You’ve read the series on learning How to Rappel. You have a good grasp of the fundamentals and are ready move beyond going up and down the same spot. This article is meant to supplement a few items that were beyond the scope of the original series.

• How do you deal with natural anchors?
• How do you deal with multiple pieces of webbing in various lengths?
• How do you get that anchor back after you get down?

Disclaimer

I think we’re all in agreement that reading something on the Internet is not a substitute for real-world training. The intention of this article is to demystify concepts and to present intermediate steps — not a final one — to your training. If you work out the theory behind how you would retrieve an anchor now, it will free up some memory to make absorbtion of information a more efficient affair when you get hands on.

There are a hundred ways to skin a climbing cat. What is advocated here may be different from what your instructor teaches. We welcome readers to share their ideas in the comments, as well. There are debates on the Double Fisherman’s Knot vs the European Death Knot (gotta love that name!) just like there are debates on how to execute a tactical reload. Educate yourself and do what you feel confident trusting your life and the life of your party to. The decision ultimately falls upon your shoulders, not the approval of someone on the Internet!

Finding Natural Anchors

Not all routes are bolted. A solid anchor could be a boulder that is too big to hug (i.e., larger than the circumference of your arms), a live tree more than nine inches in diameter, or a big fallen tree.

Use your best judgement. In the end, trust your gut. If it looks sketchy, it probably is.

Combining Webbing

If your webbing isn’t long enough to go around your anchor, you can simply tie two or more pieces together with a water knot. For the sake of simplicity and efficiency, you’ll want to use as few pieces of webbing in the shortest lengths possible.

If you use your longest piece all the time and it gets stuck, or if you need a long piece later it just slows things down if you have to tie a bunch of short ones together. At worst, you’ll get stuck without a way down; or up.

Verbal Commands

There are different theories on the matter, but I like my climbing buddies to simplify commands and yell “ROPE” when a man-made object is falling (whether it actually be rope, or my retrievable anchor, or a bottle of Wild Turkey) and “ROCK” when a natural object is dislodged and falling.

Yelling things like “NAGLENE BOTTLE”, “‘BINER!”, or “TREE BRANCH!” just causes confusion. If something is falling, alerting your companions to mind their head (you are wearing a helmet, aren’t you? Chicks dig it) is more important than the specifics regarding what will be crashing down in a second and a half.

Organizing Multiple Lengths of Webbing

Webbing is cheap and meant to be carried in abundance. But how do you prevent it from becoming a tangled mess?

I had my pieces of webbing cut at REI. I discriminate their lengths by color. For example, I have my three-foot lengths in blue, my six-foot lengths in red and my fifteen-foot length webbing in yellow. It’s arbitrary, so make your own system and stick to what works best for you. I like loud obnoxious colors for my webbing, but they are also available in subdued tactical colors. All of my webbing fits in a small stuff sack.

To store them, use the Chain Sinnet. I like to put a Rappel Ring on each length of webbing. These rings are cheap and intended to be expendable. The hole is smaller on a rappel ring than a carabiner, so you can also set up a single-line rappel by putting a triple-clove-hitch on a carabiner and will not risk the knot slipping through the rappel ring the way it might through another carabiner.

Retrievable Anchors

You may be wondering what happens once you get down and want your anchor back. You probably don’t want to leave all that hard earned climbing swag tied to a tree with no way to get it back. You also want to minimize your impact and, if possible, leave no trace for the next climbing party.

To make a retrievable anchor, simply place a water knot at the end of each end of your webbing, being sure to leave an adequate tail. Wrap the anchor around a big tree or boulder or whatever you trust your life with. Once you slide the rope through both rings, the ends will stay together and the system will no longer move freely.

Tie another ring bend on one of the tails of your anchor. This is the side you will be pulling it down from. You will need a spool of pull-cord, whether it be a big length of 550 paracord or even more webbing.

Whatever you have on your person in order to pull it down will work. A little sack for the pull cord helps keep things tidy and untangled As you rappel down, the pull cord should deploy from the pull cord sack.

Before you pull your rope down make sure the last man undoes the figure-eight knot after he touches down, or else your rope will get stuck on the rappel ring up top. You won’t be able to retrieve the anchor while the rope is through both loops.

First, you need to retrieve your rope, then retrieve the anchor using the pull cord. There are pieces of metal on both ends of your webbing, so make sure to yell “ROPE” when it all this stuff comes down!

Here’s a gallery of the step-by-step instructions for tying your own DIY Retrievable Anchor:

Seek Real Life Training

Most guides cater to folks who want to do a half day of rappelling down cool places and get their picture taken to put up as a sweet Facebook profile picture. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be given a fish, but chances are that if you are reading this, you want to learn how to fish.

I recommend talking to your guide beforehand and explaining that you and your climbing party wish to spend more time learning the ins-and-outs of anchoring skills, even if it means less time actually climbing and rappelling. The guide should dedicate at least half the morning to ground school. If you are in the south-west region of the United States, I highly recommend a three-day course with Zion Adventure Company. Zion is a canyoneering mecca. the scenery is top drawer, and thus it is a great place to learn the relevant skills.

Have fun, stay safe, and remember: whoever steps on the rope owes its owner a case of beer!

Something we’ve wanted to do for a long time is demonstrate that rappelling with a Rigger’s Belt CAN be done.

There are a lot of close friends of mine that have trusted their lives to Rigger’s Belts in the service, but I’ve never heard of them being used for anything much other than a tie-in to a helo or other similar anchor point.

There’s also a lot of skepticism floating around about how the AustriAlpin Cobra Buckle used in the 215 Gear URB shouldn’t be used for lifesaving devices, particularly rappelling.

215 Gear URB

About a year ago we created a very comprehensive gear review on the URB when it was first released. While we felt the review was for the most part complete, we had always wanted to follow up with a demonstration of the belt being used for what those purchasing rigger’s belts have always assumed they could be used for. Emergency rappelling.

We’ve loved the sewn loop of the URB since the day we saw it, and think it’s one of the best developments in the history of rigger’s belts being made. What started as something you went to your buddy in the loft to get made, has definitely evolved into a better-built product today.

AustriAlpin

The Cobra Buckle is in fact used throughout the Military and Government for many different safety harnesses and lifesaving devices. The Cobra Buckle also happens to be only buckle that we know of that will NOT open under load. If that’s not a safe buckle, than we don’t know what is.

With an 18kN rating (approx. 4,000 lbs.) this is also one of the strongest, if not the strongest load bearing quick-release buckle that we know about. Something new that AustriAlpin has just released for 2010 is their S.S. Nautic Cobra Buckle made of INOX stainless steel for the most severe oxidizing environments. They list it as ideal for applications in the Navy, SEALs, Coast Guard, SCUBA, Marine hardware, Bosun supplies, Yahting, Oil Platform rigging and whatever or wherever else nature demands the ulitmate in performance.

Jones Tactical just got a sample of one in that you can check out on his Flickr Account, we’re looking forward to seeing these new buckles in use.

Emergency Rappelling

Back in the 90′s the Blackhawk Rigger’s Belt was called the Emergency Rescue (Rigger) Belt for “complete confidence in life threatening situations” and was listed among the rappelling harnesses in the earliest catalog I still have of theirs from 1999. I could have sworn it was marketed as an emergency rappelling harness in earlier 90s catalogs I used to have, but I could be wrong.

I’m not sure when companies stopped marketing rigger’s belts as emergency rappelling harnesses, if they even ever did, but good rigger’s belts should be able to be used for emergency rappelling belts and that’s what we’ve shown today with the 215 Gear URB.

In the video you’ll see the URB in use with a standard locking lead carabiner and a safety prusik for my own protection. It is possible that you might not have the prusik in an emergency situation though. Click here for our KOTW instructions on creating a Prusik.

This information is provided solely as reference to supplement proper rappelling training from an experienced guide, not replace it. Rappelling is one of the most dangerous things you can do in climbing, as you have to rely on your equipment and anchors 100%.

Making a Fast Rope for Climbing has certainly been a fun project to undertake for our Knot of the Week!

Today we’ll be demonstrating the last steps in completing your rope, which are whipping and fusing the bitter end. Whipping and Fusing are traditionally methods to prevent a rope from unraveling and to stop fraying. We’re essentially using these techniques in the same way on our Fast Rope, to strengthen and protect the end.

The reason we chose to terminate the Fast Rope in this fashion is that in reading the Mil-Spec for Fast Rope construction, it distinctly mentions that “The free end shall be seared and whipped.” Seared is just another word for fused and fusing is actually the proper terminology.

Whipping

The first part of this process is to whip the bitter end with paracord. What’s great about the techniques we’ll show you for whipping and fusing, is that they can be applied to any rope that you might need to whip and fuse.

On our whipping, we used around 25 feet of paracord that created a 6″ length of whipping. In counting the wraps it comes out to about 50 times that the paracord wraps around the circumference of the fast rope.

The important thing about whipping is that you must ensure that each wrap is tight, and continued pressure is placed on each wrap. This is how you’re able to see the dimension of the rope pattern through the paracord in the photos. While looking cool, it reflects that that paracord wrapping is extremely tight and will hold properly.

Fusing

After whipping the rope, which we demonstrate below in the video and photos, you’ll then need to fuse the ends of the 4-Strand Braid together. To do this, you have a few options. As you’ll see in the video as well, the point at which the whipping starts is just above where your final taping started to secure the end of your Fast Rope. Hopefully you did tape the end to prevent it from unraveling.

The first and best option in our opinion is to purchase a Rope Cutting Gun. These are very inexpensive, and if you regularly work with rope or paracord, will pay for themselves time and time again. By using one of these tools, it will not only save you time, but your fusing will come out much better. The gun will make short work of even the eight strands of your Fast Rope and as it presses through the rope it will fuse each individual strand together with the others.

If you’re attempting to do this without a Rope Cutting Gun, you’ll need to ensure that after you cut each of the eight strands that you not only fuse each one, but that they get fused to each other as well. Honestly it’s a pain in the ass without this gun and we’d highly recommend picking one up.

You can remove the tape after your whipping is set in place, right before you start your fusing. The whipping should hold everything in place nicely, but be careful if manually cutting each strand without the gun.

Wrap Up

Our Fast Rope construction started with those eight sections of 35 ft. 7/16″ Bluewater Assaultline Static Rope and wound up being right at 22 feet in the end. We’d originally hoped to end up with a 30 ft. Fast Rope, but you can now see exactly how much the braiding, eye splice, whipping and fusing really eat up in terms of length. Keep this in mind when you’re calculating the desired length on your Fast Rope.

We’ve included photos and video below, so be sure to check those out for instructions. Now all that’s left to do is girth hitch your Fast Rope and start climbing! We’ve got an article in the works on proper climbing techniques that we’re looking forward to completing, as we get a lot of questions on what the proper form is.

Hope you enjoyed the series and are looking forward to building your own Fast Rope. It’s a challenging project and one that is truly empowering to undertake. It will certainly give you a new appreciation for working with rope and what you’re capable of creating!

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 1, 4-Strand Round Braid

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 2, 4-Strand Eye Splice

Today on our Knot of the Week, we’re going to continue our Fast Rope construction with a demonstration of a 4-Strand Eye Splice.

On a previous KOTW we’ve shown how to create a 3-Strand Eye Splice, and while this may appear similar these are two very different techniques.

The Eye Splice is the strongest and safest method of terminating a Fast Rope (4-Strand Round Braid). It develops approximately 85% of the breaking strength of the line, which as we’ve mentioned is right around 28,000+ lbf (pound force) or 129 Kn (kilonewtons) with the 4 pairs of 7/16″ Blue Water Assaultline Static Rope used in construction.

An Eye Splice also enables the rope to be girth hitched onto a beam to climb. Traditionally in Military Fast Ropes, the eye splice is used to attach to the davits found on some helicopters.

Eye Splice Guidelines

According to MIL-F-44422, Mil-Spec construction for fast ropes, “The main rope shall have an eye splice on one end with a minimum of 4 inches and a maximum of 6 inches inside length. The eye splice shall be made using a minimum of three full tucks and two half tucks.”

Let’s break this down and tie it into our discussion on how to create the Eye Splice on a Fast Rope. First off, what they mean by inside length is the distance spanned across the inside of the eye. Ours actually sits right at 4″ relaxed and 6″ pulled open.

Tucks refer to the amount of times each strand pair tucks under the pair to its right or left. We state in the video below that the optimal amount of tucks is 4 full tucks and 2 half tucks, but we actually ran out of room on our Fast Rope and did the 3/2 minimum that the Mil-Spec construction requires.

Construction

The first thing you’ll need to understand when creating a 4-Strand Eye Splice, is the difference between right-laid strands and left-laid strands. While we go into this in the video, a quick glance at the image to the right should clear up the difference for you. The strands coming from the right down to the left are right-laid strands and the strands coming from the left down to the right are left-laid strands.

Understanding this difference is important when you bend the rope around to create the eye. Your working end should be to the right of your standing part and the same-laid strands should match up before securing your created eye with a string or whatever method you choose.

Again we’ll defer to the video, because it’s a lot easier to comprehend the instruction while watching than it is reading about it. The video is one of our ones, but an important one, especially considering you could potentially be trusting this Eye Splice to support your weight many feet up in the air.

One tip that we didn’t enforce enough in the video is to securely wrap your paired working ends, all four of them, tightly with tape. The tape should also come to a point as much as possible so it can be worked into the tucks better. This can be a somewhat frustrating experience, but stick with because the end result gives you a great feeling of accomplishment.

Next KOTW

In our next KOTW we’ll be showing you how to terminate the free end of the Fast Rope by searing and whipping to properly secure it, be sure to check back for the completion of how to make your own Fast Rope for Climbing!

Remember that when hanging your Fast Rope for climbing to ensure you have a proper girth hitch around a secure object like in the photo to the right.

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 1, 4-Strand Round Braid

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 3, Whipping and Fusing

We’ll be taking a different approach to our Knot of the Week Series for the next three weeks, as we bring you a few articles on creating your own Fast Rope for Climbing.

Fast Rope Insertion & Extraction Systems (FRIES) provide safe and efficient methods for inserting and evacuating personnel to and from specific targets. Fast Ropes come a few different ways, which is with an eye splice or a metal ring for hook up to the davits found on some helicopters.

They’re also available with and without the loops for extraction. As this KOTW is for creating a climbing rope, we’ll be creating a Fast Rope with an eye splice and without extraction loops.

Today we’ll be getting into how you create the 4-Strand Round Braid that’s used to braid a Fast Rope, followed by instructions in the coming two weeks on eye splicing the Fast Rope, and either back splicing or whipping the bottom end.

Why a Fast Rope for Climbing?

First of all if you’re not climbing a rope, you’re missing out on one of the best forearm and grip workouts around. Climbing a rope is at the core of the Functional Strength discussions we’ve had here on ITS. While we’ll save the reasons and methods for climbing a rope for a later article, let’s just say it’s an important thing to train and could save your life.

The reason that a Fast Rope is braided with a 4-Strand Round Braid, is to reduce overall kinking and create an outer pattern that’s easier to grip versus a smooth rope. This also aids in controlling the descent on insertion. That outer braided pattern also makes a great grip when ascending a Fast Rope. If you haven’t had the pleasure of climbing an old Fast Rope that’s been converted into a climbing rope, it’s so much nicer to climb.

Climbing a Fast Rope is not a military technique, and not commonly practiced. Climbing in the military is typically done with a Caving Ladder, or in PT scenarios with Manilla Ropes. While Manilla Ropes are great to climb, they become frayed, slick and can leave splinters in your hands and other parts of your body if you’re not careful when descending.

Purchasing a Fast Rope is out of most budgets, as one of these can run anywhere from $750 to $2000, depending on the length. Professional Fast Ropes for the Military are also made with machines, braided very tightly and almost impossible to identically create. What we’ll show today is not a professional Fast Rope, and isn’t a substitute for one. However, it is a great climbing rope and is equally as strong as a professional Fast Rope provided you use the rope and braiding technique we recommend.

Creating a Fast Rope

As mentioned above we’ll be demonstrating the 4-Strand Round Braid today, which is the first step in creating a Fast Rope. The rope we built was created out of 8 – 35ft. strands of 7/16″ Bluewater Assaultline Static Rope. This is where you’re asking yourself “Why did they use 8 strands when it’s a 4-Strand Round Braid?” The answer is because each of the four strands in the braid is doubled.

We used Bluewater Assaultline Static Rope because we wanted something that was equally as strong as Military Fast Rope. With the four doubled strands used in construction, our Fast Rope has a 28,000+ lbf (pound force) or 129 Kn (kilonewtons) rating, and using an authentic eye splice was the strongest and safest method of terminating the line. An eye splice develops approximately 85% of the break strength of the line, and enables the rope to be girth hitched onto a beam to climb.

You don’t have to use assaultline for your climbing rope, as it was around $200 for the length we purchased. We do recommend that you use static rope though, dynamic rope has too much flex to be used for climbing. If you need to use Nylon rope for cost considerations, use a Solid-Braid Nylon. We don’t recommend Nylon for climbing rope though, as it’s fairly slick when it comes to your grip.

Why 7/16″ rope? Because four strands of 7/16″ equals the standard Fast Rope diameter of 1 3/4″. We actually came up with the calculation by using paracord, which is how we’ll demonstrate the 4-Strand Round Braid today. Paracord is 1/16″ in diameter and our completed 4-Strand round braid with paracord came out to be a 1/4″ in diameter, so we knew that using a 7/16″ rope would give us the required 1 3/4″ diameter we were looking for (7/16″ x 4 = 1 3/4″). 7/16″ rope is fairly close to 11mm if you need that conversion.

If you’re interested in the Mil-Spec construction for Fast Ropes, they follow MIL-F-44422, which talks about everything from material to length (standard lengths are 60, 90 and 120 feet). Here’s something straight from the specification: “Construction: 1.75 inch (44mm) diameter made from Low stretch nylon fibers with a 8 braid construction to reduce rope kinking and afford fast, fully controlled, and safe descents.”

Instructions

We highly recommend that when starting this project, you practice the 4-Strand Round Braid with Paracord or other small line to get your technique down. It’s a bit different that a traditional braid and nearly impossible to explain in words, which is why we created the video below.

A great mnemonic device for learning the braiding pattern is “back two, over one.” What you’re doing is alternating from the right to left outside pairs while taking the respective working end around the back side of two strands and over the last one it’s brought behind. This of course won’t make sense until you watch the video, but reciting this pattern will help you stay focused, because you’re in for a long braiding session.

It took two of us around an hour and a half to braid our Fast Rope. We started with 35 ft. strands and wound up with a 25 ft. long Fast Rope that weighs approx. 16 lbs. You can estimate needing around 1.5 feet for every foot in length you want your Fast Rope to be. That’s also not including the length required for the eye splice and whatever method you use for terminating the end (future article).

You’re also going to definitely need a buddy to help you braid, as creating this pattern plays havoc with the standing ends of the rope. They’ll develop twists that your buddy will have to fix, because you’ll be braiding and won’t be able to let go of the rope. You could do this by yourself by taping the braiding every foot or so to go back and untwist the lines, but you’re in for a long day if not many days.

Braiding this Fast Rope is also a tremendous grip workout in itself. You’ll have to be tightening the braid while keeping it together and is not for the weak-fingered individual. If you are, find a friend with a good grip and be the one that untwists the lines and buys the beer.

Video and Photos

We’ve not only included a YouTube video on how to tie the 4-Strand Round Braid, but tried to accurately describe the process with photos as well. Remember that we’ll be back to show you how to complete your Fast Rope with and eye splice and terminating method in the following two weeks! We’ll be demonstrating rope climbing techniques in a future article that will help you learn this skill-set.

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 2, 4-Strand Eye Splice

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 3, Whipping and Fusing

A special thank you to CENTCOMSurvivor from our Forum for initiating the conversation that brought you this article. Creating a Fast Rope for Climbing is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, but was pushed to the side until recently suggested.

This week’s Knot of the Week features two different ways to tie a hasty webbing harness that can be used as a backup rappelling harness in case of an emergency.

Tied with 1″ Mil-Spec Tubular Webbing, these featured harnesses have a rating of 19 kN or 4,200 lbs. Tubular Webbing is commonly used in climbing and readily available in either Mil-Spec or Climb-Spec. You’ll find that these are very similar and maintain roughly the same 19 kN rating.

If you’re looking to source 1″ Tubular Webbing, here’s a great resource that aggregates pricing and availability from popular online retailers like REI, Amazon, Summit Hut and many more.

Method #1

The first way that we’ll show to tie a Hasty Rappelling Harness is very similar to the Swiss Seat, but as the name implies, hasty. There are ways of reinforcing this harness with tape knots, which we point out in the video below.

This first harness example is tied with 18 ft. of Tubular Webbing and is easily stored in a cargo pocket. One of the main benefits of this harness is that storing the webbing coiled and flat minimizes space and takes up much less room than 18 ft. of rope. Tubular Webbing is also more comfortable to use as a harness, but the purpose of backup harnesses like these is for emergencies, and comfort really shouldn’t be a concern in those situations.

Method #2

The second method we’ll show to tie a Hasty Rappelling Harness is something we’ve come up with recently. It utilizes 12 ft. of pre-knotted Tubular Webbing (a Tape Knot that’s been backed up) to make a runner of sorts that can be easily donned in a hurry. This method is much faster than the first example and uses less webbing.

It’s not as secure as the first harness, but if seconds count, it will get you down. It’s also more compact and easier to store than the first, and as you’ll see in the video, it fits very nicely into the flashlight cave of a TAD Gear Fast Pack in conjunction with their Cable Retractor.

What really makes this method shine is its ability to augment a Rigger’s Belt. As you can see from the picture to the right  it would be very easy to clip this into the loop. When used in combination with the Rigger’s belt you’ve truly got a bombproof backup system. No leg support has been a common complaint with a Rigger’s Belt, but when used in combination with this method, it will be sure to satisfy.

Notes

Both of these harnesses utilize Rigger’s Rubber Bands to hold them together for quick deployment when needed. Here’s a link to an article we wrote on Rigger’s Rubber Bands, they’re definitely the right choice for this application.

Always use a locking carabiner when tying these harnesses and remember to “Screw Down, so you don’t Screw Up.” That’s something helpful to memorize so that you’re always screwing the locking gate on a carabiner “down.” If gravity comes into play it will rotate the carabiner closed, not open.

Hasty Webbing Harness #1 » Misc.

(Strength: 2/Secure: 3/Stability: 2/Difficulty: 3)

Hasty Webbing Harness #2 » Misc.

(Strength: 2/Secure: 3/Stability: 2/Difficulty: 2)

Uses:

• Hasty emergency rappelling harness for you or a victim
• Transporting an injured victim to safety

Tying Instructions:

• Please refer to the YouTube video below for instructions

Rappelling is inherently dangerous. This information is provided for educational purposes only, and should not replace training from an experienced guide.