A Brief History of SPRAT

The Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT) is a member-driven organization that advances the safe use of rope access through education, standards development, and administering certifications.

SPRAT was founded in the mid-1990s by Jim Frank from CMC Rescue, Steve Hudson and Loui McCurley from PMI, and Mike Roop from ROCO. Working together, they drafted the rope access industry’s first consensus standard, Safe Practices for Rope Access Work. After Jan Holan from Ropeworks joined the organization a few years later, they developed Certification Requirements for Rope Access Technicians.

Completion of the certification requirements was a significant step, but without evaluators Rope Access Technicians couldn’t be certified. And without certified Rope Access Technicians, there was no pool from which to draw evaluators. To remedy the situation, Jim Frank, John McKently, and Bruce Parker from the CMC Rescue School were asked to conduct the first certification session for Rope Access Technicians at the Alpine Rescue Team’s facility in Evergreen, Colorado. With a core group of Certified Rope Access Technicians, Jim Frank was selected to lead the first evaluator qualification session at Hoover Dam. Since then, SPRAT has continued to grow. Thousands of Rope Access Technicians representing companies and government agencies around the world have been certified to SPRAT standards.

For more information on SPRAT visit sprat.org.