It takes about 20 minutes to set up. A little less to tear down. With the exception of jumping the knot, for someone who's not setting it up, it's cake.
How long does it take, start to finish, to do one of these rappels? how much training or prep needs to be done? is it something i could, like.. just fit into my schedule?
Sixth: Since you're going to have to shortly unclip the rappel device from the line, it's not a good idea to 100% rely on some 7mm cord to hold you. If it happened to give out while you were changing it from the upper rope to the lower, you would fall to the ground. In order to avoid that, pull up about 8 feet of the brake rope from beneath you and tie a figure 8 on a bight. Using a caribiner, attach this to your harness. In the even of a fall, this safety line would catch you (though you'd probably now be stuck) Seventh: now that you're hanging off the radium hitch and securely backed up, unclip the rappel device from the upper line and move it to the lower one. Eighth: Since you're now back "on rappel" you can remove your safety and untie the figure 8. Once this is disconnected, untie the radium and lower yourself down. This is probably the hardest part of the operation because you need to hold the brake with one hand while you release the hitch with the other. Eventually, the radium hitch will unload and your entire weight will finally be back on the rappel device, but now below the knot! Now, simply remove the radium and prussik from your harness and from the line, stow them and rappel down the remaining portion of the rope. All said and done, it takes about 2 minutes to complete this, though I recommend practicing on a low wall, as it's very easy to get "stuck" by letting the knot come too close to the rappel device or by not mounting the radium hitch high enough on the upper line. I brought along some extra gear to make some footloops and prussiks in case I needed to free myself. So there you have it. Go rappel off some stuff...!!!
Second: Rappel down to about 8" from the top of the knot Third: using the prussik loop, tie a prussik knot to the upper rope (above your rappel device). The prussik knot is basically a sliding/locking knot. If the free end is loaded, it will not move, if it's unladed it slides freely on the rope. You can also use a "shunt" for this, but they are about 60 bucks and the prussik works great. Fourth: attach the top of radium hitch to the free end of the prussik and the bottom of the radium hitch to your harness. At this point, all your load is still carried by the rappel device. Fifth: release tension on the brake line, allowing all your weight to load the prussik/radium hitch. Your weight is now totally supported by the prussik/radium hitch and the rappel device is loose (though still attached in case of a prussik failure)
Since I like doing write-ups on stuff, I snapped a few pics to describe the technique to "jump" the knot. Before you do anything, you need to make a prussik loop and a radium load release hitch. A prussik loop is just a length of load rated cord, no larger than 7mm tied in a loop, using 2 double fisherman's knots. A radium hitch is created by using a clove hitch to tie a 48" sling to a locking caribiner. A second is clipped onto the bottom: You then loop the sling around itself, effectively creating a 4:1 mechanical advantage for the free end (minus friction), then secure it to itself with 2 overhand knots. Clip these 2 items to your harness and begin. First: Tie the two ropes together with a threaded figure 8, then back up each rope with a double overhand stopper knot
do you have one from the top?
so when will it be for sale?
i smiled hard when you sent that photo to my phone... you're insane dude.... totally insane. do you have a will made up? am i in it?
looks bad ass
It's a pretty insane feeling to be dangling under a bridge, nearly 200 feet off the ground... nothing at all under you... however, I've become accustomed to trusting the feeling, and it's really very peaceful up there as you sway in the breeze... I began to descend the rope. It went quickly, but controllably. I stopped about 10 feet off the water. I looped the brake line around my leg a few times to prevent going any lower, then pulled in the rope under me. By this point it was about 25 feet of rope, because the dynamic rope stretches a great deal. I threw the rope to Breetime, who was standing on the pylons. He was able to JUST catch it. He pulled me over to the pylons and I was able to get off the rope and stay dry. Once off, I pulled the pull cord allowing me to retrieve my ropes. Then we packed up and left, leaving just the anchor at the top... We're going to do it again, I think... hopefully with less time restrictions this time... A whole host of photos were taken, but not on my camera... so the only photo I have at the moment is this one... more to come. ENJOY! This photo was taken by dave about 25 or 30 feet from the top... You can see the anchors that he had "cleaned" clipped to his harness. For size comparison, that's breetime standing at the very bottom of the tracks... it's a LONG WAY DOWN [/QUOTE]
exciiiting!!
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