Hanging by a Thread - Part 1

Sometimes I find myself in a rush to get out a story to the front porch. It may not seem like much, but in order to provide quality reading for you... I put some thought into what I want to write, plan the adventure and then actually perform it. THEN I get to write. Its typically more than just a casual process. Anyhow.. this time, although I got most of the facts correct... I did not do Steve Benett's caving resume justice. Steve has had some amazing adventures that make my easy breezy stuff seem like a walk in the park. Take a look at this list of caving / rappelling: ************************************************************************************* Caves: Name Location ----- ----------- Bone/Norman Renick, WV Breathing cave Bath co, VA Crossroads Bath Co VA Flower Pot Cave Dayley, WV Marshalls Bath Co VA Cave Mnt Cave Franklin, WV New River Cave Giles Co. VA Sinette/Thorn Thorn Springs, WV Sites Cave Thorn Springs, WV Buckey Creek Greenbrier Co, WV Mystic cave Seneca, WV Scott Hollow Union, WV Island Ford Covington, VA Rappels: Rappel Location Distance Dates ------ -------- ----- -------- El Capitan Yosemite, CA 2650' Spring, 2004 and Spring 2007 New River Gorge Bridge Fayetteville, WV 850' Oct, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 Maryland Heights Harper's Ferry, WV 200' Summer 2001, 2002, 2007 Whitesides Highlands, NC 650' Sept, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006 Golondrinas Aquismon, Mexico 1300' Jan, 2004 Guaguas Aquismon, Mexico 600' Dec, 2004 Sotano de las Quilas Aquismon, Mexico 300' Dec, 2004 Sotano de las La Linja Aquismon, Mexico 240' Dec, 2004 ******************************************************************************* Hats off to Steve and a special thanks from me for his patient teaching in my back yard. Enjoy, Dave ********************************************************************************* Hanging By a Thread - Part 1 Some adventures take a little preparation… Rock climbing, caving, rappelling, all require knowledge that only boy scouts and those that have a desire to learn get involved with. In this mini-adventure I needed to start the learning process weeks before it actually happened. I met my friend Steve Bennett around town. In passing conversation he mentioned that he was a caver. Spelunker? No. Most cave explorers prefer to be called “cavers”. The term ‘spelunker’ likely was derived from the word Speleology which is the study of caves and their characteristics. Steve has an easy style. Soft spoken, yet very confident, it turns out that he is very experienced with rope work. He rappelled down major caves in Mexico; down El Capitan and is a member of a team that rappels off a bridge in West VA every year for Bridge Day. We would be using a tree in my back yard. A few weeks after assigning me to learn some basic knots, Steve came to the house. Safety first. Before we would ever head out to a rock face, I would need to be able to complete several skills in the back yard. My Skills test today was to get all of the gear on; Ascend to the limb at the top of the rope; switch from “Ascending” to “Repelling”. Putting on the gear was no easy feat. The seat harness was made of webbed material that while on the ground had no recognizable shape to it at all. I likened it to a piece of woman’s lingerie… when its on, you understand exactly what its designed to do… while it’s on the ground, it’s anybody’s guess. The seat harness is made to support your weight, each of the Ascenders, two primaries and one safety, connect directly to that. There is some webbed material that wraps at your shoulders to allow you to attach your upper body to the rope should you get too tired to actually hold on. The other major piece of equipment is the Figure 8. It looks just as its name implies and is used to apply tension to the rope so that you can lower yourself down a rope in a “controlled” manner as opposed to any of the other ways that one can come down a rope. We strung a rope over a branch in one of my trees and then tied off to a neighboring tree and used an overkill amount of effort compared to the 20’ height that we were working with. We used the “frog method” to go up the rope. My feet were in a loop at the end of the upper ascender, as I rested into the chest ascender, I raised the upper ascender with my hand and my feet would rise with it. I’d stand on the loop, the upper ascender would lock into place and the rope would pull through my chest ascender. I moved up the rope quite easily. You might say frog like. Anyhow… here is the trick - doing the “change over” at the top of the rope, after climbing to begin the rappel. This requires standing up on the ascender, adding the Figure 8 into the mix, leaning onto it and then removing all of the ascenders. Think spider on a web (with a helmet on). That initial moment when all of the ascending equipment is removed and I lean back onto the rope brings quite a rush. I had a flash of fear that my hand to be used as a “brake” wouldn’t be in the right position and I would slide wildly down the rope bouncing off of the tree the whole way. Deep breath… release….. and… well nothing. The system allowed me to easily control my descent at any pace I chose. Between the Gear, the system and Steve’s excellent teaching, I was completely safe. A little anti-climactic, I know. But stay tuned, I will be out on the rocks soon.