I have been thinking a lot lately about the rescues and near misses that I have personally been involved in, or have been the cause of. What would you do to help someone in these circumstances? pick one or answer all. I am very curious to learn from all you pros!
Person is started rappelling and realizes that their Autoblock, rigged under the ATC, is on a sling that is too long and will jam in the rappel device?
Girl rappels of and is free hanging about 10′ from the ground (2′ from a lip that can be stood upon) and her hair gets stuck in the ATC? Anchor was not rigged with a contingency.
Person rappels down and is free hanging about 15′ from the ground and gets a glove stuck in the ATC. (Anchor was rigged with a Jester)
Person slides over a tricky start where they are mostly free hanging, in the process they jam their left hand under the rope and are stuck hanging there.
A guy is rappelling with his gopro in one hand down a swiftwater, ankle biting waterfall, and slips into a crack and ends up hanging upside down with water pounding on his face! He is the last one down and his group members can’t see him as he has slipped into a mini cave with water pouring over the top of it. luckily this guys (STUPID GUY!!! haha) was able dive into the cave and reorient himself and put the gopro away. but in the process he bruised a rib. anyway, what if this duface hadn’t been able to slip into a cave and get out of the water fall. what would you do as a team member from the bottom to help him?
A friends rigs a anchor with a stone knot and rappels down a 300′ cliff. when they get to the big wall drop, they realize that they passed some rebelay anchors and now the rope is too short (the drop is usually done in 2 or 3 stages). He does have extra rope dangling from his pack, but it is kind of difficult to communicate with him about the situation. What do you do to help this guy?
You are with a new team, never have met them before but the leader seems really confident and has a lot of experience. YOu are running a canyon with some keeper potholes. one of the team members rappels into the keeper (with out his wetsuit on), excited to see it and try and escape, but doesn’t realize how hard it is and ends up needing help. The team leader goes into help him, but it takes a long time for him to figure it out too. in the end we all make it out ok, but the first guy is really really cold. what would you do differently?
LAMAR backs up everyone on a low angle rappel with a 8 foot drop at the end. The experienced trip leader suggests to LAMAR that low angle slide is doable in a controlled fashion and that he can be safely captured at the 8′ drop. WELL…. the less experience LAMAR does a great job as meat anchor for the team, but when it comes to going slow down the low angle slab, he doesn’t do so hot and comes sliding down pretty quickly! what do you do to help him survive the 8′ drop?
Eric Holden
This happened a friends daughter on a trip. Before the trip I kept telling her to watch her hair and that if it gets stuck in the device I will rappel down and cut it all off. Well it got stuck and she very quickly decided to rip it out of the rappel device before Eric could get down and give her a buzz cut.
Tayres
8.
Sequence differently so that your last person is very competent on the slide. Same way we would sequence a tough down climb.
Before momentum picks up, get spotters higher on the wall to thigh spot the slide sooner.
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Tayres
6.
Sounds like this one is a communication issue. If you’re not confident in another’s ability to rig or problem solve then I’d direct them to clip into the anchor and wait until you or another competent member can determine a plan. (Maybe I’m not tracking on what the real issue is that your trying to address)
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Blake Merrell
So what would you do. The guy is hanging about 30′ off the deck and the rope was rigged with a Stone Knot. He has a rope on his pack.
Tayres
Since a stone knot was utilized I’m assuming two lines were set up so you have a lot of rope that is not loaded. Otherwise, I am not sure why a stone knot was implemented. With that said, I would convert the stone knot to a lower and lower the rappeller the remaining 30′. For some reason, I was picturing the rappeller still had another big wall to get down and nothing to anchor to. Hopefully, I am catching on this time.
Tayres
5.
That’s a tough one. Depending on the flow ascending the rope to assist could be a fatal choice for the rescuer. If flow wasn’t an issue then the only option I see is ascending up and past the struggling rappeller and then transfer their weight to you and then rappel down together.
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Tayres
4.
Depending on how the hand is caught in relation to the lip someone at the top could try clipping their lanyard under the loaded rope and lift up (using your legs). This technique freed me one time when my rap device lodged in a crack and another team member saved my butt using this technique.
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Tayres
3.
My recollection of a jester is a joker rigged with a totem…if we are talking about the same thing then release and lower.
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Blake Merrell
Correct, The Jester is a specialty rigging used with the Totem. It functions like a Joker, but is a little bit better.
In this scenario, it was nice cuz I was able to just lower the person. When rigging things for youth groups I almost always rig my rappels with a Jester.
Tayres
2.
Ideally, this person could free themselves with a klemheist and transferring her load to it as opposed to her hair.
next choice- Convert the anchor to a contingency while she is hanging and then lower her to the bottom.
2nd choice- rap to gal on a separate rope and transfer her weight over to you and then rappel to the bottom together.
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Kuenn
Happened to me as a teenager. Yes, it was the 70s and long hair was in. Happened to my ascending partner a few years ago, after he had executed a changeover to rap down.
In both cases the hair lost. One was cut off with a knife, the other was ripped out (accompanied by a copious amount of screaming).
Bootboy
Scenario 1:
Option A: If a belay is available, use it. Take a minute to either remove or adjust the auto-block.
Option B: Let it jam. Lock off. Then you go hands free and attach 2 prussiks above the mess, unweight your device and fix the mess. Discard auto-block (forever) Continue rapping.
DO NOT ever use an auto-block (or teach someone to) if you do not have the means to unweight it and continue rappelling. There are places that indoctrinate noobs to use an auto-block but don’t bother to teach them what to do when it locks up.
People have died because of this.
Kuenn
And the WINNER is ~ding-ding-ding~ !!
Yes, I know it’s a personal choice…which IMHO is a very bad one.
Deagol
I have never been fond of the idea of filming with one hand while rappeling with only the other hand… I know people do it, but it seems sketchy.
Blake Merrell
Agreed. Yes it was a hard lesson learned. The bruised rib was not worth it. That is for sure! Freaked out my friends too! for about 45 seconds they had no clue what happened to me.
Bootboy
I’m guessing you learned a valuable lesson?
Safety first, photography is a bit further down the list based on your priorities.
Bootboy
#7
1. Suit up
2. Have a specific plan of attack and set up accordingly. (Potshots, pack toss, etc)
3. Have a back up in place so you can haul the noob back out at a moments notice.
4. Assume leadership of the group as the self promoted leader in this case clearly lacked the sense to do all of the above.
You shouldn’t have to go into a pothole to help someone unless they are able to determine that a partner assist is the order of the day based on their analysis of the pothole in question, in which case, that’s part of the problem solving. Consider carefully your options for keepers and be ready with plan B, especially if noob goes in with no neo.
Bootboy
These people are beyond help…
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention…
Go pro in one hand on a heavy class C rap, gimme a break. Getting that shot for social media trumps safety and common sense every time.
#8. Do your best to capture him without risking significant injury to yourself or others in the group. I’m not sure that once he is moving so fast that there is much you can do about a broken ankle, except splint it and begin affecting a real rescue.
Actually #4 recently happened to me. I thought I was going to break a finger or two. I just had to ignore the pain and pull as hard as I could to get my pinkie free. I requested a standby bottom belay (no tension), I was then able to lock off and grab the rope with my brake hand above my caught hand and with my elbow in the constriction, I curled as hard as I could and managed to lift the rope just enough to free my stuck hand.
It was pretty painful but no real damage done
Blake Merrell
Yeah…. that duface was me! gah…. didn’t even get any cool shots for my massively popular and viral youtube channel!?