What would you do?
Posted: Feb 15, 2013 9:15 am
In my last thread I asked if I could make a 3:1 with biners only and if this gave me any advantage at all. I am trying to think of what I would do during a real situation for the type of caving I do with my wife using only what we have on hand, not what I should have on hand.
What would I do if she was stuck on rope be it either from medical or equipment failure?
Most of our drops we do are 50 feet or less. Rarely is it just the two of us, it’s usually 3 in the group.
I always carry some 50 feet webbing, a 15 foot 8mm rope, and some biners. If we are doing vertical work then I use a frog system with one ascender, one croll, and a figure 8.
If she is stuck/unconscious 30’ - 40’ down. What should I do? I don’t think I could downclimb that far. I have practiced downclimbing and it’s hard work. I think anything more than 15 feet would be too much? Help would be hours away. All I can think of is pulling the rope up. I can’t figure out if lowering is possible or helpful?
I would put my ascender on the rope as close to the edge as I could. With my small rope I would use a figure 8 on a bight and clip it to the ascender with a biner. I would put another biner on an anchor nearby and run the rope through it. I would bring that rope back through the biner attached to the ascender. I would then put the croll on the main rope for progress capture. We would somehow have to pull the main rope through the croll to capture the progress while we were pulling on the small rope.
She weighs 115# + 10# pack + the rest of the rope 5#’s? = 130#’s. With a 3:1 made from biners giving us an effective 2:1 that would be like pulling 65# and then some for the friction of the main rope on the lip. I think two people could do that. We would have to reset every 5 feet or so.
Is that practical or does it make matters worse? I know harness pathology sets in quickly so does waiting 2 hours (best case) for help mean probable death?
What would I do if she was stuck on rope be it either from medical or equipment failure?
Most of our drops we do are 50 feet or less. Rarely is it just the two of us, it’s usually 3 in the group.
I always carry some 50 feet webbing, a 15 foot 8mm rope, and some biners. If we are doing vertical work then I use a frog system with one ascender, one croll, and a figure 8.
If she is stuck/unconscious 30’ - 40’ down. What should I do? I don’t think I could downclimb that far. I have practiced downclimbing and it’s hard work. I think anything more than 15 feet would be too much? Help would be hours away. All I can think of is pulling the rope up. I can’t figure out if lowering is possible or helpful?
I would put my ascender on the rope as close to the edge as I could. With my small rope I would use a figure 8 on a bight and clip it to the ascender with a biner. I would put another biner on an anchor nearby and run the rope through it. I would bring that rope back through the biner attached to the ascender. I would then put the croll on the main rope for progress capture. We would somehow have to pull the main rope through the croll to capture the progress while we were pulling on the small rope.
She weighs 115# + 10# pack + the rest of the rope 5#’s? = 130#’s. With a 3:1 made from biners giving us an effective 2:1 that would be like pulling 65# and then some for the friction of the main rope on the lip. I think two people could do that. We would have to reset every 5 feet or so.
Is that practical or does it make matters worse? I know harness pathology sets in quickly so does waiting 2 hours (best case) for help mean probable death?