Re: Decending on a budget
Posted: Mar 2, 2012 12:54 pm
What Greg said.
Also take Marty up on his offer. Lots of grottos in the area and they love teaching new fol
I think you underestimate the durability of the rope. Regardless saying you have to take at least 10 minutes can be misleading. It would be better to say rappel at the speed at which you can stay in control. I have personally never witnessed a 10 minute rappel at Fantastic or even Golondrinas despite doing both several times. My personal longest rappel is 15 minutes from the Black Canyon (1550') and that was mainly from having to pass a knot in the rope.
Good rule of thumb is if you think the pit is blowing air up from the bottom, probably going too fast. But you can still do a safe controlled descent of Fantastic in under 5 minutes. When you rappel for the extended period of time you can actually become tired from dealing with the rope weight and adjusting speed so much to try and go slow (seen it happen). Where as with the rope weight once you get going, the rope weight can negate itself if you are using your rack properly and you can move on down the rope at a safe speed by simply moving the bars.
Also take Marty up on his offer. Lots of grottos in the area and they love teaching new fol
dutchcontractor wrote:
it should take 10 minutes or more, you don't want to burn the rope up...
I think you underestimate the durability of the rope. Regardless saying you have to take at least 10 minutes can be misleading. It would be better to say rappel at the speed at which you can stay in control. I have personally never witnessed a 10 minute rappel at Fantastic or even Golondrinas despite doing both several times. My personal longest rappel is 15 minutes from the Black Canyon (1550') and that was mainly from having to pass a knot in the rope.
Good rule of thumb is if you think the pit is blowing air up from the bottom, probably going too fast. But you can still do a safe controlled descent of Fantastic in under 5 minutes. When you rappel for the extended period of time you can actually become tired from dealing with the rope weight and adjusting speed so much to try and go slow (seen it happen). Where as with the rope weight once you get going, the rope weight can negate itself if you are using your rack properly and you can move on down the rope at a safe speed by simply moving the bars.