Rappel tip - Don’t cross the lines

Generally, it doesn’t make much difference which strand of the rope to pull after a rappel – if the rope is more or less hanging free from the rock, pulling either side of the rope will usually be fine.

However, if the ropes get crossed and you need to pull them over any sort of rock edge, you can have a big rope pull problem. In this case, pulling on the top strand causes it to press down on the bottom strand, resulting in a lot of extra friction and a difficult pull. This happens when the last person raps, removes the rope from the rappel device and inadvertently crosses the strands - a very easy mistake to make.

To remember which strand to pull and avoid getting rope strands crossed, have the last person rapping clip a daisy chain or quickdraw into the correct side of rope to pull, and leave the daisy clipped while on rappel. After the rap, carefully take the daisy or draw off the rope, do NOT cross the ropes, and you’ll have an easy rope pull.