moab mark
10-29-2015, 08:55 AM
So I've been Canyoneering for quite a few years and have never really had anything go wrong. Knock on wood. There was a post on here or Canyon Collective about not being able to pull a rope at neon due to the pull cord stretching etc.
This wasn't a real big problem but I thought I would post it for those that are carrying minimal rope. Whoever has set the webbing up in Constrictnine has done a good job of having the ring hang over the edge to reduce rope grooves. On the big rappel I rigged it and realized it was going to be a pain for some of my newbies to make the difficult start. So I decided to set up a courtesy rappel for them and I would go off the ring at the end. To make the story short in the process of doing this I lost hold of the 200' rope and away it went. Needless to say about 5 other guys shit theirselves when the saw the end go over the edge.
I played it up that we were screwed and they all started sweating.
We had two other ropes for short rappels and to tie together for this pull. So we lowered rappelled one guy to the bottom and then tied the big rope on and brought it back up.
My point is trying to save a bit of weight by only bringing the absolute minimum rope and a pull cord whether 6 mil or smaller can really get your butt in trouble when a whoops happens. Yes I know should of clipped the end to me etc but hey I didn't and it got away.
With the advent of the fiddlestick/smooth operator I think more guys are just hauling one rope and a pull cord. Think it thru, would of been a long day sitting there wishing we had another real rope.
YMMV
Mark
This wasn't a real big problem but I thought I would post it for those that are carrying minimal rope. Whoever has set the webbing up in Constrictnine has done a good job of having the ring hang over the edge to reduce rope grooves. On the big rappel I rigged it and realized it was going to be a pain for some of my newbies to make the difficult start. So I decided to set up a courtesy rappel for them and I would go off the ring at the end. To make the story short in the process of doing this I lost hold of the 200' rope and away it went. Needless to say about 5 other guys shit theirselves when the saw the end go over the edge.
I played it up that we were screwed and they all started sweating.
We had two other ropes for short rappels and to tie together for this pull. So we lowered rappelled one guy to the bottom and then tied the big rope on and brought it back up.
My point is trying to save a bit of weight by only bringing the absolute minimum rope and a pull cord whether 6 mil or smaller can really get your butt in trouble when a whoops happens. Yes I know should of clipped the end to me etc but hey I didn't and it got away.
With the advent of the fiddlestick/smooth operator I think more guys are just hauling one rope and a pull cord. Think it thru, would of been a long day sitting there wishing we had another real rope.
YMMV
Mark