Alpine Tips
How do you rappel past a damaged section of rope?
You’re rappelling, and unexpectedly come to a damaged section of rope. How would you get past it? Here’s one method.
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Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
Photos and method in this post are from Walter Britschgi, @walterbritschgi, shared with permission.
Scenario: you’re rappelling down through some nasty loose rock.
During your rappel you kick some rocks loose.
One of them unfortunately hits your rope, damaging one strand.
Now, you need to finish your rappel, get past the damaged section of rope, and tie it off, so it's secure enough for you and your partner to continue going down.
How can you do this?
(Yes, it's a very unlikely situation, but if it happens, you’ll need to deal with it.)
Bigger picture, it's good practice when rappelling to look DOWN and be aware of what’s below you. Is the rope stuck in a crack? Are the ends on the ground? Do you need to pendulum to reach the next anchor? Or, in the case below, is the rope damaged?
Here’s another scenario where someone had to deal with this. (From Instagram. Sorry I don’t have the original post to offer credit.)
Here’s one method to rappel past a damaged section of the rope.
Stop a short distance above the damaged rope strand.
Go hands-free on your rappel. Let your autoblock take your weight. Tie a hard back up/catastrophe knot a few meters below in both strands, and clip it to your belay loop with a locker.
Add a friction hitch above your rappel device. A single length 60 cm sling is a good length for this.
Clip the friction hitch to your belay loop with a locker. Feed a little rope through your device until your weight goes onto the friction hitch.
Key move: Slide only the damaged strand of rope through your device. Once it's above you, tie a bight knot (overhand is fine) to isolate the damaged part of the rope.
Now is where it can get a little physical. Pull the slack rope through your device so you can reload both strands equally. (If it's really steep, you may need to add a second friction hitch as a foot loop.)
Put your weight back on your device, remove the friction hitch, untie the hard backup knot, and continue your rappel.
Check out the photo sequence below, courtesy of Walter Britschgi. (Note: recommended hard backup knot isn’t shown.)
Image: @walterbritschgi
Image: @walterbritschgi
Image: @walterbritschgi
Image: @walterbritschgi
Image: @walterbritschgi
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Head scratcher: can you solve this rappel problem?
Think you're good at solving climbing problems on the fly? See if you can figure out this one!
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This noggin-scratcher was solved in real life by Albin Thunander. Albin is a Swedish IFMGA Guide Candidate, and he shared with me the details of how he dealt with this. You can usually find him in the mountains around Chamonix. Connect with Albin on Instagram: @albinthunander.
I first heard of this trick from @tiffany_hensley, thanks Tiffany!
Think you're good at solving climbing problems on the fly? See if you can figure out this one!
Here's the scenario:
You're at the top of a 100 meter cliff.
There are only two anchors: one at the top and one at 50 meters.
You have one 80 meter rope.
There's no way of making other anchors and you can't walk down.
All you have is basic gear, like a harness, belay device, prusik cord and a couple of slings and carabiners. You don't have a Beal escaper, a tagline, or 25 meters of shoelaces or any other fancy gear.
How do you get safely to the ground?
There's no trick answer; no parachute, bouncing, rope stretching etc. It's actually doable and relatively low-risk, without any death techniques using self-releasing knots or taped-open-carabiner-fifi-hook Ninja trickery.
Treat this as more of a math problem, and not a climbing skills problem.
After you think about it, scroll down for a hint. After you read the hint, scroll farther for the answer.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
Hint: You have a knife.
.
.
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Answer:
Measure 25 meters of rope. Cut it. (If you don't have a knife, you can cut it on a sharp rock, or run a sling back-and-forth through the rope for a few seconds.)
Tie a bight knot at both ends. Clip one end of the 25 meter rope to the top anchor.
Toss the other end of the 25 meter section of rope. (This effectively makes a new “anchor” 25 meters below the top.)
Rap down this 25 meter single strand with the rest of the rope.
Xxxx . . .
Xxx . . .
Xxx . . .
Yay, done!
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How to rappel on marginal anchors
Someday, you'll find yourself at a rappel anchor that is Less Than Ideal. Here are some tips to hopefully get you and your partner down in one piece.
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image credit: Silas Rossi, @silasrossi
At some point in your alpine climbing, you’ll be forced to use a rappel anchor that’s as sketchy as Donald Trump’s tax returns. Here are some ways to hopefully get you and your partner down in one piece.
Improve the anchor. Is it a strand or two of sun crusted, rock rodent chewed ancient webbing? Get out your cordelette or a sling(s) and leave those behind. Old, weathered webbing can be as weak as 3-ish kN! (See some test results below.) Yes, people have died from this type of anchor failure, don't be the next one. You do have a knife, right?
Remove the garbage. If the anchor looks like the rat’s nest in the above photo, do everybody a favor: cut away the worst parts and leave only the best two or three bits of cord.
Are you arriving at a dodgy anchor from a rappel? Stay on rappel and bounce test the anchor. While secure on the rappel ropes, clip your tether into the masterpoint, and give it a few good bounces. A good bounce on a static tether puts about 3x your body weight onto the anchor. If it holds, good. If it doesn't, you're still backed up on your rappel rope.
Backup the anchor if it all possible with other gear. Send the first and heaviest person down first so the backup can do its job if the primary anchor fails. (Obviously this rule was made by heavy people.) If the anchor holds for the big person, it's likely gonna hold for everybody else, and the last person can remove the backup. If the last person is still sketched, they have the right to leave behind ANY gear they want as a backup. Yep, including that $90 cam, your life is worth it. See video at bottom of page for an example.
Bounce test. Ideally, when you’re backed up to something solid, load the rope and give it a solid bounce. Be sure that the backup is unweighted and doesn’t take any load during this test. As mentioned above, a decent bounce is about 3x your bodyweight, way more force than actually rappelling.
Rappel slowly and smoothly, not like some Special Forces cowboy.
If the anchor is truly marginal, the first person down can place gear and clip one strand of the rope to it. If the top anchor fails, this might save the day.
Want to see the break test results for old sun crusted webbing? (Hint: it’s worse than you think!)
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Rappel pull cords 101
Using a skinny pull cord, in combination with a regular climbing rope, allows full length rappels with reduced gear and pack weight. However, there are some nuances to doing it correctly, efficiently, and with reduced risk. Learn all about it here.
Premium Members can read the entire article here:
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
This article was written with collaboration from expert alpine climbers Priti and Jeff Wright. Connect with them on Instagram (Priti / Jeff) and their website, alpinevagabonds.com
This article focuses on the how to use a rappel pull cord. It's closely related to:
(If you’re completely new to this descending method, I suggest starting with this rope block article and then coming back here.)
Using a small diameter pull cord (which some folks call a tagline) can allow you to do a full length single strand rappel, and (typically) use that smaller diameter rope to pull down your primary climbing rope. This can allow full length rappels with less rope, weight and bulk.
The key to making this work is what's called a rope block. This can be done with a knot or a carabiner. A rope block allows the rope to move through the anchor in one direction but not the other. You rappel on the full strength climbing rope, which is fixed to the anchor by the block. When it's time to pull the rope you use the pull cord on the side that’s not fixed to the anchor.
But, like everything in climbing, there are pros and cons, so let's have a closer look.
Conceptually, pull cords are pretty simple. In practice:
There are some subtleties to doing it correctly.
There are some downsides to it even when you do it correctly.
If you screw it up, you could die or get your rope hopelessly stuck.
For these reasons, I consider it an advanced technique that you absolutely should practice with a qualified instructor. And, even when you’re confident with it, I feel it should generally not be part of your regular practice. It can definitely get you out of a jam in certain situations, but there are enough moving parts that I feel it's not a routine technique for most recreational climbing situations.
Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use pull cords:
Before we dive into pull cords, let's look at some other options
Bring a second properly rated double rope that you can actually use for real climbing if necessary. This is a popular option for many people. If you're gonna bring a 6 mm pull cord, why not just bring a slightly larger 7.5 or 8ish mm half rope, which can cost about the same anyway, and offer a few more benefits? Or climb on twin/double ropes to begin with?
A more specialized option for a full length rappels, that does not require a tag line (but does require a bit of courage to use for the first few times) is the Beal Escaper; a very clever bit of gear that you definitely want to practice with first. I'll have an article on that coming up soon.
First off, let's be clear on the Golden Rule of a rope block: it absolutely, positively cannot pull through the rappel hardware.
If you haven’t closed the system by attaching the pull side of the rope to the rappel side of the rope and the block pulls through the hardware, you will probably die.
If you have closed the system and the rope pulls through, your rope will probably be hopelessly stuck.
If you had the slightest suspicion that the knot might be able to pull through the anchor hardware, it's probably a better choice to use a carabiner block instead.
Potential downsides to using a pull cord / rope block
The big one was already mentioned, but it's worth mentioning again: if the knot pulls through the hardware, the entire system fails and you die, or your rope gets stuck.
You’re adding an extra knot and carabiner to your system, which are two more things that can potentially get snagged when you're pulling your rope. Note that the last person can choose to remove the safety carabiner.
There are increased steps and complexity, which can increase the chances of making a mistake. This is especially true because for most people, this is a non-standard system that does not get used regularly. See accident reports at the top of the page.
If you're using a lighter weight pull cord, if you start pulling your rope and it gets snagged after the end of the climbing rope is out of reach, you only have a 6 mm rope in your hands to deal with the problem. Not good.
It can be difficult to toss the pull cord in the normal manner, because it's so light it doesn't want to spool out nicely down the cliff.
If you're doing multiple rappels, and want to always pull the same strand of rope, it takes additional time to do the standard trick of threading the pull cord through the lower anchor. Why? Because you’re usually pulling the skinny cord, but the fat rope needs to be the one through the anchor. This means you have to do some shenanigans like untying your joining knot, putting the proper strand of rope through the anchor, and then re-tying the joining knot at each rappel station, which takes additional time.
Yarding on a 6 mm rope can be rough on your hands. Consider adding a Tibloc or Micro Traxion on the pull cord to make the pulling easier. Gloves are recommended.
Pulling the rope can be significantly harder, because you do not have a counterbalanced weight on the pulling strand to assist your pull.
The safety carabiner that's clipping the block onto the rappel strand can add a significant amount of extra friction, making your rope pull more difficult.
You’re rapping on a single strand of rope, which might be uncomfortably fast. Be sure you know some ways to add friction to your rappel. LINK
When you “close the system” by clipping the blocking knot to the rappel line, you've essentially created a closed loop that you then need to pull down. If the two sides of the rope making this loop happen to go on either side of some rock protrusion, boulder, shrub, etc, the loop is going to get caught when you pull down your rope, causing your rope to get stuck. Check my article on rope blocks to see a photo example of this.
Skinny rope pull down trick
This can really save your hands! #CraftyRopeTrick!
When to use a pull cord?
A pull cord usually makes the most sense when you have one or maybe two full length rappels and want to go light, or maybe as a sort of emergency back up if you need to retreat unexpectedly. If it’s long or remote route, with many rappels needed, using a proper second rope may be a better choice for most folks.
A pull cord generally works best on relatively smooth, clean, steep ice or rock. The more low angle, cracks, shrubs, boulders, and rope-grabby bits, the higher the chance your block might get caught on the way down (A good general rule on terrain like this: it can be better to make more rappels that are shorter, than fewer rappels that are longer.)
Tangle-free pull cords - in praise of rope bags
Ahh, the dirty little secret about pull cords - those skinny rascals need constant attention to keep them from turning into a hopeless spaghetti pile. This is even more true in high wind, low angle blocky terrain, etc.
There are several options to try to deal with this. Some people opt for the “saddlebag” technique, others butterfly coil the rope over the rappel extension. I’ve tried both. For me they didn’t work very well, and I still got some maddening tangles.
Fortunately there's a simple system to tame your pull cord that works just about perfectly every time: the rope bag.
Rope bags are magical! The first time you use them, it looks like there is no possible way you can just flake the rope into a bag and have a feed out perfectly from the top every time, but that's pretty much what always happens. Rope bags are common in industrial rigging, SAR / rope rescue, canyoneering and whitewater, but rarely used by recreational climbers. I hope that changes, because they can be extremely helpful.
To deploy, you simply clip the rope bag with a sling onto your harness so it hangs below you, and the rope should feed out perfectly as you rappel.
When it's time to pull on the skinny cord to retrieve your rope, good practice is one person pulls and the other one stacks the rope into the bag. If the rope is already down, it's convenient to redirect the rope through some high point on the anchor, and then pull the rope down into the bag, hand over hand.
Once you have a fairly direct line to the bottom of your rappel, you can toss the bag and hopefully the rope will come out of it cleanly. (Yes you DID remember to tie the end of your tagline onto the bag, right?)
The rope bag doesn’t have to be fancy. Try a reusable plastic shopping bag; large, sturdy, cheap, lightweight, convenient handles for clipping onto an anchor, and the top is stiff enough to stay open so you can easily stuff in the rope.
If you find yourself using pull cords a lot, you're probably gonna want to upgrade your rope bag. A great option is this sweet version made by High Mountain Gear. It's super sturdy, easily holds a 60 meter 6 mm cord like the Petzl PURline, has a grommet in the bottom so you can tie a stopper knot so you don't lose the bag, and has a tab so you can clip the bag to your harness.
Keep control of the cord
Be sure and keep the pull cord attached to you. If you lose control of it and it blows or swings out of reach, you could have a serious problem! Some people like to have the pull cord going through their ATC / rappel device, even though you're not putting any weight on it. This can help take any twists or kinks out of the cord as you descend. Others prefer simply clipping it to a spare carabiner on the gear loop. That's my preference, because if you're using a rope bag, you pretty much don't have any twisting in the cord.
An Instagram reader noted that if you clip the cord to your harness like this, it works fine for a normal rappel when you’re in contact with the rock. But if there's any sort of overhang or free hanging part, and you start to spin, the ropes can easily twist around each other. (This may be also an issue rapping double strand in a normal tube style device.) If you anticipate this happening, it may be better to tie the end of the cord to you rather than clipping it to your harness like this.
Here’s a great diagram from the always awesome Petzl website showing how to do it.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm
Don’t load both strands when rappelling
If you rappel with both strands through your ATC, it's important to remember it's a single strand rappel, and keep your brake hand and third hand/autoblock on the real climbing rope. If you put your weight on both strands, the difference in friction going through your device can make the knot start to do some weird things at the anchor.
Also, if you're using something other than a stout rated (15 kN!) rope like a Petzl PURline, it's probably better practice to clip the pull cord through a carabiner on your harness gear loop rather than have it go through your ATC.
How to connect to the pull cord to the main climbing rope?
Petzl recommends a “stacked overhand”; basically two flat overhands right next to each other, to connect their slippery PURline pull cord and the larger diameter rope. Some people might consider this a bit overcautious and be fine with a single flat overhand bend, and that's probably gonna be fine as well.
IMAGE CREDIT: HTTPS://WWW.PETZL.COM/INT/EN/SPORT/ROPES/PUR-LINE-6-MM
What cord to use?
Over the years, climbers have used everything from parachute cord, to 5-ish mm accessory cord, to highly specialized expensive cord/rope made specifically for this purpose.
Today, lots of manufacturers offer various flavors of pull cords: The Beal Backup Line, the Black Diamond 6.0 static rope, the Bluewater 8 mm Pull Down cord, and the Imlay Pull Cord 6.0, to name a few.
However, the generally accepted gold standard for pull cords is the Petzl PURline. It's static, it's slippery, it's super strong, lightweight, compact, and works great as a pull cord (or for hauling moderate loads). Unfortunately it’s expensive. Here's a detailed article on the Petzl PURline.
The PURline comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is that, you wonder? When you rap on your 60 meter dynamic rope on the other side of the block, your rap rope will stretch about 5 meters, which takes you conveniently to the end of the 65 meter static PURline. Yes, those Petzl product designers are quite clever!
How should I rig a pull cord?
It's best practice to have the pull cord set up to pull the rope, and should not be part of the blocking knot. Tie the blocking knot in the full strength rope. Why? If the blocking knot were to pull through the anchor, your entire weight is now resting on a 5 or 6 mm pull cord, instead of the full strength of the “real” rope. (If you're using a Petzl PURline rated to 15 kN this should not be a problem, but if you're using 5 mm accessory cord then it very well could be.)
Pro tip for multi pitch rappels: as the butterfly knot and carabiner arrive at the lower station, take a moment and clip the carabiner into some point on the anchor. Doing this instantly secures your rope at the middle point.
Here’s another variation on how to rig the pull cord, from the always awesome Petzl website.
The slight advantage to the bottom system, with the pul cord attached to the carabiner, is that you can start threading the rope at the lower station and setting up the rappel before you pull down the entire rope.
The potential disadvantage to this bottom system is that if you have any twisting in either rope, they are much more likely to twist together, which could be a substantial problem. The solution is to keep the safety carabiner in place for everyone except the last person. If the last person is carefully inspecting the knot and is absolutely sure it cannot pull through the anchor, they can unclip the safety locker from the blue rope, which greatly reduces the chance of rope twist induced problems.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm
The rest of this article covers an advanced and controversial topic: What about using the fat rope as the pull cord?
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Rappel efficiency tips from Petzl
On multipitch rappels, you can save a surprising amount of time by using a few simple time-saving techniques. Here are several of them, in a great little diagram from the clever Petzl web gnomes.
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When doing multipitch rappels, you can save a surprising amount of time by implementing a few small but significant efficiency steps. This great diagram from Petzl shows a few of them. Let's have a closer look.
The two climbers are doing a multipitch double rope rappel.
The knot is on the left side of the anchor, so they are pulling the purple rope.
LEFT: The end of the purple rope is threaded through the bottom anchor before they start pulling. (It's usually good practice to have a knot(s) in the end of at least one strand, that’s not shown here.)
MIDDLE: While the left side climber is pulling down, the right side climber is pulling the rope through the anchor. If it's steep, as in the diagram, the rope might simply feed down the cliff all by itself. That's great, no need to throw it at all. If it's not steep, the climber on the right could be stacking the rope, and preparing the end to throw. Here's a longer article on getting your ropes down the cliff.
RIGHT: As soon as the knot gets to the lower anchor, the right side climber can start rigging the rappel, while the left climber continues to pull down the blue rope. If the rope is cooperating, the blue rope will fall through the upper anchor, past the climbers, and then down to the next station or the ground.
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Don't pre-rig a rappel with a Grigri on top
The always terrific Petzl website has a specific caution against a pre-rigged rappel with a Grigri on top. Apparently, when the rope is loaded from below, occasional device failure can happen for the person above. Good news: there are some easy ways to eliminate this problem.
The pre-rigged (aka “stacked”) rappel, is a technique where both partners rig their rappel device at the same time, usually with an extension. Here's a complete article on it. A pre-rigged rappel increases efficiency and (usually) reduces risk.
Increases efficiency: the moment the first person is down the second person can start.
(Usually) reduces risk: the last person gets a safety check.
However, there’s apparently an unusual situation where this might actually increase risk: when the top climber has a Grigri.
The Petzl website awards this a skull and crossbones, which always gets my full attention!
I’d never heard of this until recently (Dec. 2023) , so I want to give it a shout as a potential issue. Thanks to Alpinesavvy fan @timmyycedar for mentioning this to mementioning this to me.
Check out the diagram below from the (always awesome) Petzl website.
The example from Petzl, and the one I show here, uses two Grigris. But it seems to me that the exact problem would still be present no matter what type of device the lower person is using.
Also, there’s no mention of rope diameter. It also seems to me that a smaller diameter rope might be more prone to this problem, I really don't know.
Here’s the caution from Petzl against doing a stacked rappel with certain flavors of the Grigri (bold text mine).
“With the GRIGRI + from 2017 and on, and the GRIGRI from 2019 and on, unblocking and a consequent fall can occur if the rope is heavily loaded below the user. Unblocking can occur if the rope is loaded with a weight equal to or greater than that of the person rappelling on the GRIGRI.
Examples of dangerous situations:
Multiple people rappelling in sequence, GRIGRIs pre-installed on the rope. If the person waiting in turn to rappel has their GRIGRI pre-installed on the rope, it can be inverted (and thus unblocked) by the weight of the person rappelling below them. So it will not be operational when the second person wants to start their rappel.
Bottom belay: the person performing the belay maneuver must not hang on the rope.
Rescue from below: The rescuer must not ascend the rope of a person who is stuck on rappel.”
IMAGE: HTTPS://WWW.PETZL.COM/US/EN/SPORT/RAPPELLING-WITH-THE-GRIGRI?PRODUCTNAME=GRIGRI-PLUS
Apparently there are two other situations that can also cause Grigri failure. Check out the diagram below.
On the left, if someone gives an overly enthusiastic “firefighter belay” by putting their full weight on the rope, apparently that may cause Grigri failure.
Related to this, if someone is stuck on rappel and the climber at the bottom wants to ascend the rope, putting their full weight on it may cause Grigri failure.
IMAGE: HTTPS://WWW.PETZL.COM/US/EN/SPORT/RAPPELLING-WITH-THE-GRIGRI?PRODUCTNAME=GRIGRI-PLUS
OK, that's the doom and gloom stuff. Let's look at some simple ways to avoid this problem.
First off, this really only applies to descending a single strand of rope. It's pretty rare to do this in a normal climbing situation, so most people will never encounter this set up to begin with.
If one partner has a tube style device: set up your pre-rigged rappel so the first person down is always on the Grigri, and anyone else going down uses a tube device.
There are various other benefits for the first person down to use a Grigri, such as hands-free rope detangling, doing a pendulum if needed to reach an anchor off to the side, easily ascending the rope if needed, etc. Now we have one more reason to use this method.
If you MUST rappel single strand with two Grigris, there are other solutions.
Don't do a pre-rigged rappel, Easy!
If you do pre-rig, you can tie the rope to the anchor with a clove hitch (blue carabiner) , as shown below. This means the weight of rappeler #1 goes on the anchor, and not onto rappeler #2. This eliminate any chance of Grigri failure. Rappeler #2 removes the clove, cleans the blue carabiner, and rappels.
Here is a video clip showing how the failure actually happens. This was sent to me by @govanathon, thanks!
(Actual failure / device inversion starts about 1:50.)
Double rope rap: clip tether carabiner to the “pull” strand
“Dang it, which rope strand do we need to pull, I forgot!” Here's a simple way to remember. As you start your double rope rappel, clip your tether carabiner to the rope that needs to get pulled.
For a double rope rap, of course it’s super important to pull the side that has the knot!
Nine times out of ten, you’ll be able to remember just fine. But for multipitch rappels, when you’re threading the lower anchor before pulling and swapping the rope that gets pulled every time, it’s dark, you’re tired after a big day, the weather is challenging, adrenaline-induced brain shrinkage, or whatever, this tip gives you one less thing to pay attention to.
After you unclip your tether carabiner from the anchor, clip it onto the rope that needs to get pulled (here, that’s green).
The carabiner politely slides down the rope above your device. At the bottom, there’s no question about which rope needs to get pulled; it’s always the one with your tether carabiner.
This isn't just for the last person. If the first person down does this, they can start threading the correct pull rope through the lower anchor.
Note: in the photo, I decided to not show a rappel extension to more easily see the rigging. Typically I use a rappel extension and third hand back up.
Don't trap the rope ends under a strand
On a double rope rappel, It's good practice to keep the knot tails from getting underneath either of the rope strands. If they do, it can add extra weight and friction and make it quite a bit harder to pull your rope. Simply have the knot tails hanging free and you should be fine.
If you have a rappel that starts on a lower angle slab instead of more free hanging, it's good to be mindful of where the rope tails are laying.
On the left, the rope tails are underneath a strand. The extra weight on the tails from blue can make it harder to pull green.
A better way to do it is on the right. Simply have the rope tails laying away from the two ropes and you should be fine.
This can become more of a factor if:
you’re on high friction rock like sandstone
if your rope is wet, which is common in canyoneering.
The "extended" rappel
You and your partner have a 60 meter rope, but you need to make a rappel that was bolted for a 70 meter rope. Yikes, your rope is too short, whaddya do? One answer: the extended rappel. Learn how it works, along with some cautionary notes.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
This article was written with collaboration from Sean Isaac. Sean is an ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides) Certified Guide, a former professional climber, and author of the “Ice Leader Field Handbook” and “How to Ice Climb” (2nd ed.) Follow @seanisaacguiding for tech tips. Thanks, Sean!
Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use rope blocks:
Your rope is too short, what do you do?!
You’re rappelling from a multi-pitch rock climb with a single 60 meter rope. All pitches on the way up were less than 30 meters except one that was 35 meters long. (You know this because your attentive belayer noticed the middle mark going through the device before the leader arrived at the next anchor. Another great reason to have a middle mark!)
Whoops, should've read the guidebook and brought the 70 m instead of the 60 m, but here you are.
How do you rappel and still pull your rope? (This is an unexpected situation, so you don’t have a pull cord/tag line, nor a clever tool like the Beal Escaper.)
Answer: the extended rappel.
Hopefully you don't find yourself doing this very often, but if it occasionally happens, this #CraftyRopeTrick could save the day. There are several variations on how to set this up. Here’s one.
Short version:
Instead of doing a standard rappel on both strands of the rope, you secure one strand to the anchor and make sure it’s absolutely long enough (here, 35 meters) to reach to the next anchor or to the ground.
Tie a rope block (knot or carabiner) on the short strand.
The long strand of the rope, which is 35 meters, reaches the lower anchor. The short strand of the rope (the pull side) is 25 meters long, and is hanging 10 meters above the lower anchor. Can you visualize this? Good!
The first person rappels single strand on the long side to the lower anchor.
The last person rappels single strand on the long strand, ideally on a Grigri so they can go hands free. They keep control of the short strand by clipping it to a quick draw on their harness.
When the last person reaches the end of the short strand, they start adding material (cordelettes, slings, etc.) to extend it. (“Extended” rappel, get it?)
Last person continues rappelling to the anchor. Retrieve by pulling the short side with your “extension” tied to it.
It's a tricky to take a decent photo of the rigging, so hopefully this diagram can help.
Conceptually this may sound pretty easy. In practice there are a lot of considerations to doing this efficiently and with the least risk.
The primary safety concern is making a block in the rope that absolutely positively cannot pull through the anchor hardware. The best anchor hardware for doing a rope block is small chain links, or small to medium sized quick links. With this type of hardware it is pretty much impossible for the blocking knot to pull through. Keep reading for more discussion of rope blocks, and here's a longer article about them.
Here's a more detailed explanation of each important step.
When might you need to do an extended rappel?
The route was bolted for a 70 meter rope, and you brought a 60.
It's a climb you've never rappelled before and have no beta.
Maybe the beta is wrong.
Maybe the beta is correct if you use THAT anchor.
Maybe the anchor that people used to rap from is gone or was moved.
More extreme situation: Your rope got damaged near the end, you had to cut off some of it and now your rope is too short to make the standard rappel stations.
What's a big potential problem with the extended rappel?
If you begin to pull your rope, the end of the “real” rope goes up out of reach, and then the rope gets stuck. You’re now holding onto your “extension” as the only way to fix the problem. If you're on the ground, you can walk away and hopefully go get another rope and deal with it. If you are way off the deck on a multi pitch rappel, you could be in a serious situation.
What’s another option to descend?
The simplest and maybe least risky way to descend, if you have access to another rope and you're within one rope length of the ground: Tie off one end of the rope, toss it and be sure it reaches the ground, rappel, and come back and get it later with another rope. Plus, if you don't have enough extra slings/cord to extend the short side of the rope, then this approach is pretty much mandatory. Yes, it's a hassle and would kind of suck, but certainly better than the alternative.
What if you don't notice your rope is too short at the top, but only after you find yourself dangling on both strands, short of the anchor?
Yikes, scary! That definitely complicates things. There's no simple universal solution to this that I know about. You're probably gonna have to get resourceful - put some pro in a crack and build a temporary anchor, or clip into a bolt. Good reason for the first person down to carry some gear to do this.
What's the ideal terrain to try an extended rappel?
Best if the rock face is smooth, clean, and vertical with minimal chances of your rope hanging up.
Setting the correct rope length
There are a couple of ways to do this. 1) Lower the first climber 35 meters to the next anchor, or 2) Fix one strand from the end, have them rap on this, tie off the bottom end of the rope and then pull up the rope from above to set the correct length.
If you don't know the distance of the next rappel, you can lower your partner and keep an eye on the middle mark of the rope. If the middle mark passes through your anchor before your partner reaches the lower station, then your rope is too short.
If you’re lowering your partner, follow standard safety procedures such as closing the system by tying a knot in the end of the rope (assuming it's not tied to you) and use a third hand / autoblock backup.
If you lowered the first person down, they can stay tied in to the end of the rope to be sure that the last person does not rap off the end, and that one end of the rope is for sure at the lower anchor.
Extending the pull side
Before the first person heads down, they hand off all of their extra slings, cordelettes, etc. to the last climber. If both climbers have one cordelette of about 5 meters, there’s your 10 meter extension. This strand of the rope is not load bearing, you're only using it to pull down the long strand.
To connect slings to one another, girth hitch them together, no carabiner required. To connect a cordelette to the end of the short strand of rope, you can use a flat overhand bend. (This is another good reason to carry an “open” or untied cordelette, rather than one that's tied into a loop with a permanently welded double fisherman's knot.)
Rather than monkey around with extending multiple slings while you’re hanging in space, it's probably less risky and easier to connect all the slings you plan on using up at the top anchor before you start rappelling.
The extended rappel relies on a rope block. While conceptually simple, there are lots of factors to consider.
Detailed look at one way to set up a rope block.
The rope block
This extended rappel technique requires the skill and knowledge to use what's called a rope block. This goes by various names: knot block, carabiner block, static block, Reepschnur. This creates an obstruction on one strand of your rappel rope, that cannot be pulled through the anchor master point. The rope can slide freely in ONE direction, but not in the other.
The golden rule of the rope block is that the block absolutely cannot pull through the master point on the anchor. If it does, the person rappelling will probably die or your rope will get hopelessly stuck.
Typically a knot block is tied with butterfly or a figure eight on a bight. If you need a larger block, you can tie a well-dressed clove hitch around the spine of a locking carabiner, that works also.
This is an advanced technique, popular in the canyoneering world. Like many other things in climbing, if you screw it up you can die, so pay attention and absolutely practice on safe flat ground before you ever do this in the real world!!
Anchor hardware concerns
This usually requires that the anchor master point is quite small, such as a chain link, quicklink, or a small bight knot tied in cord or webbing.
If you're rappelling through a carabiner or a large ring, the opening may be so large that a block may not work.
This is an excellent time to use a quick link on the master point, if you happen to have one.
Below: knot block on large diameter anchor hardware, don’t do this!
Rope blocks 101
A rope block (aka Reepschnur), is a technique where you block one strand of your rappel rope to prevent it from running through the anchor. This lets you do a single strand rappel on the other side. Conceptually it's pretty simple. In reality there are some nuances, and definitely some ways to lethally screw it up. Learn them here.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
This article was written with collaboration from Ben Wu, AMGA Certified Rock Guide. Connect with Ben at www.benwu.photography.
Rope block. Knot block. Carabiner block. Static block. Reepschnur.
They all mean pretty much the same thing: creating an obstruction on one strand of your rappel rope, that cannot be pulled through the anchor master point.
The rope can slide freely in ONE direction, but not in the other.
Doing this lets you rappel a single strand on the “fixed” strand of rope.
Main climbing application: it allows a retrievable single rope rappel; you carry less rope and weight.
To retrieve your rope, typically you use a lighter line such as a 6 mm pull cord (like the Petzl PURline) on the free running strand of rope.
Like everything in climbing, there are some definite pros and cons to this technique. If you’re considering using it, it's good to be aware of all of them. So let's get into it!
Conceptually, it's pretty simple. In practice:
There are some subtleties to doing it correctly.
There are some downsides to it even when you do it correctly.
If you screw it up, you could die or get your rope hopelessly stuck.
For these reasons, I personally consider it an advanced technique that you absolutely should practice with a qualified instructor. And, even when you’re confident with it, I feel it should generally not be part of your regular practice. It can definitely get you out of a jam in certain situations, but there are enough moving parts that I feel it's not a routine technique for most recreational climbing situations.
Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use rope blocks:
Not to dwell on the potential problems, but here are two reports of fatal accidents from rope blocks gone wrong:
First off, let's be clear on the Golden Rule of a rope block: it absolutely, positively cannot pull through the rappel hardware.
If you have not closed the system by attaching the pull side of the rope to the rappel side of the rope and the block pulls through the hardware, you will probably die.
If you have closed the system and the rope pulls through, your rope will probably be hopelessly stuck.
Take a close look at the anchor hardware and the diameter of your rope. If there is the slightest chance that you think the blocking knot could pull through the anchor hardware, then don’t use a knot block! (Consider a carabiner block instead, more on that below.)
There are really only a few times in recreational climbing when you might want to use a rope block.
You’re using a pull cord to do full length rappels. In this case, a rope block is pretty much mandatory. (Yes, there are some advanced ninja rope tricks like using a Stone hitch and a Fiddlestick to use a pull cord a different way, but we're not gonna get into that here.)
Your rope is too short to make the rappel. Lower your partner to the next station, make a rope block, and then extend” the “pull” side of the rope with whatever extra cordelette, slings, etc. until your DIY extension reaches the next anchor station.
There are two other situations where people often think they need a rope block, but there are other techniques you can use instead.
You damaged your rope and need to rappel. You rappel on the good half of the rope and use the damaged half of the rope with a knot block as a pull cord. To avoid doing this, you can do a counterbalanced rappel, read about it here.
If both partners have a Grigri, and you both need to rappel. It's pretty unlikely that both partners will have Grigris and not a tube device, but I suppose it could happen. You could use the counterbalanced rappel technique described just above. If one person has a Grigri and the other person has a tube style device, there are lots of other options for getting both people down without using a knot block, see some of them here and a photo example below.
Potential problems of a rope block (and pull cords)
The big one was already mentioned, but it's worth saying again: if the knot pulls through the hardware, the entire system fails and you die, or your rope gets stuck.
You’re adding an extra knot and carabiner to your system, which are two more things that can potentially get snagged when you're pulling your rope.
There are increased steps and complexity, which can increase the chances of making a mistake. This is especially true because for most people, this is a non-standard system that doesn’t get used regularly. See accident reports at the top of the page.
If you're using a lighter weight pull cord, if you pull your rope and it gets snagged after the end of the climbing rope is out of reach, you only have a pull cord in your hands to deal with the problem. Not good.
Maybe you forget what side to pull, whoops. It can be good practice to establish which side you block and which side you lower off of and do this pretty much all the time. For example. “L”=Left=Lower, and “R”=Right=Retrieve.
If you're doing multiple rappels, you can’t do the standard trick of feeding the pull strand through the bottom anchor and then pulling the rope. Why? Because you’re pulling the skinny cord, but the thick rope needs to be the one through the anchor. This means you have to re-rig the entire system at each rappel station, which takes additional time.
Yarding on a 6 mm rope can be rough on your hands. Consider adding a Tibloc or Micro Traxion on the pull cord to make the pulling easier. Gloves are recommended.
Pulling the rope can be significantly harder, because you do not have a counterbalanced weight on the pulling strand to assist your pull.
You’re rapping on a single strand of rope, which might be uncomfortably fast. Be sure you know some ways to add friction to your rappel.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, it can add a significant amount of extra friction, making your rope pull more difficult. This can be especially true on a low angle slab.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, sometimes the ropes can more easily twist together, which can cause your ropes to get stuck.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, you've essentially created a closed loop that you then need to pull down. If the two sides of the rope making this loop happen to go on either side of some rock spike, boulder, shrub, ice blob, etc., the loop is going to get caught when you pull down your rope, causing your rope to get stuck. This is probably difficult to visualize, so check out the photo below. (Yes, it’s a flower pot, but I think you get the idea . . . =^)
Rope block backups, pros and cons
It's good practice to backup a rope block by clipping the blocking knot onto the rappel strand with a locking carabiner. In the unlikely event of the block pulling through the hardware, this will save your life.
The backup stays in place for everyone except maybe the last person.
If the block is closely inspected after being fully loaded, and you are 150% sure that it cannot pull through the hardware, then the last person has the option of removing it. In many cases, this is a good idea.
Removing the block for the last person eliminates several of the problems mentioned above.
This is a call that the last person gets to make. (Like most everything in climbing, this is a subjective choice, and not a black and white rule.)
What’s the best anchor hardware for a rope block?
Small-medium size quick links, chains or small rappel rings are the most secure hardware for knot blocks. The openings are small and it's pretty much impossible for a blocking knot to be pulled through them.
Lots of people like to hate on carrying quick links, but this can be an outstanding time to use one. Keep in mind that a 5 mm, stainless steel, CE approved, 25 kN rated quicklink from CAMP costs about $6 and weighs just 22 grams. So weight, cost, and strength are not issues with carrying quick links, provided you get the right ones.
Some not-so-great hardware for a knot block would be a carabiner or Mussy hook. These have larger openings and greatly increase the chance of the knot pulling through. Remember, the knot will shrink as it’s loaded.
Nice diagram from the superb Petzl website. Small quicklink on the left, probably good. Large ring on the right, bad, the knot could pull through.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm
What about a carabiner block?
Another option is to put a clove hitch onto a large HMS locking carabiner to serve as a block. This can work if the anchor hardware is something larger, like carabiners or maybe a Mussy hook. This is definitely an advanced technique that I recommend practicing with a qualified instructor.
Take extra attention to tie the clove hitch properly and dress it well. Test it when you're done by holding the carabiner with one hand and pulling hard on each strand of rope with the other. If the rope moves, you might have tied a Munter instead, and that is a Big Problem (photo below). If your rope is larger diameter (10+mm) or has an old crusty sheath, the clove hitch may not hold very well. This technique works best with newer ropes that are of standard climbing diameter around 9-ish mm.
A carabiner block looks something like this. Note that the block is backed up by a bight knot clipped with a locker onto the anchor, with a bit of slack in it. The slack shows that the carabiner block is properly behaving. The last person can remove the blue carabiner and untie the bight knot. Or, if they are feeling extra cautious, they could clip the blue carabiner onto the left strand of rope as a back up. Again, this adds more hardware that can get hung up when you pull your rope, so it's a trade-off.
Is it OK to load a carabiner like this? Yes, it’s fine. You are not putting any two or three way loading on the carabiner. It’s holding body weight only, and there's no way the carabiner will be damaged rigged like this.
With a carabiner block, be SURE you tie a clove hitch and not a Munter hitch!
What knot should I use for the block?
An overhand on a bight, figure 8 on a bight or a butterfly can all work as a knot block. In these examples I’m using a butterfly. Be aware that all knots will tighten under load and become smaller. Remember the Golden Rule: if you think there’s the slightest chance of the knot pulling through the hardware, then don't do it!
A flat overhand bend (formally known as the “EDK”) can work, depending on the diameter of your rope, and if you're using small anchor hardware, like chain links.
An overhand on a bight is slightly smaller profile than the figurine or butterfly. This could be a good thing as it's less likely to snag one pulling down your rope, or it could be not so great if there's a slight chance of getting pulled into your hardware. Pros and cons to everything . . .
Will the blocking carabiner get damaged when I pull the rope?
Probably not.
Some people seem to be concerned that the carabiner clipped to the blocking knot is somehow going to fall and maybe be damaged when you pull the rope. Why does this not happen?
With any rappel much less than the full length of the rope, the carabiner will be pulled to the lower anchor and be in your hand before the other half of the rope even starts to fall down.
However, it may bounce around a bit on the rock and get dinged up on the way down. If this concerns you, you can use an older carabiner or a steel quick link. Or, if you have complete confidence in the knot and the anchor hardware, you can remove the backup carabiner for the last person.
What about rapping with a Grigri, don't I have to use a block to do that?
Nope. There are lots of different ways to rappel with a Grigri that don’t require a block. I have a whole article about this, read it here. Below is a photo that shows one of several simple methods.
If one person on your team has an ATC, you can simply tie off one strand of the rope for everybody with a Grigri, have them go down on one strand and then the last person unties that knot and rappels normally on two strands.
There you have it: my thoughts on the pros and cons of rope blocks.
Under ideal circumstances with proper anchor hardware, they can work pretty well. But as you can see there are a lot of subtleties to doing it correctly. Once again: I consider this an advanced technique that I highly recommend you practice in a controlled environment with a qualified instructor before you ever try it in the wild. Choose wisely, my friends.
Hair /clothing caught in rappel device - whaddya do?!
Did you catch your clothing or even your hair in your rappel device? Ouch! This is fairly common, but it's also easy to fix if you know how. One more reason to carry a friction hitch or two and an extra sling.
You're midway down your rappel and whoops, your clothing / hair / packstrap / whatever gets caught in your rappel device. (This is actually a fairly common problem, and it’s happened to some of the best climbers.)
What do you do?
Fortunately the solution is pretty easy. Here's one approach.
Stop your rappel. You are using a third hand back up under your device, right? So push this up the rope as far as you can, and let it take your weight. If you don’ t have a third hand, you can use the classic method of wrapping the brake strand of the rope several times around one leg.
Tie a Klemheist hitch (as a foot loop) on the rope above your device. This is a great place for a cordelette if you have one. Use what you have. A short friction hitch loop with a girth hitched 120 cm sling works fine as well. Get resourceful. A klemheist will probably be better than a prusik because a) you can use any material you have to tie it, b) you can tie faster (maybe even without looking) and c) it can be a little bit sloppy and still hold.
Put 1 foot into your new foot loop and stand up. Now, your weight should be on the friction hitch / footloop and off of your device. Remove hair or clothing, and be sure the rope is properly installed in your rappel device.
Remove the foot loop hitch and continue rappelling.
Notes . . .
You may be tempted to get out your knife and try to cut away the problem. Yo, be careful! Sharp knives and ropes under tension can be a very bad combination, so it's probably better to try the method above before you use an open blade. If you have a small knife with scissors, that could be a slightly less risky option.
You can practice this with an old T-shirt, wig, Barbie doll, shoelace whatever, in a controlled environment, very close to the ground.
Of course, it's great to try to prevent this problem before it ever happens. Tuck away loose clothing and hair before you start rappelling, use a hair tie, and take extra caution if it's a windy day.
In the photo below on the left, I have a Dyneema sling girth hitched onto a Sterling Hollow Block. It's worth pointing out that Sterling recommends that you not do this. Personally, because this is only holding your body weight for a couple of seconds, I’m comfortable with it. But, if you want to follow manufacturer recommendations, connect the two with the carabiner to get full strength.
Two ways to make a friction hitch foot loop. Short friction hitch and 120 cm sling on the left, cordelette on the right.
All so you don't turn out like this person!
(image: @caiocomix
Rappel anchors - replace crap webbing
It's common to find a mess of cord and webbing at some alpine rappel anchors. Do yourself and everybody else a favor: cut away everything that's questionable and add some new material of your own to make an anchor that's more reliable and easier for others to inspect. Watch the video for a scary moment of what can happen if you don't!
image credit: Silas Rossi, @silasrossi
Yikes, what a mess! It's very hard to evaluate something like this. Take some time to cut out the junk and add your own good quality cord.
Check out this YouTube short video from IFMGA certified guide Karsten Delap. (Yes, the webbing is tied directly through the bolt hangers, which is not standard practice, but still should not be direct cause for failure.)
Double fatality at Tahquitz Rock, CA, Sept 2022
When rappelling, both climbers apparently clipped in to a single loop of old tied webbing. The webbing broke. Both climbers fell and died. (It was raining, so perhaps the webbing was wet and harder to inspect or notice that it was old. The webbing was tested post-accident to only 2-3 kN. ) Here’s the accident report from the SAR team, well worth reading.
Sadly, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Webbing or cord on existing anchors is guilty until proven innocent! Always inspect it before you use it!
Cord and webbing used in climbing is very strong and reliable when it’s new and tied correctly. But when it’s been in place for a while, subject to ultraviolet light, mountain weather, possible rockfall, and maybe nibbling by rock rodents, it can be dramatically compromised.
A big rat’s nest of cord, with multiple slings ranging in age and quality, is hard to evaluate and potentially dangerous.
Instead of adding one more piece of your own cord to the mess, do everybody a favor: cut out all the junk and leave just two or maybe three good quality pieces.
Especially for more adventure climbing or alpine routes where you’re away from properly bolted anchors, it's good practice to bring some extra cord or webbing (and ideally a knife) that you can leave behind, so you know there's at least one good sling for your descent.
My personal rule: I really try to avoid rapping off of a single piece of cord unless it’s something brand new that I just tied myself. Any single cord that I find gets a back up. (That might be a little conservative for some people, but we are all accountable for our own level of acceptable risk.)
This is a fine reason to carry a cordelette. It's inexpensive and easy to cut up to leave behind when needed.
So, how bad is old webbing?
Short answer: it can be horrendously bad. My buddy Ryan Jenks at HowNOT2 tested some ancient sun bleached tubular webbing that was out in the elements for many years. It broke at about 3 1/2 kN! You could generate this with a decent bounce test when you're setting up a rappel!
Compare this to New 1 inch webbing which is about 18 kN, and 7 mm cord, which is about 13 kN.
Here's my cheap hardware store checkout line lock blade knife that I've had for like 20 years. It's taped securely shut so it can never accidentally open. It doesn't need to be fancy. It's been used countless times to clean up a rat nest rappel anchors.
The pre-rigged rappel anchor and belay
Transitioning from climbing to rappelling can take a LONG time. One way to increase your efficiency is for the leader to pre-rig the rappel before they bring up their second. Here's how to do it.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
When you need to rappel the same route you just climbed, the transition at the top can often be a big time suck.
The traditional method of each climber using a tether/PAS to connect to the anchor, each person untying from their respective ends of the rope, threading the anchor, tossing each rope strand, and then each person rigging for a rappel separately, involves a LOT of steps and (usually) waiting. It can also be awkward at tight stances and can take a LONG time, especially with less experienced folks.
Here’s one way to increase your transition efficiency: If you know you need to rappel the route you just came up, the leader can take a minute or so on top to pre-rig the rappel BEFORE the second starts to climb. With this method, you can start rappelling in just a minute or so after the second arrives at the anchor. This can especially be a timesaver if your second is less experienced.
This method is closely related to the backside clove hitch rappel transition; read more about that method here.
I first saw this technique demonstrated by IFMGA Certified Guide Rob Coppolillo. Rob calls it the “BARF” anchor, because the rope from the “BA”ckside of the leader’s tie-in is rigged for “R”appel by “F”eeding it through the anchor, hence the great name. It hasn't caught on yet, what do you think?
As mentioned above, this is absolutely something to practice on the ground in a controlled environment, ideally under the eye of a qualified instructor, before you ever try it in the real world. This process might sound a little complicated, but after you think it through and practice it a few times you’ll see that it’s pretty straightforward.
This might appear to give an uncomfortable belay, but that's not necessarily the case. If your tether of your extended rappel is reasonably long, it works out to be quite comfortable, and you're not twisting your back too much.
Hopefully this is blindingly obvious, but this only works if you are descending a pitch that's less than half the length of your rope. (Which, if you’re considering rappelling the route, should definitely be the case!)
If your second has belayed you to the anchor, and the middle mark of the rope has not yet gone through their belay device, this method will work.
Conversely, if you pull up the rope, and you reach the middle mark before the rope goes tight on your second, this method will work.
If either of these two things are not happening, your rope is too short and you should probably not be rappelling this route!
Advantages:
Fast and efficient transition from climbing to rappeling
Cluster free anchor. No need for multiple leashes clustering up the anchor. You have plenty of room to stretch out and move around a bit, depending on stance. Your position isn’t limited by a short tether or PAS.
Always using the dynamic rope to connect everyone to the anchor. Ropes are stretchy. Stretchy is good.
Only need to toss one rope strand, because the second can stay tied in and takes one strand down with them.
No need to tie a knot in the end of the rope, if the second raps first. This is because the second stays tied in, and the partner is blocking the other strand from moving with their pre-rigged rappel.
What you need:
An easy-to-see middle mark on your rope. Add one if your rope doesn’t have it or if it’s worn away. The Beal rope marking pen is great for this. In the field, you can use tape as a temporary middle mark.
A rappel extension and anchor tether with a locking carabiner. Consider pre-tying this with a 120 cm sling to your harness before you leave the ground; you know you're going to need it, so why not have it ready to go in advance?
Ideally a second rappel device, plain tube style device works fine. Or, you could bring up your second on a munter hitch, see example below..
Here’s the sequence:
This might sound complicated when you first read through it, but once you get your head around the whole process, the steps go very quickly, as you can see from the video link below.
(There are several variations to doing this. I'm going to mostly describe the sequence that Karsten shows in his video.)
Leader arrives at anchor, and clips their tether to one bolt. (This assumes a reasonable ledge to stand on. If it’s a full hanging belay, you can clip another tether into the second bolt so you’re redundant on two pieces.)
Leader calls off belay.
Leader feeds a bight of rope through the rappel chains.
Leader pulls a few meters of rope through the chains, and ties an overhand on a bight. (This knot does two things: it becomes your stopper knot in the end of one strand, and it ensures that the rope can’t pull back through the chains, which might cause you to drop it. Always secure your rope when rigging to rappel!)
Leader unties their retraced figure 8 tie in knot.
Leader pulls rope until middle mark is at the anchor chains.
Leader clips rappel device to their rappel extension, leader feeds both rope strands through device, and goes on rappel.
Leader ties a double strand overhand on a bight (aka “BHK” knot) below their rappel device. (This BHK blocks them in place above the knot, and also gives a convenient place to clip their second plaquette style belay device (e.g., Petzl Reverso) to bring up their second.)
Leader clips their second belay device to the BHK loop, pulls up slack rope, and puts their second on belay. (Lacking a second device, leader could belay with a Munter hitch.)
When second arrives at the anchor, they rig for rappel. (In the video, the second rigs above the leader. Another option is for the second to rig below the leader. If they rig below, the second remains tied in to the end of the rope, so there’s no need to toss it.)
Leader ties a stopper knot, and tosses the one strand of the rope that’s not tied to the second.
Whoever is lower on the rope rappels first.
Like most things in climbing, it’s a much better show than tell. Check out the video below from IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap to see how it's done, from start to finish.
Karsten shows two methods to descend in the video. The first one is lowering your partner, the second one is having your partner rappel. The whole video is great; start at about 6:10 if you just want to see the method in this article.
There are a lot of details in this video, and you may find it easier to watch it full screen in YouTube.
Here's a slightly different way to set it up. In this photo, the anchor is a tree far back from the edge of the cliff, and the leader wanted to stand near the top to have visual contact with his partner. Photo credit, Dave Lottman.
Set up the rappel on the tree
Rappel back to the edge of the cliff
Tie a BHK below the device
Put partner on belay with a munter hitch on the BHK
When his partner arrives, the second gets lowered on the munter hitch, and then the leader unties the BHK and is immediately ready to rappel. Slick! Check out the Instagram reel here.
This is the same set up as shown above, only with a much longer distance between the anchor and the belay, and using a munter hitch instead of a second device.
image credit: @northeast_alpine_start, https://www.instagram.com/p/CoueDaOgg5L/?hl=en
“Cast”, don’t throw, your rappel rope
Snarled rappel ropes suck! To avoid them, take the time to stack the rope and toss just a weighted end, rather than a large coil. Think of it as “casting” a fishing line; there's a weight on the end, and the line spools cleanly from the reel. Here are some good ways to do this.
Getting your rope down a cliff face when rappelling may seem very simple. But there are many nuances to doing it efficiently, which can save you huge amounts of time and frustration. Here are some suggestions.
Main idea #1: “Cast”, don't “throw”.
This idea is emphasized by Andy Kirkpatrick in his excellent book on descending mountains, “Down.” Think of casting a fishing line. There's a weight (lure) on the end. The line is carefully spooled on the reel. The weight is cast over the water, and the line smoothly follows it from the reel. No snags, no snares.
“Casting” rappel ropes uses the same concept. Create a weight with one end of the rope, prepare the rest of the rope carefully, and toss the weight to carry down the rope.
Let's start using that verb, “cast”, instead of “throw”, to emphasize the concept. “Throwing” the rope relies on luck. “Casting” relies on technique.
Main idea #2: The terrain dictates your rope toss method.
The method in the diagrams below can work best if you have a ledge to stand on with minimal rocks on it, and no one below you might get klonked by the rope. For other situations, lowering some or all of the rope can be better than throwing.
Completely overhanging or vertical smooth rock? You can probably simply lower one end of the rope at a time without even throwing it.
Reasonably vertical terrain? Try lowering down a bit less than half of one strand (for a 60 meter rope, that’d be 15 meters of one 30 meter side), and then making a simple butterfly loop as shown below, to cast down the remaining 15 meters.
Lower angle terrain, maybe with trees, boulders, obstacles? That's when making a weight and giving it a real cast can be the best approach.
Rappelling at a busy crag, with people below you? Consider lowering the rope as much as you can so you don't nail anyone with the rope, and hopefully so you don't have to scream “ROPE” either.
Main idea #3: Prep your rope before you throw.
You might feel like you're saving time by hucking the rope as quickly as possible from your anchor. Most of the time, you won't be. The time you “save” by making a sloppy rope toss will be likely used up when you stop on rappel to decluster your rope. It's better practice to take a minute or so to prepare your rope first, hopefully with the help of your partner, and make a good, clean cast to start with.
It's almost always better to separate the rope into two strands and lower or throw each one separately.
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick from the book “down”, shared with permission
The classic beginner toss (which yes, I did many times my first year or so of climbing, and paid the price) is making one giant butterfly coil with both strands (photo above on the right). You might rarely get lucky and have a clean toss, but most times it's going to make a guaranteed snarl. Please don't do this.
(Method number two, a slight improvement, is to make one big butterfly coil in each strand and throw those one at a time. You have slightly better odds of getting a clean throw than with both coils together, but it's still highly likely you're going to have a snarl. Still not recommended for the most part.)
There are many approaches to efficiently getting your rope down the cliff. If you have any sort of a ledge, here's one good way.
Check out the diagram above on the left. Each strand is carefully flaked or even serpentine coiled on the ledge. Each half of the rope is separate from the other.
Two cautions: 1) This method can drag down some stones from the ledge you're standing on, so you might want to avoid this if you have rocks around your feet and people below you. 2) Keep your feet away from the rope that will be zinging off the ledge.
If you’re on steeper rock and don't have a convenient ledge to flake the rope, you can feed out about rope out so it drapes down the cliff below you, and then toss the weight. Another option is to butterfly coil over your partner’s outstretched arms, and then cast the end. The same basic concept applies: prepare each strand carefully, toss each one separately, and have some sort of weight that carries the rest of the rope.
After tying a stopper knot in the free end of the rope, you need form a weight of some kind; think of this your “lure”. You “cast the “lure”, and this pulls the rest of the rope down.
(Like all things in climbing, this is situationally dependent. If there's a crowd of people below you, you probably don't want to toss a bundle of rope that might klonk somebody. Likewise if there's a large deep crack below you, and there's a chance the rope could swing into it, you may not want to try this method. But most of the rest of the time it should work pretty well.)
Here are two short videos showing the “rope cast” in action, from @benmarkhartguiding on Instagram. (Click images to see the videos.)
There are several ways to do make the weight. Here's my favorite, known in some circles as the “rope bomb.” This works especially well if you need to get your rope down a slab or other lower-angle terrain. (The carabiner isn’t needed, it’s shown for scale.)
After tying a stopper knot in the end, make a small butterfly coil with short loops. I like to make 10 loops, with five on each side.
Finish it off by simply wrapping the rope a few times around the coils. This does not have to be very tidy.
When this mini-butterfly coil hits the end of the rope, it will usually untie itself. If not, just give it a shake or kick when you rap down to it.
Another way to close your rope system is to rappel while being tied into the end of the rope. If you do that, you could cast your rope as shown below.
Note that in this case, with a double rope rappel, you’re casting the middle of the rope, not the ends.
You get the idea. Take an extra minute or so, properly flake your rope, cast a weight like a “rope bomb” rather than hucking off 30 meters in a huge coil, and your chances of a cluster-free rappel are much better.
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick from the book “down”, shared with permission
Finally, here's a nice video from IFMGA Guide Jeff Ward showing several different methods. The first one is what we demonstrated above, he calls it a “torpedo”.
Finally, if you read this far, here's a short Instagram video on how NOT to throw your rope.
Below are a couple of screen grabs.
And finally, if you read this far, here's a pretty hilarious short Instagram video about throwing ropes on a windy day.
Creating redundancy in rappel anchors
When tethering to a rappel anchor, it can be comforting to know that you’re connected to both “halves” of the anchor hardware instead of just one; especially true at a hanging stance or with questionable anchor hardware. Here are a few simple ways to make a redundant connection when rigging to rappel.
Say you have a rappel anchor like the one shown below. The bolts are solid, and you're standing on a decent ledge. In this case, many people would be just fine with each partner clipping to one bolt as shown, and rigging to rappel.
However, each person is clipped to 1/2 of the anchor system, with no redundancy. If the bolts are at all questionable, or if you're on a hanging stance with your weight on the hardware, many people would prefer some kind of rigging that connects both bolts, in the highly unlikely event one of them fails. It's very simple to do and takes a few seconds with gear you already have, so why not?
Let's look at some ways to do that.
(Hopefully this is blindingly obvious, but the last person to descend cleans whatever extra gear you've added.)
Method 1 - Connect each “half” with a quickdraw
Schweet! Now, each partner can clip to “half” of the anchor, knowing that it's connected to the other half. You can clip your tether, or the quickdraw, to any part of the anchor hardware that's convenient.
Method 2 - Use a “real” anchor (quad, 120 or 60 cm sling)
Whatever anchor system you used on the way up, you can probably also use it on the way down.
Note, if you’re using a pre-rigged or stacked rappel, you only need one anchor for descending. After both partners are pre-rigged, unclip the quad and send it down with the first person. If you're not using a pre-rigged rappel, then you'll probably need two anchors for descending. (Which should not be a problem, because you of course used two anchors on your way up.)
Quad
Because the quad provides a pair of redundant clipping points that can be pulled in different directions, this can be good at a hanging stance so one partner doesn't yank the other one around. In the photo, we’re using a 180 cm Dyneema sling. Learn lots more about the quad anchor here.
Notice how the green carabiners are clipped over the top of the quick links. If there was a chance of a large load on the carabiners, this is not best practice, because the carabiners can sometimes be loaded at a strange angle and even break. However, the loads in this situation are so low, it's fine to clip them like this.
Clipping on top of the anchor hardware also makes it a lot easier for someone to clean the anchor while the rope is loaded.
120 cm / double sling with a bight knot
Here’s a 120 cm sling, tied with a figure 8 on a bight for a statically equalized anchor. (Isn't that a pretty blue? It's an Edelrid Aramid sling, which is quickly becoming my new favorite for anchor building. It's very durable, super strong, and best of all, really easy to untie after loading.)
Note the figure 8 on a bight in the sling rather than an overhand. Doing this takes up a bit more of the cord, moving the master point slightly higher, and makes the knot even easier to untie.
60 cm sling with girth hitch
Only have a single length / 60 cm sling and the bolts are reasonably close together? No problem. Clip each one and make a girth hitch master point. If you tied an overhand knot you’d probably need a longer sling, but a girth hitch takes up so little material that you can use a 60 cm.
You get the idea. Each of these methods connects the two “halves” of the anchor, giving full redundancy for both partners on your way down.
The no twist Munter hitch rappel
Rapping on a munter hitch can twist your rope, making pulling it difficult to impossible. But, if you use the right technique, you can rappel twist free! Check out this clever method and short video from Petzl Germany to learn how.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
Rappelling on a Munter hitch is considered by some to be an outdated, old school technique, right up there with hip belays, hexes, and braiding your own harness out of blackberry vines.
However, in some cases it can still be useful:
If you know you have some short rappels on a canyon explore, ski mountaineering trip, bushwhack hike or similar, and want to take minimal gear
Ropes are frozen and hard to get into a rappel device; sometimes the Munter is the only thing that can work
You're using ultra skinny 6 mm static cord (like the Petzl RAD line) which is too small for a standard rappel device
You don't have enough locking carabiners (or forgot, or never learned how) to set up a carabiner brake
Dropped or forgot your device (whoops!) and for whatever reason do not want to be lowered
Have to rappel in some kind of emergency situation (river rescue?) when you're seriously short on gear
Need to rappel past an overhand knot (fairly advanced maneuver, learn about it here)
Want to earn some Euro style points =^)
Why can a Munter rappel be problematic?
Not create enough friction (more concerning with small diameter newer ropes or single strand)
Depending on which way you face the carabiner, the rope can rub against the gate
Most important, the normal way it’s done can twist the holy hell out of your rope! This is more than an annoyance, because if you have twisty “pigtails” in your rope and then try to pull it through the rappel anchor, the twists can bunch up and cause the rope to get completely stuck at the anchor, big problem.
(Side note: here's a good way to remove any kind of twisting from your rope: clip a tube style belay device into any sort of an anchor around head height, and feed the rope through the device.)
Below: Standard way to set up a Munter rappel. Pretty much guaranteed to twist your rope.
However, there is a simple modification you can do to the hitch that will keep those evil twists away. I first saw this technique in a video from Petzl Germany. I have to say I was a little skeptical when I first saw this, but I've tried it a couple of times and it works just fine.
Pass the brake strands over the TOP of the hitch, then pass them back UNDER the carabiner to your right hand. Rappel normally, with no twisting.
Notes . . .
This adds a little more friction and slightly slows down your rappel, but most of the time that's a good thing. If you have fat, old, crusty ropes, and you don't weigh much, it might add too much friction. As mentioned at the top of the page, practice in a controlled environment is mandatory.
This method works best on a standard harnesses with a fairly stiff belay loop. If you have a lightweight alpine harness with kind of a floppy belay loop, the loop can twist when you do this, and it doesn't work so well.
You might be familiar with the “Supermunter.” This is a Munter hitch, with the brake strand making an extra pass around the hitch and being clipped to the carabiner. This can be a very useful tool for lowering huge loads on a skinny rope, but it's not recommended for one person on a double rope rappel because it adds too much friction and you probably won't be able to move. More on the “Supermunter” at this article. This modified hitch is very close to a Supermunter.
When practicing, don't be too concerned which strand of rope is on the top or the bottom. The ropes tend to put themselves in the proper orientation when she put weight on it and start actually descending.
I'm certainly not saying you should start rappelling on a Munter all the time. But if you ever need to, keep in mind that with this technique a Munter rappel works fine with minimal twisting.
Single strand with a “super Munter”
Another option for the Munter rappel is to descend on a single strand, and use a “super Munter”. Fix the rope at the anchor so it can't slide through, rig a super munter on one strand with a large carabiner, and down you go. Depending on your weight and the rope diameter, this should work well with a single strand and also result in a no-twist rappel. (Of course, the last person down on fixes the rope and needs to descend on two strands.)
Check out the short video from Petzl to see how it's done.
Rappelling - How to pass other teams
Many climbers think it's a given that you must always thread your rope through existing hardware when rappelling, but that's not always the case. Here's a simple but unconventional technique that can allow teams to pass each other with greater speed and reduced frustration.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
Short version: the climbing team adds one of their locking carabiners onto their anchor. The rapelling team uses this carabiner to clip their rope, without threading the rope through the actual anchor hardware.
“You should never clip the rappel rings/chains for your anchor when ascending, because rappelling teams need to use them!”
Have you ever heard that one?
On a popular multi-pitch route with no walk off, where the descent rappel is the same as the climb, it's very common for a rappelling (descending) team needing to get past a climbing (ascending) team. (Red Rock Nevada, I’m looking at you.)
On a big wall climb, a team that's bailing / retreating may need to do many rappels, potentially onto other teams coming up the same route where the anchors might well be clogged with the typical big wall cluster.
The objective is simple: for the teams to pass as quickly, safely (and politely) as possible. So, what's a good way to do this?
While it’s probably drilled into your mind that when rappelling, you ALWAYS thread your rope through the existing hardware (chains, quicklink, ring) you actually don’t have to do this. All you really need is a safe place to attach your rappel rope.
To expedite passing, consider this (unconventional) method: the climbing team clips one of their locking carabiners to the master point of their anchor, and the rappelling team clips their rope to the climbing team’s carabiner.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that you should do this every time, or that you should build anchors that always obstruct the rappel hardware. Depending on the situation, it might be a better call for the descending team to use the chains, not your master point. This is another simply another tool in the toolbox for more advanced climbers.
What's cool about this method?
There's no finagling the rappel rope underneath any existing anchor cluster. Instead, it gets clipped on TOP of everything that’s already built. (This can be even more important on a big wall, where anchor chains might be clogged with gear and pretty much inaccessible.)
This can be a bit faster to set up, because you're simply clipping the middle mark to a carabiner, instead of threading the rope through the hardware and pulling half of it through.
To be fair, let's look at some possible downsides:
The climbing team can’t leave their anchor until the rappelling team is finished. Most of the time this shouldn’t be a problem, because a competent team rappelling should be down and through the anchor in just a few minutes. (If the climbing team is pretty much ready leave the anchor, then the rappelling team can simply wait for a couple minutes until the anchor is completely free.)
The climbing team may not have a spare locking carabiner. (Maybe the rappelling team can be generous and donate one of theirs.)
Having a legible and accurate middle mark on your rope is pretty much required. Fortunately most newer ropes have this. If yours does not, get a Beal rope marking pen and add one.
Hopefully obvious, but if the climbing team is on a sketchy anchor and the rappelling team is not comfortable using it, then you need to work out something else. (On popular routes, hopefully all the established anchors are well-maintained, so this should not be a problem.)
If the rappelling team has any rope issues, like tossing the rope, starting down, then having it get stuck or some other weirdness, the climbing team might be pretty much unable to move until it gets sorted out. Hopefully the team heading down is competent enough to get through smoothly and make a decent rope throw, but there's potential for a hang up here.
Maintaining good vibes:
While descending parties usually have the right-of-way, there’s no reason for anyone to be a jerk. You and your partner are out to have a good day climbing, same as the other team.
Whoever raps first, it might be wise to hang out (literally) for a minute next to the lower anchor, explain your approach, and get some buy-in from the other team before you just swing in and start rigging. Conversely, if you’re the ascending team and someone raps down to your anchor, explain to them that you have a way to make the pass happen faster, which benefits everyone. (Not many people are aware of this method, and you hopefully can use it as a teachable moment.)
Here's how to set it up.
The ascending team is using the bottom chain link as their master point. What inconsiderate jerks, how can anyone rappel past that!?
(Yeah, I know most people don't build anchors like this, but let’s use an extreme example - even when the chains are completely blocked, you can still rappel past it.)
No problem! The ascending team simply adds one of their locking carabiners (blue) to their master point carabiner . . .
. . . and the descending team clips their rope (blue) into the ascending team’s locker.
Are you concerned about multi-directional loading on the master carabiner? It's not really a problem.)
Rappelling overhangs and traverses
Rappelling when you have an overhang and/or a traverse can be especially challenging. Main concept: keep yourself close to the wall by placing gear. Here are some more detailed tips about how to handle it.
Another masterpiece from the Alpinesavvy graphic design department . . . We’re hiring, hint hint. =^)
Rappelling overhanging and/or traversing terrain can be tricky! What if a rappel traverses off to one side to the next anchor (above), but gravity wants to take you straight down? Or how about, you go over the lip, and find yourself hanging in space, unable to reach the rock? How do you handle one or both of these?
(Note: You will hopefully climb for your whole life and never have to do this, because thoughtfully placed rappel routes should avoid such obstacles. But if you're adventure climbing, get off route, have an accident and need-to-get-the-hell-down right now, or have some other weirdness, this tip might save your bacon, so keep it in the tool kit.)
Solution: stay close to the rock, and your required direction, by clipping protection while rappelling.
Consider using some or all of these techniques to reduce your risk and stay close to the wall. Some terms below describe gear you might have on a big wall climb, but the same general ideas work for all rappels.
Especially if the route is overhanging, and if it’s a full rope length, talking/shouting commands (like “Off rappel!”) may be difficult to hear. Have a solid communication plan of silent rope pulls, FRS radios, or something similar so you can clearly communicate.
First person down takes the rack. If you have any sort of a stick clip or a cheater stick (which you might have on an aid climb) bring that as well. First person down keeps aiders and ascenders (if you have them) on their harness in case they need to ascend the rope.
Rig the ropes for a standard rappel, but then fix both strands to the anchor.
Here’s one of several ways to fix the rope. Note the Flemish bend that's joining the two ropes together. While the flat overhand bend would probably be fine here, the Flemish bend is definitely stronger and perhaps a better choice because you're putting all your weight just on one strand of rope.
Consider having the first person down rappel on a single strand with a Grigri. Doing this lets them pendulum as needed, go hands-free (with a backup knot) to place gear and sort out rope tangles, and ascend the rope if needed. Ascending might be required if they rappel past the anchor or find themselves hanging in space. Ascending the rope is much easier on a single strand.
If you don't have a Grigri, be sure and use a third hand autoblock backup.
First person down clips the other (here, white) strand of rope through a quick draw on their harness. This keeps the rope within reach.
First person down places gear (or clips bolts) as they go, to stay close to the wall and in the desired direction. Both rope strands are clipped to the gear.
Note: The first person should not extend these directionals with a long runner. You want to keep the rope as close to the wall as possible. Unlike lead climbing, when doing this can cause rope drag, there’s no rope drag when you’re rappelling. The second person down will be very happy you did not put long slings on your gear placements!
When the first person arrives at the lower anchor, they fix both strands of rope to the anchor with a few extra meters of slack. The slack allows the second person some extra rope to pull themselves closer to the rock to clean gear as needed, and possibly do a lower out. (The second person can also use an untied cordelette as a mini lower out cord, a crafty rope trick discussed in this article.)
SUPER IMPORTANT: The second person removes the knot that’s fixing both strands to the upper anchor.
The second person brings down any heavier backpacks and/or haul bags. Don’t put a heavy backpack on your back. Hang a medium weight pack from your belay loop, or for heavy loads, use the technique of “riding the pig”, as discussed here.
The second person rappels on a standard tube device with an auto block back up. They clean the gear as they rappel. When they get close to the lower anchor, the first person down can pull them in with the slack in the rope.
It is CRUCIAL to maintain control of the ropes at the lower anchor after the second person arrives. This is especially true for rappels that overhang, traverse, and/or in high winds. If you carelessly let go of both rope strands, they could easily swing or blow out of reach, potentially stranding you. Consequences could range from slightly embarrassing to completely lethal! You can minimize the chances of this happening by using the “J loop” technique, where the first person down ties both strands of the rope to the lower anchor. Learn more about the J loop here.
YIKES, don't let this happen to you! Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick, from his book “Down”, shared with permission. Check out his website, andy-kirkpatrick.com
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick
Here's another tip for a traversing rappel: pull the rope strand on the side you’re traversing towards. In the diagram below, the rappel traverses to climber’s right. So, putting the knot on the right side of the anchor will likely result in less friction and easier pull. This applies to single and double rope rappels.
(This is why a knot block was not used in the photo above with the Grigri; it would put the pulling rope on the wrong side of the anchor.) Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick, from his book, “Down”, shared with permission. Check out his website, andy-kirkpatrick.com
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick
Here’s a last ditch crafty rope trick if you ever find yourself free-hanging in space away from the rock. (Disclaimer, I have never tried this, but it sounds like it MIGHT work.)
You need to plan ahead a bit for this with a backpack, a heavy rack, etc.
Lower the backpack below you on an extra length of rope, cordelette, etc. Be sure it is securely tied to your harness so you can’t drop it. Start the backpack swinging back and forth, perpendicular to the rock. In theory, this pendulum motion will also start your body swinging as well, which may bring you in close enough to grab the rock or place some gear.
Have I done this? No!
Does it sound scary? Yes!
Do you want to be on a belay from the second rope or at least have a Grigri so you can go hands-free? Yes!
Is it better to avoid a shenanigan like this whenever possible by placing gear and staying close to the rock? Yes!
Close your rappel system with the “J loop”
Hopefully you know the importance of “closing the rope system” by always having the rope ends tied either to a harness or a stopper knot. Here's an extension of that idea for multi pitch rappels: the J loop.
image: @seanisaacguiding, instagram.com/p/CJHp9lSjKBk/
On a multi pitch rappel, the first person down can add an important safeguard to the system by tying the rope strands to the lower anchor. This is known by some as a “J loop”, because it makes a big letter “J."
To secure the rope, you have several options. A clove hitch on each strand is a good choice. Because the hitch falls apart when you remove it from the carabiner, you don't have to remember to untie yet another knot. An overhand on a bight / BHK tied in both strands is also effective, because if you forget to untie it, you have a closed loop.
Avoid tying a separate bight knot in each strand. Why? Because it's all too easy to forget to untie it, start pulling the rope, and then realize too late that you have a knot above you, big problem!
On a traversing rappel, you need to be VERY careful to always control the ends of the rope. Using J loop can help you avoid the potentially very serious problem shown in the diagram below.
IMAGE CREDIT: ANDY KIRKPATRICK
How does the J loop help reduce your risk?
Your partner can’t rappel off the ends of the rope, because it's tied to the anchor.
It makes it much less likely that the ends of the rope can swing or blow potentially out of your reach after your second arrives and goes off rappel, which could be a VERY serious problem if the rappel is traversing, overhanging, windy, or some combination of these.
It makes it much more likely that the first person down will remember to untie the stopper knots in the end of the rope. (After the J loop is tied, the stopper knots are no longer needed.)
In a traversing or overhanging rappel, the J loop helps guide your partner more smoothly into the anchor.
Finally, in the extremely unlikely catastrophe of the top rappel anchor failing, all may not be lost, because the rope is tied to the lower anchor.
Here's a nice diagram from Petzl showing the method. Note the BHK / overhand knot in both strands, and the end of purple, the pull rope, already threaded through the anchor master point. (The purple rope does not yet have a stopper knot in the end of it, that's the next step.)
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Rappelling
For the first rappeller, the step-by-step procedure might look something like this. (This is one of several sequences that can work, not the only way.)
First person descending rigs for a standard rappel: using both strands of the rope, a stopper knot in each end of the rope, and an autoblock backup.
First rappeler arrives at the lower anchor. Clip tether to anchor. Keep your rappel device and auto block on the rope for now.
Feed 2-3 arm lengths of slack through your rappel device and auto block so your partner can get started.
Yell “off rappel”.
Optional but recommended: test pull. If your partner is not pre-rigged, do a test pull of the rope by pulling down a few meters on the pull strand to be sure it moves properly. Your partner above can answer this silent signal by pulling the rope back up. Be sure you have discussed this beforehand, so your partner up top knows what your test pull means, otherwise they might have a mild freak out. (If your partner is pre-rigged, you can’t do this step, because their auto block holds the rope in place.) If communication is difficult, note that the test pull can be a good non-verbal signal that you’re off rappel.
Tie a clove hitch in each strand and clip it with a locker onto some strong component of the anchor. Leave about 2 meters of slack to form the “J”. This slack allows you to do a test pull, and gives the second enough rope to descend.
Sweet, the rope is now secure in a J loop. Give yourself a high five. =^)
Untie the stopper knots in the end of each rope strand; you don't need them anymore.
Your smoking hot rappel device has now cooled off. Remove the rope from your rappel device and autoblock.
Pass the “pull” strand through the anchor, and tie a stopper knot in the pull end.
Wait for your partner to arrive. If for some reason they're not using an auto block backup, you can give them a firefighter belay. If they do have an auto block, there’s no need for the firefighter belay. That gives you a little break, whew! Use it to check the weather, grab a snack/water, get out your headlamp, scope the next rappel, read the topo, etc.
Once your partner arrives and is tethered to the lower anchor, untie the clove hitches.
Have a quick systems check: Both partners safely tethered, no twists or crosses in the rope, knot removed from the strand that’s going up.
Pull the rope slowly. Keep control of the end of the “up” strand until the last moment; don't let go of it and have it swing out of reach before you have to. (If the rope gets stuck as you're starting the pull, keeping control of the “up” strand greatly increases your options to solve the problem!)
When and how to belay a rappel
There are some circumstances where belaying a rappeller is a good choice. Learn two of those situations, and a quick way to set it up.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
A belayed rappel is something many climbers think might be helpful only with a nervous beginner who needs the extra reassurance of a belay, or maybe an injured partner.
There’s another application - when you're rappelling into unfamiliar terrain with the location of the next anchors uncertain or nonexistent.
If there’s a reasonable chance that the person rappelling can’t locate the existing anchor (or a suitable place to build one) and needs to climb back up, it's going to be much easier to do so if they can be belayed by a separate rope strand. So, think of it as not really safeguarding the way down, but more to safeguard the rappeller climbing back up, should they need to do so.
Here's one way to set up a belayed rappel with two ropes.
(The same method applies with one rope. In the photos below, where you see the ropes tied together, imagine that’s the middle mark if you were using one rope.)
Here's the complete set up, ready to go. Yes it is a little confusing, so let's break it down step-by-step in the photos below.
Step 1:
Pass blue rope through the anchors, tie it to the green rope with a flat overhand bend.
Tie a stopper knot in blue, toss the blue rope.
Be sure that your green rope is stacked neatly, or in a rope bag or something similar.
Step 2:
Clip a locking carabiner, HMS preferred, to the master point.
Tie a butterfly in the blue rope, and clip it to this locker.
(Some people get freaked out about three-way loading on the blue carabiner. Black Diamond tested this, and it broke at at around 21 kN, which is the rated strength of the carabiner under a normal load. So, under the body weight of one person rappelling, it's not gonna be a problem.)
Step 3:
First person rappelling goes on rappel, single strand, blue rope. (Harness and third hand / autoblock not shown for clarity.)
Rigging an extended rappel (not shown) or using a Grigri or similar assisted braking belay device is a fine idea, because both of these can be easily converted to an ascending system if needed, as we cover here and here.
Step 4:
Take a second HMS carabiner (yellow), and clip it to the first one.
Tie a Munter hitch on this second locker.
Tie a bight knot in the end of the green rope.
Step 5:
With another locker, the rappeler clips the bight knot to their belay loop. Alternatively, you could skip this carabiner and bight knot, and tie in with a retraced figure 8. (Harness not shown for clarity.)
Schweeeeeet, now you're ready to go. First person down raps on blue rope, single strand. Person above feeds out green rope through the Munter hitch.
If the rapper has to go back up for any reason, they have a top rope belay for any part they can climb, with the option of ascending up the rappel rope (or even getting an assisted hoist) if it gets steeper. Depending on the terrain, this is probably faster and less strenuous than prusiking both strands, which they would probably have to do if they didn’t set it up like this.
When the first person reaches the ground (helpfully pulling down all of the green rope on their way) the top person cleans the carabiners and raps normally on two strands.
Here's a close-up of the rigging.
Note for belaying a beginner . . .
Anytime you're working with beginners who are just learning to rappel, it can be a good idea to not only have a belay, but also some kind of releasable system on the rappel rope. If they freeze on the rappel, get their shirt stuck in the device, whatever, you can release the system and get them to the ground.
Here's a modified way to set this up: Instead of fixing the rappel rope with a butterfly, fix it with a munter mule overhand (MMO), with at least 2-3 meters of slack behind it. If the rappeller gets hair or clothing stuck in their device, you can tension and hold the rappeller on the belay rope, then release and lower on the MMO. This creates some slack in the rappel rope, so the blockage can be removed.
In a more formal instructional situation, you're probably going to have a set up with a completely separate belay rope that's not tied to the rappel rope, which makes any mild rescue shenanigans you need to do quite a bit easier. But the main method shown here is a good compromise when on a real climb and needing to improvise a bit.