SOME BASICS IN VERTICAL CAVING

][ TRIP REPORT

Met up near Decatur with some folks from the Dogwood City Grotto (DCG) to learn some basic vertical rope skills for an upcoming weekend caving trip to Alabama. With only horizontal caving experience from my past life, I was eager to pick up the additional skills. Learned how to rappel and rig caving gear for vertical drops that would come in handy for the weekend.

It was at Bill's place of work, where we would be practicing from about a 15 foot drop from a balcony ledge in the loft level above us. Met seasoned cavers Rodney and Katie, who were also there to refine their vertical skills. We were later joined by DCG member Mindy and my fellow DCG newcomer, Gray. Eric and Andy were the bringers of light that evening, carefully instructing us on physical rigging of the gear, suiting up correctly, safety rules. It's called the frog-system because of the physical motion your body goes through while ascending the rope. You also appreciate the reason why the strongest muscles in a frog's body are its legs.

Afterwards, I loaded up on water and lemonade at the new Barnes and Noble on Moreland in my ratty T-shirt and harness-burned jeans and tracked dirt through the cafe with unintentional indiscretion.

The night was gorgeous.

][ TECHNICAL

Got my first look at frog-gear used for vertical drops. A few terms and concepts that stood out from the training:

[ DOWNWARDS... ]

Rappel Rack: standard six bar rack whose bar-to-bar distance determines the degree of friction on your climbing rope. The further apart the rack bars, the less friction and the faster you slide down. The closer the bars, the greater the friction, and the more apt one is to staying still.

Safety Ascender: an ascender like any other ascender, except open and ready to go in the event you have to make an emergency stop. Leave it free hanging from your harness so it will be available for spur-of-the moment stops if a series of unfortunate events should happen to arise.

Work Gloves: used so that upon reaching the bottom of, say, a 400 foot rope, your skin, muscle and bone fibers in your hands have not been ground away to dust and then subsequently cauterized by rope burn.

[ UPWARDS... ]

Primary Ascender: an ascender of appropriate length secured directly to the locking D-ring that closes the seat harness. Extending from the primary ascender is also the foot loop, ideally with room enough for both feet, which is used as leverage while "frogging" your way up the rope.

Cow's Tail: an extension of the primary ascender consisting of a short length of rope attached to a D-ring. Used as a kind of "guide" or tether when clipped to a rigged rope. Used mostly in transitional stages when getting place to place in a cave and not really involved in climbing itself.

Croll + Top Harness: The croll is a smaller version of the ascender, except strapped to your upper body via the top harness. The top harness typically consists of just a piece of webbing that latches the croll close to your body. LIke the ascender, the climbing rope slinks down through the ratcheting teeth of the croll as an added point of attachment to the rope.

[ SAFETY... ]

"Lock Off": a safety procedure for ceasing any motion while rigged for rappelling. It involves taking the climbing rope, just as it clears the rappell rack and looping it to the top of the "U" at the top of the rack. Still not 100% guaranteed when used by itself. Much safer when finished off by a "Jacobson tie off" (haha) in which, after looping the rope over the rappell rack, the end of the rope is then looped again around the exposed "leg" of the rack. Never depend on just a lock-off arrangement for staying on rope---always have the safety ascender simultaneously attached.

Brake Arm: Not to be confused with break arm...yeah. Refers to the position of the rear arm/hand while rappelling. Used to apply tension to the climbing rope from below your body, in effect adding to the tension of the rope which in turn increases teh friction points of contact within the bars on the rappel rack.

Basic Word Commands: Used during the process of vertical caving to make sure everyone is aware of everyone else's position and intentions.

On Rope - announced when one is just about to hook up to the rope. No action actually takes place until the response OK is heard from below. This ensures that everyone is aware that you are about to come in contact with the rope either via your gear or even directly physically.

On Belay - announced when the descender wishes someone already on the ground below to guide the rope and control tension from the rope end--analogous to the Brake Arm concept, except it's done by someone else as an added safety precaution.

Belay On - is the response heard once the individual providing belay to you is in position and prepared to belay for you.

Rock! - Used when anything becomes dislodged during your descent--it can be a rock, flashlight, helmet, camera, anything...any falling object. Alerts those down below to get out of the way.

Off Rope- Used by you upon completion of descending/ascending and used only after you have entirely broken off contact with the rope (as opposed to announcing "Off Rope" while you're detaching yourself).

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