The pre-rigged rappel anchor and belay
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
