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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Apr 15, 2015 - 08:03am PT
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Mix that in with the nipple caught in the rap device and I think yer on to something...
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hamersorethumb
Trad climber
Menlo Park, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 15, 2015 - 09:06am PT
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Wow, thanks for all the great responses. I love this kind of dialog on Super Topo, I really learn a lot. For those interested the photo shows the set up I've been using the past few years and that I am teaching to the new climber.
Donini I really like your comments about the metal aspect of errors. I have been emphasizing that point and we have had some opportunities to experience them, like getting a late start and feeling like you have to hurry up. I've been talking a lot about how most accidents come from compounded factors building up to a catastrophic failure. Late start - getting dark - fatigue - forget to check something.... thanks again everyone.
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Apr 15, 2015 - 09:15am PT
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One I didn't see mentioned: you didn't take care in how your rope is routed and it get's cut on a sharp edge, and you fall to your death.
A near miss I had with a group is worth repeating. I took three noobs with me for a trip to the valley with plans of climbing the nutcracker. We got there early enough the night before that I figured we should climb up a pitch or two of el cap before camping in the woods for the night.
My big mistake was assuming that one of the guys I'd climbed with for awhile was more experienced than he was and that I could trust him to get the other members of the party set up to rappel and I'd go down first so I could do a firemans belay if anyone got out of control.
One of the noobs was rapping down and the rope wasn't running smoothly and she seemed to be at a wierd angle to the rock. When she got down to the deck I discovered the reason why. Instead of the belay device being clipped to the belay loop, it was clipped to the gear loop on the side of the harness. 20+ years later I still feel sick thinking about it.
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jonnyrig
climber
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Here's a crap video from this morning involving a cottonwood, some webbing, ascenders, friction hitches, and paracord.
The webbing worked fine, exhibiting zero heat or abrasion damage during the short (like 10 feet) rappel using a munter hitch.
The paracord, using just a single strand and a monster munter, immediately made weird noises and abraded the sheath in the first foot. It still held, though I wouldn't want to rap a single strand where my life depends on it.
My editing program crashed, as in fubar, so it's the full video shot from a chest mounted gopro. Let me save you some boredom. Skip ahead:
Rappel on webbing using munter at 4:20
Tried to ascend single strand of webbing using 6mm cord, prusik above and klemheist below. Fail. Starts at 7:50
Rappel single strand of paracord using a monster munter at 13:40.
Should you elect to bore yourself with my poor ascension technique, and my wife getting disgusted with me for not answering the phone and making both of us late for work, that's your own wasted time. Don't say I didn't warn you!
[Click to View YouTube Video]
I suspect trusting your life to a single strand of paracord (via survival bracelet or some-such crap) would be a good way to die rappelling.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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One way I didn't see mentioned was simply to let go. When I teach people to rap, I always belay them. In 1969, I found out the wisdom of this when one of the noobs rapped off an overhang, panicked, and let go with both hands, turning to me and asking "Now what do I do?." If he wasn't belayed, he would have died.
Also, when I started climbing in the Valley, every Valley fatality was either a rappelling or jumaring accident, so the consequences of misjudgment are always on my mind. As Donini observed, we usually rap after we feel like we've "done" the climb, and it's rather easy to let our guard down. The price for doing so can be rather, shall we say, steep.
John
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Gary
Social climber
From A Buick 6
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Rap into a waterfall and die from hypothermia.
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Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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After reading Clint's post I may never rappel again.
the all tread read as a horror with some imagination
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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You can always tell the neophyte climber - they still like rapping
I was almost killed in a rapping accident, pulling the ropes dislodged rockfall that hit me in the head.
You want some scary raps, try caving. They're totally into the single rope technique. Fix one rope and rap into the blackness, 400 to 500 foot free-hanging drops on a single rope. No one stays on the surface, everyone drops in.
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Da-Veed
Big Wall climber
Bigfork
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You post on ST about wanting to rap The Nose and how inexperienced you are. People tell you to go ahead and do it. You almost die, get rescued and get to tell your story on ST.
That how to almost die rapping.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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4) some drunken yokel starts taking shots at you with his varmint rifle & blows yer head clean off
I had that happen at The Needles during hunting season but the guy missed by a little. It's interesting hearing the round buzz past followed by the report of the rifle. The shot came from across Needlerock Creek. Maybe it was the pink lycra...
I've nearly been killed twice rappelling, both times due to lack of attention.
Rapping down Magical Mystery Tour (Tahquitz.) No end knots to avoid snags, and I knew where the anchors were. Double 8.5mm ropes. As I descended I saw a friend on a nearby route. He had just returned from Nepal. We were exchanging greetings when I noticed I had passed the anchor. Looking down I was horrified to see about a foot of rope left before gravity would have it's way with me. Back on the ground I went behind a tree and barfed my guts out.
Another time I led Jane's Addiction (Josh) on double 8.5's (don't ask why.) My buds wanted to TR so I set up both ropes through the anchor - two thin ropes are better than one for TR's. So I clipped the red through one side of my device and the blue through the other (why I was rapping a route with a two bit walk off is beyond me.) If I loaded this set up both cords would have pulled (you need both sides of one rope, two reds or two blues in this case.) I was over the edge hanging from the lip with one hand, the other ready to brake. For some reason I just wasn't comfortable enough to commit when I saw the problem. Pulled the exit move and sat on top. No barf this time, just anger. Perhaps a survivable fall but hideous either way.
Just show this thread to your protege and he'll get it. Many climbing accidents happen after a series of mistakes or misjudgments. Rappelling/lowering accidents happen after a single mistake.
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The Lisa
Trad climber
Da Bronx, NY
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Wow after reading all these scenarios I am going to avoid rappelling and abseil instead.
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Majid_S
Mountain climber
Karkoekstan
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last time I wrote something like this, I had it up to 60+ things that kill you while rappelling
no, that is not the middle mark tape on the rope. its some stupid mfg marking for the last 15 feet of rope
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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You are rapping in an alpine environment leaving gear. Instead of following the "fall line" you decide that if you stay up on a ramp, you can get to easier terrain sooner. Halfway down, you realize you have badly misjudged the rock angles and you are doing 5th class friction moves to keep from sliding off the ramp and dropping/swinging 20 feet into the corner.
While cursing your bad decision, you try to decide if it is better to try and struggle back up the rope and risk an uncontrolled slip off the ramp, or take a controlled fall into the ramp and see if you have anything worse than a couple of broken ankles (miles from the road), or continue on down as the ramp/corner fall distance gets bigger and the friction gets harder.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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....its some stupid mfg marking for the last 15 feet of rope
I cannot believe the utter stupidity of this idea. The first time I saw 5M marks near the end of a rope I was stunned. The real danger is if you are using someone else's rope and are unaware of this marking scheme. Climbers have died because of this.
If you're belaying and you can't fairly well judge when the leader has 30, or 15 feet of rope left, or need to be reminded to watch the rope best not to be climbing.
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labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
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Great topic. Thanks!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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last time I wrote something like this, I had it up to 60+ things that kill you while rappelling
IMHO they are all variations on a theme of inattention.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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IMHO they are all variations on a theme of inattention.
Yep. Another one for me.
Top of P1 of Devil's Delight (Tahquitz,) just doing the first classic pitch then gonna rap. I got to the belay, there was a gal belaying her leader on P2. I shared the bolted anchor and brought up The Sarge. By the time she arrived belayer gal was gone. I leaned out to size up the rappel and I began to fall outward off the ledge. I swung a leg out into the air which gave me the moment I needed to turn and grab a rope clipped to the bolts. This was a very near thing.
I know I was clipped in while I belayed The Sarge, since I leaned out to watch. I can only assume belay gal unclipped me when she left the ledge. One cannot be too careful in these kinds of situations. Yeah, she unclipped me, but it's still my job to know I am anchored.
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crøtch
climber
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#132) Pull rope, lose control of rope and drop it. Left stranded on wall.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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#132) Pull rope, lose control of rope and drop it. Left stranded on wall.
I have it on authority of a member of the first ascent party that "Steve's Folly" on the Hogback at Lover's Leap was originally named "Steve Dropped the Stupid Rope."
John
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Here's what I don't get about this. How are you supposed to feed both strands of rope down thru the ATC during the early section of your abseil? Simply leaning back doesn't result in descending at least for me at my weight. I have to lift the rope and more or less push it down through the device to get started, usually a two handed method where the lower, brake hand brings the angle of the rope back down to control the descent, once that begins smoothly.
Will I die?
Arne
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