Well the trip leader decided he wanted me to have more time with a fullsize rack before Mystery this past Saturday (280ft? close to 300 single pitch, ~85meters) despite doing the prereqs so on Sunday I went with Brian and Billy to Natural Well, a 195ft (~60m) single pitch. To date the largest single drop I've done. Also with all my rigging study lately (I've done Hooper's rigging twice, a very simple rig job, once with an appropriate size rope so tensionless, and then second time with our 200ft rope so double what we needed and so I did a midline rig, and doing 3:1 and Georgia (1:1) haul rigs) I got to rig it so kinda first major pit rig for me =) The trip turned out to be slightly more than I bargained for though...
So we get there about 9am after signing in with the park (it's on state park ground so we sign in with the rangers) and start I start rigging. Tensionless around our rig tree, with some bandanas tied to it so hikers/trail runners dont trip on our rope (it goes right across the - aptly named - Natural Well trail). Knowing I wanted to do more tandom climbing I added a Alpine Butterfly midline to clip in a pigtail for lip crossing and it served nice to tie in the upper rope pad to as well.
Tensionless and alpine butterfly bit:
Natural Well_0002 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
The two rope pads, there is a "platform" of rock about 8-10feet down so there are basically two lips to get over.
Natural Well_0003 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Brian, being the most experienced of us three, rappeled first. One of our radios was busted so we used whistle calls instead. We only had one-way communication on the radio for some reason one would only receive not send. Not a big deal - open air pit no waterflow so could yell too we just decided to practice the whistle calls.
Entrance shaft:
Natural Well 13 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Once he was off-rope Billy went down. Then Billy climbed back up, with me laughing as he tried to get over the lips, forgetting to pop off his chest roller he got a bit caught up and struggled like a no0b would so of /course/ I had to give him flack for that! It's just as fair - we give each other shit all the time here so I had chance to get even
Billy coming back up:
Natural Well 10 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Then I went down, it went nice and smooth as expected. The reason we always had someone up top was that it is 1) rigged across the trail and 2) to stop idiots (you know, people who would try to pull up the rope and take it, or cut the rope, or whatever) so it left someone up top to deal with any hikers or runners that happened our way to ensure our line was safe to get back out.
On the climb up I tried to take some photos on rope but even with the weight under me (I tandomed top) and Brian helping stabilize or when I stopped in a constricted area to wedge to stabalize my own spin, it was rough. Got a couple decent/good ones though:
Looking up with about 100ft left to climb
Natural Well 14 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Looking back down with Brian under me (that's not the bottom to the right of Brian, it's down the dark hole you can only barely see)
Natural Well 15 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
After back up top, Billy wanted to rappel it again so off he went. I decided I wanted to bounce it again as well so I headed down after him. I called I was down, and getting back on to climb back up. Billy had never tandomed so put him on the bottom (also, I prefer top, with a cmi foot ascender weight below me holds me in proper position without any effort on my part ) there were hikers up top we could hear Brian talking to someone so I just started up. A bit up and all of a sudden SNAP. fuuuuuuu....k
My foot ascender busted. The webbing piece that goes around the bottom of the foot just totally snapped. Shit. I'm on a single bungie ropewalker (so I have a handled upper ascender connected to my halfround, a chest roller instead of a chest harness, my croll is at my knee bungied to me to move up when I step up and it has a waste teather for safety, and then the cmi foot ascender on my other leg). Without the cmi foot ascender, I'm doing a crappy basically Texas system all the way up.
Luckily I practice gear failures and think a lot about what-if situations. Lots of options here but nicest would be to put the cmi back into use. Took a small Prusik untied it and used it to tie around the cmi and used it as the bottom webbing peice. It didn't keep it as stable or as low on my foot, as such pinched my leg and put my foot a bit looser so funky angles a bit, but it wasn't too sucky and only like 170ft to climb with it. Finished a bit sore but without much extra effort and a lot better than Texasing it! I could have made a Mitchel with my QAS and a prusik too if I had wanted, which may have been more comfortable on my foot but eh this worked fine and was a simpler fix. =) I even transferred onto the pigtail fine (which, I was going to practice last vertical practice and ran out of time, but I was more experienced between Billy and I so I just did it for the first time dangling basically 200ft in the air haha! it was easy though, just like passing a knot but moving to a different rope rather than above the knot).
Transfering on to the pigtail =)
Natural Well_0094 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
And I'm successfully out even with the janked system haha
Natural Well_0099 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
So we get there about 9am after signing in with the park (it's on state park ground so we sign in with the rangers) and start I start rigging. Tensionless around our rig tree, with some bandanas tied to it so hikers/trail runners dont trip on our rope (it goes right across the - aptly named - Natural Well trail). Knowing I wanted to do more tandom climbing I added a Alpine Butterfly midline to clip in a pigtail for lip crossing and it served nice to tie in the upper rope pad to as well.
Tensionless and alpine butterfly bit:
Natural Well_0002 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
The two rope pads, there is a "platform" of rock about 8-10feet down so there are basically two lips to get over.
Natural Well_0003 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Brian, being the most experienced of us three, rappeled first. One of our radios was busted so we used whistle calls instead. We only had one-way communication on the radio for some reason one would only receive not send. Not a big deal - open air pit no waterflow so could yell too we just decided to practice the whistle calls.
Entrance shaft:
Natural Well 13 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Once he was off-rope Billy went down. Then Billy climbed back up, with me laughing as he tried to get over the lips, forgetting to pop off his chest roller he got a bit caught up and struggled like a no0b would so of /course/ I had to give him flack for that! It's just as fair - we give each other shit all the time here so I had chance to get even
Billy coming back up:
Natural Well 10 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Then I went down, it went nice and smooth as expected. The reason we always had someone up top was that it is 1) rigged across the trail and 2) to stop idiots (you know, people who would try to pull up the rope and take it, or cut the rope, or whatever) so it left someone up top to deal with any hikers or runners that happened our way to ensure our line was safe to get back out.
On the climb up I tried to take some photos on rope but even with the weight under me (I tandomed top) and Brian helping stabilize or when I stopped in a constricted area to wedge to stabalize my own spin, it was rough. Got a couple decent/good ones though:
Looking up with about 100ft left to climb
Natural Well 14 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
Looking back down with Brian under me (that's not the bottom to the right of Brian, it's down the dark hole you can only barely see)
Natural Well 15 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
After back up top, Billy wanted to rappel it again so off he went. I decided I wanted to bounce it again as well so I headed down after him. I called I was down, and getting back on to climb back up. Billy had never tandomed so put him on the bottom (also, I prefer top, with a cmi foot ascender weight below me holds me in proper position without any effort on my part ) there were hikers up top we could hear Brian talking to someone so I just started up. A bit up and all of a sudden SNAP. fuuuuuuu....k
My foot ascender busted. The webbing piece that goes around the bottom of the foot just totally snapped. Shit. I'm on a single bungie ropewalker (so I have a handled upper ascender connected to my halfround, a chest roller instead of a chest harness, my croll is at my knee bungied to me to move up when I step up and it has a waste teather for safety, and then the cmi foot ascender on my other leg). Without the cmi foot ascender, I'm doing a crappy basically Texas system all the way up.
Luckily I practice gear failures and think a lot about what-if situations. Lots of options here but nicest would be to put the cmi back into use. Took a small Prusik untied it and used it to tie around the cmi and used it as the bottom webbing peice. It didn't keep it as stable or as low on my foot, as such pinched my leg and put my foot a bit looser so funky angles a bit, but it wasn't too sucky and only like 170ft to climb with it. Finished a bit sore but without much extra effort and a lot better than Texasing it! I could have made a Mitchel with my QAS and a prusik too if I had wanted, which may have been more comfortable on my foot but eh this worked fine and was a simpler fix. =) I even transferred onto the pigtail fine (which, I was going to practice last vertical practice and ran out of time, but I was more experienced between Billy and I so I just did it for the first time dangling basically 200ft in the air haha! it was easy though, just like passing a knot but moving to a different rope rather than above the knot).
Transfering on to the pigtail =)
Natural Well_0094 by Sunguramy, on Flickr
And I'm successfully out even with the janked system haha
Natural Well_0099 by Sunguramy, on Flickr