Escaping with Paracord

[georann]

Slightly random question, but how would you do it?

Lets say you're on the 3rd floor of a building and trapped in a room with fire a fire preventing your escape down the corridor. You have 100ft of proper 550 paracord and a pair of gloves to protect your hands. How do you escape safely?

Would you tie the cord to something and fast rope out the window (would it be thick enough to grip and not cut through your clothes)?
Or perhaps tie loops in the cord to make a ladder?
Or even a set of prusik knots or similar?


Apologies for my rambling thoughts and if this is in the wrong board!
Dan

 

[Goatboy]

Hi Georann,
Well 3 stories is roughly 30 feet, so you could make a trad rope ladder (may have to drop the last bit depending on your knot work and how you fix it to top) but that'd take a lot of time to make with flames bearing down on you. Think I'd go for the alpine butterfly knot with largish hand/foot loops and just go for it. Heck if the single strand did snap I've fallen further and walked away. Though if I had a couple of 'biners or strong hand sized ovals/loops I'd go for a couple of bachmann knots. (Quick and strong).
GB.

 

[lou1661]

3rd floor..... I would wait for the fire service to arrive and pitch a ladder, rather than waiting for them in a broken crumpled heap on the floor.

 

[*Dusty*]

I think i'd hand out the window to arms length and drop to be honest, possible double over the cord, double it again and find a secure point to tie it off then try to climb down that.

 

[Goatboy]

Or you could do the County Kerry paracord/bungee jump

 

[presterjohn]

I'm not sure I would have the bottle for it at my weight. If I was 12st or similar I would keep it simple and panic proof and double up the cord and put a basic knot every four feet or so so it created a simple ladder then get the bottle to make myself climb out of the window.

 

[mrcharly]

Double the cord, tie around something wooden rather than metal (so won't get hot from radiant heat), wrap the knot with clothing to protect from fire, then slide down using gloves or clothing to protect myself.

Really, stopping to make a rope ladder is taking far too long to get out.

 

[georann]

Some interesting points raised so far. Must admit some of the knot solutions might take a while. Then again, could you get the grip on the cord to slide down with any control?

 

[Bushwhacker]

Easy.

 

[georann]

Haha All except that you would break your legs and the chair.

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Bushwacker nailed it

I would wait for the emergency services, and to take my mind off the situation, knock up half a dozen 'survival' barcelets
to be presented to my would-be rescuers as tokens of my esteem.

 

[welchyd1]

Easy.

Genius.

 

[Ben Trout]

Like this:

http://www.backpacker.com/survival-stuck-on-a-cliff/skills/14768

To be fair I've never tried it on a vertical surface, but I understand that it works. Genuine Paracord should be plenty strong enough (heat effects excepted), not sure about the level of friction.

I'm not going to rush out and try.

 

[ocean1975]

I would tie the end off to somewhere sercure,then slide the paracord through
my belt buckle to form a simple belay device,and drop down the building like the sas

 

[slingback]

I would cut the cord into four lengths, two longer than the others, then tie them too a sheet then I would fadion a harness from five Tesco's bags, cutting leg holes in the bottom and using the handles to tie the chute on, then jump, the longer lengths at the back so as to enable a swift desent away from the building and into the muscular arms of Tracy the local hairdresser, she works out so would be able to easily catch me.

 

[Toddy]

100ft, chain plied = 30+ feet. Tie off to sommat secure and you've got a three strand rope in under a couple of minutes. Wrap it around your waist with the end dangling free, and 'walk' down the building (avoiding windows!) releasing the rope and allowing it to slide around you bit by bit. It's only 30ft, but you'd still need to be able to support your own weight for the distance.
You'll need to jump the last wee bit,(shouldn't be much) but don't 'zip' slide down it or you'll carve up your hands and your legs trying to grip the thin rope.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[SJStuart]

Worth a call to the MacGyver writing staff

 

[Squidders]

I have done 30 foot on to a bouldering mat before... it hurt but nothing broke... I would hank the paracord up put it in my pocket and hang from the window... my feet would only travel about 23 feet to the ground if I let go from hanging.

 

[PDA1]

The ben trout rappeling method was the way we did it when I was rock climbing back in the dark ages. It worked with the thicker ropes we were using then. No reason why it should not work with paracord as it runs over a lot of clothing to provide friction.

 

[SJStuart]

PDA1 Paracord has a maximum rated tensile strength of 550lbs... when you climb a rope (up or down) you create an additional dynamic force on top of your weight. Friction doesn't make a lick of difference, either, as the dynamic force (called "Shock Force") is substancially greater than 550lbs.

Let me put it this way: 30 feet of rope suspended at the top, with a climber weighing just 100lbs (and I'd hazard a guess that there's nobody in this forum weighing as little as 100lbs) has a "Shock Force" of 5.1kN (1147lbs), more than twice the maximum tensile strength of 550 Paracord.