30 July 01

On the subject of long hair from a friend in Africa:

"Yesterday morning I went to a local waterfront complex to watch a demonstration being put on by several people from a local 'adventure school.'

On of them was demonstrating ascending and descending a climbing rope on a prefabricated climbing wall. The male demonstrator was dressed in shorts and climbing shoes as one might expect, but he had a long, braided pony tail that occasionally flopped in his face.

You guessed it! As he was rapidly descending with great flair, his pony tail wrapped around the rope and was subsequently sucked into his Jumar descending device. It quickly became hopelessly entangled. His descent came to a jerking halt as he dangled by his head, thirty feet above the ground! For the next twenty minutes he thrashed and flopped around, alternately cursing and crying, unable to free himself. Finally, someone had to climb up another rope and rescue him.

Of course, this 'adventurer' didn't have a knife with him, which he could have used to remedy the situation."

Lessons:

>Like long fingernails, long, unrestrained hair can be a fatal liability. It has no place among the prudent.

>Always have a knife on your person that you can get to and (with one hand) deploy quickly!

/John