2003-12-07 12:48:28.890948+00 by meuon 2 comments
No real pics, some things you just don't want to haul a camera around for. Yesterday we did a quick trip to Ellison's cave.. quick being 10-11 hours.. complete with a couple of "short" (100-200ft) rappell's and climbs, and the major one of 600 plus feet. (link to famous pic) Your mind tells you some pretty odd stuff while climbing up that much rope. But it will convince you to keep climbing. :)
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: Stupid Human Tricks made: 2003-12-07 20:27:02.931443+00 by: Dan Lyke
Ooooh. So do y'all actually carry a 600+ foot length of line, or do you do it with tied lengths and some sort of descender/ascender switching techique at the knots? I don't know how deep in you're going, but 600 feet of line starts to get pretty heavy.
Of course as a climber that really means 1200 feet, so I'm also not sure if you're doing that single or double line.
#Comment Re: Stupid Human Tricks made: 2003-12-08 03:01:06.625442+00 by: meuon
4 of us carried 2 150' ropes and a 750' rope.. plus our vertical gear, water, food, lights, batteries.. etc.. a 40 minute hike up Pigeon Mountain, into the cave (no asphalt walkways here... First you rig and drop a "practice pit" which is 100 plus feet, do so more caving (climbing, walking) and then rig and drop the 2nd 150 footer to drop you through a rebelay/redirect into a 'bridge' area over a canyon, rig the 750' rope, rappell 600' down to a ledge, rig a belay to change directions and then drop another 100' to the bottom. And then you climb back up, de-rigging and coiling the ropes.
We (cavers) don't use 'double lines' unless we are doing a 'through trip' and are doing a 'pull down' which is scary because you have no way back up if something changed and you can't get out the other way. It is possible to tie ropes together and cross a knot, and you guessed it, you clip on with the ascender, put your rack (descender) below the knot, then use a foot loop (various methods) to take the weight off of your ascender and remove it and then lower yourself until your weight is on the rack (descender) and then continue down the rope.