This Will Kill Me
Posted by Jeremy Windsor on Jul 28, 2023
“This Will Kill Me…” is a thought that sometimes pops into my head when I get ready to abseil. The belay station might have a pair of shiny stainless steel expansion bolts drilled expertly into solid granite. They might even be connected by a sturdy chain and finished off with an impossibly strong ring. But all that really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I’m the one who has to use them. Deaths at belay stations are rarely due to failing hardware. Rather, it’s down to the way that humans use them. In this post we’ll take a look at a safe way to abseil…
Growing up I thought little of it. We'd struggle to the top of routes and then relax. Abseils would pass by in a blur, with little thought being given to the process of returning safely to the ground. That stopped when I started reading Accidents In North American Climbing. Rarely did a year go by without someone detaching themselves from their abseil system and meeting some sort of messy ending. As I moved from single pitch to multi pitch, from a handful of abseils to literally dozens, I learnt that if I was going to survive I was going to need one simple, easily reproducible system that was going to return me safely to the ground.
Whichever system you're going to use you need to be able to do it when you’re tired, hungry and dehydrated. Abseils always come at the end of a long day when all you want is to do is get back to the hut. These days when I feel like this alarm bells start to ring in my head. It’s the same as when I’m anaesthetising my last patient on a Friday afternoon. It’s an inbuilt "early warning system”, a reminder that I need to step back and make one last big effort. Otherwise there’s a real chance that things will go seriously wrong.
Faced with a long series of abseils on fixed anchors I stop for a moment. I finish off my food and drink, relax for a few minutes and then ready myself. I take a look at the topo and plan my descent. I pack everything I don’t need into the rucksack, put on a warm layer and tidy myself up - I hide away loose straps, remove the waist belt of my rucksack and tighten up my harness.
Jon Naylor ready to complete another abseil on the Diable Arête - he's using a 1m sling larksfooted around his harness. This has an overhand knot tied into the middle of it. A screwgate carabiner and belay plate are placed on the side nearest to the harness. Meanwhile a screwgate carabiner is placed beyond the knot. This allows him to clip into the belay before descending. Hidden out of sight, a prusik is attached to the rope and clipped to a leg loop
I try to keep to a system. I use three lightweight DMM screwgate carabiners. I take a hard wearing 1m sling and larksfoot it through my harness. I then tie an overhand knot in the middle of it and use the first screw gate carabiner to clip the end of the sling to the belay. My second screwgate carabiner is attached to the belay plate and I clip this into the sling just below the knot. I then thread the rope through the belay plate and carabiner. Screwing it tightly shut, I’m left with one more job to do. I take the 5mm cord from my chalk bag and tie the two ends together. Some use a fisherman's knot but I can’t tie one under pressure so a pair of simple overhand knots have to do. I wrap the cord twice around the rope and make a prusik knot. Using my third screwgate I then attach this to the right leg loop of my harness.
I’m now ready to go. I check my abseil system one more time and then remove the first carabiner and clip it into the rope. Pushing the prusik knot down the rope I start to abseil. If I let go, the prusik will ride up the rope and I’ll come to a stop.
Once I’m close to the next belay station I clip the first carabiner into the top most bolt and disconnect my belay plate from the rope. I shout up to my partner “I’m clear” and try to figure out where we’re going next. I’ll then start feeding the rope that we’re going to pull through the abseil ring. When my partner joins me, we then pull the rope down and set up the next abseil.
It’s as simple as that. I’ll change nothing. I’ll try to stick to the plan and hope that the abseil won’t kill me…
More on abseiling can be found on the brilliant vdiffclimbing website.
For a first hand account of an abseil that went badly wrong listen to The Sharp End's "The Rushed Rappel".
Thanks for reading this post. If this is your thing why don't you take a look at other posts on the blog? Better still, why not join the British Mountain Medicine Society? More information can be found here
For more information about the University of Central Lancashire's Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM) take a look at this.
Comments
Leave a comment.
28/07/2023 @ 11:31:04 Ivan Rotman, Czech Society for Mountain Medicine
Hello Jeremy, very nice written, simply and clearly. May I translate your text and publish it on our website www.horska-medicina.cz? Best regards, Ivan.
Reply? Suspend Delete