Page 162 - Rappelling

Again, the key to safe rigging of the Reep- potential danger. Casualness is not taking things
schnur is to always tie a backup figure eight loop seriously enough—complacency reinforced by
below the jamming knot and clip it to the rappel repeatedly getting away with practicing poor safety
strand with a locking carabiner. habits when nothing goes wrong. Distraction is
John Dill, head of YOSAR (Yosemite Search when something takes your mind off the important
and Rescue) cites three states of mind that regu- task at hand, and your brain simply moves on to the
larly contribute to accidents: ignorance, casualness, next task without completely checking what you’ve
and distraction. Ignorance is being unaware of a just done.

Knot block. This technique allows you to rappel The Reepschnur method. The blue rope is the
on a single line, in this case the right strand, and rappel line and the green line is a tag line for
retrieve your rope by pulling on the left strand. retrieval. Always tie a safety backup—shown
here with a figure eight loop clipped into the
rappel strand with a locking carabiner—so if by
chance the overhand knot pulled through the
rings, your rappel line would still be attached.

Canyoneering Techniques 151

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