More Updating, but let’s make it more interesting stories:
I’ve almost cut through a rope twice, once with BDC on MOM, and once on Standing Rock in Canyonlands. Here’s the brief description of Standing Rock, from Climbmoab website:
Details: First climbed by Layton Kor et.al. in 1962, this is the tower of which Kor said “Not because it’s there, but because it might not be there much longer.” It was described by one of the other members of the FA party (the rock at the base is like “layers of rye-krisp sandwiched between layers of moist kitty litter”. The standard route is pretty solid. It is a 300′ tower with a 50′ diameter at the base and maybe 6′ at the top. Towers don’t get more phallic than this, and the summit is simply awe-inspiring.
Went down and did it about 1993 with two friends. They climbed the first pitch, then hung an old 9mm rope for me to jug up. The rope ran from the anchor down over the edge of the ledge, then free to the ground. The rope did NOT cross a sharp edge, but, about 10 feet below the anchor, crossed a smooth bulge. I jugged up, which puts a cyclic loading on the rope, enhanced by it being a dynamic 9mm rope, and enhanced by my convulsive jugging style. When I got up to the bulge 10 feet below the anchor, I could see that the rope was half cut through, had Bill send be down a second, anchored strand, and finished the jug on that piece.
The time with Brian, on Mountain of Mystery, the rigging was similar. From the ledge, the rope went down, then over a rollover maybe 15 feet below the anchor, then free for maybe 300 feet to the ground. Since I was somewhat scared, I set up my rappel device WAY too tight, and had to lift the rope to get it to go through my device. Which meant I went down in fits and starts, bouncing down 8 feet at a time – very bad. When BDC was getting ready to go, he though the rope looked a little odd down there where it hit the rock on the rollover, and pulled it up to give it a look – GOOD THING! He found it roughly halfway cut through. Pulled it up, tied it off above the coreshot. Thankfully the rap was only 320 feet, so the rope still reached!
Lessons learned: Whereas we think of the rope crossing a sharp edge as the main thing to watch out for, the rope crossing a smoother edge or just smooth rock several to many feet below the anchor, and a bouncing action can also lead to the rope cutting. Thanks to Brian for cutting that rope plenty long, for having it being bigger than 8mm, and for being smart enough to pull it up and look at it.
Tom
beadysee
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, neil wilkinson wrote:
Silly Rabbits, that drop is a jump.
Not when its almost dark, and you’ve never done the canyon.
Considering that the plane landed in Phoenix at 1pm, neither one of us had been canyoneering in AZ before, we rallied to the Jug prior to dark and still managed to pull it off, minimal beta, I thought we did pretty well…
After all, not showing up for dinner in Globe would have been bad form…
-Brian in SLC
neil wilkinson
Silly Rabbits, that drop is a jump.
beadysee beadysee@yahoo.com> wrote:
Remember, Tom, we had (ahem), bad beta on Salome Jug and brought exactly half the rope length we needed, and ended up fixing the last rappel
-Brian in SLC
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beadysee
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Tom Jones” wrote:
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “sherpa_sherpa” wrote:
Anyway, long story short, on the last drop in Salome, Clint sends me down on a rope with a small core shot that only he and the guy in front of me knew about.
> Sherpa sherpa. You obviously need to return to Tom’s Canyoneering > School to re-learn the section on carefully rappelling past core- > shots, so you can leave them intact for the next canyoneer to find.
That wasn’t a fuzzy old pink rope, by chance?
Remember, Tom, we had (ahem), bad beta on Salome Jug and brought exactly half the rope length we needed, and ended up fixing the last rappel, and ditching the rope (knowing that either we or another group on the Ron Day View would pick it up). First time in AZ, not sure we weren’t going to lose the rental car in the river crossing, hiking out in the dark, mountain lion screetching behind us, wild stuff.
Anyhoo, got the rope back, and it was pretty shredded. Apparently leaving an old 8.5mm ice climbing rope overnight in the water flow wasn’t too good for it…
-Brian in SLC
Tom Jones
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “sherpa_sherpa” wrote:
So one time, I was at a thing with this guy named Rich Carlson, and > he had this employee / guide named Clint that was “awesome”. Clint > insisted on rigging all the rappels. Anyway, long story short, on the > last drop in Salome, Clint sends me down on a rope with a small core > shot that only he and the guy in front of me knew about. After a 1 > foot slip of the sheath when I was 1/2 way down, I spent about 5 > minutes hanging in the waterfall spray for Clint to tie the rope off > and rig it to lower me. He hadn’t rigged a contingency anchor > because he had rigged the traverse protection to pull through the > rappel. It was fun, except the part that sucked.
Sherpa sherpa. You obviously need to return to Tom’s Canyoneering School to re-learn the section on carefully rappelling past core- shots, so you can leave them intact for the next canyoneer to find.
Tom “core-shot” Jones
sherpa_sherpa
So one time, I was at a thing with this guy named Rich Carlson, and he had this employee / guide named Clint that was “awesome”. Clint insisted on rigging all the rappels. Anyway, long story short, on the last drop in Salome, Clint sends me down on a rope with a small core shot that only he and the guy in front of me knew about. After a 1 foot slip of the sheath when I was 1/2 way down, I spent about 5 minutes hanging in the waterfall spray for Clint to tie the rope off and rig it to lower me. He hadn’t rigged a contingency anchor because he had rigged the traverse protection to pull through the rappel. It was fun, except the part that sucked.
Another time with RAM on a rope with questionable history, I found myself rapping into Krill / Belly of the Whale when I hit a nice core shot about 10 feet after I popped out of the pinch. Oh, and I was the last guy down. That was also fun, except that it sucked too.
Another time while scouting a canyon northeast of Zion with Rhett, Brando and Kip, our nice 10.5 fatty 100 M got a big time core shot. The rope was almost new. Funny thing was the rap was around a blind corner. You could see out to the cliffs, which made the drop look to be 300+ feet, if not more. Very intimidating. Anyway, once you rap around this blind corner you see the canyon has a few more twists and turns down in the slot limiting the rap to about 150 feet at a time. Anyway, the core shot developed where the rope ran around the blind corner. Large radius, not sharp at all. I since make it a habit to adjust the clove hitch so the same spot isn’t always rubbing.
Moral of the story is when in doubt, always insist on using your own rope. And, core shots are not too far from a cut rope, and cut ropes suck.
Sherpa
beadysee
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Steve Mallory” wrote: > Brand new Beal 10.5. Last pitch of Spaceshot. My partner decides to run and swing out coming off earth orbit ledge, swung back and forth a few times then jugged up.
Yikes! Had he come off, that’d be a long free fall (almost to the road!). Big air there.
Lost a rope this summer in a rockfall accident of my own doing. Very close call. Rope got the chop, not me, whew.
Got it stuck on rappel and upclimbed to free it. Jammed hand behind large block that looked huge and super solid. Was probably only 10 feet off the ground. Perfect hand jam. Leaned back to up climb over the block, ran my feet almost level to the hand jam (really a solid jam!), and…the whole block slid off. I hadn’t noticed that it was cracked through at a slant, the perfect ramp. Not sure how I avoided it, but, managed to free my hand and arm with pretty minimal damage (much blood, but, no deep deep damage, thankfully, and no broken bones) and when I came off, avoided being hit by the block. Which, was huge (like, around half a mini Cooper size, many hundreds of pounds). Anyhoo, rope got cut in half, but, not me. Minimal scarring. Had that thing hit me, or, landed on me, anywhere… Closest call I’ve had in quite a spell. Avoiding the touch (instead of touching the void), to be recommended.
-Brian in SLC
Steve Mallory
Brand new Beal 10.5. Last pitch of Spaceshot. My partner decides to run and swing out coming off earth orbit ledge, swung back and forth a few times then jugged up. After we pulled up the ropes I noticed that the rope he had jugged was probably a little more than 50% cut. Stupid move on his part but I think he learned his lesson.
Tom Jones ratagoni@xmission.com> wrote: More Updating, but let’s make it more interesting stories:
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Sonny Lawrence
I lost a rope (or rather the sheriff department did). On a SAR training in the Middle Fork of Lyte Creek, California, we were rapping the waterfalls with 11 mm low stretch rope. There was a big loose rock at the edge. Wisely we stopped, had a bottom person pull the rope far to the side. All was clear in the fall line. We kicked the rock off. It bounced a few times and broke into two pieces. One piece flew side ways 25 feet and accurately nailed the rope. It cut through most of the core.
scott patterson
I’ve almost had ropes cut through three times.
One was in Cable Canyon with some WMC members and Mike Kelsey. All those edges of potholes cut the rope, especially since it was a streatched dynamic line.
One was in Rock Canyon, a side canyon of Cataract. Cedar Mesa sandstone is extra abrasive and has lots of overhangs with are not good for ropes.
One time was in Pool Creek in Dinosaur NM. After our rope was set up, a huge rock fell off the cliff and exploded semding a chunk that cut into the rope. Luckily no one was on rappel when it happened.
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