do not reopen until the adult leader has approved the repairs.

7. Any activity on rope swings, monkey bridges, slide-for-life, or similar devices that are located over water must comply with Safe Swim Defense.

[DancesWithSpreadsheets]

They had a monkey bridge at the last Council C.S. Family camp I attended. It was fairly long, four trestles I believe, one at either end and two in the middle dividing it into 3 sections. I wasn't invlvved in running it, but I was asked to help spot when it was our group's turn for that activity.

 

They put two spotters (one on each side) on each of the three sections of the bridge, and let crossers on so that there was no more than one per section on at any time. If a crosser reached the trestle at the end of the section before the preceding crosser had completed that section, he or she was held there until the way was clear.

 

Don't know if the way they did it was compliant with BSA policy, but it seemed fairly safe to me.

 

Regards,

 

DWS

[ScoutNut]

You seem to be asking as a participant, and not the one in charge of the activity at day camp.

 

Was there a problem you noticed today with how the DC staff was running the monkey bridge? Could you explain exactly what the problem was?

 

[jhankins]

4' off the ground? That's kinda high for cubs.

 

The last monkey bridge I saw, the boys had to wear helmets, and they were tied in to a rappelling harness on a line above the bridge, and it was only 4' off the ground for boy scouts.

[perdidochas]

jhankins,

 

Are you serious? Rapelling harnesses and helmets for a 4' off the ground monkey bridge?

[AnaMaria]

There are no issues with the construction of the bridge that I can tell. I may be wrong about the height, I'm not good at guessing that kind of thing. It seemed like the walk rope was about shoulder height for me the first couple of days, but was much lower today, maybe hip height. I'm going to call it a single span bridge, two supports - so entry section, main section and exit section.

 

The bridge was much looser today, enough that I was concerned about it still being safe. The side ropes/rails were incredibly loose/stretched. The boys had trouble with it and most did not enjoy it today where they had the first three days. The Boy Scout helping said they had tightened it a couple of times, but you couldn't tell.

 

My main concern was with how much spotting is necessary for safety. At most there were two Boy Scouts at the station, another Boy Scout who is our den's den chief for the seek and myself as den leader. There were 5 different setups in the ropes area. They were permitting boys to be on any of the setups - with only 4 supervisors there, there could not even be one spotter at each. They were allowing 3 boys on the bridge, one on each section. Today (after camp inspection yesterday) they were only allowing 2 boys - the 2nd could enter when the 1st reached the exit section. When we were at the station yesterday, the lone boy scout working the station left. At that point I was only allowing 1 at a time on the bridge, with me spotting. And only one other station in use supervised by the den chief. I was having some concerns about whether I was being too restrictive, but am comfortable that my judgement was at least reasonable, and maybe not strict enough. I do realize I was responsible for the safety of the boys at that point and even if I had been wrong, needed to go with my best assessment of the risks.

[SSScout]

It is important that YOU be comfortable with the arrangements.

 

Established guidelines and policies make it easy to establish operating rules (see Archery and BB range rules in the Cub Scout Shooting Sports Book), but when there ain't any, one looks to others' experience and play the "WHAT IF" game...

What if a Cub falls? What if the ropes slack up? What if the pegs pull out? What if it rains and the rope gets wet and stretches? Knots loosen up? Sways too much?

 

So: EACH DAY.... You get BIG Scouts (or/and adults)to pull and tighten up all slack, from both ends. All knots are checked and snugged up. The hand rail ropes and foot rope are made "even". You get THREE better FOUR Scouts dedicated to the rope bridge: One who supervises and "crowd controls" entry to the area, two who escort the bridge walker from one end to the other and provide the instruction ("hold here, one at a time", etc.) and provide the "color commentary" ("Don't worry about the crocadiles in that raging river, they were fed yesterday"). and one who helps the Cub off the end of the bridge (ladders?)

I help a Scout exhibit at our County Fair, we set up a rope bridge and invite the general public to cross the monkey bridge. With as young as 2 and as old as 75, we insist on attentive Scouts and adults to help folks up on the bridge, "lifeguard" along the length, one on each side, and help them off at the end. We have more that 150 cross each day.

And we check it each morning and thru the day for possible problems before they happen. If we do not have enough Staff (does happen) we modify our operations or close up. We do not let kids (or Scouts of any age ""play"" on the bridge.

Are YOU comfortable?

 

 

[Eagle92]

Perdidochas,

Soemtime between '96 and 2000, Monkey bridges began requiring a COPE director to inspect prior to use, and if over a certain height, I beleive 5 feet (it's been a while, old age getting to me) required helmets, harnesses, and belay lines. Don't know if they changed that or not,(apparently they did looking at the G2SS rules) but my troop was very glad I was a COPE Director and they could still build them, albeit at a lower height since we didn't ahve access to harnesses and belay lines.

 

Now the bosun's chair set we use to do at scout shows, we had to stop doing b/c it violated that policy. Lots of upset scouts and parents on that decision as it was FUN! best recuriting tool we had, esp without a feeder pack.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

[Eagle92]

Forgot the most important part, spotting.

 

My recommendation is two spotters, one on each side. hands up and eyes locked on the walker, basically yuor standard COPE spotting position.

 

Now if you could get them to learn the proper COPE commands, that would be totally awesome.

[shortridge]

Eagle92,

 

The over-five-feet-high-gets-overseen-by-a-COPE-director policy was in place at least by 1998, when I went to NCS for Scoutcraft.

 

Generally speaking, a low monkey bridge is perfectly safe if done correctly, and doesn't need harnesses and safety ropes and all that. What it does need is a capable adult or senior Scout who takes responsibility for the construction and operation, from start to finish, so that one person is intimately familiar with the specific dynamics of the rope and bridge components and how they perform under stress and the proper ways to tighten and inspect the ropes.

 

If I were in AnaMaria's shoes, with the lone Scout supposedly running the show leaving, I'd be concerned as well.

[ScoutBox]

We built one tonight for the WEBELOS' Crossover. I would suggest using a fourth line over the bridge and having the boys either wear a rappelling seat, or a bowline and snap link them to the higher line. this way if they were to fall then they would be caught. This is something that can be used for any training or playing above the ground.