Talk:Abseiling/Howto

Methods

Abseiling is viewed by climbers as being more dangerous than climbing, as the rope system is taking the weight of the practitioner constantly rather than only in the event of a fall. Indeed, a high percentage of mishaps classified as "climbing accidents" actually occur when abseiling.

1. The simple method is for the main rope to be attached to an anchor of some description, thereby providing a fixed line running down the path along which the abseil will take place.
2. The abseiler then attaches themselves to the main rope, by connecting the descender (in accordance with the manufacturer's directions) to the rope, and then attaching the descender to their harness through the belay loop or other attachment point.
3. Prior to loading the rope with their weight, the abseiler checks his equipment.
4. The abseiler then holds the main rope, below the descender, in their favored hand, positioning this hand at, or behind their hip on the same side of their body. This is now referred to as their brake hand.
5. The abseiler then test-loads the rope to make sure that everything is connected and rigged correctly. Once checked the abseiler moves towards the edge of the abseil, keeping the line between themselves and the anchor under load.
6. The kind of surface being abseiled on, the details of the edge and other considerations will dictate how the abseil is started.
7. Once over the edge, the abseiler controls the speed of their descent by increasing or decreasing the amount of friction being applied to the rope with their brake hand.
8. After reaching the end of the abseil, the abseiler derigs their descender. Dependent on the type of descender being used, the length of the abseil and the speed with which it was covered, the descender may be hot (due to the friction experienced). As the rope is made from plastic it is disconnected as quickly as possible to avoid damage to the rope. Also, care is taken to ensure that the abseiler does not burn their hands in doing so.

In applications where abseiling is used to pass an obstacle on the way to a destination (such as multi-pitch abseils) a lightweight retrieving line or reepschnur may be used for releasing or pulling down a rappel rope from the anchor point once all climbers have reached the bottom of a pitch, thus permitting a longer rappel (the entire length of the rope rather than half).