I am sorry for your loss. That must have been very hard to put to words, but infinitely harder still to live that and loose a partner in life. Take care and hang in there..
Spinesnaper I hear you. (Where is the Dexedrine when you need it?) Let’s up the ante. You need to practice all this stuff, repeatedly, under extreme stress imposed by time restraints. After all, hanging on rappel for extended periods is not conducive to longevity. You got to find a solution as fast (and safely) as possible. (See Smith and Padgett, On Rope, p. 99, sub voc “Harness Pathology”) And let’s say you are 80′ short. So you pull rope out of your backpack (assuming it is on your back, it might be dangling below on a longer rappel), and you have only 50′ section of “rescue rope”. What then?
We can’t anticipate everything, but we need to prioritize and anticipate the most commonly encountered scenarios. ID those and practice those. I think the problem then is that most of us have fulltime jobs and only do this for recreation, on weekends when weather permitting, and vacations, breaks, etc. Difficult to keep skills up to date, and not always fun to review them.
**It’s better to avoid trouble than to get out of trouble. **
What you are trying to do is develop proficiency at a small set of specific tasks. The best way to do that is to repeat those tasks correctly many times over short medium and long-term timeframes; and when there are no distractions. You are teaching yourself motions, and then re-teaching them, then re-teaching them, etc. Each time you re-teach, the process becomes cleaner, and less thinking is involved. Untimately, you want to get to the point where no thinking is involved to produce these basic tasks. “Muscle-memory” it is called.
You will develop muscle memory best under ideal conditions: well-rested, well-fed, warm, no distractions.
You can test to see how solid it is, by adding stress to the scenario. My favorite stress-adder is people screaming in agony (imagined) and anger (also imagined, we hope).
So next time you are out in a canyon around lunchtime, stop for lunch with the last rappel rigged. Finish your lunch quick, then run over to the rope, and do stuff. Or with the rappel below rigged. Someone can rap down halfway and tie off. Send them their lunch, then rescue them.
Respectfully, couldn’t disagree with you more on this point. I have a friend who once had an eye-bolt in the ceiling of his vaulted living room (he was single at the time), practiced this stuff regularly.
Practicing and reviewing this sorta stuff at home, in the garage, barn, tree can be almost as fun as OUT there. Just find a way to practice it – as if your life depended on it…
The bolded statement is the key as to why your friend was able to have an eye-bolt in the ceiling of his vaulted living room. But you are right — we can practice this elsewhere — my wife would be fine with me doing it outdoors. As a practical matter, who really practices this stuff regularly, unless you volunteer for SAR, or in a position of teaching (e.g., teaching skills courses, professional guide, industrial rope work environment, etc.)?
BTW, on hanging in a harness, I did read somewhere (I think in Smith’s On Rope?), that instead of hanging in the harness, one needs to grab some slings, and construct a rig where your legs, rather than hanging below your body entirely, are extending out at a right angle to your trunk. I think the point is bringing your legs somewhat closer to the level of your heart. Can any one comment on this? Thanks.
I don’t know about others but this loss really makes me question most everything I take for granted when I canyoneer. I feel like I have to go out and practice and drill on switching from descending to ascending and back again. Sure I have done it. Sure I have taken courses and practiced it. How many of us are absolutely prepared to do this every time? I think I am but what if I fumbled and lost a tibloc? What if I was descending DST? I also carry prussics. But I am not sure I have ever practiced descending and switching over to ascend on doubled rope other than with a shunt. What if I lost a prussic? I had to prussic single line out of the first keeper pothole in Ringtail using 1 inch sling because for some reason I left my tiblocs and prussics back in camp. It was ulgy but it was only about 15 feet to get out. I seldom put a knot at the end of the rope when rappelling SST or DST for that matter. I have never rappeled to the end of my rope in a safe setting to learn if my knot would be sufficient to keep me from falling to my death. Yes I leaned to use a contingency anchor with a Munter Mule but honestly it is not even accurate to say I seldom use it. It is accurate to say I never use it. Now, I am thinking that it needs to always be used if I can’t see the bottom of a rappel. How often do we take for granted that we will be able to communicate once we have descended from a rappel but found it basically impossible? Perhaps walkie talkies need to be a routine part of the kit with one unit with the first descender and the other until with the canyoneer doing clean up? Perhaps there is a need for a one day intensive technical courses for “advanced canyoneers” to review and drill on these issues. I am talking core material free of the usual partisan squabbles among the different canyoneering training schools. If someone knows of such a course, please let me know. I am going to pencil it in every year.
I did one canyon with Everett and Louis in Death Valley a couple of years ago and I have closely followed their adventures on Facebook. I have always been amazed and inspired. I still am.
Just to be clear, information has been available for some time on the Latest Rave, but that is not where a person would look. It was only updated to the “guide” part of the site; close to simultaneous with Louis’s fall.
Thank you, Everett. Your words about the accident are heartbreaking and your strength is inspiring. Thank you for sharing with us. I look forward to canyon and other adventures with you very soon.
Deagol
Everett,
I am sorry for your loss. That must have been very hard to put to words, but infinitely harder still to live that and loose a partner in life. Take care and hang in there..
Kuenn
Moving the Harness Pathology discussion to another thread.
spinesnaper
One thing I do know about canyons: They do not care about our work schedule.
townsend
Spinesnaper I hear you. (Where is the Dexedrine when you need it?) Let’s up the ante. You need to practice all this stuff, repeatedly, under extreme stress imposed by time restraints. After all, hanging on rappel for extended periods is not conducive to longevity. You got to find a solution as fast (and safely) as possible. (See Smith and Padgett, On Rope, p. 99, sub voc “Harness Pathology”) And let’s say you are 80′ short. So you pull rope out of your backpack (assuming it is on your back, it might be dangling below on a longer rappel), and you have only 50′ section of “rescue rope”. What then?
We can’t anticipate everything, but we need to prioritize and anticipate the most commonly encountered scenarios. ID those and practice those. I think the problem then is that most of us have fulltime jobs and only do this for recreation, on weekends when weather permitting, and vacations, breaks, etc. Difficult to keep skills up to date, and not always fun to review them.
**It’s better to avoid trouble than to get out of trouble. **
ratagonia
This is a bad idea.
What you are trying to do is develop proficiency at a small set of specific tasks. The best way to do that is to repeat those tasks correctly many times over short medium and long-term timeframes; and when there are no distractions. You are teaching yourself motions, and then re-teaching them, then re-teaching them, etc. Each time you re-teach, the process becomes cleaner, and less thinking is involved. Untimately, you want to get to the point where no thinking is involved to produce these basic tasks. “Muscle-memory” it is called.
You will develop muscle memory best under ideal conditions: well-rested, well-fed, warm, no distractions.
You can test to see how solid it is, by adding stress to the scenario. My favorite stress-adder is people screaming in agony (imagined) and anger (also imagined, we hope).
So next time you are out in a canyon around lunchtime, stop for lunch with the last rappel rigged. Finish your lunch quick, then run over to the rope, and do stuff. Or with the rappel below rigged. Someone can rap down halfway and tie off. Send them their lunch, then rescue them.
Tom (do what I say, not what I do)
Kuenn
Respectfully, couldn’t disagree with you more on this point. I have a friend who once had an eye-bolt in the ceiling of his vaulted living room (he was single at the time), practiced this stuff regularly.
Practicing and reviewing this sorta stuff at home, in the garage, barn, tree can be almost as fun as OUT there. Just find a way to practice it – as if your life depended on it…
townsend
The bolded statement is the key as to why your friend was able to have an eye-bolt in the ceiling of his vaulted living room. But you are right — we can practice this elsewhere — my wife would be fine with me doing it outdoors. As a practical matter, who really practices this stuff regularly, unless you volunteer for SAR, or in a position of teaching (e.g., teaching skills courses, professional guide, industrial rope work environment, etc.)?
BTW, on hanging in a harness, I did read somewhere (I think in Smith’s On Rope?), that instead of hanging in the harness, one needs to grab some slings, and construct a rig where your legs, rather than hanging below your body entirely, are extending out at a right angle to your trunk. I think the point is bringing your legs somewhat closer to the level of your heart. Can any one comment on this? Thanks.
spinesnaper
I don’t know about others but this loss really makes me question most everything I take for granted when I canyoneer. I feel like I have to go out and practice and drill on switching from descending to ascending and back again. Sure I have done it. Sure I have taken courses and practiced it. How many of us are absolutely prepared to do this every time? I think I am but what if I fumbled and lost a tibloc? What if I was descending DST? I also carry prussics. But I am not sure I have ever practiced descending and switching over to ascend on doubled rope other than with a shunt. What if I lost a prussic? I had to prussic single line out of the first keeper pothole in Ringtail using 1 inch sling because for some reason I left my tiblocs and prussics back in camp. It was ulgy but it was only about 15 feet to get out. I seldom put a knot at the end of the rope when rappelling SST or DST for that matter. I have never rappeled to the end of my rope in a safe setting to learn if my knot would be sufficient to keep me from falling to my death. Yes I leaned to use a contingency anchor with a Munter Mule but honestly it is not even accurate to say I seldom use it. It is accurate to say I never use it. Now, I am thinking that it needs to always be used if I can’t see the bottom of a rappel. How often do we take for granted that we will be able to communicate once we have descended from a rappel but found it basically impossible? Perhaps walkie talkies need to be a routine part of the kit with one unit with the first descender and the other until with the canyoneer doing clean up? Perhaps there is a need for a one day intensive technical courses for “advanced canyoneers” to review and drill on these issues. I am talking core material free of the usual partisan squabbles among the different canyoneering training schools. If someone knows of such a course, please let me know. I am going to pencil it in every year.
I did one canyon with Everett and Louis in Death Valley a couple of years ago and I have closely followed their adventures on Facebook. I have always been amazed and inspired. I still am.
Ken
ratagonia
Just to be clear, information has been available for some time on the Latest Rave, but that is not where a person would look. It was only updated to the “guide” part of the site; close to simultaneous with Louis’s fall.
Tom
Alane Urban
Thank you, Everett. Your words about the accident are heartbreaking and your strength is inspiring. Thank you for sharing with us. I look forward to canyon and other adventures with you very soon.