Another Way To Drop Gear

I was waiting for my partner to finish his mid-cliff rappel and the rope went loose, I looked down and he was at the next rappel station, so after a few seconds I thought "OK, he's off, it's cool for me to pull the rope up now to set up my rap", so I did. He had detached the rap device from his harness and was holding it in his hand, so when I yanked it up the suddenly straightened rope sent it flying off.

Hmmm, I thought I had already figured out all the ways to drop gear . . guess not.

Communication, as it turns out, is pretty important.

When I teach newer climbers how to rappel, I tell them to insert and remove the rope from the device without taking the device off the carabiner.  So they can't be dropped!

In other words, your device and carabiner always stay on the belay loop until all rappels are done.

"Off rappel" (and "Belay off") shouldn't be said until the rope or ropes are completely clear of devices, autoblocks etc. to prevent this kind of thing..

If he hadn't said, "Off belay" yet, I'd say you owe him a new belay device.

Is your partner still up there? ; )

What Frank said^

With an atc I unclip both wire and rope then reclip wire, then pull the rope(s) out. Maybe there's a better way(?)

I'm the partner...it was the end of a hot humid day, and we were both tired and in a rush to descend. I usually unclip the rope from the ATC without unclipping the ATC from the 'biner, but this time I was fumbling around, off balance and unclipped everything. Considering that I owe my life to beaujean, I'm not going to worry about the cost of well-worn ATC!

ebmudder wrote:

I'm the partner...it was the end of a hot humid day, and we were both tired and in a rush to descend. I usually ...

Pretty much every accident report starts like this.  IMHO this is actually the hardest part about climbing -- that you have to keep it together even when you're in shitty conditions.  When you make it to the top of a climb it's not the end; you're not "done" until you're back on the ground.  I'm glad that nothing serious happened to you guys beyond the lost piece of gear and I hope the comments here from us armchair climbers will only serve as a reminder for what I'm sure you already know -- be careful out there!

r m wrote:

With an atc I unclip both wire and rope then reclip wire, then pull the rope(s) out. Maybe there's a better way(?)

Yes, there is a better way, you don't unclip the keeper wire from the biner at all. Simply open the gate and pull both strands of rope through the open gate. The strand on the other side of the keeper wire needs to be pulled from inside the wire. It's kind of hard to explain in words.

Edited to add a quick photo I took in the garage, hopefully this explains what I mean by "pull the strand from inside the wire". More edit: reverse this to set up the rappel or put someone on belay with minimal risk of dropping the ATC.

^^^^^

Exactly. Keeper cable/wire never comes off the carabiner.

How did you get the rest of the way down? A munter hitch?

Callum Parkinson wrote:

How did you get the rest of the way down? A munter hitch?

yes...the Dulfer-sitz is so last-millenium!

FrankPS wrote:

When I teach newer climbers how to rappel, I tell them to insert and remove the rope from the device without taking the device off the carabiner.  So they can't be dropped!

In other words, your device and carabiner always stay on the belay loop until all rappels are done.

This is a great method. Here's an even better (at least in my mind):

When rapeller reaches the next rap station, he quickly feeds 3ft of rope through his device (assuming you have a great stance and the rope is long enough). This enables the next guy to lift the rope and connect his belay device at the same time as the bottom guy clips in to the anchor and disconnects his (with the method described by FrankPS and others). Also, if the rapeller has the habit of never unweighting the rope until at the next belay station, you get rid of the need for verbal commands. The top guy simply will see or feel the tension in the rope gone and understands that it is his turn. So, faster and less yelling at the cliff. 

I never listen for Off-Belay when  rapping.... 

Rather I watch the rope.... when my partner is down and safe, they pull down the "pull" side to check if its going to pull OK.... If OK no problem. If knot OK I can fix the problem before I go down. 

Sometimes one needs to go "TEXAS STYLE" .... anybody know what that is?  

 I bet FrankPS does. 

Guy Keesee wrote:

I never listen for Off-Belay when  rapping.... 

Rather I watch the rope.... when my partner is down and safe, they pull down the "pull" side to check if its going to pull OK.... If OK no problem. If knot OK I can fix the problem before I go down. 

Sometimes one needs to go "TEXAS STYLE" .... anybody know what that is?  

 I bet FrankPS does. 

Guy,

I don't know it, at least, by that name!

Gavin Towey wrote:

Pretty much every accident report starts like this.  IMHO this is actually the hardest part about climbing -- that you have to keep it together even when you're in shitty conditions.  When you make it to the top of a climb it's not the end; you're not "done" until you're back on the ground.  I'm glad that nothing serious happened to you guys beyond the lost piece of gear and I hope the comments here from us armchair climbers will only serve as a reminder for what I'm sure you already know -- be careful out there!

I agree with this. I've noticed in my own experience that I'm more likely to make mistakes if I'm tired, dehydrated, or over heated. So when I feel that way it is my cue to take extra caution to make extra checks of what I am doing. Thankfully I'm still here to have learned from it. 

hikingdrew wrote:

 

Frank... TEXAS STYLE (for me and my partners, in California at least) is when your going to rap down a single line and your partner is going to anchor the other end to their body. Sometimes you need to get the knot down and past the lip so you can get a pull, and you then have only one strand to go down on. Communication is key when you do this sort of stuff.... advanced for sure, but good to know. 

My partner and I decided to use a biner block with grigri's when descending a popular multipitch because it shared anchors for the second rap with the third pitch anchors. We both pre rigged our grigris on the rap side and we hung the ropes in saddle bags so we wouldn't throw them on anyone. I carried the rap line, she carried the pull line.

By the time the party before us left the second station I was already there, clip clip and I'm safe. Once there, my partner was already rigged and ready to rap. From the second rap station we pre threaded the anchor and pulled the ropes setting up for another biner block. We decided to simul rap the last two pitches. I wish I had a tether for my grigri like the ATC keeper loop. I usually open the gri gri and put the carabiner right back into the body, with the plate open, before I remove the rope.

Jeremy Bauman wrote:

I have to respectfully disagree. If you get in the habit of pre-rigging your rappel devices, then the second only needs a little slack to start their rappel--and you eliminate the possibility of the OP's incident. As a second with a pre-rigged device, I've likely already connected to my auto block and disassembled any anchor we were using by the time my partner is down. I don't have to wait for "off rappel"-as soon as I have slack, I begin my rappel.  

 

Except that the first one down has merely stopped at a ledge to clean up a tangle in the ropes.  You begin your descent.  He starts to rap again just as you're about to execute a nice hop off the big overhang, and BAM you're stopped in your tracks, faceplanting into the lip of the overhang.

OR, the rappel traverses quite a bit, and the first one down is on the ledge cleaning the aforementioned tangle.  You get on and the rope goes taut below you (this is a diagonal rap, remember) and you pull your partner off their feet backwards along the ledge.  "DUDE! What the F*CK??!!"  "Oh, sorry, I thought you were off rappel."