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Rappel/Lower to Avoid Passing a Knot

Description

Passing a knot on rappel can be time consuming and add unnecessary complexity, so if you have to tie two ropes together to reach the bottom of a drop, you can rig a rappel/lower so that only the last person down has to rappel past the knot. Here are the basic steps:

1. Tie a backup safety knot in the end of each rope.
2. Tie the two ropes together with the knot below the rappel anchor. 
3. The rappeller connects their rappel device right below the knot and locks off their device.
4. The person at the top of the drop lowers the rappeller. This can be accomblished a couple ways:
   1. Rig a rappel device connected to the anchor or use a Munter Hitch (less preferred) on the anchor. The person at the top only has to use their hands to control the lowering speed.
   2. Run the rappel rope through the anchor then connect it to a rappel device that is on the top person's harness. The top person is now essentially acting as a meat anchor. 
5. Once the person is lowered as far as they need to go, the person up top locks off the upper device.
6. The rappeller unlocks their device and rappels to the bottom of the drop.
7. To reset for the next person, pull the rope back up until the knot is at the top again.

Warning! Do not do steps 4 and 6 in reverse order. In other words, don't rappel first and lower second. If you're lowering someone and the knot is dragging across the rock, this will almost immediately ruin your rope. You want the knot to be close to the person's harness and away from the rock during the lowering part.

Advantages

A rappel/lower setup can speed groups up and avoid the dangerous situation of someone passing a knot incorrectly and falling to their death. The rappel/lower setup is generally preferred over everyone passing the knot.

Disadvantages

Obviously, you want to avoid passing knots or lowering whenever possible. The ideal situation is to have a single long rope that reaches all the way from the top to the bottom and everyone rappels normally. Then you don't have to pass knots or lower anyone. However, learning how to rappel/lower and how to pass a knot are essential skills for emergency or extreme situations.

Lowering someone can be very damaging to sandstone and can make large rope grooves quickly because there is a lot of weight on the rope as the rope is sliding over the rock.

Lowering someone can also be difficult if the person being lowered is out of eyesight and earshot. If they get hung up and the person up top keeps feeding rope out, this can lead to a dangerous situation for the person being lowered.

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