They may not look like hellholes, but they definitely are. The rails themselves seem to always be in the most inconvenience place when you fall on them. I know, I still have small 'dent' in my rib cage from jogging across a track. My foot barely clipped the first rail and I came down on the second with my arm catching some of my weight and my rib cage catching the rest. It was an active line. I nearly passed out and was completely incapacitated for at least a minute. As I tried to breath, I realized a train could be coming around the bend at anytime. After I was able to draw a few breathes, I hobbled off the tracks in shock. Cracked a rib and torn the cartilage in between two ribs. I felt that for a decade latter every time I ate a big meal... I was lucky.
Steel is completely unforgiving. If you fall on a rail, expect to seriously hurt or killed. A friend of mine tripped walking down the same line and hit his head on the rail. He survived. It's easy to do; only takes the slightest miscalculation. Been so much easier to have lifted my trailing foot by literally a quarter of an inch higher. ●If you run on or near tracks, each step needs to be spot on. It best never to run on tracks but any one who's walked them has ran on them.
Jumping moving trains is another evil pleasure I have partaking in. Getting off can be much harder than getting on unless you ride it to the next stop. ha-ha. I ended up diving off and landing in snow when the train was going at least 30 mph, probable faster. Didn't get a scratch. Had something been concealed under that foot thick layer of snow, things might have gotten messy
Getting on a moving train is the next hardest part. If you have to run to do it, a lot can go wrong. A trip on anything can be fatal. Once you grasp the ladder you need to get on fast. Do or die. Better have excellent upper body strength and be fully committed. You need get your feet high enough so you don't hit anything on the ground and pull yourself up far enough to get a foothold on the ladder without using your feet as may be the case. Jumping for the ladder is not a plan. If anything goes wrong you have to fall -away- from the train... that doesn't always happen. Any mistake can be life altering.
Many people do make mistakes. I'm originally from PA... In 2016, 26 people in Pennsylvania died and 19 others were injured when struck by trains while trespassing on tracks or railroad property, according to Federal Railroad Administration data. Pennsylvania ranked fifth in the nation last year for such trespassing incidents.
While we're on the topic on playing around places you should not play... for those that have no experience in the oil fields. Many areas that do oil production are easily accessible and can be extremely dangerous. This is one of the dangers; hundreds have been maimed or killed by them.
Pump jacks; many switch on and off automatically with little warning. Sometimes people deliberately climb them when they're running to "ride" them. This is a surprising common accident. Always stay clear of pump jacks; never attempt to climb one that has an active power tie in. Don't think you're fast enough for a slow moving pump jack! Even if not active if you slip and fall expect broken bones or worse.
...ride a pump jack. One boy got caught in the unit when it started and a doctor had to be flown to the site and perform a field amputation on his arm.
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
Posted by 2Xplorations that's pretty gnarly man I got a mind to move this thread to the Other Forum, just sayin but theres some value in the thread overall
well least he didn't have to do it himself like this fellow did:
The sites people explore are as varied as the dangers. I briefly considered riding one, but this is a death trap. Many times hellholes aren't obvious to some even when they should be. -Think- The purpose of this thread is to teach explorers how to to spot and avoid potential hellholes.
A pool of blood and a severed arm should be a graphic warning of how dangerous this type of oil pump is. A high hp 3 phase, 480 VAC motor drives these and they store a tremendous amount of kinetic energy in their moving counterweights. Getting in the path of any of the moving parts produces serious and often fatal injuries. The counterweights are moving faster than they appear due the massive size of the pump. Flesh severing pinch points are plentiful, and that includes the cables.
Other dangers include: ●Methane and the crude it's self are highly flammable. ●On sour gas oil wells there is a real H2S hazard present at all times. >Do not approach them.< ●Do not open hatches to tanks especially with your face near to it. ●Never go inside any tank or confined space here, even if it's dry; H2S and asphyxiation hazard. ●Frac chemicals can be up 30% HCL acid or extremely toxic germicidal ones. Avoid skin contact completely with any fluids in tanks, in pits or on the ground if on a well that is or has been recently fraced.
Be aware many of the well sites and their infrastructure may be under surveillance. This can include cameras, trucks, SUVs, employees, small planes, helicopters and military drones. I saw large high altitude military drone in a turn as the sunlight reflected of the wing surface in a turn over a NM oilfield. After that brief moment it became invisible to the naked eye; they are next to impossible to spot. These are 911 hot spots and the FBI is involved with security in the oil fields, pipelines and tank farms.
edites; brain out of phase
[last edit 9/8/2017 2:02 AM by blackhawk - edited 5 times]
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
Look at this both terrifying and funny video which was on local news this year. The story is simple - one woman got drunk and she decided to walk on the rooftop. Somehow she was interested in those huge metal ventilations. God knows why she got inside it, she got VERY stuck inside ventilation pipe! She screamed for help and luckily someone from the upper flats heard her and called police. Some people who understand how this kind of ventilation works can explain what's the seemingly rotating part inside the pipe? In the news article there is written she was lucky because the ventilation was turned off when she got stuck. If the ventilation would be on, she would have greater injuries.
Big ventilations are common in factories, abandoned and half-abandoned, also in bunkers and basements i've seen huge air ventilation systems. If the building is active or part-active, exploring a ventilation pipe could turn out really f***ed up. IT CAN BE A HELL-HOLE, too!
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Re: Freefallin'... Hellholes are Real <Reply # 125 on 9/10/2017 2:05 PM >
Posted by telefontubbie This thread should never be archived.
Continuing with the hellholes...
video
Look at this both terrifying and funny video which was on local news this year. The story is simple - one woman got drunk and she decided to walk on the rooftop. Somehow she was interested in those huge metal ventilations. God knows why she got inside it, she got VERY stuck inside ventilation pipe! She screamed for help and luckily someone from the upper flats heard her and called police. Some people who understand how this kind of ventilation works can explain what's the seemingly rotating part inside the pipe? In the news article there is written she was lucky because the ventilation was turned off when she got stuck. If the ventilation would be on, she would have greater injuries.
Big ventilations are common in factories, abandoned and half-abandoned, also in bunkers and basements i've seen huge air ventilation systems. If the building is active or part-active, exploring a ventilation pipe could turn out really f***ed up. IT CAN BE A HELL-HOLE, too!
Yeap, that's a hellhole. Had that fan running she'd been shredded. That's a huge squirrel box fan or a centrifugal fan. https://en.m.wikip...ki/Centrifugal_fan
They come all sizes, some are much larger than this one.
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
For us in the mine exploring community one of the greatest dangers is false floors. It's not unusual for the miners to drive a winze straight down in the middle of a drift (walkway). Some were used as ore chutes while others were used to connect one level with a lower level.
Sometimes they are open and we walk across a board laid across the opening. (scary as heck) Other times they are boarded over by the miners and years of dirt and dust completely cover them. The drops can be anywhere from 20 feet to well over 100. I can't remember all the times that we have looked back up from where we came only to realize that we had unknowingly walked across a false floor over a very serious drop.
Fortunately most of my mine exploring is done in dry mines where there is very little rot, so the timbers are still quite sturdy. I can't imagine the danger in a wet mine where the timbers are like a soggy sponge.
It never hurts to be extra careful and take your time. It's easy to get complacent and that's when the trouble starts. Ask me how I know. I have scars as reminders.
Abby Normal
"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." Ronald Reagan
Posted by Abby Normal For us in the mine exploring community one of the greatest dangers is false floors. It's not unusual for the miners to drive a winze straight down in the middle of a drift (walkway). Some were used as ore chutes while others were used to connect one level with a lower level.
Sometimes they are open and we walk across a board laid across the opening. (scary as heck) Other times they are boarded over by the miners and years of dirt and dust completely cover them. The drops can be anywhere from 20 feet to well over 100. I can't remember all the times that we have looked back up from where we came only to realize that we had unknowingly walked across a false floor over a very serious drop.
Fortunately most of my mine exploring is done in dry mines where there is very little rot, so the timbers are still quite sturdy. I can't imagine the danger in a wet mine where the timbers are like a soggy sponge.
It never hurts to be extra careful and take your time. It's easy to get complacent and that's when the trouble starts. Ask me how I know. I have scars as reminders.
Abby Normal
There are a couple reasons why I haven't explored an underground mine yet and this is one of them (all of my reasons have something to do with having absolutely no experience or equipment for such an adventure). This particular issue scares the living shit out of me when I hear about it and cannot see myself, even if I did have experience with mines, exploring one of these things alone.
The photos below aren't underground mines, but rather a very old section of silos from a couple cement plants here in Texas. I took these photos with this thread in mind, actually. Most of the time, the company or whoever will use scraps of metal or some kind of grate to cover up the holes and deathtraps that are riddled throughout these places (if they bother to cover them at all, and that is a big "if").
The same location, but this one wasn't so obvious at one point and a lot more than a couple of floors high: Adventures in the Mid West by Dee Ashley, on Flickr
Most of these are way too high to (want to) survive the fall.
Posted by Dee Ashley Too late to edit my post but I lied. The last two photos are from a mill in Memphis, not Texas. Not that it really matters that much.
No big deal where they are unless you are there That second to the last one is a real knee cap scraper waiting to happen.
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
I have recently seen hellholes come up in threads. They sound dangerous but I don't know what they are. Are they portals to hell? Holes in the floor? Floor monsters? Basically what are hellholes and how do I avoid them?
If there is something I want to do then Ill do it and if there is something I don't want to do than I wont do it. That's the Dandy way baby.
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Re: The hell is a Hellhole? <Reply # 131 on 10/16/2017 3:41 PM >
Hellholes come in many shapes, sizes, and compositions. They can be an instantly life altering event. See the big thread of hellholes and read it: http://www.uer.ca/...=1&threadid=122644
♤Every foot fall and hand hold count♤
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
I had to look around too. Not a common threat where I usually explore thanks to concrete floors.
There used to be an entry in the UE Encyclopedia forum, but it seems to be deleted for whatever reason.
The just is: "Any partially concealed, fully concealed, or unexpected falling hazard in a location."
I stepped in a hole covered by vegetation once and bruised my thigh where it hit the edge. It was too small for my whole body to fall in, so I think a hellhole should also be something that poses the threat of a whole human body falling in.
Posted by Steed I stepped in a hole covered by vegetation once and bruised my thigh where it hit the edge. It was too small for my whole body to fall in, so I think a hellhole should also be something that poses the threat of a whole human body falling in.
I'd argue, politely of course, that you could of snapped an ankle or broke a leg or something in that situation if it'd of went a little different.
Does a hellhole have to lead to death? Or can it lead to just an injury as well?
Never climb after somebody with ulcerative colitis. -Steed
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Re: The hell is a Hellhole? <Reply # 135 on 10/20/2017 4:08 PM >
I'd argue, politely of course, that you could of snapped an ankle or broke a leg or something in that situation if it'd of went a little different.
Does a hellhole have to lead to death? Or can it lead to just an injury as well?
I feel like a point of the term is you fall into something hellish, rather than just trip and bash your leg. Otherwise, getting a crowbar to the shin could be a hellhole. You have to fall down into something.
Posted by Steed I think a hellhole should also be something that poses the threat of a whole human body falling in.
The thing about holes is they work both ways. Things can fall in and things can come out. Thus, it would stand to reason that a "hell" hole can both bring you to "hell" or bring "hell" to you
So I'd include even smaller holes that still can make your life hell as hell holes.
I feel like a point of the term is you fall into something hellish, rather than just trip and bash your leg. Otherwise, getting a crowbar to the shin could be a hellhole. You have to fall down into something.
A crowbar (or barbed wire) in the shine is just a wittle wuv tap. Hellholes have instantly life altering consequences if you fail to avoid it.
Posted by Trespassing wayfarer
The thing about holes is they work both ways. Things can fall in and things can come out. Thus, it would stand to reason that a "hell" hole can both bring you to "hell" or bring "hell" to you
So I'd include even smaller holes that still can mess up your life.
When walking on properties especially when overgrown or at night you need to pay attention to what you're walking on. Be wary anywhere there are wells or manholes on the site. One open manhole or well can ruin your whole day. Stay off of well covers... http://winnipeg.ct...ter-well-1.3634354
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.