Yes. That’s how Venture Crew 140 out of Houston, Texas put some newly-learned lashing skills into action. They also experienced, first hand how rope tackles can put the necessary strain on thick lines used for hand and foot ropes. Though they didn’t follow the instructions for making laminated spars as provided by Scout Pioneering legend, Adolph Peschke, the 6 and 8-foot lengths of doubled 2×4 boards did the trick. Here’s the email received from Crew Advisor Russ Jamerson:
“Just wanted to show you that my Crew has already put up the double a-frame monkey bridge per your instructions at Philmont Training Center! We had trouble finding natural timber spars so we made them from 2×4’s – learned a few things in that process — I did not follow the instructions you pointed out about laminated spars exactly – for example I used 2x4s sandwiched together with edges smoothed via a router for both 8’ and 6’ spars. This creates the need for longer lashing rope in some cases such as at the top of the a-frame and the round lashings at the bottom that circle essentially 4 2×4’s. The only issue is that they are a little too smooth to properly hold lashings. We plan to roughen up the surface where lashings will go by running a sawzall lightly across the surface to scar it up.
“This has been and continues to be a great teambuilding exercise while introducing some of the Crew without a Boy Scout background to various knots and lashings.”
SCOUT PIONEERING 