In rappelling and rock climbing you are often using one rope
to perform the entire climb or rappel.
You are attached at one end of the rope and the other end may be
dangling down to the bottom of the mountain/cliff/bluff. The notion is that you descend down the rope
until you reach the bottom, except sometimes the length of the climb and the
length of your rope might be pretty similar in size, so you have to make sure
the rope actually reaches the ground.
You don’t want to slide off the end of the rope, even if it’s just a few
feet it can be dangerous. I read about a
man that broke his pelvis from a 6ft fall.
To prevent accidents like this from happening is actually really
simple. In a single-pitch setting it's
very easy to put a stopper knot in both ends of the rope. The best knot
to use is the barrel knot, or stopper knot. This is essentially half of a
double-fisherman's knot. Though any knot will do. Even when you are absolutely sure you have
plenty of rope this is safe practice and the practice is called “closing the
system”. With that knot in place you can
not slide off the end of your rope and it is an important safety element for
climbers.
A Stopper Knot (Barrel Knot)
A little backstory here, I’ve been wanting to learn how
facilitate rappelling courses with students for years. I think it stems back to when I was 10 or 12
yeas old and I had the opportunity to go rappelling with some family friends. It was a peak experience of my childhood and
I can still recall many vivid details from that day over 30 years later. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’m sure
that had a major impact on my future career choices and a reason why I was
drawn to outdoor and adventure education as an adult.
Last weekend I had a chance to close another type of system
when I took a rappelling course with Jon Richard at Vertical Voyages. Before Jon started Vertical Voyages in 2009, he
was the 4-5-6 science teacher at CDS! I
knew of Jon for years through tree climbing connections, through his work at
Climb So iLL, and as our worlds overlapped in the field of experiential education,
but we had never actually met. I didn’t even know he was the former CDS science
teacher until this past fall when we did our first tree climb and one of our
veteran teachers said, “This reminds me of the work Jon used to do.” I was excited to learn that Jon and I shared
yet another commonality and knew that now we just had to meet.
We met near Pere Marquette in Grafton, IL and setup shop on top of a 75ft bluff face. It was a great day of learning for me and definitely one of those situations where as the area of my knowledge grew, so did the perimeter of my ignorance. I think in the five hours we trained, we only actually rappelled two or three times. 85% of our time was talking about safety, learning new knots, and learning how to set anchor points that are conducive for top-belaying groups safely. By noon I felt like that old Far Side cartoon where the kid is in class raising his hand asking the teacher if he could be excused because “his brain was full”. It was awesome though and Jon was an amazing instructor. I’m going to spend the summer practicing my skills before taking another course with Jon next year where he can test my skills and make sure that I am designing the safest possible systems and have the skills to run group rappels.
If you’re interested in this sort of training, Jon does all
sorts of trainings for a wide range of ability levels. He is a certified rock guide and single-pitch
instructor through the American Mountain Guides Association. He leads trips throughout the midwest, southwest,
and northeastern parts of the country.
If you’re interested in learning how to rock climb he also does indoor
instructing at Climb So iLL or if you’re a veteran and you want a challenge he
can be your guide for longer, more intense expeditions in the field. He’s an all around awesome guy that I’m glad
I was finally able to meet and learn from and I’m looking forward to more
partnerships with Vertical Voyages in the future.
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