Alcatraz 5/16/13

[TommyBoy]

We camped out at the first drop, and boy was it windy that night. Alcatraz was an awesome canyon that wasn't too hard, although it does get really tight and have a few interesting moves right at the end. There was an interesting almost mishap at the pothole though. So my friend and I have recently been discussing why toss n go isn't a good idea since if there is a problem its a lot harder to fix than a contingency rigging or even a simple biner block. Well at the pothole I ran the line through the anchor and then tossed it and the bag over the lip planning on adjusting the length once I could see over the other side. Well I forgot to adjust it and start to rappel and my head is about a foot below the lip when I look down and realize the rope is about 8' short on one side. Now an 8' drop probably wouldn't kill me or even break anything unless i landed just wrong, but it would suck getting out and it would have screwed the rest of the trip since we were planning on doing the Irish Jihad the next day. Since i was close enough to the top, the fix was relatively easy, my friend just lowered a loop of webbing for me to step into and while the weight was off rope he blocked both sides and I went down just fine. Other than that it was a fun canyon. Didn't get many pics though since most of it was quite dark.




Great panorama picture at the start, open it in a new window for a better view

[Sandstone Addiction]

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Iceaxe]

There was an interesting almost mishap at the pothole though. So my friend and I have recently been discussing why toss n go isn't a good idea since if there is a problem its a lot harder to fix than a contingency rigging or even a simple biner block.

Actually.... in this case toss-n-go would have been MUCH easier to correct.

Using DRT (Double Rope Technique aka: toss-n-go) if you discover one of your lines is short all you have to do is hold the short line fixed and let the long line feed through your rappel device. This will lower you and the short end of the rope until the short rope touches the ground..... easy-peasy.... in addition to being much simpler it would have also allowed you to self rescue without any outside assistance or additional gear required.



Thanks for the TR

[TommyBoy]

Thanks for the input, I'll have to try that sometime in a safe spot for future use.

[seth.l.craig]

Using DRT (Double Rope Technique aka: toss-n-go) if you discover one of your lines is short all you have to do is hold the short line fixed and let the long line feed through your rappel device. This will lower you and the short end of the rope until the short rope touches the ground..... easy-peasy.... in addition to being much simpler it would have also allowed you to self rescue without any outside assistance or additional gear required.

This is a great way to walk the knot over the edge when you are rappelling on two ropes that are tied together and the knot is near the rapid. It is a technique that would be considerably easier if you were rappelling with a stitch plate or atc, versus a paranha or eight.

Awesome trip report. Thank you.