fun with ropes
I have been reading up lately on rock climbing rappelling and canyoneering, you know just to build my repotoir. (feel free to visit www.chockstone.org) and earlier this week I decided I needed to get out some gear and try some of these new techniques in the safty of my own back yard before I found myself in a field situation where my life depends on my ability to tie a prusik knot.
Well, as is so ofte the case I started by heading to the store. Actually I started by heading to my fathers garage, he had most of what I would need so I climbed onto the roof and found an anchor for my static line and tied it off. Then I went and bought the thing I needed, 15 feet of static accessory cord to tie into two 3 foot loops (the thing I wanted was a pair of mechanical ascenders but they run $125 a pair)
I got back to my parent and went online to make sure I was tying my joining knots and my prusick knots correctly. It was about then that Jordan got home, good now I had a spotter. I dragged him out to where my rope was tied off and told him I was gonna climb up to the top of it and his job was to keep me from dying.
The technique I used was pretty crude but it worked. I stood with each of my feet in a loop of cord that was tyied to my rope. I would first lift a foot slide that foots knot up transfer my body weight to that loop and bring the other loop/foot up to it and then repeat. I was not harnessed in and to come back down I used the same technique in reverse. I then spotted Jordan as he gave it a try.
Next I went back online and compaired my experiance with how it looked on paper. The "right way to do it" was of course much more safty concious. I tried on the one prefabb'ed sport harness my father owns and no matter how hard I tried I knew I was not gonna squeeze in there. So... I had jordan put it on and we went back out to the rope.
This time I shortened on of the loops and clipped it to his harness, the other loop I left long for his foot again. The techniques was now to step up, slide the harness loop up the rope, sit so you are hanging by a little rope with no hands or feet involved and slide the foot loop up high enought hat you could step up again. Although it is DEFINATLY the safer of the two, I think it is slightly more unsettling. (you may all note that it was jordan in the harness and me on the ground)
Once Jordan gets up to the top I tell him to clip into the anchor above the rope so that none of his weight is on the rope. At this time my loving parents wander back to check out what I was upto. Jordan is dangling not I like a pinata with no ability to climb or jump down and I start a conversation with my father. Now I don't forget Jordan completely, I toss him a "figure eight" (a peice of gear for rappelling [sliding] down the rope) and give him insructions for using it. I then tell him to untie the loops he had used to get up the rope. Once he get the figure eight inplace and clipped to his harness I do what is called a "fireman's belay" to keep him from sliding until he is ready as he unties the prusick loops.
Next I let go of the rope and tell him to rappel down, that is when this gets fun for those of us watching (well it was kind of amuzing to see how Jordan grabbed the rope with both hands above him In what he thought was the right possition to rappel, but that isn't the really funny part). If you think back I had jordan clip to the anchor above the rope now he has slid down just a few inches and discovered that he is still clipped in up there. He now has no way to raise himself up a few inches to unclip either because we undid the prusicks so Jordan is dangling 12ish feet off the ground by a little cord trying to somehow pull himself up and unclip the it. In short it was good times to watch. He did eventually get the traction he needed on the side of the garage to lift himself up and unclip and the rappell back down and I would never have left him there if he had said he needed help. But it was fun to stand on the ground with mom and dad telling him not to get the side of the garage dirty with his shoes and him strugling for all he's worth to get just an inch higher.
I am glad Jordan played along with me on that. I learned a lot of lessons in both what I did and what I watched him do. Next time I need to find a real cliff.
Well, as is so ofte the case I started by heading to the store. Actually I started by heading to my fathers garage, he had most of what I would need so I climbed onto the roof and found an anchor for my static line and tied it off. Then I went and bought the thing I needed, 15 feet of static accessory cord to tie into two 3 foot loops (the thing I wanted was a pair of mechanical ascenders but they run $125 a pair)
I got back to my parent and went online to make sure I was tying my joining knots and my prusick knots correctly. It was about then that Jordan got home, good now I had a spotter. I dragged him out to where my rope was tied off and told him I was gonna climb up to the top of it and his job was to keep me from dying.
The technique I used was pretty crude but it worked. I stood with each of my feet in a loop of cord that was tyied to my rope. I would first lift a foot slide that foots knot up transfer my body weight to that loop and bring the other loop/foot up to it and then repeat. I was not harnessed in and to come back down I used the same technique in reverse. I then spotted Jordan as he gave it a try.
Next I went back online and compaired my experiance with how it looked on paper. The "right way to do it" was of course much more safty concious. I tried on the one prefabb'ed sport harness my father owns and no matter how hard I tried I knew I was not gonna squeeze in there. So... I had jordan put it on and we went back out to the rope.
This time I shortened on of the loops and clipped it to his harness, the other loop I left long for his foot again. The techniques was now to step up, slide the harness loop up the rope, sit so you are hanging by a little rope with no hands or feet involved and slide the foot loop up high enought hat you could step up again. Although it is DEFINATLY the safer of the two, I think it is slightly more unsettling. (you may all note that it was jordan in the harness and me on the ground)
Once Jordan gets up to the top I tell him to clip into the anchor above the rope so that none of his weight is on the rope. At this time my loving parents wander back to check out what I was upto. Jordan is dangling not I like a pinata with no ability to climb or jump down and I start a conversation with my father. Now I don't forget Jordan completely, I toss him a "figure eight" (a peice of gear for rappelling [sliding] down the rope) and give him insructions for using it. I then tell him to untie the loops he had used to get up the rope. Once he get the figure eight inplace and clipped to his harness I do what is called a "fireman's belay" to keep him from sliding until he is ready as he unties the prusick loops.
Next I let go of the rope and tell him to rappel down, that is when this gets fun for those of us watching (well it was kind of amuzing to see how Jordan grabbed the rope with both hands above him In what he thought was the right possition to rappel, but that isn't the really funny part). If you think back I had jordan clip to the anchor above the rope now he has slid down just a few inches and discovered that he is still clipped in up there. He now has no way to raise himself up a few inches to unclip either because we undid the prusicks so Jordan is dangling 12ish feet off the ground by a little cord trying to somehow pull himself up and unclip the it. In short it was good times to watch. He did eventually get the traction he needed on the side of the garage to lift himself up and unclip and the rappell back down and I would never have left him there if he had said he needed help. But it was fun to stand on the ground with mom and dad telling him not to get the side of the garage dirty with his shoes and him strugling for all he's worth to get just an inch higher.
I am glad Jordan played along with me on that. I learned a lot of lessons in both what I did and what I watched him do. Next time I need to find a real cliff.
posted by a.lost.boy | 12:50 AM
1 Comments:
Hey kid, thanks for the short-but-sweet advice/encouragement on my post about the boy. It's funny, but I think I should know you, because I have nonetoofew LDS friends and a couple in Auburn...
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