When is a releasable anchor not a releasable anchor?
We went to the RIC in Colombia. Our little group being Jane Arhart, Alicia Scotter and me, Tom Jones.
The canyons we did were mostly very straightforward, involving mostly rappelling next to waterfalls, or in waterfalls with only modest waterflow. The people that opened these canyons did a good job, and many of the anchors (in places) were placed well for the rope pull – often two-bolt anchors just over the edge. In general the wet rock was extremely slippery. There was often a short, low-angle rappel to get to the main rappel anchor as almost a hanging-belay situation to get hooked up.
This incident was towards the end of one of the best canyons we did, and clearly the burliest rappel we did on the trip. The anchor was at the left edge of the water flow (pushy waterflow) and an arm’s reach forward of the edge of the drop, such that whoever was managing the anchor would be leashed in for safety, for sure. Even on the hanging belay and leaning out, very little could be seen as the geometry hid the lower two-thirds of the waterfall from view.
On this day, we had the advantage of being in a group with some experienced German canyoneers, including a German dude (who I will call Hans, not his real name) that was manning the station and had set up the rope with a releasable Figure8 block. Several people went down, and then it was Alicia’s turn. The real action on this 30m rap was near the bottom, and you could not see much from above. The rap starts down on the very edge of the flow and then moves right away from the flow into a hollow in the rock. 15 meters down, the hollow ends and the line of rappel goes back to the edge of the flow. Delicate rappelling on slippery rock can maybe get you down a few meters to where the rappeller can again step right and stay out of the flow and down to the pool at the bottom. It was at this point that the incident occurred.
Alicia is a small person with small hands, and her gloves were too large for her. At this critical moment, the over-large fingers of her glove got sucked into her rappel device, preventing further downward progress, and resulting in her losing her footing and swinging over into the main flow. The pummelling of the waterfall rag-dolled Alicia for what seemed to her like quite some time. The disorientation and slipperyness of the rock resulted in Alicia struggling to get stabilized in a place where she could deal with the problem.
Up top, I was about 10 feet away watching Hans manage the station. The noise prevented any communication up, down, across, whatever! After several minutes, it seemed clear that Alicia had stopped making progress. This is why we make releasable anchors in Class C canyons, so that in this circumstance, the stuck person can be lowered out of the chaos of “in the waterfall”. Hans stepped over to make that happen. However, he was unable to get the rope to release, what with the figure 8 block being trapped underneath multiple slings and junk that was the hanging belay station.
Somewhere in there, Alicia got her feet on a ledge that appeared under her feet. She was able to get a bit of slack in the rope and cleared the jammed glove, and then proceeded to the bottom.
***
On other occasions I have seen people set up releasable rigging that would be challenging or impossible to use. When a person (you) set up a releasable (contingency) anchor, it is important to consider what happens if it is needed. Set it up in such a way that it can be used. This should be a “Captain Obvious” statement, but unfortunately it is not.
***
As usual, there are many more factors that contributed to this incident.
A. Introductions: Canyoning with people you just met that morning is always somewhat dicey. In this case, we shared a common language between us three, but not so much with the other canyoneers. (I think there were four Germans who spoke English, but they spoke Germans among themselves.) We did not do any introductions, so we did not know the skill level of our compatriots, not got to share our own capabilities.
B. Complacency: to this point, the canyons had been rather easy. Most of the canyons had a small flow at the “fun” level, even for us Americanos.
C. Complacency2: I have always seen a Rendevous as an opportunity to show off good technique. Good technique in this case would have included the previous rappellers hanging out at the bottom providing communication to the top of the rappel. As is their duty. That they did not do.
There’s more, but that will do. Mistakes were made. Stay awake out there.
Tom
Brian in SLC
Asked this on your other post…
Still curious if the initial rope length was set from the contingency anchor?
Also, have seen folks manning the anchor point on a rappel station like this actively slipping the rope a bit. Can be a bit unnerving to see someone manning your rappel line actively…but…in this case, if the rope was known to already be in slip mode, then a lower would have been easily done?
Also, makes me wonder if the rappel could have been rigged a bit more off the side to avoid the flow.
Some of these “canyons” done are pretty contrived for rappel anchor locations over the top of waterfalls. Anchor could be located well outside the flow. Provides less of a “wow” factor, but, seems like quite a few of these waterfall rappels are in more open country, rather than a confined pourover in a more slotty canyon.
Any photo’s of said anchor position and waterfall?
Sounds like this shook folks up pretty good. Glad scooter was ok. Good thing she’s a badass.
ratagonia
Questions questions questions…
No. No. No. No.
The geometry did not really allow another place for the anchor to be set. In general, but in specific, it seems like these guys went a bit overboard to get their anchors out clear, and it could have been a foot further back and maybe a foot higher so that the station could be managed without having to move into a hanging-belay position.
Tom
Brian in SLC
Kind of a near miss. Well…was a near miss.
Worth exploring.
The skill to rig and man an anchor on a steep rappel with water flow is something that some folks do really well, and, others, not so much.
And its really hard to know, like you’ve mentioned, what the skill level is of the team you’re travelling with. That, and, sometimes just simply…minor mistakes get made which can be no big deal…or turn into something much more…
Having done a few rendezvous over the years…its easy for me to fall into client mode. Good reminder to be diligent to check the rigging, position, contingency, communication, roles…etc…at every drop. Even if you’re the client.
Thanks…gives folks something to consider.
Skyloaf
Fair point And I don’t know. But maybe also having something that releases more easily can help if rappellers weight can win out a little in the end under certain circumstances. This situation in particular, probably not since she’s not a heavy person.
I mean, obviously the takeaways from this experience are the same and just rigging the contingency differently isn’t a solution. It’s better to avoid this situation from the beginning. In retrospect, my first reply probably seemed pretty random lol
ratagonia
That was my first impression, but, it seems that the Euro0 block performs better in difficult circumstances. Not creating difficult circumstances is the best takeaway, but using a better block would also be helpful.
T
ratagonia
Yes. I can see that.
Also, When the Fig8 block (either style) is pegged against the rock, does it release, and does it lower? By pegged, I mean by held hard against the rock by the tension of the rope.
Tom
Skyloaf
TBH, you probably could release it when someone is hanging their weight on it. The macrame is rather easy to pull out by just yanking on the pull side. The Normal 8 block, you have to pull the rope off it so I can see how it would be very hard to convert to lower when there’s junk all over it and tensioned slings or straps on it. I’ll try it out this weekend
http://ropewiki.com/File:Euro8BlockSteps.jpg
Skyloaf
I’m all about that euro 8. I think the 8 block takes too much time and messing around with to release.
ratagonia
Thanks. And what is the Euro 8. And I don’t think this is relevant here, meaning it is an adjacent comment, but would not have made any difference in this case. Can you release a Euro 8 when there is a person hanging on strap on top of it? ie, is it more tolerant of screwing up the rigging?
(and just to be clear, there are a lot of good ways to do things, and a lot of personal preference in which to use).
Tom