Rappelling as a sport?

[catbirdseat]

A friend of mine told me there are people who just like to rappel. They don't climb. They just rappel. He was telling me about how he positioned the anchors on a new route he developed at Tieton so that they were below the top by about ten feet to prevent rappelers from using his route for their sport. He also had a story about watching people scramble to the top of the Feathers at Frenchman's Coulee and rappel the sport routes there.

 

That's a new one on me. I regard rappelling as necessary evil, not as something to do for fun. Has anybody run into these people before?

[ketch]

I think I have. Last fall I was at Mt Erie. This group showed up from the top and set up a rope. I was thinking it was kind of a bizzare top rope set up. They rapped about four times each than picked up there gear and left. I thought they were just kids goofing off but maybe they thought it was a sport.

[John Frieh]

Midwest... The south...

 

I would get one every few months back when I worked at a gear shop... always wanted to work me over for beta on long overhanging raps and discuss figure 8 pros and cons for Aussie style rapping.

 

Sometimes natural selection is a beautiful thing...

[willstrickland]

They are all over the southeast. I've got more stories than you've got beer to tell them over. To just paint them all with a stereotypical brush:

 

Rednecks.

Steal bolt hangers.

Dangerous.

Believe they have the "right of way".

Don't seem to understand that they can rap any place on the cliff with the same result, but climbing routes go specific places.

Fat.

Ignorant.

Communist.

Moonbats.

[swaterfall]

I was reading a copy of Accidents in N Am Mtneering from the early 90s and I recall reading of some one who died on a "sport rappel" off of El Cap. The deceased was part of a group of spelunkers. That does not sound like fun to me.

[Stephen_Ramsey]

In a Climbing magazine a while back, they had an article about people in New York City who rappel down elevator shafts in abandoned buildings, for fun. I guess it's kind of an underground sport/activity, since it is illegal.

[eric8]

I have a few friends who wanted to go rappling when they found out I climbed. Yeah, um don't really hang out with them anymore.

[MervGriffin]

I've met lots of folks who like to do that. Nothing wrong with it; they're having fun and adventure in their own way. IT'S NOT ANY MORE GOOFY THAN CLIMBING IN GENERAL.

 

Check out these cats havin' a good time:

 

Anyone can do it!

 

Free-stylin'!

 

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!....no, I take it back....never let go of your brake hand!"

 

Cleaner than climbing up!

 

It doesn't have to be a solo sport.

[Figger_Eight]

I run into them all the time in Tacoma. They're mostly dudes from the army base.

[Blakej]

Hey my climbing roots started with rappelling. Saw some guy clip into a non locking biner on tv and went promptly to ace hardware and bought 30ft of rope and a few of those 200lb test clips. tied the rope 30ft up in a tree attempted to tie what I now know as a swiss seat(never did tie it the same way twice and it only stayed togather half the time) and had at it. fortunately 10 year olds bones bend nicely.

[catbirdseat]

Found on anchor yesterday: single 1" sling tied through the two hangers in an American Triangle. There were new chains on each bolt. Why would you go on a single sling when you could go on the chains? The sling wasn't backing up the chains as evidenced by the wear mark on the sling from pulling the rope.

[ken4ord]

When I was working at Sterling rope we ended up selling some big spools to some sport rappers. I remember one rope these guys tried to send it back it was I think an 800m spool. They were speed rapping off the New River Gorge Bridge. The idiots got their rappel device so hot that it was melting the sheath on the rope. They sent it back saying that it was defective.

[Matt_Anderson]

Ran into them periodically and always wrote them off as yahoos until . . .

 

I was climbing El Cap and found a WHOLE FAMILY of 'em. They had lugged a couple of GIGANTIC ropes to the top, would set up anchors and check out The Captain. I don't know/remember the details of how they did it (rap down and hike up, rap down and jug up, whether they clipped in to stay close to the wall, etc.) but it struck me that these guys had the right idea.

 

One of the coolest things about El cap is the other world that exists way up there - tiny varmints, plants eaking out their existences, beautiful granite, smelly humans scrambling about. It takes a rather large investment of time/energy to get good enough to climb El Cap on your own, even via The Nose. These guys totally cut that investment down to a managable level for anyone in good enough shape to hike a rope to the top of El Cap and enough sense to learn how to rappel.

[Alpinfox]

My early climbing experiences coincided with setting up rappels and big rope swings off of bridges in colorado. I think rappelling can be pretty fun; especially long free-hanging rappels. Its a novel experience for a kid. And rope swings are SERIOUS fun.

 

We would tie a big loop of webbing around the middle concrete crossbar under this one bridge and then jump off one side or the other. The webbing would rub back and forth on the concrete and I actually broke an anchor sling once! It was backed up of course, or I wouldn't be able to tell this story. Gave me a bit of a fright though.

 

*POP!!!*

 

That was the end of our bridge jumping for that night.

[Kiwi]

When I was working at Sterling rope we ended up selling some big spools to some sport rappers. I remember one rope these guys tried to send it back it was I think an 800m spool. They were speed rapping off the New River Gorge Bridge. The idiots got their rappel device so hot that it was melting the sheath on the rope. They sent it back saying that it was defective.

800m That has to be a literal TON of rope!

[MervGriffin]

Found on anchor yesterday: single 1" sling tied through the two hangers in an American Triangle. There were new chains on each bolt. Why would you go on a single sling when you could go on the chains? The sling wasn't backing up the chains as evidenced by the wear mark on the sling from pulling the rope.

 

Uh....maybe they's just nots as dang wise and 'sperienced as you. Maybes they's justs gots their own system. Or maybe they's just been drinkin' somes of this:

 

[mattyg]

At Exit 38 about 8-9 years ago I saw a guy dressed in camo setting up a rappel off the bridge. Don't remember his setup clearly but I do remember being a little sketched out by his actions. So I watch as he starts bounding down the side of the tressle on an olive drab rope wearing combat boots. He gets almost all the way down and all of a sudden he drops like a stone for maybe the last 15' or so. Right off the end of his rope. I thought I was going to have to go rescue him but he got up and was all pissed off. I couldn't believe it. Then I got pissed thinking about how irresponsible it all was.

[bunglehead]

I too have seen the local color out doing stupid shit to/on the local crags.

 

I've also got a friend that rappels. Only. No climbing, only rapping. He says climbing "is too dangerous, man"

Then he loads up bongloads of the kind and goes rapping.

Needless to say, I don't go "rappelling" with him.

 

Dude's kind of a freak.

[climberchica]

do it all the freakin' time. Maybe that's because their leaders can't do anything else? (Have you seen some of the Boy Scout leaders lately?? There is a 300lb weight limit to go to Philmont now. As if most 300 lb people are fit enough.)

 

Whenever I mention that I climb to someone new, inevitably the reply is, "Oooh, do you ever rappel?"

 

Ugh. Rapelling is NOT a sport. It requires little, if any, physical skill. It's just a means to an end- climbing.

[jonthomp]

Likewise, I've seen people rapping the bridge at Exit 38. They set up and were taking leaps over the side and zipping to the bottom. I don't really understand it as a sport, but to each their own. Like Merv said, not really any stranger than climbing. Climbing just seems "normal" to us, though insane to many.

[Figger_Eight]

My early climbing experiences coincided with setting up rappels and big rope swings off of bridges in colorado. I think rappelling can be pretty fun; especially long free-hanging rappels. Its a novel experience for a kid. And rope swings are SERIOUS fun.

 

We would tie a big loop of webbing around the middle concrete crossbar under this one bridge and then jump off one side or the other. The webbing would rub back and forth on the concrete and I actually broke an anchor sling once! It was backed up of course, or I wouldn't be able to tell this story. Gave me a bit of a fright though.

 

*POP!!!*

 

That was the end of our bridge jumping for that night.

 

Yikes! Reminds me of this guy:

 

 

We all know how that ended

[skyclimb]

I am right with you alpinfox,

We used to rappel all kinds of bridges, waterfalls and cliffs in colorado. It was kinda a cops and robbers type thing I guess.

Now I really don't like rappelling. It seems so sketchy because there are so many individual points that could fail.

I heard a rumor a group of "sport" rappellers, rapped the bridge over the grand canyon. I guess they went through quite a few figure -8 on the 2000++ foot free hanging rap.

[rock-ice]

I am right with you alpinfox,

We used to rappel all kinds of bridges, waterfalls and cliffs in colorado.

Yeah, the cops around here don't look on that too friendly...

[EWolfe]

Hi, Merv!

 

Love your show!

 

Now that you're retired, wanna help me bolt some new crack lines?

[catbirdseat]

Now MisterE, be nice. Merv has been behaving himself thus far. No need to bait him.