Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

On trust

2001; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1109/map.2001.920026

1558-4143

Randy L. Haupt, T.K. Moon,

Organizational Change and Leadership

I found myself, last July, standing on the top of a high granite cliff, facing a drop-off of nearly 200 feet. The view was spectacular mountains; green with pine, and quickly rolled o€f to a hazy blue horizon; the breeze was fresh; thc sky was blue. I was there with some adult leaders and several young Scouts for “high adventure.” In the back of my mind, I kept pushing back the thought that it was a perfectly beautiful day to die. I was attached to a rope via an aluminum “figure-8,” some steel carabiners, and a nylon waist harness. The other end of thc rope was attached by carabiners to nylon straps tied loosely around a large rock. The rope ~ which plunged the depths to the base of the cliffs, almost disappearing in the dizzying distance - was madc of polyester and nylon, stirred up out of a petrolaic sludge by chemists 1 have never met, using a process 1 don’t understand, woven in a weave that, for all I knew, would weaken the fibers. The rope, I was told, was susceptible to rot in the sun; 1 didn’t know how much sun it had been exposed to. The figure-8 through which the rope passed was madc, I noticed, in Italy, by people I would never meet. As the rope slid through, the figure-8 would bc subjected to considerable frictional force, and would get very hot. 1 did not know if the metallurgists who designed this object had taken this heating into account: perhaps the metal might be prone to fracture when hot. The nylon straps around the rock wcre tied with a simple overhand knot, a knot known more for its simplicity and ease of untying than its strength. The rock itself seemed too large to slide easily, but if pulled on hard enough, might have been dislodged to fall off the cliff. On my hcad was a light plastic helmet, designed to deflect pebbles dislodged above me, but insufficient to make any difference should a large rock fall on me, or should I fall headfirst, My rate of descent would be controlled by myself; if my hands wcre to lose strength for some reason, or if the gloves I was wearing were to lose their grip, I would face an uncontrolled slide. The guy in charge was this kid about 22 years old. I had no real idea of his experience or certification in rappelling. With all these factors in mind, and also thoughts of my wife and children at home, I put all my weight against the rope and leaned back into the precipice to begin the climb down.