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The balance between safety and speed is critical to efficiency in the backcountry. I have known two folks who have rappelled off the end of their ropes, both to their death. In both cases, neither kept logical or rational about what they were doing. Both panicked. That being said, I see some folks take way to long to descend a route. Practicality, efficiency and speed can save being benighted at dangerous elevation during bad weather. I believe two years ago, a group of individuals made a cluster #%@* for themselves and the park rescue service on Bugaboo Spire, all because of messing around, thinking they were being ultra safe when in reality they were digging a hole for themselves on the very straight forward and easy Kain descent. Their lack of speed and efficiency cost the provincial park a rescue and could have cost them their lives in those temps in that particular situation.

I have yet to lose a rope and I have rapped over a 1000 multi pitch routes, yet folks lose ropes on the simplest most well traveled routes out there. I remember one interesting individual leaving a rope on Cat in the Hat of all places and asking if one of us locals would go retrieve it and send it to him! Pulling a rope correctly, managing it correctly along with the rappels is actually not a complicated science, but does deserve more attention than folks apparently are allowing for.

Wow, that sounds like a terrifying experience! I myself have had a couple of close calls involving rappelling, not related to anchor failure, but to careless. Some time ago, I was rapping off the top of an ice climb with a group of several other people, and in order to save time, I set up my autoblock on the rope while it was still in tension. Then, when my turn came, I proceeded to rappel just like that - with nothing but the autoblock attaching me to the rope! Fortunately, there was a moderately-angled snow ramp extending several meters from where the anchor was to the drop-off, so I was able to scramble back up, while holding the rope, and correct the error. Otherwise I would have ended up dangling upside down from a single leg loop...ugh! In another, more recent incident, I forgot to clip wire of my ATC through the locker on my harness...in retrospect, this one probably wouldn't have been the end of the world, since the force of the rope against the biner would have prevented it from riding up the rope, but still...

Now, before every rappel, I make a habit of TRIPLE checking everything.

Complacency, Complacency, Complacency..... Nuff said.

BTW, Don't remember the last time I heard/read of any rappelling incident that resulted in injury or death from an "anchor failure".

Taco wrote:

phlipdascrip wrote:you should never never never never never never ever rap without knots in the end of the ropes unless you can make sure (and I mean sure) both ends have reached the bottom. no exception unless you want to risk your life.

This is not always the case. When rappelling into water, one may not want to knot the ends of the rope.

for the point of my argument, "bottom" would include water (even though I didn't have it mind at the time) and is just meant as a distinction from any setting where rapping past the ends of the ropes would result in a fall.

Rappeling isn't dangerous if you know what your'e doing. It can be scary at times though. Like in the rain during a thunder storm, or passing a knot on fixed lines while spinning uncontrollably hundreds of feet above the trees.

My wife and I were climbing at Red Rocks, NV this March. There is a hefty fine for being in the park after closing. It was realized that we needed to quickly clean the route and hike out to the vehicles in order to be out of the park on time. My wife is the fastest so she proceeded to climb quickly and began cleaning off the anchors. She was 110' feet up and I could see she was starting to rap down, and before I could say anything she suddenly froze in her tracks. She had not pulled the rope completely through the chains, only about 12 feet on one side. Fortunately she realized this before she got more than a couple feet down. She got back on the chains and pulled the rope through to the half-way mark and made a safe descent.

Rushing through a route cleaning and rap could have been disastrous that day. Fortunately we will have many more years of climbing ahead of us thanks to the (albeit frightening) lesson learned.

Hello Sergio:

Thanks for the comments. In reading the multiple constructive criticisms and personal experiences listed above, it is quite clear to me that all the potential risks associated with rappelling are magnified when adverse conditions are also present, such as in inclement weather, impending darkness, climbers' inexperience (the mentioned instances of rappelers falling of rope ends) or if the climbers are in a hurry (which was in part our situation). Needless to say, in any combination of the above scenarios is precisely when Murphy's Law will also come into play.

As mentioned already, I will be much more careful in any future rappels.

Regards

Jan

sergio wrote:Personally, I will pick walk offs and downclimbing over rappelling whenever possible.

I'd say this is very subjective...I can think of many situations in which rappelling is a FAR safer option than walking off or downclimbing.

Much, much to learn from canyoneers.

MoapaPk wrote:Much, much to learn from canyoneers.

To us give it you must, Yoda.

Hello Sergio:

The climb is pretty amazing with several quite difficult moves (French 5c/5.8-5.9) where the guide definitely helped me surmount them. My pictures are not good but there is a very good You Tube video (just type " Arete Sud Aiguille du Moine massif du Mont-Blanc") which incidentally (on time 01:38 min) shows the precise spot in my fall where I ended wedged at the edge of the snow field.

Regards
Jan

Jean Christophe Lafaille, in his book, Prisoner of Annapurna, discusses his solo descent from the South Face after the sharp snap of a failed friend and the resultant fall from rappel of Pierre Beghin.

While having the knowledge to rappel safely is crucial I much prefer downclimbing whenever possible. I just feel more confident in direct contact with the rock. I was actually watching a video on you tube the other day of some kids rappelling off a parking garage and was like... rappelling for fun? That's crazy talk! Haha, I guess I'm to old to see it as a valuable source of fun and entertainment. I haven't had to rappel in dicey weather but it would be easy to do something wrong if a person were rushed by time or circumstance and that is an area where a person can't afford to make mistakes.

Before you unclip your daisy from the anchor always load the rappel and look at the rope going through your device. You can even pull yourself up the rope a bit and lower down while watching the rope slide through.

If you are backing off something where you have to try and save gear the heavier person goes first. The anchor will be one piece that's loaded and a backup piece that's unloaded. The lighter person watches the loaded piece as the heavier person rappels. Then the lighter person pulls the backup and rappels off the single piece.

This is especially prevalent with ice climbing where you are going off Abakalovs. You place one Abakalov and a backup screw, again the lightest person watches the Abakalov as the heavier raps, then he removes the screw and goes off the single Abakalov.

A couple years back I was rapping off an ice climb with some new gloves. The rope was a little bit icy and I got about 1/2 way down this free hanging rappel and hit a patch of ice on the rope and it started slipping through my glove. I sort of freaked out then whipped the glove off and grabbed the rope with my bare hand. Ever since then I've used a prussik on the brake side.

Just last week a climber died on rappel at Beacon Rock OR. Apparently he didn't clip both loops of rope when he clipped his device.