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jordandh83
Aug 17, 2009, 12:03 PM
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Hi,
Though you guys might appreciate friends "beginner abseiling stuff up". I guess this is why when your learning its low height only, the only way he was able to unjam himself was by getting his full weight off the rope, so in the middle of a long abseil, very dangerous mistake.
Enjoy,
Jordan
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binrat
Aug 17, 2009, 12:50 PM
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I had a friend do that once. She started to flip out as soon as it happened to and asked for only her boyfriend to help her. It was soon known that she was braless at the time and most of the front of the shirt was stuck.
She never lived that one down for a few years.
binrat
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LostinMaine
Aug 17, 2009, 1:36 PM
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My wife was looking over my shoulder when I opened up that picture. She said "better shirt than hair." I would probably have to agree.
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gbmaz
Aug 17, 2009, 2:01 PM
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I had a friend get his t-shirt and chest hair stuck in a figure -8 while rapping. Not fun! Luckily it was a low angle rap and he was able to free himself.
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binrat
Aug 17, 2009, 2:30 PM
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gbmaz wrote: I had a friend get his t-shirt and chest hair stuck in a figure -8 while rapping. Not fun! Luckily it was a low angle rap and he was able to free himself.
ouch.....
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rgold
Aug 17, 2009, 3:16 PM
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This "mistake" has been made by many people, not all of them beginners, but very few climbers ever make this mistake twice. Make sure all clothing is securely tucked in and that there is no hair flying around near the device---now that many rappellers are extending their devices, the potential for getting hair caught is considerably greater.
What separates beginners from experienced climbers is how you extract yourself from this potentially very serious predicament, since the device has to be completely unweighted in order to get hair or clothing out of it.
Not knowing device-unweighting techniques, least one climber has fallen to their death by trying to cut the stuck clothing and accidentally slicing their harness. But even if you don't suffer this tragedy, you are stuck part way down a rappel with no ability to move any further down once this happens, and if you don' t know what to do, rescuing you will probably be a major production.
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Edvin
Aug 17, 2009, 3:54 PM
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So I guess an prusic above the abseiling device has some advantage after all then
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rgold
Aug 17, 2009, 4:32 PM
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I think you need to know how to use prussiks (or one of the other appropriate knots) and have some available slings, but having a rappel back-up in place is by no means a requirement for getting out of this mess.
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darkgift06
Aug 17, 2009, 4:50 PM
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its happened to me once.. I was belaying with a hoodie on & the climber asked for a take so I reach up to pull down on the rope my chest/shirt went closer to the rope & bam I was locked up. no issues getting unstuck but I think about how my cloths hang now.
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markc
Aug 17, 2009, 4:56 PM
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LostinMaine wrote: My wife was looking over my shoulder when I opened up that picture. She said "better shirt than hair." I would probably have to agree.
Having been stuck by my hair, I'd emphatically agree.
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kriso9tails
Aug 17, 2009, 5:16 PM
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Climbing knife. Problem solved.
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bill413
Aug 17, 2009, 5:25 PM
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Edvin wrote: So I guess an prusic above the abseiling device has some advantage after all then
Although, if you extend your device, this becomes a bit unwieldy.
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kriso9tails
Aug 17, 2009, 6:17 PM
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N00b question. this is the sort of thing that should be taught during your first belay lesson. You make a lasso out of the lower half, snag a conveniently protruding rock and then swing to safety.
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LostinMaine
Aug 17, 2009, 6:47 PM
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gmggg wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. But what do you do once you've cut the rope!? 
Ge stuck again in 30 seconds while passing a knot?
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rgold
Aug 17, 2009, 6:51 PM
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kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved.
Yeah, maybe all your problems solved, considering that, as I said, at least one person has died this way.
stefanohatari wrote: 'Extending the rappel' can help prevent this kind of accident.
And create another one instead involving hair (facial or cranial), unless the extension is above head level (which may have its own drawbacks).
Learn to unweight the device rather than deploying a sharp knife near critical connections, and don't think any rigging method eliminates the need to be vigilant.
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kriso9tails
Aug 17, 2009, 7:49 PM
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rgold wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. Yeah, maybe all your problems solved, considering that, as I said, at least one person has died this way.
No. While it's not abundantly clear, that was a direct response to the post above regarding getting your hair caught in a rap device. Not many people have died from cutting their hair off.
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positivelyerik
Aug 17, 2009, 7:52 PM
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kriso9tails wrote: rgold wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. Yeah, maybe all your problems solved, considering that, as I said, at least one person has died this way. No. While it's not abundantly clear, that was a direct response to the post above regarding getting your hair caught in a rap device. Not many people have died from cutting their hair off.
Wait...are you trying to say that when you are Rapelling you don't use your hair as a back up line?
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markc
Aug 17, 2009, 8:42 PM
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kriso9tails wrote: rgold wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. Yeah, maybe all your problems solved, considering that, as I said, at least one person has died this way. No. While it's not abundantly clear, that was a direct response to the post above regarding getting your hair caught in a rap device. Not many people have died from cutting their hair off.
I'll provide some context, which will demonstrate that wasn't our best option given the circumstances (reposted from another thread):
When I was in my late teens/early 20s (in other words, firmly in the dumb-ass phase), my friends took me urban rappelling. They threw a harness, figure-8, and a pair of gloves on me, and sent my ass off a bridge. They almost made me the first guy down, then one of them offered to go first and provide a fireman's belay. My introduction/lesson (about 30 seconds) took a lot less time than talking me over the rail and off into the void. It was scary as all hell hanging free like that, beneath a bridge in full darkness, but I made it down okay.
Next we climbed and rappelled a nearby smoke stack. I was just getting comfortable, pushing off a bit and looking down. My long hair fed into my figure-8, and before I knew it I was somewhere around 15-20' up, totally stuck. The guy on top couldn't figure out what was taking so long, and kept tugging to see if the rope was slack yet. Thankfully, friends scurried up iron girders supporting the stack and supported me while someone told the guy on top to drop the rope. Had that shit happened on the free-hanging rappel, I doubt if my friends would have known what to do. I sure as hell didn't.
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bill413
Aug 17, 2009, 9:38 PM
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kriso9tails wrote: rgold wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. Yeah, maybe all your problems solved, considering that, as I said, at least one person has died this way. No. While it's not abundantly clear, that was a direct response to the post above regarding getting your hair caught in a rap device. Not many people have died from cutting their hair off.
Hmmm. So, in the situation in which one's hair is caught in the rappel device, which is presumptively going to limit mobility of the head, and hence visibility of the hair; the advice is to slice away at the hair without necessarily being able to clearly see where the critical line starts & the hair ends. Oh, and most probably with tears in ones eyes.
I really think a knife, while a solution, is not the first one that should be employed.
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kriso9tails
Aug 17, 2009, 9:42 PM
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bill413 wrote: Hmmm. So, in the situation in which one's hair is caught in the rappel device, which is presumptively going to limit mobility of the head, and hence visibility of the hair; the advice is to slice away at the hair without necessarily being able to clearly see where the critical line starts & the hair ends. Oh, and most probably with tears in ones eyes. I really think a knife, while a solution, is not the first one that should be employed.
Are you like one of those people on infomercials that can't work scissors? While I was joking about cutting off his hair, it's not that tricky.
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acorneau
Aug 17, 2009, 9:58 PM
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From just north of Houston...
In reply to: CONROE, Texas, Nov. 19 A stand-in Santa Claus in Conroe, Texas, found himself in a dangerous situation after his beard became tangled in climbing gear 30 feet off the ground. Rock climber James Bosson was to play Santa and rappel from the top of the 80-foot-tall Outlets at Conroe sign, but he had not practiced with his beard and 50-feet down it became snagged in a latch, the Conroe Courier reported Monday. A knife tossed up by someone on the ground allowed Bosson to cut away his Santa beard but he still was unable to climb down and had to be rescued by the Conroe Fire Department. Jessica Critton, marketing and special events manager for the Outlets of Conroe, told the Courier said it was the first time they invited Santa to rappel from the top of their sign and light the 50-foot-tall live tree, which was adorned with more than 3,000 lights. Battalion Chief Michael Gosselin joked to the newspaper that firefighters would get something extra in their stockings this year, since they rescued Santa Claus.
http://www.earthtimes.org/...les/show/144733.html
I found this story while looking for the one above:
http://www.earthtimes.org/...les/show/144733.html
Ho, ho, ho!
(This post was edited by acorneau on Aug 17, 2009, 10:00 PM)
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zchandran
Aug 17, 2009, 10:01 PM
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gmggg wrote: kriso9tails wrote: Climbing knife. Problem solved. But what do you do once you've cut the rope!?
Trick question, I see. You don't use the knife to cut the rope, you use it to cut the harness off you entirely. Then you wrap the rope around you and go down using a "body belay" (I saw a picture of this in a book once and I'm pretty sure I could figure it out on the fly if I had to)
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patto
Aug 17, 2009, 10:20 PM
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In my earlier days of climbing (though I did know better) I got my HAND caught in my ATC. The skin between the forefinger and my thumb got caught in the ATC stopping my rappel!!!
Now you'd think that this would be extremely painful but actually it wasn't. I don't think there are many nerves there. Either way it still made me stuck on rappel. I escaped my predicament by doing a partial one armed pull on the rope and unweighted the device enough to yank my skin out. Was quite embarrassed about my noob mistake.
Another time a girl with long block hair got a massive chunk caught in the belay device. Took her about 5minutes of breaking each strand to free her while we held her safely on a firemans belay.
Fun times. 
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