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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Simul rappel without the simul danger 27-May-2014 At 12:59:16 PM patto

Message

On 27/05/2014 peteclimbs wrote:
>My partner and I will simul rap pretty regularly if the setup allows.
>I agree that in a lot of cases the benefits can be outweighed by the added
>faff, particularly getting comfortable and organised at the rap station.
>
>On the perception of the additional danger, the one that probably freaks
>people out is the idea that if one of you loses control of the rap and
>plummets to the bottom then you're both toast. Making sure that both of
>you back up the rappel with a friction hitch (and are comfortable using
>it) goes a long way to managing that concern. Extending the ATC away from
>your harness and a prusik on the break hand is my preference and only takes
>a second to set up.
>

The notion of using a friction hitch and extended belay device laughs in the face of any time saving benefits of simul-rapping. Simul rapping has few real world uses beyond having a laugh.

Of course in real adventure terrain there is also a good chance that the rope hasn't dropped correctly and needs to be sorted out. Doing this on simul-rap is not an exciting prospect.

Given that rapping is about the highest risk per minute activity that climbers do, trying to hasten a rap is not especially wise. There are few situations where the risk of not getting down fast enough is greater than the risk of rapping carefully. (Lightning storm is often described as one situation.)