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Morning campers. 

The above is a photo from this reel I shared on the socials showing some Bootneck training from around 1961. 

Roller haulage at it's finest. 

When the advance party reaches the cliff top, they set up a roller haul and the rest come up at the double.

Looks easy, doesn’t it?

A roller haul is how you get people and kit up a cliff without the rope chewing itself to bits on the edge.

The problem:

A cliff lip is a sharp corner. If you just pull a rope up and over bare rock, two things happen: the rope saws through, and the load hangs up on the edge instead of coming cleanly over.

The roller:

You put a roller right on the lip. 

The rope runs over that instead of the rock.

Low friction. 

The pull from the top converts into a clean lift up the face.

The haul:

Once the advance party is on top and the roller is in, the rest of the troop doesn’t climb one-by-one if they don’t have to. They clip or tie into the haul line and the team on the plateau pulls together which is the line of blokes you see heaving in the clip. 

That’s the “rest come up at the double.”

One man on the edge manages the rope and the lip. 

The haul party provides the power. 

The man on the face rides the line up. 

There will always be one that bends his knees as he approaches the top and face plant in to the rock as he goes over the top. 

I've done it. 

It's funny when it's not you though. 

That's why it's usually known as roller carnage instead of roller haulage. 

Casualties going the other way:

Same cliff, opposite job. Wounded from the fighting above are lowered, not hauled. 

Controlled descent on the rope, often with a second man or a stretcher system, so they don’t get dumped on the rocks.

Looks simple on film. It isn’t. 

Bad lip management, a jammed roller, or a haul party that isn’t together and you lose the load — or the rope.

Just remember don't bend your knees for fu*ks sake. 

Have you planted into the rock doing this?

Carl