Rappel rope caught at top. Strategies?

I just saw this. Really? What a dipshit. Grab a clue man!

Brian Wiesner wrote:As for it being a walk-off anchor placement, it is a long, difficult hike

Kevin Keith wrote:Hi Brian, I placed those anchors. I did not place a rap chain on the anchor mainly because the walk off is quite easy.

Jake Jones wrote: The old "screw down so you don't screw up" adage. I usually just have a power lifter tighten mine with a pipe wrench.

That makes complete sense, Jake. I knew I could count on an administrator to give me the skinny. From now on, I'm carrying vise grips and Aleks with me to tighten 'em down. Can't be too sure those lockers won't magically unlock. From vibration. Or solar flares.

Kevin Keith wrote:Hi Brian, My name is Kevin and I placed those anchors with a grant from the ASCA. These replaced some hardware store "glue-ins" that were inappropriate for climbing anchors. I did not place a rap chain on the anchor mainly because the route is very short and the walk off is quite easy. Also, as mentioned earlier, there are other ring anchors available in the vicinity. Sorry to hear about the debacle with your friend. Luckily this is a great learning opportunity for you as a mentor and him as a novice climber. I am quite comfortable with the placement of quick links and a rap chain on this anchor. I suggest you look over the Fixe website and purchase the appropriate hardware. Feel free to contact me or MacM if you have any questions. We have been slowly trying to make the High Rappel a safer climbing area. In the meantime I hope you can appreciate that technology is not a replacement for good judgement, skill and experience. Good luck to you. Also, please consider joining the Prescott Climber's Coalition, The Access Fund and The American Safe Climbing Association. All of these organizations have played a vital role in the Prescott Climbing experience. Cheers, kevininprescott

Thanks for taking the time to post. I met Mac a while ago and almost hired him on a flight instruction related project. Nice guy but I haven't seen him in a while. It's good to know that you are not opposed to someone putting some rap stuff up there, and I don't mind spending the money or taking the time once I learn a little more about it (I would want to be 100% sure I have the right hardware, etc.). After I do some research I will PM you to check my work.

I joined the climber's coalition not too long ago, but I'll have to look into the other ones. I recognize your name, btw - Is it you that is writing the guidebook, or am I thinking of someone else?

Brian,

Yes sir, I am getting near the end of the project. feel free to contact me direct if you need some help.

KK

Love that interaction. ^

jktinst wrote: OK. First let me be clear too: I am not, in any way, suggesting that the leader climbing back up to the snag could rely on the snagged rope to potentially hold him if he were to fall. As you illustrated, that snagged strand might hold enough to help you climb back up quickly but, obviously, you cannot trust your life to it. Also, as you pointed out, the part I wrote about reaching the doubled rope section and self-belaying after that obviously only concerns ropes that get stuck before sliding out of the anchor (note of caution here too: better be sure that the doubled rope section is indeed still threaded through the anchor and not just snagged somewhere before starting to jug it). Your "it got hung after pulling a rap" does indeed suggest that the snag occurred after the rope slid out of the anchor. I wasn't paying close enough attention to your post but, mostly, I still don't understand how you ended up 20ft short of the snag when you led back up, tied into the free end of the rope. Were you using a static cord tagline to pull down the rappel or twin-only ropes? If you were using single and/or double ropes for the rappel, by the time the end slid out of the anchor, you would already have a pile of rope at your feet that should be long enough to lead climb all the way back up to the anchor itself (let alone to the snag), unless you could not lead climb on it (static cord or single strand of twin) or unless, again, this was a rope-stretcher rappel and leading back up meant significant zig-zags.

Yes, you could not lead climb the other rope (which was down) as it was static. After my first couple of walls I determined hauling on dynamic ropes was not great. But rapping on them in this case, would have been nice.

Perhaps if we were smarter we would have threaded so dynamic pulls first (and we may have after that incident), but from my spotty memory, the haul was a good bit longer than the lead and we had no idea where we were rapping too or how long the raps were.