Rappelling Hacks

Never rely on any rappel system without checking it BEFORE removing your personal anchor! Rappelling has caused many many deaths in climbing. Take it seriously and don't try this stuff for the first time when your life depends on it! The call to action in this video is Don't Die.

00:00 Getting DOWN
02:43 Munter
05:27 Biner Block
08:31 Super Munter
12:55 Saddle loop bag

[markifi]

not dying is something i intend to do thanks for the suggestion

[shelm-bp]

I am a volunteer for Search and Rescue and the funny thing is that I suck at climbing but I am really comfortable and good at rappelling (because that’s how we get you when you are hurt or stuck).
So I would add some safety tips:
1. Always have a knot at the end of the rope
2. Use an additional stopper when you have to go hands free. Like a cordage or Vt Prusik
3. I know it looks much cooler to stand while going over the edge, but this is where you easily wipe out. Get on your butt or lie on your stomach and slide over the edge.
4. Practice rappelling as you practice climbing

And then it is a lot of fun !

Thanks for posting these videos. I learn a lot from you guys.

[andrewmclean]

Down. Andy Kirkpatrick
"02 – Two-point Rule A climber must always have two connections when rappelling: their descender and a back-up. This means if the primary point of connection fails, you don’t die. I consider this an iron law, others don’t, but they’re stupid."

[mountainmandoug]

That was the really hard way to put the rope in the "saddle bag." It is usually a lot easier to flake the rope back and forth across your tether, and then put the sling around it and transfer that to your harness.

[rookiemoves]

Kirkpatrick's books are amazing sources of knowledge

[Lew]

Thanks. I didn’t know about the super munter.

[Caveworthy]

Yay! You showed a Rappel Test! Testing your device before you unclip from an anchor saves lives. Just make sure that if you unload your descender, it needs to be Rappel Tested again. Unloaded descenders are notorious for causing problems. It's also a good time to do a mental check—check (touch) biner locks, buckles, helmet, gear your forgot, etc.

[theralmackey]

crazy caver/canyoner here... Munters are a great skill to know, just like prussics: minimal gear to do a thing. They are also heavily used in cave rescue for lower/belay lines because they are easy to control and can switch from lower to haul (progress capture) quickly just by flipping the knot. More things to know: as mentioned they work best with HMS carabiners, the hitch can actually get wedged if the nose of the carabiner is too narrow or angled wrong as some D's are; and its best to use a steel one if you have it, the rope will eat aluminum, especially fast if its dirty caving rope.
For biner blocks: canyoners do this on almost every rap, and have learned a few things. Its better to block directly to the carabiner as a knot is soft and can actually pull itself into the rap ring/anchor. This has caused fatal accidents where the mallion on the anchor point was large enough for an un-backed-up knot to slip through (the vid shows a way to prevent this failure by clipping the biner back to the rope). Canyoners typically rig "contingency blocks" using a double-rigged figure 8 + carabiner clipped to the tail, allowing a quick adjustment of line length or lowering of a person on the line, while maintaining control through the figure 8 (unlock it, lower/raise, lock it again). Not as useful for climbing, but worth knowing. What might be more useful is the direct biner block: tie a clove hitch on the spine of the carabiner (after making sure the carabiner can't fit through the maillion/rap ring/anchor whatever (this has caused at least 1 accident)) and pull it up against said anchor. Tie your pull line to the end of the tail (usually with a double fishermans): uses much less rope than a big knot, and is much less likely to get stuck. For pull-down raps, its also the practice of canyoners to let everyone down on a more fail-proof or contingency tie-off, then convert to a more streamlined one for the last to make pulling easier (ie: contingency block for all, then convert to biner block for the last person).
The leg tie-off... is that normal for climbers? If your munter starts to slip, I see this could pull your leg up to your tie-in, putting you in an awkward position. Cavers tie-off the munter with a half-hitch on a bite to the rope directly above it, followed by an overhand or another couple half-hitches. Keeps the tie-off visible, and in line with everything else, and maintains tension on the brake line (brake is UP with a munter) while untying it.

[whitewaterpirate]

I do love that book. There are few techniques in there used often in canyoning.

[betwixt]

Fun content as always. Re Biner Block, there are two scenarios where you are more likely to use/need it than the case you describe where you need to create a full rope length string of gear. First, the biner block allows you to rappel on a belay device that only takes one rope (e.g. Gri Gri). Second, you may encounter a rappel that is 5-10 meters too long for a double rope rappel, perhaps because you accidentally found yourself on (or chose to do) a route with rap stations bolted for a 70m rope but you only have a 60m. Creating a 10m string of gear is much more feasible than stringing together 60m!

[stephenrowley]

Agreed about the dangers only climbing friend who's died in an accident was an absailing accident

[pyle]

How not to tie a carabiner block...the block you guys did is a knot block. The carabiner in that system is just a safety backup. One thing to be careful on a knock block is the knot can jam in the rappel ring and get stuck. A carabiner block is a clove hitch tied on the spine of the carabiner and the carabiner is blocked at the rappel ring (quick link). Sorry about being picking on your block.
Signed,
Mediocre Canyoneering Guy

[harveylyons]

Great work. Andy K is a leg-end on this side of the pond (and world). great to the community spreading world wide. this is a community and the reason it's called HowNOT2 is to share info and bring together, not teach or tell, keep it up.

[IvesvanderFlaas]

If you ever see people rappelling buck naked you know they didn't bring enough skinny cord and needed those last few inches of cordage to pull down their rope.

[ClimbingEasy]

Super great video!
Tips were clear and concise. Of course there is more detail in each scenario that can be gotten into, but for brevity this was perfect.
To anyone wanting to learn more, please buy the book and hire a guide for teaching. The cost of a lesson is definitely worth you're life.

[Eccentriciguana]

Thanks to you guys for these resources!

[johtso]

Ideally there would be use of a prussic backup in the demonstrations. Not great to normalise rappelling without a backup. Great video apart from that! Love Andy Kirkpatrick's book.

[kolobcreek]

Favorite hack of 10yrs of canyoneering. Beaner on leg loop of harness with standard rapel device. Suprise 70lb of extra wet gear no problem! Just take the rope and clip it into the Beaner and pull up! Extra friction! Great for 300' free air raps. Second best tip. If its pitch black. And you're still 200' up and you're spinning in pitch balck at midnight coming out of heaps. Lift your other leg to stop the spin. And last bit of advice. If someone offers your buddy is offered use of a dry bag for the extra rope. Make sure they say yes!!!! 80l bag in and out of full potholes for 22hrs a lot of work. And the absolute last bit of advice. Don't brag about heaps at the back country desk. Glad the noobs made it out alive after 3 days.

[tomtom]

Great video!
Andy Kirkpatrick is great, when you need advice on down to earth stuff he's been there and done that.
Odd I belayed and rappelled with a Munster (Italian hitch) on single and doubled up 10mm ropes for years when in mountains and never needed to hold my hand up on rappel
You should also warn about leaving a knot in end rope when pulling it through, I retrieved a rope for someone a couple of weeks ago when they got it stuck like that

[rikvdmark]

The biner block has saved my bacon when I dropped my ATC once. Did still have my Grigri, that combo worked great. Did practice it with a munter right after that experience 😅
Haven’t practiced with a super munter yet so that’s on the list now!
Great video guys!!!