What is better - Rapelling or Lowering?

[Liz_Weber]

A reminder: For those wishing to learn how to "clean the top anchors" and rap off, there are several places in Muir Valley with anchor systems bolted close to the ground where you can safely practice this procedure.

Also, this free "Cleaning the Anchors" tutorial download might help:

http://www.muirvalley.com/downloads.php?pub=clean

Liz

[tomdarch]

Lurk, don't you think that anyone responsible enough to be climbing should be responsible enough to be able to safely rappel off the top of a sport route?

A different way of putting it is that while lots of people are quite competent at various skills, rappelling in this case, everyone f*#s things up every so often. There are techniques to minimize the frequency of f-ups and techniques for minimizing the harm caused by these f-ups.

Lynn Hill's messing up her tie-in and resulting free-fall off the anchors of a route is a great example of an 'expert' botching things up. No matter how good you are at doing something, when you do it a million times, you're going to goof at least once. (Somewhere there must be footage of Michael Jordan getting rejected at the rim on a simple dunk, for example.) So having the belayer check the climber (and vice versa) every time is a technique to catch the tie-in mistake.

Part of what I like about lowering is that, at least how I do it, I'm always on belay, and the belayer is part of the process of unclipping from the anchors. Rappelling, on the other hand, is pretty much a solo process. This isn't a solid "engineering" argument, but I just like having more eyes/brains looking at the situation.

[Horatio Felacio]

Thanks Liz. Yours and Rick's oversight continue to keep us all safe.

that smell of feces hovering around your face isn't because i just farted.

[caribe]

tomdarch: I usually agree with U to the extent that I wonder whether you are reading my mind, but in this case I have to part ways with you and Hugh. Which one is easier threading a knot during cleaning or threading your belay device? After you thread the belay device you make sure all is well by supporting your weight with it. As far as rappelling being a solo venture, what is wrong with requesting a fireman's belay. This puts more redundancy on the belay device.

I think this argument is silly, I am going to rap most of the time unless the route is ridiculously overhung. Call me reckless.

[pigsteak]

caribe..you are actually hitting closer to what the argument is..it has very little to do with the lower/rap argument, and way more with the way climbers pride themselves. as a group, we like to think of climbing as an individual pursuit, with few rules. we don't like/want folks to dictate to us how we get to the ground safely. so, in a way, we are rebelling just like a unruly teenager....

[bcombs]

I don't want to rap off!! I hate you, you're ruining my life!!!

[512OW]

Did I mention how retarded this is?

[redpointron]

Did I mention how retarded this is?

i don't think you did....yaaaaaaayyyyy.

[JR]

Mark your calendar Caribe. This time next year. You will not be taking an ATC on your redpoint efforts. Just a hunch.

[pigsteak]

shoot JR...I climbed with him yesterday, and he declined to rap on his last route of the day....good thing, cause while lowering him to clean, he unclipped himself from the tram, and had to climb a third of the way back up the route to clean it...he's learning....slowly.