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fivepointfourwarrior
Mar 22, 2007, 8:41 PM
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Registered: Nov 16, 2005
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This past weekend I had the nerve racking experience of rapping off of a 10cm stubbie ice screw in sunbaked ice. it took me about 15 minutes to compose myself to actually start my rap. All that i could do was give the beaner a kiss and say a prayer and i was off. Lucky it held like a champ! I'm a true believer in BD gear!
Lets hear you scary rap stories.
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iceisnice
Mar 22, 2007, 9:47 PM
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Registered: Jun 2, 2004
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is that the ONLY thing you had to rap off of? i would say it sounds like more stupid than scary. those are the kinds of mistakes that make climbers look like idiots. hopefully i'm not reading too much into it and you had a back-up, or you had a longer screw to do a v-thread with, or something.
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weekendclimber
Mar 22, 2007, 10:48 PM
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Registered: Jul 11, 2002
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I rapped off a single V-thread for the first time after my buddy took a 30-foot whipper on Weeping Wall Left. It was the only thing I could get that I trusted. I bounced on it a few times before pulling my two backup screws and promptly shat my pants to help lighten the load even further.
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dingus
Mar 22, 2007, 11:07 PM
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Registered: Dec 16, 2002
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Once climbed Coonyard to Oasis on Glacier Point with Angus and rapped back down. Long time ago. Anyway, the 2nd to last rap we (meaning I) got off route and ended up below and way way off to the side of the I guess normal last rap station.
This being Glacier Point in the late 80s most of the widely spaced bolts were 1/4 inch split shaft rawls. We'd climbed some 10 pitches of smooth slab that day, 3-4 bolts per pitch the norm for those routes with the occasional piece here and there.
So we were somewhat innured to the horrors of bad pro and we were somewhat jilted at the angle of the dangle so to speak. After a while that slab can start looking like a sidewalk.
So anyway I missed the correct anchor by a mile and ended up with 3 feet of rope left, standing on a very sloped 'ledge' (it was just a ripple but due to the slabby naure of GP it meant you could stand on it wearing sticky rubber). There was a single bolt there, a 1/4 inch spinner with a rusty hanger.
FUCK! I was still 150 feet off the ground. Now there were other climbers about on adjecent routes and I could have called for help. But I didn't.
Angus rapped about half way down before I told him the deal. He stopped and we considered the predicament. He tried to swing over to the other anchor but it was no good. Apparently we'd gotten off the descent route on the previous rap too. He shrugged and said,
"Guess we gotta use that one Dingus." I shrugged too but I distinctly remeber thinking ,'well yeah but you haven't seen this bolt yet dude.'
So he joins me, we both 'anchor' into our sole spinner and pull the ropes. By god we're committed now!
Oh, there were two slings and a single rap ring; the reason I was drawn to it. Some other fools had done what we were about to do. There are a lot of Damn Fool Rappel Stations in Yosemite like that, spread around the valley in famously notorious places like North Dome Gully or the East Ledges.
We pondered our fate and paper, rock sissored a few times to no avail. Angus went first because it was his turn, he was much lighter than me and well, I can be yellow as a democratic dog sometimes.
But staying behind didn't offer much solace, if the only bolt pulled I'd either go with it or be left standing ropeless in a sea of crackless and holdless granite.
As Angus rapped off that scary motherfucker I stood there eyes wide open. I anchored in daisy style with a sling girthed to my harness and a biner on the other hand.
That biner was connected through the eye of the bolt. I held the biner gate OPEN and the nose aligned so that if the bolt actually pulled it would be stripped off the biner! Sorta like holding the trigger pulled on a revolver but also thumbing the hammer so it won't drop... a blink and BAM! Anchor goes, Angus craters and I'm left standing there with a biner in my hand.
We were a lot younger then. We just laughed and told each other we'd chat on the other side. Down he went... all the way down, no prob.
Damn but that was a scary rap! The frigging bolt actually moved in the hole. But it held and we both got down.
I took a lot more care during raps after that near miss. That was bloody stupid of us!
DMT
(This post was edited by dingus on Mar 22, 2007, 11:14 PM)
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skinner
Mar 22, 2007, 11:08 PM
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Registered: Nov 1, 2004
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My first question is: why?
Why would you rap off of a single screw?
I am assuming you felt that was your only way down, so my next question is: why would you leave all that gear behind?
Have you never heard of an Abalokov?
Don't feel bad though, because obviously you are not alone as we gather up screws and biners off of almost every ice climb that we do. I even found 3 brand new locking biners hanging off of a single rotten sling that had to have been there for two seasons at least. I guess they felt that by piling biners on there it would compensate for the condition of the sling. I have more gear then I started with this year and I haven't bought a single piece.
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majid_sabet
Mar 22, 2007, 11:52 PM
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Registered: Dec 13, 2002
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Me and partner just finished the last pitch of a 5.10 climb on some peak but then weather turned in to an ugly gorilla. At 13500 feet , frozen rain started to fall down on us .
We started to rap down to get out of the situation and had 4 full 60 meter to rap. The last 20 meter was loose class 4 and we were going to walk it down. Partner started to rap down and I followed till he reached the so called last rap.
Near sunset in full rain, he missed the last bolt and ended up on some small ledge and he could not locate the rap ring. He asked if I could rap down slowly and scan for any thing that we could attached the rope to but no good. Half way in to rap I saw a piece of rock cone sticking out with a small crack above it. Just wide enough of to stick #1 metoulis cam in there.
I said I found some thing but is scary and he said fuc8 it, just use it because there is nothing between the cone and the ledge. I placed the cam in the hole and attacked myself to it via short sling and then sit on the cone and pull the twin 60 meter from the above chain.
So now, I am sitting on the cone with one half as* cam and partner is 30 feet below me on a half as* ledge and still 250 feet of rap to go.
Fuc*ing cold rain in Nov and both us were sitting like a dumb as*s on the rock. I put the mid point of the rope over the cone and ran a biner from the rope in to # 1 cam for back up. Then asked partner to slowly rap down without pushing against the rock because the cone was slippery and the whole thing was scary.
Partner made it down to last section which was class 4. Then it was my time to rap. I attached the belay device (ATC) and told partner to put the tension on the rope so it does not slip then once I had my weight on the cone, I removed the cam and sling ( Did not want to leave my shi* in the wall). I slowly rap down till I got near him .By then; the mid point on the rope was only 1-2 inches away from the tip of cone.
We made it back to camp safe but what experience that was.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
(This post was edited by majid_sabet on Mar 22, 2007, 11:54 PM)
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rock_fencer
Mar 23, 2007, 12:10 AM
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Registered: Jan 7, 2005
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just to point out that if you shat your pants it wouldnt lighten the overall load on the anchor seeing as your shit was still in your pants as opposed to your bowels.
Cheers
T
sorry im an ass right now
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tradmanclimbs
Apr 6, 2007, 12:12 PM
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Registered: Apr 24, 2003
Posts: 2599
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Enen a shallow thread is stronger than a suspect stubby screw. Best thing to do is to make several threads and equalize them the best that you can. If its is still sketch then down climb with a bit of tension on your rap ropes but not fully weighted. You can get seriously FCKIN KILLED ice climbing so get your $hit together of stick to rock.........
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reg
Apr 6, 2007, 12:34 PM
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Registered: Nov 10, 2004
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skinner wrote: majid_sabet wrote: [IMG]http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/6088/conewi4.png[/IMG] I was so mesmerized by the drawing I didn't even have to read the story, it's all there plain as day: Some really big guy with one leg and a crutch, came along holding a giant stick-clip which he passes up to you guys and saved the day.
no - not "giant stick clip" it was a 20' long dead pine!
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scrapedape
Apr 6, 2007, 4:24 PM
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Registered: Jun 24, 2004
Posts: 2392
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dingus,
Well told. Palms are sweating just reading it.
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...oh I crack myself up. 
