What tips do you have for "exploratory rappelling"?

Yer gonna die!

Climb Onwrote:

Do we get to read this article for free since we helped ;)

Good question. Pretty much all my articles are available in the complete form for free. This one, because it's pretty recent will be about 80% free on the main part of my website. My premium members will be able to read the entire article. Membership is at the very dirtbag friendly price of $.30 per day so affordable for just about everybody.

Stileswrote:

Not so savvy for the alpine, eh?  Is this what the Internet has come to??

Maybe sit this one out dude. John's site has done more for climbing than you ever will, or most of us for that matter. Me included. 

Knowledge I've gained from Alpine Savvy has quite literally saved me during an emergency rap/epic situation and given me countless other skills I didn't have before finding his site. 

Cosmic Hotdogwrote:

Maybe sit this one out dude. John's site has done more for climbing than you ever will, or most of us for that matter. Me included. 

Knowledge I've gained from Alpine Savvy has quite literally saved me during an emergency rap/epic situation and given me countless other skills I didn't have before finding his site. 

Duly noted, Hotdog.  My tongue in cheek bump struck a nerve?  My apologies.  Andy Kirkpatrick's copious writings are worth repeated study when not out in the alpine learning from doing.  

Knowledge is power, and cash is king!  Thirty cents trumps 2 cents any day.  And getting yourself to the ground rather than hitting the button on you PLB--priceless!!  

Maybe I’ll get flack for this from the more purist/oldschool, but I think if you’re expecting a challenging or unpredictable rappel situation (or could possibly find yourself in one), then bring tools to simplify your self-rescue, grams be damned. Namely an ascender. or — my personal preference — a belay device that can be used as one (vergo or sulu).

I think often about Joe Simpson hanging over the void, unable to tie his friction hitch because his fingers wouldn’t work for him. Because of that, I don’t use friction hitches much anymore. Definitely not for ascending.

If in doubt, I fix the rope and send the first person down on a grigri because ascending on an ATC sucks. I like the note about tying the rope off to the anchor with an MMO in case you need to go a little further than the rope could reach for a standard double strand rappel.

Bring an extra rope in case the main rope(s) get stuck on non-protectable terrain.

Bring pull cord in case you have to cut the rope.

If bringing only 2 ropes, consider using 1 and keeping the other as spare (if you can afford more intermediate anchors).

Jake907wrote:

Choss.  You can easily know loose rocks down on the remaining tails. 

Expanding on this: When you pull the ropes on a rarely trafficked rappel route you can dislodge loose rock. My closest brush with death while climbing was pulling the ropes on a new alpine rappel.
If possible, set your next anchor left or right of the direction the ropes will fall.

Hey everybody, 

My thanks to those who offered constructive ideas for my article. This thread mostly stayed on topic and I hope it's useful.

My article is posted. I did not give specific credit to individuals for their contributions, but I acknowledge that at the top of the article. If you see your idea there, you know it's yours, and I am grateful.

Here's the link: 

https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/rappelling-into-the-unknown

As with all of my articles posted in the last year and a half, a good portion of the article is available for free on the public part of my site.

To read the entire article you need to join my premium membership. I offer this at the dirtbag friendly price of about $.25 a day, which is helpful within range of just about everybody.