Rappelling as a sport?

[EWolfe]

 

Baiting

[ken4ord]

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.

 

Yeah sport rappelling seems dumb ass all hell and does not require too much physical skill, but there are other sports like that as well, to each their own.

[Bluff]

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.

 

Bridge over the Grand Canyon? Is that like the Cape Cod Tunnel?

 

Really long free hanging raps can't be all that much fun unless you weigh a ton (maybe the reason you see fat peeps doing it). Think about all that weight hanging on the brake, with 400+ feet of rope out basically you're jugging DOWN the rope.

[Alpinfox]

Skyclimb,

Did you perhaps mean the ROYAL GORGE in Colorado?

 

 

That would be quite a rappel!!!

 

I enjoyed rappelling off of bridges when I was a kid. Had to run from the cops a few times which was kinda fun. I imagine in this age of "heightened national security" you could get yer ass locked up for that sort of thing.

 

I have a real honor-society, never-does-anything-wrong, type friend that got arrested a couple of years ago for traversing underneath the Montlake Bridge! He was pretty scared because he's CANADIAN and thought he might get deported. But they just let him go.

[skyclimb]

Exactly, the royal gorge!

What about canyoneering-sport rappelling

[Winter]

the euros and safricans get really into this - abseiling - big tourist attraction for the backpackers.

[sobo]

...Really long free hanging raps can't be all that much fun unless you weigh a ton (maybe the reason you see fat peeps doing it). Think about all that weight hanging on the brake, with 400+ feet of rope out basically you're jugging DOWN the rope.

 

Uhhh, ever see of one of these?

 

Start out with a bar or two for those really long raps, stop periodically on the way down to add on more bars. Voila!

 

It is kinda fun. I was in the Va Tech Cave Club before I became a climber. Rapped off Whitesides in NC, and off the New River Gorge Bridge in WV every year on Bridge Day (altho we cave clubbers were smarter than the averge dick and didn't speed rap )

 

Once I finally emerged from the mud, cold, and darkness and discovered climbing in the outdoors, I hung up my brake rack, wetsuit, and carbide lamp and joined the sunlovers. Never went back...

 

And yup, rappelling in a climbing scenario scares the hell outta me every time. My mantra to my partner, just before every departure, is "I hate rappelling." That way peeps will know what to put on my headstone...

[ken4ord]

...Really long free hanging raps can't be all that much fun unless you weigh a ton (maybe the reason you see fat peeps doing it). Think about all that weight hanging on the brake, with 400+ feet of rope out basically you're jugging DOWN the rope.

 

Uhhh, ever see of one of these?

 

There is also a tube device that I have seen that can be used for real long rappels, works much better for speed rappeling than the brakebar.

[Fejas]

I do some rapping into canyons, but i jug back up the fixed line, so i guess thats just canyonearing. during the heat of the summer its kinda fun to take the wife on a little hike rap some falls and get totally drentched in the process; tear off a piece then sit back and have some beers under the falls. For cheap entertainment and a few illeagle thrills we rap off tall buildings and parking structures here in town... I wouldn't call it a sport, but it can be good fun...

[jja]

when I was stationed in germany me and a bunch of my genius buddies rapped out of a fourth floor window in our barracks with the rope tied to a door handle

 

we were so shocked the cq didn't catch us we did it again aussie style. ahh, young and stupid

[cracked]

Canyoneering is wicked fun! I only got a taste with a trip down the Subway in Zion, but man, that was a BLAST.

[SublimeSalamander]

I saw this guy one time out at xit 38. He had on black jump boots black tactical BDU's and a Virginia Military Institute sweat shirt. Anyway we saw him tie off to one of the rusty old stanchions on the RR bridge back before they put up the new fence. The best part is he then stepped back and had his girl friend rap down first. I guess they don't learn about anchors at VMI.

Edited May 25, 2004 by SublimeSalamander

[Pencil_Pusher]

I think rappelling could be considered a sport. I remember as a kid watching these guys rappel these cliffs every time we drove by in the summer. Australian style, it was impressive. I've met a few rappel groups all over the US and when I learned to climb, I forced myself to rappel just for the fun of it. Well, I did rappel for fun afterwards, but had to 'force' myself to overcome memories of sadistic army drill instructors.

I suppose it's like aid climbing in that you're forced to rely on the equipment, whereas in climbing, the equipment is your backup. Maybe people don't like it because they don't do it much. Or maybe it's because climbers rappel after the climb, when they're tired and more prone to making mistakes.

I've always wanted to rappel the Aurora Bridge, but don't really want to get arrested for it.

As for the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado, yeah I remember there's a plaque about midway that tells of the rappel dude that did some record rappel from that location. It's about a thousand feet down to the water or railroad tracks.

[sobo]

...As for the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado, yeah I remember there's a plaque about midway that tells of the rappel dude that did some record rappel from that location. It's about a thousand feet down to the water or railroad tracks.

 

...about a thousand feet...

 

How close to 1,000 feet is it to claim the record? The New River Gorge Bridge outside of Fayetteville, WV is 974 feet from deck to waves, and gets rappelled every year by hundreds of peeps on Bridge Day (one direction of the span is completely closed to vehicular traffic and opened to peds, rappellers, bungee jumpers, parapente pilots, etc., in honor of the people that helped fund the bridge construction - that's you, the Taxpayer!). I'd be curious to know more about the RG Bridge record...

[iain]

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.

There have been caving accidents attributed to this, where the sheath became so hot it liquified, leading to an out of control rappel and the victim in a pool of nylon at the base of the line. And this was with a brake rack.

[sobo]

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.

There have been caving accidents attributed to this, where the sheath became so hot it liquified, leading to an out of control rappel and the victim in a pool of nylon at the base of the line. And this was with a brake rack.

 

No doubt, iain. I was involved in a BR with the Va Tech Cave Club years ago that resulted from an OOC rappel with a brake rack. It still takes an operational brain to operate one of those thingies.

[rock-ice]

I saw this guy one time out at xit 38...

 

how many interesting stories begin this way. it could be the beginning of a joke

[skyclimb]

Planks-The Royal Gorge Bridge & Park offers the world's highest suspension bridge. Built in 1929, it crosses a massive granite gorge and the Arkansas River. 1,053 feet (331 meters) high, the bridge stretches a quarter of a mile over the Royal Gorge of Colorado. The bridge's main span is 880 feet with towers 150 feet high. Planks?-1292 planks make up the deck of the bridge.

So the bridge is HIGH.

I have rafted the arkansas, and it is SOLID class V. I am not sure what the water is like on this stretch, but I doubt you would want a water dismount

[EWolfe]

There must be a grading system for rappelling.

How else can you distinguish between this :

 

and this :

 

 

 

We need a NEW RAPPELLING FORUM

[sobo]

skyclimb,

 

You win! And I offer a correction to my max rappel height from 974 feet to 876 feet, per this site.

[Pencil_Pusher]

I've rafted the royal gorge in CO a couple of times. The swift stuff is before the bridge and it's relatively calm underneath. Come to think of it, it was about ten years ago and we were on the river and watched one of those Magnum PI helicopters fly over the bridge, do a 180 while doing this massive dive underneath the bridge and then buzzing the river. Looked very cool, but I didn't have the dinero (it was a tourist helicopter).

Heard an incident that happened with two skydivers with wingsuits at this bridge. One was to wingfly under the bridge and the other over, both at nearly the same time, as some sort of promotion. Apparently 'over' dude decides it would be cool to thread the needle between the wires, his legs hit the bridge and either kills him immediately or when he hit the ground.

Last, but not least, the wood planks have about a half inch to an inch between them so as you're walking along you can see the bottom between the planks. Then when the cars drive over, the planks shake.

 

MisterE, if folks have bushwhacking grades, rap grades seem reasonable

[Uncle_Tricky]

My first experience being roped was when our dad took us rapelling as kids. It was a blast. Though my brother and I climbed fences, trees, houses, etc., you only relied on yourself and climbed as far as you could without freaking out and/or falling.

 

Between intuitive common sense and the scientific method, we understood that every fall was a ground fall.

 

So easing over the edge of a cliff for the first time and trusting this crazy-ass mess of knots called a "swami belt" and a mysterious "brake bar" contraption made out of a bunch of carabiners was truly exciting.

 

But yeah, its still amusingly comical when people view rapelling as an end in itself.

 

It's like having spent an incredible powder day sliding all alone at a great resort. Afterwards some hillbilly comes up to you at the pub and say "holy crap that was a great day!!!"

 

And you say Yah yah. And you ask them if they skiied or snowboarded that day.

 

"No, I just rode the lift up and back down. What a blast! That's so much fun! Man, the exposure on that chairlift was amazing! That chair rally hauls ass! The ride down the chair is nerve wracking. I haven't had so much excitement since the last time me and my sister wrestled our hog down and solved his constipation problem!"

 

You go dude. And get off of that ewe.

[Bogen]

We started climbing while living in Edmonton, which is more than a couple hours from the mountains. Sport rappelling for its own sake was often all we could get in the way of a fix. Combine with high bridges or buildings at night and liberal amounts of beer for a very memorable experience! I burnt a rope black on speed rappel and just about cut one through swinging back and forth. Dumbass? You betcha! I wouldn't do anything quite that foolhardy again, having somehow gotten older and wiser, but I recall the excitement enough that I wouldn't begrudge anyone a little sport rappelling (though I might stop to offer advice on maximum speeds and anchor building).