This is another article that I want to preface with the following…
I am not a professional mountain guide or climbing instructor; just some old guy that has been doing some of this shit a long time. All I am doing is sharing some of my experiences and some of the ways I have done things. Climbing is dangerous, and you should seek proper instruction from qualified people in all aspects of it. What follows is not definitive nor exhaustive and is not meant to be instructional in any way. There is no way to learn how to rappel from just reading about it. It is entirely incumbent upon you to learn and practice this stuff under the watchful eyes of a trained and experienced professional in controlled conditions.
Rappelling or Abseiling is in my opinion one of the most dangerous activities you can engage in as a climber. The data supports my opinions to some degree.
Climbing fatalities with rappelling as primary cause:
1951 – 2014 USA 382
1959 – 2014 Canada 53
Source: Accidents in North American Mountaineering (2016)
Cat in the Hat
Death, paralysis, or other permanent injury are commonplace outcomes of rappelling gone wrong.
If I’m given a choice with all things being equal then I will pick a walk-off over a rappel any day of the week. Rappelling is fraught with danger from so many sides. Anchor failures, rock failure, improper technique, bad judgement, and just plain ‘bad-luck’ are some of the things that can conspire against you when rappelling.
But if you are a climber then there is one unavoidable fact, and that is you need to know how to rappel. There are going to be instances when rappelling is the only way off of a climb. This can be either by design, or by circumstances. I have done hundreds of rappels over the years, under a variety of situations, some very awkward and challenging ones to be sure. Every rappel is unique in some way. Each one is a new learning experience.
Just like many things in life, there are multiple ways to do something. There are a lot of different techniques that can be used to rappel. Some are better suited than others depending upon the situation you find yourself in and what type of gear you have at hand. Some methods will have supporters, some will have detractors, and some are just plain bad no matter how you look at it.
Just bear in mind that climbing can be a very fluid and dynamic activity and rapidly changing circumstances may leave you with no choice but to be creative or downright dangerous in your application of rappelling gear and techniques. It’s all part of this risk/reward business that we call climbing.
I have tangentially discussed rappelling in various article on this site, but this is an attempt to coalesce all of that information in one spot. There will be nothing herein however that discusses so called ‘sport’ rappelling, nor any military rappelling, such as the so-called Aussie rappel.
Rappelling at a fundamental level requires only 4 things: A rope. Some method of affixing yourself to the rope. Some way of anchoring the rope. And obviously (but for sake of completeness) something to descend.
As mentioned earlier if there is a way to walk-off or even down-climb it may be safer, faster and more desirable to do that than rappelling. Be sure to fully explore those and other options. Try to do this before leaving the ground however, and have a back-up plan. Now also bear in mind that there will also be situations where down-climbing or a walk-off is actually far more dangerous than rappelling. Only years of experience and good judgement, and current information about your climb will help you here. Some of the objective hazards of what you are actually rappelling may include: Loose rock and /or ice, severely overhanging terrain for multiple pitches, excessive vegetation, and crowding with other parties, or a host of other dangers.
Anchoring the rope is obviously of high importance. You need to be sure that the anchor can take the static and dynamic load of you and your gear. In some cases you may need to tandem rappel so it needs to take the load of two climbers and gear. Many climbs will have well bolted rappel stations. (Even so these anchors need to be closely scrutinized) Many more will not. Some may have manky fixed gear of questionable age and security. In many cases you may need to use natural anchors such as trees, roots, flakes, boulders, etc. In other, usually more dire cases you may need to leave a $60.00 cam to rappel from. Going off of a single piece of gear is sketchy and highly risky, and certainly not something I recommend nor do as a matter of course. Leaving multiple pieces of gear will afford a better safety margin, but will also drain your wallet and deplete your rack at an alarming rate however. When in doubt err on the side of caution.
Common Anchors:
Two or Three Bolts with Steel chains and or screw links
Slung Boulders, Flakes, or Chicken Heads
Slung Trees or roots
Climbing Gear
V-threads (ice)
Bollards (snow/ice)
Dead man (snow)
Whatever your anchor is… double and triple check it. Make sure you weight it before casting off. If in doubt and if possible use a back-up anchor. If things are really sketchy and you need to conserve gear to complete your descent, consider having the heaviest climber go first when utilizing a back-up. Carefully observe the anchor during his or her rappel. If everything looks solid and nothing shifted, then maybe you can think about removing the backup before the last and lightest climber descends.
Another really important factor to look at with anchors, is how easily the rope is going to be pulled through when you are trying to retrieve it. This is usually less of an issue with a single rope rappel but hang-ups can still occur. The critical thing with a double rope rappel is to ensure the knot is on the correct side of the anchors for pulling. I’ll talk a bit about stuck ropes later on. A few miscellaneous things about anchors are: Use rap rings as opposed to threading through webbing. Remove sketchy looking tat and replace it with new webbing.
This brings us to ropes. The vast majority of times in a rock climbing or mountaineering situation you will be rappelling on two strands of rope. Either one rope doubled over, or two ropes that are tied together. There may be isolated instances where there is a fixed rope of a single strand that you need to rappel down but most of the mechanics of that are the same.
There are typically 4 areas of concern with ropes. One is how you knot two ropes together, the others being how you lower them, what you do with the ends, and how you retrieve them. These concepts are basically the same, regardless of what type of device you are using to rappel with. Let me discuss each briefly.
People are very passionate about the knots used to tie two ropes together, and they should be. Your life is depending upon it, so it had better be right. Obviously regardless of the knot, it must be tied correctly.
There are two gold standard knots for tying the ends of two equal diameter ropes together. The Double Fisherman, and the overhand knot, which goes colloquially as the Euro Death Knot or EDK. Without question the Double Fisherman is the stronger of the two and has a long legacy of being the rappel knot of choice. The drawbacks are that it is slightly more complicated to tie, but more so it is a bulky knot that is prone to getting snagged and caught. The EDK on the other hand is simpler to tie and affords a flatter profile that is less likely to catch on things. All testing that I have seen done on the EDK has indicated that there is no way a climber could ever load a properly tied overhand knot in a real world situation in such a way as to cause it to ‘roll’ and fail. I used the Double Fisherman for years, but have since switched to the EDK. The key aspect for safety in tying the EDK is to leave very long tails. By this I mean at least 25 cm. or longer.
In any event, learn at least how to correctly tie one of these knots.
If you need to tie two ropes of differing diameters then… you may need to consider a different knot, especially if the diameters are vastly different. …
After you have tied your knot, double check it. Then have your partner check it.
Every year you hear (often several times) of people; sometimes very seasoned professionals, rappelling off the ends of their ropes to their death. Every year! Tying knots in the end of your ropes will go a very long way to stop that from happening. Tie a solid well-dressed double overhand knot in the end of each strand. I have heard of a weakly tied knot pulling through a rappel device during an uncontrolled descent. It takes no time to knot the ends and there is no downside. All you need to do is to remember to untie the knots before you pull the ropes.
You need to get the ropes down the cliff somehow. You want to do yourself a big favour and do this in as controlled of a manner as possible. This is highly situational. It depends greatly upon the terrain, and to some degree upon the weather; specifically the wind. It may be late in the day, you may be tired, you may be racing the weather, but take your time and drop your ropes careful and tidy like. Even so, they may get tangled into a seething mess, but you at least need to try and minimize this. One way to do this is to loop each strand into smaller coils and drop or throw these separately. I tend to try and slowly lower them if I can; only resorting to tossing them if I need to clear ledges or other obstacles. If your ropes do get snarled then if you can you should try and haul them back up and try again. The alternative is to rappel and try and straighten them out on your descent. Sometimes this works, often times it’s a real cluster…frustrating at best, highly dangerous at the worst. Unfortunately sometimes there is no recourse but to deal with tangled ropes whilst rappelling, but an ounce of prevention is best here. Murphy’s Law demonstrates itself in abundance in rappelling. If a rope can get tangled or caught in something then it will.
Another method that some people find very effective is called ‘saddlebags’. This is where you carefully coil each rope through a sling holster that you have affixed to each side of your harness. You begin your rappel with both strands fully coiled at your sides and pay out the rope as you descend. There are some real tricks to doing this properly. It can be very effective when rappelling convoluted terrain or in high winds; but it is a skill that requires some practice to master. Don’t be trying to figure this out for the first time on a crowded multi-pitch rappel or in a gathering storm. Like with any technique, have this stuff totally wired and dialed in before you even think of leaving the ground.
Once you are down you need to pull your ropes. Again the ounce of prevention thing applies here. Make sure everything is in order beforehand is your best bet for a safe retrieval. There are many things to consider and you can’t overlook any of them.
First and foremost is be sure to position the anchors so that the rope freely hangs over the edge to avoid any friction. This may not be possible due to terrain or fixed anchors but you must do your best. If you are using two ropes that have been knotted then it is imperative that the knot will be free from any obstructions around the anchor such as cracks, flakes, chicken heads, etc. Equally important is that the knot is well away from the rappel rings or chain links AND you and your partners must be crystal clear which rope you will be pulling. You MUST pull the knot away from the anchors and not towards it. This is where it helps to have ropes of different colour. Use some mnemonic. Like arranging the ropes so that you pull the green rope as opposed to the red rope. Green is go. Red is stop. Assuming you have red and green ropes that is. Knots will get hung up on the slightest protuberance. This is another case for the EDK. When the first climber is safely down they should try and test pull the ropes. If they don’t pull freely, the remaining climbers can possibly make adjustments.
Before you actually pull the ropes for good there are three things you must do. One is so obvious it shouldn’t need to be said but here goes… Make sure all of your team is down! If there are only two of you it should be clear, but if you have a group of people rappelling on the same lines ensure that they are all down. The next item is reaffirm with all present which rope is going to be pulled. Lastly and very important is to remove all stopper knots before pulling the ropes.
If you are doing multi pitch rappels it is critical that the rope is secured to the rock and a climber before being pulled. More than once a rope has been pulled, unsecured and it hurtles earthward past the climbers leaving them stranded on a ledge or worse. I try to have it routed through the next anchors and secured with an overhand knot.
When pulling pull with slow, even and continuous force. Avoid tugging and jerking. If the rope won’t move or is very hard to pull. Stop! Stop and think. Reaffirm again that you are pulling on the correct side. If you have the real-estate try moving backwards or off to the side to decrease the angle to possibly lessen the friction. Only as a very last resort should you use the mighty two man tug of war pull. Any time you are pulling the rope you should be wearing a helmet and avoid looking up as many things large and small can get dislodged. It can be difficult but you should be out of the fall line if possible.
If a rope becomes irretrievably stuck your options rapidly dwindle. You can leave it if you don’t need it to further descend. You pocketbook takes a hit, and you are contributing to mountain litter, but you may live to climb another day. If there is a party descending above you, they may be able to free it. If you have a second line, or enough rope, you may be able to climb back up and free it. Or you can always batman up the stuck line (or jumar/prussik). The latter being by far the most dangerous and least recommended option. You may have no idea why it is caught and you don’t want your weight pulling it free whilst you are on it. It is a recipe for disaster.
mmm?
I personally think that the actual device you use to rappel is the least important factor in the equation. Virtually anything will work, and work safely providing you use it right, and providing all of the other things already discussed have been taken care of. That being said it behooves the climber to learn a variety of tools. In the event you drop or loose a device, or have to use something unfamiliar. The original old school Dulfersitz rappel will still work in a pinch. Pinch being the operative word. Read carefully the post by BMc called ‘lessons learned’. All you need for this rappel is a rope. Comfortable no. Useful yes. Most rappels will be accomplished using some form of tube style device. Although a figure 8 works great, as do karabiner brakes and stacked karabiners. You can even use a suitably sized tri-cam or hexcentric if you need to. They all basically work the same. By applying friction to the rope as it passes through the device in question. I can’t and won’t describe them because there are too many configurations. READ your owner’s manual. Practice under the guidance of someone who really knows what they are doing. Practice under safe conditions. Learn how the device is threaded and attached to your harness. Doing it wrongly can mean your death. Learn how to clip and unclip the rope without removing the device from your harness, to minimise the chance of dropping it.
One final thing. Use a back-up. There are differing schools of thought on this one too. Pros and cons. I use a small prussik sling attached to the rope BELOW the belay device and attached to a leg loop on my harness. I also use a ‘spider’ or short section of bombproof webbing to extend the belay device away from the harness belay loop a bit. This set-up needs to be fine-tuned by adjusting the webbing and prussik lengths to ensure that under no circumstances can the prussik get sucked up into the belay device.
Before each trip make the time to check all of your gear carefully. Especially so with your harness and any webbing you are planning to use as part of your rappel system
All it takes is a moment’s inattention….