Page 118 - Rappelling

personal tether is not recommended, because if trees in places (some as much as 3 feet in diam-
you clip a carabiner into two adjacent loops, you’ve eter), which make great natural anchors, but I’ve
created a weak and dangerous connection. Better seen some hapless climbers rappel from the merest
than a standard daisy chain with sewn pockets is the shrubbery, risking life and limb rather than leaving
newer, modern version that consists of full runner- behind expensive climbing gear. Other climbers,
strength sewn loops, like the Metolius PAS (per- rather than scrimp, build equalized anchors with
sonal anchor system) or the Sterling Chain Reactor. $300 worth of gear. Tough to leave behind, but how
These more versatile slings allow you to extend much is your life worth?
your rappel device away from your harness, so you Other catastrophic anchor system failures are
can clip your autoblock backup at your belay loop due to the anchor components, like relying on a
(rather than your leg loop) and use the end of the single link in an old rusty chain, which happened in
sling to clip into the anchor as a tether while you the early 1970s to three climbers from Minnesota
get everything rigged up. A good safety habit is to while retreating from the El Capitan’s Nose route
weight your rappel device and check to make sure in Yosemite. Rather than create a redundant anchor
it’s rigged properly and supports your body weight clip-in, they simply clipped around a chain that was
before you unclip your tether from the anchor. attached to two bolts, exposing themselves to many
Scenario 4: Anchor failure. Rappelling tests nonredundant individual links that could potentially
your anchor; it must be able to hold the rappeller’s fail. The chain held the weight of the three climbers
weight. In climbing situations, a catastrophic and suspended from the anchor, but when they care-
complete anchor failure is usually due to failure lessly dropped a heavy haul bag (attached to a rope
of the rock structure itself, rather than the anchor connected to the same anchor), the resulting impact
components, as in the case of a detached block or force when the bag fell the length of the rope broke
loose flake being pulled off the cliff. a rusty bolt hanger that the chain was attached to,
Often during bad weather, climbers are forced resulting in a triple fatality.
to make hasty retreats, leaving gear behind in their Other rappel anchor system failures are due to
rappel anchors. Tahquitz Rock, my local summer- improperly tied nylon webbing, when the knot
time crag in Southern California, is 1,000 feet high, used to rig the sling fails due to lack of knowledge
and popular with weekend rock climbers, since it is on the proper knot to use, and lack of redundancy
only a 2-hour drive from most parts of Los Angeles in the rigging. Webbing is a slippery material and
and situated on a shady mountainside at 8,000 feet must be tied carefully, using the correct knots,
elevation above the mountain hamlet of Idyllwild. tightened firmly, with appropriate tails. The stan-
Late summer thunderstorms, accompanied by dan- dard knots for webbing are the water knot and the
gerous lightning, although rare, can be ferocious up double fisherman’s knot. I prefer the water knot, as
on Tahquitz. Often the morning sky will be clear as it requires less material and is easier to inspect due
a bell, luring unsuspecting climbers high up on the to its clean and distinctive appearance. With 1-inch
cliff, where they’re trapped by the quickly build- nylon webbing, tie the water knot with 3-inch
ing afternoon cumulus and forced to beat a hasty minimum tails, tighten it as tight as you can, and rig
retreat, which often necessitates multiple rappels your anchor system so that it’s redundant—mean-
and leaving behind gear used for the rappel anchors. ing that there is no one single component in the
Climbing one of the popular routes a day or two anchor system that you’re solely relying on, be it a
later reveals an amazing array of “anchors” climbers single sling, hardware store quick link, chain link,
have rappelled from. Tahquitz has some stout pine ring, bolt, or piton.

Rappelling Safely 107

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