Our favorite rigging type = releasable! (Part 1)

Part 1: Learn the benefits of releasable rigging, the 3 essential parts of any releasable rig, and which releasable blocks we prefer.

Resources:
Compact Secure figure 8 block rigging video
Eight Mule Overhand (EMO) figure 8 block rigging video
Totem Block rigging and releasing video from Rock Exotica (starting @ 2:07)
Totem Block rigging Facebook photo from @totemrigging
Totem Block rigging video from North Wash Outdoors
Hoodoo Block user manual from On Rope

Transcript

Katie: 0:08

Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Katie

Carma: 0:10

and I'm Carma and you're listening to, I'd rather be canyoneering.

Katie: 0:14

We're best friends who totally geek out about canyon rigging and beautifully slot canyons. Basically we'd always rather be canyoneering. But when we can't, we spend every spare minute, we have talking about it.

Carma: 0:26

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please seek professional instruction and practice technical skills in a controlled environment before entering slot canyons. Your safety is entirely your own responsibility.

Katie: 0:41

Welcome to our canyon crew!

Carma: 0:45

In the last episode we talked about double strand rigging sometimes called toss and go, and we talked about single strand rigging using a carabiner block. Those are both static rigging options. Today we are going to talk about our favorite rigging type, which is releasable rigging. Katie, have you ever heard of someone getting their hair caught in their repelling device?

Katie: 1:08

I have, um, over years of canyoneering. I've actually seen it three times.

Carma: 1:12

I saw it happen to a friend of mine about a month ago. We were in just a really chill local canyon and she was about halfway down a repel that was about 175 feet. She has probably like medium length, curly hair and a couple of her curls had just gotten zipped right up into her device and got caught.

Katie: 1:34

Oh my gosh, karma. I remember you telling me about this, and wasn't her hair pulled.

Carma: 1:38

Yeah, it totally was.

Katie: 1:40

Yeah, and just those pieces fell out of her ponytail while she was looking down.

Carma: 1:45

Now, she was lucky that on the second half of this particular repel, there are a series of ledges. And so she was able to find a spot where she could get her toes on the ledge and stand up enough where she could unweight her device and she could just yank those curls out of the device and tuck them back. And then she was able to continue down to the bottom of the repel without any problems. Now, if this had happened on the first half of that repel, she would've been stuck. Stuck because the first half of the repel was just a sheer cliff, so she wouldn't have been able to unweight her device so easily. And when I got to the bottom, cuz I came down after her, she showed me the curls that had gotten stuck and they were straightened out. Like they hung down quite a bit farther than the rest of her.

Katie: 2:33

Oh

Carma: 2:34

Yeah, than the rest of her ringlets. It was like very obvious,

Katie: 2:37

is not the hair straightener you wanna use

Carma: 2:39

no no not a good option.

Katie: 2:44

I remember being totally baffled the first time I saw this happen and just wondering how the heck did that even happen. I was at a rock climbing gym and someone was learning how to repel off of a platform and they were free hanging. So I thought, what is there even to get caught on? that Day. I started doing the math. I looked at her harness and I just thought, oh, wow. So If you start at your hips, belay loop adds three inches, then the carabiner adds three inches, then the device adds three or four inches, and all of a sudden your device is sneaking closer and closer to your face, and then you go ahead and look down and it's, it's very likely that you can get your hair caught in there because it's crept up so high. And even if everyone in your group has short hair, let's not forget the backpack straps and clothing are also notorious for getting stuck in the rappel device. Doesn't matter how experienced you are, this type of thing could happen to anybody. Everyone gets tired in canyons and sometimes we get in a hurry or we didn't realize that something that we tucked back has flopped out. So having a friend to check you before you go over, that should be part of that partner check. if a person who gets stuck on repel is able to self rescue, that's awesome, and hopefully they can fix the problem on their own and continue down the repel. But if the person stuck on repel, isn't carrying gear on their harness or doesn't have the knowledge to self rescue, then we have a problem. If you've rigged, releasable, then you have a solution

Carma: 4:00

yeah, a quick and easy solution.

Katie: 4:02

for sure.

Carma: 4:03

Having someone stuck on repel isn't the only issue that releasable rigging can solve. Honestly, for me, releasable rigging is my number one go-to when I get to repel and I can't see the bottom. So if I cannot visually confirm that the rope is on the ground, I just go automatically to release bill rigging because then I know for sure that whoever I send down first, if they end up coming up short on the rope length, then I can easily lower them and it doesn't have to turn into a ascension process for that first person or a conversion rescue. It's super easy to just adjust the rope length on the fly. If you've rigged, releasable, and that person who's on repel, that first person on the rope can then just confirm for you when the rope is touching the ground and when it's safe for them to go all the way down.

Katie: 4:53

Yeah, we saw this happen in, I think it was Birch Canyon, where we had read in the beta that there was a spot where it was a rope stretcher for a 200 foot rope because it was a 100 foot repel. We came up to the repel and it has a ton of webbing to get it over the edge. So what people are saying is, well, if there's about 30 feet of webbing there, then it's gonna be a rope stretcher, but it's gonna touch. But it's really hard to know for sure so when karma went over the edge, we rigged her releasable so that she could just let me know if she was touching or not. And we didn't have to have any other problems there.

Carma: 5:26

Katie, you've recently been in a lot of class C canyons on your trip to Costa Rica, and I hear that releasable rigging is just like standard for Class C canyons.

Katie: 5:37

Yeah. Releaseable rigging is really an essential skill for doing aquatic canyons. It's most helpful I think, in setting the rope length. Costa Rica had some, probably some more mild waterfalls and Seattle had some ragers where they just really have a lot of power behind them. And one of the techniques that you can use for that is to set your rope length right at or just above the water level so that you can repel right off the end. It makes it so that you don't have to try to do a wet disconnect while a waterfall is pounding your head. So in order to achieve that in a place where you still might not be able to see the bottom from the anchor, What has become kind of a, a really cool practice is to set your rope length short by about five feet or, or so, and then send the repeller over knowing, you know, you've, you've communicated that we're doing this right, knowing that it's going to be short, and they can then put their whistle in their mouth and whistle up that they need more rope. And then as soon as it's right where they want it, they whistle stop. Then everybody after that just gets to repel right off the end of their rope and swim away really helps. Not to have a crap ton of rope in the water. That waterfall is creating this big old mess of movement that if you have extra rope in the water, it can tie it around a log that's in the pool. Then you could lose your rope. You could get stuck there trying to get off. You know, you just can't get off the rope because the water's pounding you. It can create a lot of problems to have extra rope down there, so setting it at just the right length is really, really helpful. Releasable riggings also helpful in Class C Canyons. In the event of a rescue, uh, you have a lot more options to work with in lowering somebody and getting'em out of a hairy spot. It doesn't solve every problem because like if you have a foot entrapment or something like that, if someone's foot stuck, then lowering them might just end up water boarding them. So it's not always the right answer, but it is something that really helps because you have options at the time. If you can communicate with them, if you can see what's going on, then you really can do a lot to help.

Carma: 7:39

Yeah, you're just ready to go for whatever comes up. Another thing that releasable rigging is handy for is allowing you to creep the rope over sharp abrasion points. And this helps minimize rope damage. So if you have a sharp edge that you're going over, you can let a little bit of rope out in between each rep Propeller. So that that high friction area isn't going to be on the exact same spot of the rope for every single repeller because if you leave that rope in the same spot, that damage can compound like each person goes over. And especially if it's a long repel, there's kind of a sawing effect that happens when people are, bouncing as they go down. And you could end up cutting the sheath of your rope and have a core shot, meaning the sheath has been sliced through and now the white core of the rope is visible. And a rope with a core shot is not safe to be repelling on. It could lead to total rope failure.

Katie: 8:36

A rope with a core shot's done. I mean, you have to isolate that core shot and that rope is done. There are a whole bunch of releasable rigging setups. When we first started looking at releasable rigging, we were overwhelmed by the options that were available out there. Looking at all the different ways to do things, all the different variations on things. It was really hard to understand what was right and why it was right and differentiate between Joe Blow, just showing something cool in his garage and someone who actually is using a tried and true method. What we wanna break down for you is the three parts of releasable rigging setups so that you can kind of start to see the common thread through all of these. It really helped us to understand releasable rigging to see these three essential parts.

Carma: 9:20

The first essential part of any releasable rigging setup is the friction. So if you think of your rappel device and how you have an initial friction setting on your rappel device, this is similar to how a releaseable rig is set up. So you have that first friction setting, and this is what you use to control the belay when you are lowering someone on rappel. The second essential part of any releasable rig is the lock off. The lock off is used to secure the rope, so that doesn't move until you want it to move. This is usually done by adding additional wraps around or through the repelling device and a cleat, or by tying a hitch. So this is similar to like locking off your device when you're on repel. The third essential part of any releasable rigging setup is the safety. This makes sure that the lock off can't come undone by accident. Usually you do this by clipping a carabiner or a canyon quick draw to the device to prevent the rope from popping off from around the device.

Katie: 10:21

Right, and Today we're gonna talk about two kinds of releasable rigging, and the systems we're gonna talk about are releasable blocks and twin releasable systems. There are a whole bunch of options within these two categories, but today we're just gonna focus on a few of our favorites. and We are actually gonna post some videos. You'll be able to get those through the links in the show notes, we'll make those available on youTube, and on our Facebook page, so that you can see in detail what we're gonna talk about in the next few minutes here. But just remember, we're gonna talk briefly about it in this podcast and then you can actually go look at the details for yourself, uh through those. Releasable blocks are my personal favorite and I specifically like to do them on a figure eight descender. much like a carabiner block. Releasable blocks are tied on to some descending device and put on the pole side of the rope so that they will butt up against the quick link and lock out the rope for the rappel side. What I love about this rigging option is that the anchor manager's job is pretty simple. They can be hands free unless the rope length needs to be adjusted. And also the last person down doesn't have to change anything if they don't want to. They can toss the pull side down and repel on the same setup that everyone else did. it examples of releasable blocks are highly popular. Figure eight blocks the totem block. The hoodoo block, and I'm sure there's even more than that.

Carma: 11:44

within that more specific category of figure eight blocks. If you look online, there are so many variations in how to set them up. That's why it made it hard for us when we were trying to learn it at first, because we couldn't really tell who had a cool way of doing it and who was just doing it

Katie: 12:04

Yeah. Right.

Carma: 12:05

like we really weren't comfortable learning that way. There's not like one set established way to do it. So for figure eight blocks, what we are gonna focus on are the two most popular figure eight block options that have a generally accepted way of rigging them correctly.

Katie: 12:23

for dry Canyons, I like the compact secure Figure eight block. It's tied on a figure eight descender. When I first started rigging with figure eight blocks, I started with kind of a variation that now I think is maybe a little harder to check than I really like. So I moved on to the compact Secure, and what I like about this one is it's really pretty and what I mean by that is it's symmetrical. and easy to inspect because it, has so much, symmetry to it. You can tell if you missed, a piece or a step or anything like that. So This one I feel like is easier to teach two other people and just know that you have it right. The only downside to this one is that it can potentially be a little more sticky, and that's why like it in dry canyons where you usually have all the time in the world rather than in aquatic canyons where time might be of the essence. the compact secure basically takes a figure eight descender and you pull a bite of rope through the big hole and over the horn and then flip it around and pull another bite of rope the other direction through the hole and over the horn. And then you add your safety to that. So with this one, you have a lot of twists that end up on the front side and the backside. And the only downside to doing that is that the ones that are on the backside add a lot of friction when you actually wanna release it. So the carabiner is actually super helpful cuz you can use it to wrench it around a little bit, because it does have a slight more propensity to get stuck and it might take some more time to get it to release. Usually with that carabiner you can pull it off the wall and, and get everything set up pretty quick. So It sticks a little more, but usually you have time

Carma: 13:59

yeah. In a dry canyon you have kind of all the time in the world compared to in an aquatic canyon, right?

Katie: 14:05

exactly. And if that is a worry, then I would definitely go with the E M O, and that's that eight mule overhand. So it starts with a, a figure eight block as well, and it's just wrapped differently. So instead of coming back over itself and creating a lot of rope friction on the backside of the device, instead the rope comes through the big circle and over the horn and then wraps a couple of more times before it is muled off. And then the overhand is added. That one is really cool because it releases super smooth, but it does have a large loop of rope that comes off the end of it. it's awesome to be able to safety off, of that but I do worry about that one a little bit more, getting caught in crap on the way down. And so I'm more likely to maybe re rig that one for the last person down or just to need to consider that loop of rope that's hanging out. It's a little less compact, um, but also very releasable. So those are kind of the pros and cons of the two and my two go-tos.

Carma: 15:08

That's awesome. Where you've had a lot of opportunity to use those in aquatic canyons and to know the subtleties and the differences between them

Katie: 15:17

Yeah,

Carma: 15:17

Along with the many figure eight block options, we also have the totem block and the hudu block. The nice thing about those two blocks is that they are simple to learn just because there is one clear, established way to set them up, and that way is published by the manufacturers of the device. So you can look it up and there's just one way

Katie: 15:39

Yeah, and someone can check that one way before you go over the repel, just say, is this right? Oh, I see it.

Carma: 15:45

Yeah, I have used the totem block a little bit. I've experimented with it some. And the downside of the totem block versus a figure eight block is that it is a little bigger of a device to be hauling around all through a canyon and a little bigger of a device to pull over an edge, although it's nicely rounded like a figure eight. So I, I haven't had it get caught or anything. The Hudu device is similar in size to a figure eight descender, but it has arms like a critter that you use to add friction when you're using it to repel with. And so the nice thing is that it could do double duty in your kit as your backup repel device if you drop your other one. But because it has those arms that stick out, we do worry that it could be more likely to get caught on a lip or in a tree or whatever. We haven't actually tried it, so if you love the HOO device, let us know. Or if the totem block is your go-to, let us know because we will be experimenting with them more in the future to get more familiar with them.

Katie: 16:45

In fact, I'm asking for a hudu for my birthday this month.

Carma: 16:48

woohoo.

Katie: 16:49

because it's lock off just looks so simple and clean, like it's, it's this really simple cleat and that's not gonna slip off of anything. That's one of the big, problems that people worry about. The eight, like, oh, is it gonna slip off? Or, how, how much do you have to like, work at that safety? How complete does that safety need to be? Really comes up in a lot of people's opinions and the hudu might solve that problem. So I'm gonna go test that out and bring back some

Carma: 17:15

Sweet

Katie: 17:16

awesome. That finishes out releasable blocks. And when you're thinking about a releasable block, it's like a carabineer block, you're gonna repel on one side and the other side's for polling, and it's really cool because you can. Move through a cannon pretty quickly that way, and you don't have to change it over for the last person down.

Carma: 17:34

Remember that if you're using any kind of block, whether it's a static carabiner block or a releasable block, you can also add an additional measure of safety by taking the pull side of the rope and tying a figure eight knot on a bite and clipping that back to the anchor. And that just isolates the pull side so that no one can, you know, repel off the wrong side of the block. And then the last person going down on repel just has to remember to take that off because otherwise you won't be able to pull your rope down. If you're totally hooked on canyoneering like us, remember to subscribe, so you don't miss any episodes and you can also reach out to us on Facebook. with questions, comments, topics you wanna talk about, or just to say, Hey, cuz We would love to hear from you. Thanks for dropping in with us and we'll catch you on the wrap side.