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NigelSSI
Trad climber
BC
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Feb 15, 2011 - 12:46pm PT
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It gets me a bit neurotic, though I enjoy it once I'm over the lip.
-build anchor
-check anchor
-knot ends of rope
-attach device
-think you'd better not weight the rope just yet
-worry about anchor
-check anchor
-check device
-check anchor
-pull on the rope some
-check anchor
-check device
-weight the rope
-start moving a bit
-check anchor
-check device
-slowly move towards the lip while staring at the anchor without blinking
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2011 - 01:01pm PT
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sometimes I gotta post like a noob to trick the smart kids into posting stories.
T3? what are the standards again?
:)
seriously though, rapping always makes me think about it. good I suppose. It's like the fear of falling where Peter Croft says that "if you didn't have some fear, then you really would be a lunatic" (slight paraphrase there possibly. thx to Doug R's interview in Moving Over Stone)
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east side underground
Trad climber
Hilton crk,ca
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:11pm PT
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" It's forty degrees outside!" famous line ( by me) to Doug and Murry while they sat shivering in a ice cold back room in the "stabbin" cabin editing Moving Over Stone.
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Josh Nash
Social climber
riverbank ca
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:21pm PT
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you know what's scarier than rappelling? Fast roping. I have no idea why a Marine artillery battery trained for fast roping so much. It gripped me everytime. It's just leather gloves and a thick rope 40 feet off the deck.
Also tying your swiss seat and then rapping off it would seem scary but the DI yelling at you to get down off his wall was way more intimidating....
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OR
Trad climber
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:25pm PT
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Seems like most experienced climbers rap when necessary. Its just part of the deal. I would rather walk off anything within reason than rap. One thing that was interesting at the Gunks was the amount of people rapping off climbs. Almost all the high trafic routs were an easy walk off but people would be rapping off left and right ( sometimes on top of people on other routes). It did not take long to see a pattern. Most people rapping were often newer climbers with large packs and large racks of new gear and the novelty of it had not worn off yet. Most of the experienced people had small racks and walked off almost everything. Just an observation.
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okay,whatever
Trad climber
Charlottesville, VA
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:34pm PT
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I fell 50 feet in 1970, when my rappel anchor turned out to be inadequate (totally pilot error... I was 16 and a beginner). Fortunately, there was a pretty optimal soft dirt sloped landing, and all I did was break my right wrist.
However, although I did some climbing in the interim, it was only in 1972 that I managed to force myself over the edge on rappel... and I was sure I was going to die. Since then, it hasn't bothered me much, but I'm the first to agree that being VERY careful is important, and that there are raps that are difficult and/or dangerous for a variety of reasons.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:53pm PT
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Granite Climber-with due respect sir, wtf.
Most old bucks like yours truly, mr brawn excepted, don't seem to think so much of rapping -in any form. Youngsters too often seem less than thrilled with all the fun it entails-lets check in with messers kruk and geisler on their return to this part of the world how much fun they had last week on CT.
Plus I've rapped off my rope TWICE and in the same place (details already on another ST thread)
Why would anyone "think so much of rapping." It doesn't take much (I won't say any) skill, and, if you know what you are doing, isn't at all thrilling. But it shouldn't be terrifying either. Unless you are a noob. Or a TOTAL F*#KING IDIOT who can't help making obvious mistakes and raps of the end of the rope REPEATEDLY. Anyone would think that you would have learned something from the first one, but no, in your case they would be wrong! WTF, indeed! What The F*#k? (All with due respect of course.) In that case, it's better to avoid climbing altogether.
Do you know how to put in a bomber anchor?
Do you know how to tie a knot in the end of the rope?
Do you know how to use an autoblock?
Do you know how to tie a backup knot below your device?
Do you know how to get started over lips?
Learn some basic skills--and you can rap safely and without fear.
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msiddens
Trad climber
Mountain View
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Feb 15, 2011 - 01:54pm PT
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Yes, funny to read this but I could not agree more. Hate it, necessary evil but I avoid it if at all possible. Auto-block for back-up is a new addition after stopping using one for a ten year period. I came back to it after deciding there are just too many things that can go wrong. If ya must do it then do it as safely as possible.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Feb 15, 2011 - 02:23pm PT
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I never really minded it that much. I was always way careful, double and triple checking everything. Worst raps were always multi pitch ones like coming down off free blast where you had to pass the knots on a blank wall.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 15, 2011 - 02:33pm PT
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I've read enough Accidents in North America and online accidents over the past 10 years to implant some serious paranoia over rappelling. I use a back-up and triple check everything.
I agree- getting lowered by someone else actually freaks me out WAY more than rappelling. I TOTALLY hate it. At least with a rappel- my life is in my hands and (short of an anchor failing completely)- I can tell what is going on.
I was almost killed on my first rappel. I've had to simul-rap off a totally rounded dome out in Wonderland one time- praying the damn rope didn't just roll off the top and kill us. People who rappel "for fun" or as a "sport" totally baffle me. There's nothing fun about it if you know the stats. It's the #1 killer of climbers with over 20 years experience BTW...
I keep telling Mr. E he is doomed. The 20 year clock-of-doom is ticking.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Feb 15, 2011 - 02:52pm PT
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Earlier I wrote that I knew two people who'd died rapping. Make that three.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41564115
...and forget all the stupid trick rappels.
Amen, brother.
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Gene
climber
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:00pm PT
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These could ruin your day in a hurry, especially when tired and not paying full attention.
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murcy
climber
sanfrancisco
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:00pm PT
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People who rappel "for fun" or as a "sport" totally baffle me.
Yes, it's like going drinking so that you can enjoy the wacky drive home.
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:01pm PT
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It is always a little scary, but so necessary.
One climb that would show who really hates rappelling and who doesn't:
Royal Arches.
If you want to rap you can, if you hate rapping you can do the gully.
I have always walked off
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:01pm PT
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There's a time and place.
Over the holidays I must have seen an army of card-carrying gumbies tackling the Solar Slab raps in groups of a hundred. (OK, I exaggerate.) They were simul-rapping and linking raps that barely lunk so that they could have the pleasure of pulling 450 feet of rope over 5.4 knobby chimney slab. Good times. But that's how we all learn. After their zillionth recovery mission they may have caught on that their scheme wasn't really that speedy.
Sometimes I'm willing to risk getting my ropes stuck and sitting out all night vs. hiking b/c I really can be just that lazy.
I cried last summer at the final belay on the Muir b/c it was dark and I needed to plop my butt into the void for a free hanging rap back to the bags. All of the sudden I felt like a threatened feral beast, and I just couldn't do it. But that was irrational fear, not actual worry that the system was going to fail.
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from a crimp and crying for my mama.
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:20pm PT
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I'm scared of rappelling... It's a good kind of scared that makes me check what I am doing, put the knot at the end of the rope even when a partner hates it... "It's my life."
AFS
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Captain...or Skully
climber
The Seas of Stone.
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Feb 15, 2011 - 03:24pm PT
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"Lunk"? Hehehe. That's imaginative.
Not a sport rapper. Or a gansta rapper. Or really any kinda rapper.
I rap when the walk off doesn't exist or can't be faced. That is all.
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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Feb 15, 2011 - 04:43pm PT
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+1 for the NDG vs. rapping
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Josh Higgins
Trad climber
San Diego
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Feb 15, 2011 - 04:44pm PT
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No hate here. More like indifferent. It's what I need to do to get down sometimes. It's part of the experience. Climb with a good partner and your whole time on the wall is FUN, including rappelling.
Josh
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SuperTopo on the Web
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end of a long day, forgetting whether to pull blue or red after a monotonous series of raps where they all blend together
Let us know!