Two kinda near misses in Heaps (not exciting...but worth sharing)

[summitseeker]

Two events:

First
Occurred on the 40 foot rap from the single bolt in the dark section, we could not see the bottom. I did the rap on a double strand and rapped off the end 5 feet from the bottom bc the ends were not equalized. No injury, just a good reminder to no get complacent when cold and 25 rappels deep.

Second,
at the emerald pools pulled our 300' 9mm and watched it snake down in a free fall. Saw it was coming close and assumed the duck and cover position with my hands on my head. The end of the rope smacked me in the back of the side of my neck just left of my spine. It hurt for a second then I looked around and realized I was feeling dizzy. I laid down and grayed-out with an out-of-body feeling as I watched my team members stuffing ropes and not realizing I was nearly knocked unconscious. I thought to myself "I am going to die and everyones to busy to notice..." After a few seconds I came to and shook it off and explained to the group what occurred. I was fine. Moral of the story, those ropes come down fast and hard at 300' up.

[jman]

We have ran into that twice where the end was out of sight, and middle of the rope was not marked.

Jeff Guest @jguest, used a tibloc and a little bouncing to get them equalized. It was on a free rappel section. Maybe we should do a how-to on that...hmm.. But bouncing on a rope is never recommended though. Hmm


To your second one, I've been hit in the arm with a rope from a 120ft freehang. It hurt bad...similar to being a whipped.
I can't imagine a neck hit though.

Glad everything turned out okay though for ya.

[Kuya]

Hmmmm. figure 8 blocks are starting to look more and more appealing ;)