I'd Rather Be Canyoneering
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I'd Rather Be Canyoneering
How to avoid getting your rope stuck
There are an endless number of ways to get a rope stuck in a canyon. We talk about how to mitigate several common causes of a stuck rope and share techniques for getting a clean pull. We hiked around to retrieve our stuck ropes, but we're hoping that you won't have to!
Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Katie
Carma:and I'm Carma and you're listening to, I'd rather be canyoneering.
Katie: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: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:Welcome to our canyon crew! one of the biggest fears we have as Canyon Ears is getting our ropes stuck at the repel and being trapped in the canyon. Trying to fix a stuck rope has been the cause of multiple fatalities for beginning and advanced canine years alike. Instead of trying to ascend a stuck rope, We suggest carrying extra rope. But the best option of all is not getting the rope stuck in the first.
Carma:Right? So that's why in this episode we're gonna share some tips for getting a clean pull. And these all come from our experience, or from examples shared by our friends in the community. Most of us, after getting a rope stuck. Really badly had to descend the canyon on our spare rope and then hike back to the top to find out what exactly went wrong and how to avoid it Next time. We hiked around, so we're hoping that you won't have to if you use these tips and tricks. So, uh, Katie, give us the goods.
Katie:One of the main causes of a stuck rope is the twists that accumulate in the rope as you repel. These are particularly bad if you're repelling on some sort of a classic eight device. All of those twists are basically gonna get stored in the rope. And when you finally try to pull the rope through the anchor, the wrap ring will start to push all of those twists down the rope. But if too many twists start to accumulate at the ring, it'll create a barrel type knot that will block the rope from being pulled down at all.
Carma:Bummer.
Katie:Major bummer. If you're lucky, you might be able to reach the other side of the rope and kind of saw it back and forth to untwist it, but once that rope is outta reach, you're outta luck. So Some of the things you can do to mitigate the twists in the rope or choosing your device specifically. I really like it when the last person goes down on some sort of a stitch plate. device. Something that looks like your classic attc. It has two distinct holes for each of the ropes, and it keeps'em separated the whole way down and helps to push those twists out of the rope even if other people had some sort of a figure eight type device These twists that accumulate in the rope are usually happening not just because of the Circle eight descender that you're using, but also because the rope. At the bottom of the repel is sitting on the ground. When it's sitting on the ground. It's not free to move and let those twists out as each person comes off rope. If you have set the length of the rope, that will also be super advantageous and helpful in letting those twists untwist. Each time somebody gets off rope and the rope goes slack again. Another thing you can do is have somebody at the bottom stand there as the rope goes up and just put their hand on the rope side that's going up, up and away. That way you have their hand pushing those twists out the bottom of the rope instead of them all accumulating up top.
Carma:Yeah, that's super simple.
Katie:Just remember whoever's standing there doing that needs to stand far enough back so that they're not getting hit by rocks or any other debris that's coming down from the top.
Carma:Another super common cause of sticking the rope is when you have one strand laying on top of the other strand when you go to pull. So one strand can be trapping the other side against the rock, usually at the friction point of the rappel where the rope lays across an edge or across, some sloping rock. But it's especially tricky when it happens like in a crack or a deep rope groove. One rope is pinning the other one down, there's just too much friction to be able to pull the ropes through. When you're in that situation something you can do really quickly is trying flicking one of the strands. See if you can get it to like, jump off the other one. Try to separate them. You might have to untwist them if they've kind of gotten twisted together. Do what you can to try to sort them out before you start yanking on that rope.
Katie:You can even have two different people walking different ways each with one end of the rope flipping and pulling and seeing if you can get it to move.
Carma:Another super common culprit for snagging your rope is when your rope gets tangled around a bush or looped around a rock. If possible. Try not to have your rope pulling in the direction where it's gonna fall on potential bushes or protruding rocks that the rope could loop around as it's falling.
Katie:Yeah, if I'm afraid the rope's gonna get snagged in a whole bunch of bushes. I'll also try to watch the rope and then pull really fast when it gets to that bushy part so that it's nice and smooth and has less of a chance of getting tangled in all that. Yuck.
Carma:Yeah, kind of try to get it to whip away from whatever the obstacle is.
Katie:Another really notorious way of sticking your rope is to have a piece of gear, like a carabineer block, a figure eight block, or an end cap. Get caught in a pinch. Most people can imagine a piece of gear getting caught. So let's focus on that end cap. now. If you can picture the end of your canon earing rope. a lot of them have been dipped in a little bit of silicone on the end to keep the ends from fraying, and that adds dimension to the rope. So if you come to a little VS slot or something in the canyon, that little piece can get lodged in there and jam up your rope. If you're a climber, you can picture it working just like a climbing nut, getting slotted in the rock. It gets stuck in there, pulled down and set, and it does not wanna move after that. Karma and I actually had this happen to us, it was in Portal Canyon. The repel was fairly straightforward. It was small and probably like 10 feet. We were able to just kind of scramble up and grab it. It wasn't really a big deal, but if that had happened much higher, we would've been in a lot more trouble because it was not budging for the life of us. So a tip to help out with that. Cut that end cap off and secure your rope in other ways put glue on the inside and you can find that on, canyoneering forums to make sure that has a smooth slip over instead of catching on any, parts that are sticking out.
Carma:Yeah. Honestly, if we hadn't been able to reach it so easily, we would've had to leave that rope behind
Katie:Yeah, or cut 20 feet off the end and go with the rest. So to recap, four common ways of getting your rope snagged include twists, accumulating at the top one strand, trapping the other strand against the rock. The rope tangling around something or gear or end caps getting caught. The longer you can in ear, the more ways you'll find a stick a rope, but those are the common pitfalls you can try to avoid from the start.
Carma:Now with those problems in mind, we want to share with you five techniques that we use as often as we can to get a clean poll.
Katie:First things first, one of the most important things you can do is have a good angle of pull. When you are at the bottom of a repel and getting ready to pull, you'll often be tempted to pull from right where you can reach the rope. We would suggest stepping back a little bit if you step back. 20, 30 feet to a place where you can see the rappel ring above you. Then when you go to pull your rope, you're gonna have far less edge friction on that pole, that you're gonna have to overcome that really is probably the best tip I can give for a clean poll.
Carma:Yeah, the farther down canyon you can go, usually the better.
Katie:A simple technique that took entirely too long to occur to us is to have someone do a test poll before the last person comes down. You can have the second to last person take the pole rope down and set everything up how it'll be in the end. Then someone at the bottom can pull a few feet of rope through the anchor just to make sure it moves. If it doesn't move smoothly, then you can play with having someone hold the pole rope off to one side or move to a different location to pull and test it again. You might not test every repel, but when the pole looks a little tricky, it can really help you catch some problems and make changes before the final.
Carma:Another way to help make sure that you get a clean poll is to have. Your last person going down be your most experienced person. And there are a lot of reasons you should do that. But in regards to pulling your rope, the reason why you want this person to be your most experienced person is cuz they're probably the most comfortable on repel, which means that they can pay attention to where they're setting the rope as they go over the friction point A newer person going down. Can barely control their own descent they can't be paying attention to where one rope or two ropes are gonna be laid down on a friction point. So the last person can try to make sure that the ropes stay separated and that they're not laying on top of each other and they can just pick their spots better for laying the rope down.
Katie:Now for those of you who are maybe more on the advanced side, courtesy rating can be really helpful. Kind of quickly, we'll talk about courtesy rigging in another episode, but courtesy rigging is when you have a hairy repel that has a lot of edge friction, maybe if the tree was way like 10 feet back from the edge that you wanna repel over. and there's not really a good spot. To repel from, then what you might set up is courtesy, rigging, and that allows the anchor point where the rope goes through, where that wrapper is to be pulled up short for everyone but the last person. So a lot of people can start their repel from up near that tree or whatever, walk down. canyon a little bit, go over the edge, and then for the last person, they actually unclip something and extend that webbing so that the rapper is now hanging over the edge and they're gonna have a much harder start. It's gonna be more tricky for them, but if they're your most experienced person, then they'll probably be able to handle that. And then only one person had to do the tricky. and you don't have a whole 10 feet of friction to wear scar marks in the rock or to add friction that might be hard to overcome when you do your pole.
Carma:And like we mentioned before, the rope can get caught in rope grooves. Those types of starts often have deep rope grooves. and so you can avoid all of that. By using courtesy rigging.
Katie:There are some places where it's gotten so bad that they're starting to refer to that as the comb in the rock because so many rope grooves have scarred the rock that it looks like a hair comb. So we'd love to be respectful and responsible in the canyon and not leave a bunch of those grooves. And also it's gonna help us to not stick our rope. A newer trick that I've picked up pretty recently is to orient the block down canyon when it's a single stranded repel. and that is Common practice in Class C or aquatic canyoneering, might sound a little counterintuitive and I'll explain how that looks a little bit more. So If you can picture, you've got maybe two bolt and you're setting up a carabiner block, you would put the carabiner down canyon from the two rings and then you would have to repel off the backside. That kind of feels like the ropes are crossing and it doesn't necessarily feel correct at first. But the reason that that we do that is because when you go to pull that rope, If the carabiner in front, it just pulls straight out. If the carabiner is on the backside, you have to get the rope to make a 90 degree turn before you're actually pulling that carabiner into the free air. And so it's much more likely to get caught as opposed to when it's down canyon. When it's out in front. It makes it a lot easier to pull and a lot less likely to get.
Carma:Yeah, I like that. That makes sense. Cuz then it's a straight shot for that carabiner to get pulled down to you. It's not having to whip around first.
Katie:So what do you do when you do stick your rope? I mean, this has happened. I don't know if it's a rite of passage for canyons that someday you will probably stick a rope and have to deal with it. What do you do?
Carma:Well, first off, don't panic Don't just start going crazy, yanking it to crap because you might make it worse. If you didn't remember to go down Canyon before you started pulling go down Canyon. Have two people take each end of the rope and try to separate them and try to figure out what it is that is causing it to be stuck.
Katie:if it's good and stuck, you could use mechanical advantage to help you get the rope unstuck. I've done this in an aquatic canyon in Costa Rica where. We got the ropes stuck. The anchors are not always great. In those canyons where flash floods just tear them apart constantly. And in this one, there was a lot of roots in the way and we knew there was a chance it was gonna get stuck and it did. But there was a tree down at the bottom of the rappel, and so we. Made an anchor out of that tree, and we used mechanical advantage to pull that rope free. When you do this, there is the chance that you're gonna pull it over a sharp edge and get a core shot, so know that that's, that's in there. But we had a pretty big angle on it, so we weren't rubbing against very much at all, and we were able to go ahead and pull that free.
Carma:So what if even with mechanical advantage, you can't get your rope back.
Katie:The next idea that might jump in your head is to climb that stuck rope and try to free the rope. But this al actually been the cause of fatalities from really experienced canyon beginners and even guides who have climbed their rope. And it has broken loose as they're climbing up it, it just opens you up to a lot of problems, so be really cautious when you're considering something like that.
Carma:Yeah, I would say if you're not a hundred percent sure what is going on up at the anchor, and if you don't still have both ends of that rope in your hand, uh,
Katie:it.
Carma:Just leave it there. You can. Come back for it later, or the next people down the canyon may pick it up for you. So I've often seen Facebook posts on canyoneering groups saying, I stuck X, Y, Z rope in X, Y, z canyon. If you find it, please return it to me.
Katie:and you may be thinking, well, if I leave my rope, how do I continue down the canyon? pull out your extra rope We usually go into canyons with at least three times the length of our longest repel. that can be in all ropes or a combination of ropes and pole cords. It just depends on how forgiving the canyon's gonna be. It may seem like a lot of rope, but consider that it takes two times the length of your repel just to have enough rope to do the repel and then pull it down after. So bringing three times the length of the longest repel is just a little bit of added insurance.
Carma:Yeah. When you're planning your canyoneering trip, you want to be thinking about what you would do if you stuck your rope on the longest repel. So if the repel is known for sticking ropes, you might want to be sure that you use a pull cord so that you're not risking two repel ropes. If it got stuck early on in the pole.
Katie:Exactly. So when you're deciding how many ropes to bring, think about how many repels there are in the canyon. the more repels Means more chances for rope to get stuck. So we like to bring a little more rope in canyons that have a lot of repels Bringing that extra rope just allows you an option to leave the rope behind if you get one stuck. Instead of taking the dangerous risks of trying to climb up and.
Carma:If you can't proceed down the canyon, then don't! Leave the rope there and stay where you are, which means you're gonna have to wait.
Katie:And waiting's not the worst thing in the world. In fact, after we started canyoneering more, we realized that had we stuck to some of the trade routes in our beginning years of canyoneering, there are a whole lot of other people with permits in Zion who are gonna follow you down at Canyon. You will not be spending that much time by yourself if you're on trade routes. So waiting can really be a good option in those areas. Maybe a little less so if you're out in the roost or far away. That's why we've invented satellite communicators.
Carma:right? So hopefully you have your inReach or whatever other satellite communicator you use, and hopefully you've also brought enough food and emergency gear that you can spend the night in the canyon while you wait for help, from either subsequent canyon years or from search and rescue. To avoid all of that trouble, do everything you can not to stick your rope. Try to get the twists out of the rope. Make sure one strand isn't trapping the other. Remember that carabiners or other gear can get snagged. Where possible avoid dragging your rope down through bushes and cracks Also, rep refinish your end caps If they're thick
Katie:some good techniques for getting a clean poll include getting a good angle by stepping down Canyon, doing a test poll before the last person comes down. Saving the most experienced person for last to set the ropes cleanly using courtesy rigging when the anchor is far back from the edge and orienting the block down canyon.
Carma:And if your rope does get stuck, it happens to the best of us. Don't panic and use your extra. 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.
