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Edge Negotiation

Description

One of the hardest parts while rappelling is often the top edge or lip, especially if the lip is underhung or the anchor is low to the ground. Here are a couple of techniques that people use when getting over the edge.

Soft Start 

  1. Sit on the rock with your left hip against the wall and your right hand up in the air (or reversed for left-handed rappellers).
  2. Slide and scootch over the edge.
  3. Keep your left hand free of the rope when you drop over the edge so you don't pinch it.

This method is hard on clothing but usually doesn't pinch fingers or cause people to flip upside-down. It also doesn't put a large force on the rappel anchor, which is especially useful when using marginal anchors like deadman anchors, sandtraps, or similar. 

Static Edge Negotiation

  1. Walk backwards until you reach the edge.
  2. Plant your feet at least a shoulder width apart and lean backwards.
  3. Keep your knees straight and keep lowering yourself backwards until your rappel device is far enough down the rope that when you swing under the lip, your rappel device doesn't smash into the rock. This often means that you lean so far backwards that you nearly or completely flip upside-down (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
  4. Once you're down far enough, take a step or release your feet and swing under the lip.

This method is great because it's slow and controlled and doesn't take a huge amount of coordination.

However, if you don't lean far enough back and you step down from the lip too soon, you can swing into the rock and pinch your left hand between the device and the rock or you can smash your face into the rock.

If you lean too far backward, you can flip upside-down, which scares people but doesn't do any damage unless you happen to pinch your foot under the rappel rope, which I've seen happen multiple times. It can be kind of hard to release your trapped foot.

Dynamic Edge Negotiation 

  1. Walk backwards until you reach the edge. 
  2. Lean backward to about a 45-degree angle. 
  3. Jump away from the wall and lower yourself several feet very quickly at the same time.
  4. Swing safely under the lip.

This method is very fast and smooth but requires some coordination and a good feel for your rappel device and how much rope to let out how quickly.

 

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Stopping on Rappel