***Deadly Rope Burns***~now protection an edge

Protecting the edge:

A.) Change the abrasion point for each person down. Simply altering the rope length by moving your block is the easiest.

B.) Rappel with caution. (gently) Doing the ‘Marine’ style rap is cool looking but being a cowboy on the rope will trash it and might get somebody killed. Newbies tend to be the worst about this as their main focus is on successfully completing the drop and not rope care.

C.) #1 – Get something between that rope and the sharp edge! (rope bag, clothing, back pack, anything.) I’ll try to describe this.

Let’s say your sharp edge is 20′ below your anchor and a re-belay is not an option. SRT, you have a rappel strand. Use the ‘slack/pull’ side of the rope to tie a simple overhand in at the appropriate location. Clip/tie a pack/rope bag/anything into the pull side of the rope at this critical point. As each party member rap’s over the sharp edge they will place the protective item between the rock and rope as they move below the friction point. The last person down will need to remove these items and knots from the pull side and take his/her chances and best technique. The benefit is that the rope is only unprotected for the last person down.

These and other techniques are taught in the ACA classes.

D.) Learn about re-belays, however, they are not always applicable.

Hope that helps, Neil

adkramoo adkramoo@aol.com> wrote: — In Yahoo Canyons Group, Justin Eatchel wrote: on the last big rap our NEW rope came out really badly frayed as a result of the rope rubbing over the lip while each member was on rappel. In fact, the outer sheath was completely torn, and the inner core was also badly frayed. The scary part was that we were single roping on the frayed side. So a few more people down the rope, and it could have frayed in two…snap!!! Question: How to prevent that from happening again?

This is really scary. The folks who are real pros, are all out on trips this weekend, so I will share what I have seen them set. They will shift the rope, by adjusting the sling after each rappeller. They will tell you to go gently into the abyss. They will wet the rope. They will find an edge less sharp. They will put a pair of shorts, or clothe of some kind of soft, between the rope and the rock. Some carry a tube like devise that acts as a sheath. Mix and match. Ram

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