In the early 1980s my elementary school here in New York had a "rope wall" in the gymnasium, similar to what you'd see on an army obstacle course. It was suspe

In the early 1980s my elementary school here in New York had a "rope wall" in the gymnasium, similar to what you'd see on an army obstacle course. It was suspended from the ~30' ceiling of the gym and the top (the metal pole the rope wall was suspended from) was about ~20 feet off of the hardwood gym floor - easily high enough to kill or seriously injure anyone who fell. Nonetheless we regularly scaled this rope wall and went over the top and back down the other side without any sort of harness or safety gear of any kind. Adult supervision was also minimal with one gym teacher watching ~25 kids running around the gym tackling different (though mostly less dangerous) obstacles.