Is it possible to rappel with single rope and be able to retrieve it at the bottom?

Bang wrote:Hi I know this sounds dumb, but apparently I have concluded that retrieve a rope after a single rappelling from the bottom is impossible. Only if you have to get back up then you can do the single rope rappel. am I correct? Or is there any possible way to do so?

Follow the images shown here:
people.bath.ac.uk/dac33/hig…

Bang wrote:Haha it's crazy that some old post can resurface after years

MP is all about the necro-bump.

P.S. It's nice to see that all those people who were worried you were gonna die were wrong. :)

Odysseus wrote:Hi guys. I'm not a climber myself, but I just watched the movie "Thouching the void" with two crazy guys trying to climb to the top of a peruvian mountain (I guess most of you know about this apparently famous climb).

What was depicted was one climber lowering another climber. The climber being lowered had a broken leg. When the knot joining the 2 ropes together or the end of the rope was at the stich plate, the lowered climber would stand up and take the weight off of the rope. The climber doing the belaying/lowering then downclimbed to the injured climber and they did it again.

After the rope was cut, the belayer did rap on the single strand over the lip and the cravasse, and then left the rope to continue his descent.

At least that's what was depicted. Just watched the movie on Thanksgiving so it's still fairly fresh in mind for me.

the fifi hook method is used many times as an emergency self rescue device for fire fighters. grant it, a more square shape is normally used(hook to the edge of a window sill or a tool in the wall or well any quick anchor point. long story short, the fifi hook is an EMERGENCY SELF RESCUE method used as a last resort which requires constant weight on it .

Polsinelli wrote:the fifi hook method is used many times as an emergency self rescue device for fire fighters. grant it, a more square shape is normally used(hook to the edge of a window sill or a tool in the wall or well any quick anchor point. long story short, the fifi hook is an EMERGENCY SELF RESCUE method used as a last resort which requires constant weight on it .

What, like one of these that Sterling makes:
sterlingrope.com/dimg/thm/t…

Those aren't made to be retrievable like the Fifi hook in the video posted in this thread. Those are a "bail-out" device, used for life preservation in an emergency. Never have I heard any fellow brothers talk about rigging a hook with a piece of bungee cord so they can get it back after they bail. I'll happily leave a couple hundred dollars worth of gear stuck to a window sill if it means I get to go home to my kids again.

Comparing the idiotic Fifi hook trick to a survival/bail out tool is ludicrous...

Get a length of paracord that is the same length as your rope.
Use either a clove hitch or girth hitch using a figure 8 with a big loop and tie the paracord onto the loop of the hitch so when you get to the bottom, you can pull the paracord to untiethe hitch and pull the rope through.

Xero135 wrote:Get a length of paracord that is the same length as your rope. Use either a clove hitch or girth hitch using a figure 8 with a big loop and tie the paracord onto the loop of the hitch so when you get to the bottom, you can pull the paracord to untiethe hitch and pull the rope through.

OMG thats perfect! Why didn't anyone else think of that?

youtube.com/watch?v=nJpi2fI…

All joking aside, tie a figure eight on a bight and girth hitch it to a ring. then tie some para cord to the loop of the figure 8 repel down and use the para cord to retrieve the rope.

More experienced climbers, please check me on this.

Mike0110 wrote: OMG thats perfect! Why didn't anyone else think of that?

oh beat me to it. sorry, ignore my post

Look up fiddlestick for something really creative and semi dangerous or look up canyoneering ghosting and you should find all kinds of creative solutions to leaving zero gear behind, not even a sling or webbing.

Id trust that in an emergency situation. I wouldn't use it all the time but it's a good trick to know. Another option would be to use the beal escaper. It's still for emergency type situations but looks slightly less sketch.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GDcKTLNRxRA