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Toggle Splice

Description

The toggle splice is used to splice two ropes together when you need to be able to unconnect them from a distance.

To rig a toggle splice:

1. Lay the two rappel ropes end-end-to-end with about 3 feet of overlap.
2. Grab the two ropes in the middle of the overlap and tie a stone knot.
3. Insert the toggle into the stone knot.
4. Rappel down the rope.
5. The second-to-last person down deploys the pull cord for the toggle.
6. From the bottom, pull the toggle pull cord to release the toggle (the toggle should fall all the way to you).
7. Pull down on the rappel rope to release the stone knot (the rope should fall all the way to you).

The toggle requires a bit of practice to work correctly. Here are a few pieces of advice to consider:

• Make sure that you don't dislodge the toggle prematurely by pushing it against a cliff wall.
• Make sure the toggle and rope won't get stuck during the pull.
• Don't get hit by the falling toggle or rope.
• Carry extra rope in case you get "FiddleStuck". 
• Examine your toggle for cracks after every use.

Advantages

I have used the toggle splice in the following two scenarios, but it may be useful in other scenarios too.

Scenario 1: Simul rappel from a natural bridge. The toggle splice is used to connect two rappel ropes together. The toggle splice starts between the two rappellers and rests on the ground at the top of the arch. When the rappellers reach the ground, they can release the toggle, which lets both ropes fall to the ground. This minimizes rope grooves in the arch because you don't have to pull the rope up and over the arch from the ground.

Scenario 2: To avoid ascending and rerigging when discovering at the bottom of a drop that you need to do a two-stage rappel. We rigged a biner block for a rappel and everyone rappelled down. Then when we were all at the bottom of the drop, we realized that there was no anchor for the next drop. We used a toggle splice to make our rappel rope longer so we could rappel the second drop. Then we released the toggle so we could pull the rope with no knots through the rapide.

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