Speeding up a group rappel

Scenario: You’re descending a route with a team of four, and you have one rope.  You get to the rappel spot, a steep section that looks like it will take two raps to get down to easier ground.  Standard practice is to have the first person down set up another rap station (or just wait at an existing station), have the next three climbers rap to the second station, pull the rope, rethread the rope, and then have the whole team rap to the ground.  For your team of four, this means 8 total raps, and a lot of time.

Consider this alternative:  Fix one end of the rope at the top.  Have the first three people rap to safe ground on a single strand.  The last person (a more skilled team member) unties the fixed rope end, pulls up half the rope and threads the anchor as for a normal two-strand rap.  Then, this last person raps to the intermediate station and then finally to the ground.  This results in a total of five raps rather than eight, speeding up your team’s descent time.

Be sure everyone on the team is comfortable rapping on a single strand, and add some extra friction to the rap if necessary.