Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Why does abseiling become easier gradually?

+1
−0

When I am abseiling, the rope is initially hard to feed through my braking device - if I take my hands away from the rope, I get stuck in mid-air.

However, as I am getting lower, it gradually gets easier, until at some point the rope starts running by itself. Now, if I took my hands away from the rope (thought experiment - imagine I have no backup braking device), I would accelerate down and hit the ground very hard.

Why is this so? The rope is vertical, and I don't touch any wall, and yet it somehow matters whether I am situated high or low on the rope.

I am abseiling on a static rope, the height is 60 meters. Just to make it clear - the wall is absolutely vertical, and then somewhat overhanging, so the wall doesn't hinder my progress in any way.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/10992. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

1 answer

+0
−0

The simple answer is the weight of your rope.

When you're at the top of a pitch, you will have the full weight of 60m of static line below you, braking on your device. As you move down the rope, there is less and less rope below you, ergo less weight and friction on the braking end of your device.

To avoid this, as well as any possible rope entanglements from throwing your rope over the side of a cliff, you can rappel with your rope flaked out nicely in a sling clipped to the side of your harness, and let it out as you descend, this eliminates the extra weight on the device:

Learn This: Alpine Rope Management
enter image description here

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/10994. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »