Do you free solo? Most sane people would say no way, not ever. But wait a minute, what exactly is free soloing?
Free soloing is climbing with no safety net. It’s a place where your life literally is in your hands and accidents are verboten. While free soloing you only have one means of connection to the rock and if that fails you splat, end of story.
Now with that definition of free soloing I’d beg to differ with those sane people who think they never free solo. Let’s think about what happens when you rappel. You run your rope through a hopefully bomber anchor, toss it over the edge, attach your device and then you’re on your way down. But while you’re rappelling you only have one method of connection to the rock and that is your brake hand on the rope. In essence you’re free soloing because there is no safety net, there is no back up and the only thing between you and the infinite nap is your brake hand.
Now that may sound like a bit of a stretch but if you have ever read Accidents in North American Mountaineering you know that it seems like there are more rappelling accidents than any other type. Now that is absurd to me because in a lot of cases those accidents are preventable by simply backing up your rappel.
I propose that next time you rappel you back it up just to see how easy it is. The key to making it quick and easy is to use a very short cordolette as an autoblock attached to your leg loop with a locker. You have to keep it short to prevent it from jamming your device should you have a gnarly accident. This is crucially important so I’ll repeat it, the autoblock will not work if it jams your device so make sure it is short enough when everything is fully weighted and when you lift the leg that your autoblock is attached to. I have an especially short cordolette that I have marked that I use to back up all of my rappels.
The current “approved” standard is to use an autoblock around your leg loop and extend your device using another cordolette which completely prevents your device from being jammed by the autoblock. I find having the device extended a bit cumbersome but I need to mention it.
A word on cordolettes. Not all cordolettes work as friction knots. Anything that is dyneema (link) or dynex (link) will not only slip but it will also melt and weaken to the point of failure. This is the job for some good old fashioned 6mm accessory cord with a double fisherman’s knot. Also, I wouldn’t recommend buying anything from New England Ropes after a near death experience with a shotty New England Maxim rope (link) and they also recently had a recall.
Give this a try next time you’re out. You’ll find that it takes 30 seconds max and it makes life tremendously easier. Just the other day I was rappelling down a slightly overhanging face and found the rope was tangled up into a big ball of nastiness. I guess I could have done the “wrap the rope around your leg three times” trick but instead I engaged the autoblock, worked on the tangle and then finished the rappel. Piece of cake.
There is one other benefit to backing up your rappel using an autoblock. When you are rappelling without a back up there is a chance that your belay loop will fail. Granted, this is a pretty far out possibility but it is not unprecedented. (link)
So next time you’re out, try backing up your rappel. It takes 30 seconds and it makes climbing just a bit safer which will make your Mom happy.
If you want more great info on rappelling check out this article by Climbing Life Five Rappelling Techniques You Should Know
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-Jon
[...] I came across this interesting article about using an autoblock for a rappel backup, and thought it was worth sharing. The basic premise [...]
Great article and demonstration. However, one thing that was pointed out to me recently was to make sure that you’re locking biner is slid ABOVE your leg harness buckle on your leg loop. Some buckles with the quick adjustment design will loosen when pulled upward as in your last photo. Just something to look out for.
Good point. I’ve never used a quick buckle system but I can see how if things get torqued wrong it could fail. Thanks for the heads up.
[...] How to Back Up Your Rappel AKA How to Rappel Safely [...]
[...] With the sunlight and our energy rapidly dwindling Ben and I started down the first rappel. The first rappel went relatively smooth but took a while. Being that far off the deck and not knowing exactly where the anchors were was kind of spooky but finding the top of Forbidden Fruit was actually not a problem. The second and third rappel down Forbidden Fruit followed the water groove that just so happened to have running water in it. Not only was it soaking us but it was soaking our ropes and making them heavy, slippery and all around hard to rappel on. But hey this was Laurel Knob and that was part of the adventure. The second rappel took even longer than the first because the wet ropes became extremely tangled as they slid down the mossy water slide. I was very glad I backed up my rappel because working those tangles with out it would have been a pain in the ass. (How to back up your rappel) [...]