Descending - Rappel

This video illustrates some of the knots used in the Cornell Tree Climbing Institute's instructional classes. This information is not intended to be an online tutorial for beginners. Our intent is to share these general procedures with other qualified professionals who are interested in developing a college-based recreational tree climbing program. Tree climbing can be hazardous! If you are new to tree climbing, seek qualified instruction before attempting these techniques.

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• Descending
• Rappel

[palindromepk86]

i was not aware that leg loops were life safe hard points. secondly why not ascend using a grigri and an ascender, you wouldn't have such a terrifying transition and you can back up your grigri with a with a prussick if you need, (to hard point.)

[CornellTreeClimbing]

@palindromepk86 You can certainly tie in short if you want a back up for the two ascenders. As for the gri gri method, sure, you can ascend that way or any of at least 20 other methods. The advantage of the gri gri systm is a trivial transition to rappel. The disadvantage is that to pull in slack, even redirected off the top ascender, you end up picking up the trailing rope. Gets tiring on a long ascent. Also a closer connection to the rope at your waist makes standing on a limb harder.

[NorthWashOutfitters]

That is probably the scariest transition from Ascend to Rappel that I have ever seen. It is a very sketchy movement in a high stress situation without any solid back up. Good thing she was only 3 feet off the ground. You really should re-evaluate the process of that transition.

[CornellTreeClimbing]

@NorthWashOutfitters The one additional thing we sometimes do is to add a figure eight on a bight below all the action. However, we always maintain two connections to the rope, and removing the lower ascender last means that if we lose control of the rappel, the ascender jams in the rappel device. You can find this same transition in rope rescue books. Try Fasulo. These days we use gri gri's for the change over which makes things considerably easier. Any specific recommendation?

[NorthWashOutfitters]

@CornellTreeClimbing The part that had me concerned is when she stands up and disconnects from the rope the auto block slips and there is nothing stopping her from sliding except hitting that lower ascender. My technique is to raise the lower ascender up underneath the top ascender, we then attach the rappel device, stand up in the ascender, suck extra rope into our rappel device and lock it off so we are hanging in rappel device. Since we are locked off we can then disconnect both ascenders.

[CornellTreeClimbing]

@NorthWashOutfitters If I follow you correctly we rejected that method specifically because students have difficulty controlling the rappel when they are removing the last ascender. The lower ascender hitting the belay device is a very reliable backup in this situation. If the last ascender removed is above the belay device and the student bobbles the rappel then off they go.

[ErikKiliam]

Why get stuck on the "sound" of the voice? Its not like you cant mute the volume if you dont "like" it.

[CornellTreeClimbing]

@jorndis That's a good point, and I know a number of folks with that perspective. I think the short answer is that you can accomplish all these things with prussiks, munter, Blake's or whichever of the zillions of reversible hitches you prefer. We have a guy on the staff who can climb with prussiks as fast as I can with ascenders. On the other hand, there are a lot of folks around who can't manage those systems well, and prefer the accessibility of handled ascenders.

[CornellTreeClimbing]

@Zember007 Interesting notion! Well, no. I can assure you that it is not in any way illegal for a recreational tree climber to rappel with an ATC. This is not to say that it is the only or best way, but it is certainly serviceable.

[Zember007]

Isn't it illegal to rappel off of an ATC plate? Just wondering if you could clarify as I've heard several different people say that it is.