Every climber dreams of easy, energy efficient vertical access but the ActSafe Powered Ascender takes it to the extreme.
ActSafe is a Swedish company who specialize in powered ascenders - if you work at height and don't fancy footlock or manual SRT access this is the baby for you.There are two ActSafe Powered Ascenders available: one is electric, running on a long-life battery and the other is driven by a small Honda engine.
This ascending device is total overkill for tree work but interesting never-the-less. It would be perfect for gaining maintenance access to wind turbines, telecom repeater towers, bridges, or any other high-rise object. Most rescue organizations could do with one as well.
We believe Drew Bristow and Johno Smith may be trialling one of the petrol-powered ActSafe powered ascenders for their next expedition to Ambrym Island (later in the year).
In Drew and Johno's case the powered ascender would be used to get them out of the volcano in a hurry and the hole is about 500m deep. The ActSafe travels at 20m per minute so it will still take them about 25 minutes to get back out (but its quicker and more energy efficient than foot locking!)
