Abseiling trip: Africa Wall and Kilimanjaro

[FatCanyoner]

G'day folks,

There's two parts to this. The first is simply the trip report, and some interesting day-trip options it opens up, while the second is a few of the lessons we learnt from the trip, which heading into canyoning season will hopefully help others too.

So as a back story, I'd been planning to do these two abseils -- Africa Wall and Kilimanjaro -- for a little while. They are both very close to Devils Hole, at Katoomba. We'd been hoping to do them a few weeks earlier, but howling winds in the mountains made us look for something a little more protected nearby. Given that, about two weeks later I went back with a couple mates. It should have been a run of the mill trip, but the relaxed overconfidence that comes with experience threw up several serious challenges: http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/08/28/africa-wall-and-kilimanjaro/

The actual abseils were great fun. They are also a great combination with some other nearby drops. My suggested route would be to abseil from the pagoda above Devils Hole on the east, onto the chockstone (about 30m), then from the chockstone into the hole (another 30m completely free-hanging). (That part of the trip was what we'd done a few weeks before: http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/08/18/devils-hole-and-whores-bed/) Following that you simply walk a short way up Devils Hole to a cave, follow the ledges on the western side out to the point, where you find Wall of Africa. You're never more than a kilometre from the car, the views are amazing, the four drops are quite distinctive, and a fast group could easily combine them all with an abseiling trip down Boars Head (which is very close and uses Devils Hole as the exit anyway).

Now for my lessons from this trip... As we were coiling ropes at the first drop we discovered a serious blow-out in the core of my 60m Tendon rope (you can see it in the second pic). Of course we could have bailed, but that would be no fun, so we took the time to remove the dodgy section and just use that rope as a pull-cord for a single rope abseil. All good. The second drop, we stuffed up by not checking the pull-down before the final person descended. An absolutely amateur mistake! Again we could have walked out, but chose the prusik option. The three things I'm been really reminded of by this trip: 1) Always double check the condition of your ropes before you leave home (or at least before leaving the car). 2) Always check the pull-down before the last person abseils. 3) Always carry prusiks, and know how to use them.

Of course it was still a great day, and we really enjoyed ourselves, but it is good to listen to the refresher courses that nature gives us from time to time!

[Maelgwn]

I was thinking about this, and think a simpler/faster solution could be to:
- tie an alpine butterfly with the dodgy part of the rope on the loop (so it is not part of the system),
- first two people rap down on single rope fixed to the anchor,
- last person sets the ropes in the conventional way (ie threaded through the chains, both ends touching the ground) and then passes the knot on descent (using the prussiks you are already carrying ).

Saves the stuffing around cutting/melting/joining the ropes in the bush and is probably quicker ...

[FatCanyoner]

Maelgwn,
Thanks for the response. You are spot on about isolating the damaged section of rope with an alpine butterfly being the fastest option. My main thought was that I didn't want to forget to check my rope again and have the issue again, so simpler to cut out the section and fix the rope then and there. Either way we did it there was no need to pass the knot. A 'biner block allows the whole group to abseil single rope and still retrieve the ropes from the bottom. Had this happened somewhere cold, like a canyon, or on a day where we were short of time, I definitely wouldn't have bothered with making a fire and sorting out the ropes there.
Tim

[Maelgwn]

Maelgwn,
Thanks for the response. You are spot on about isolating the damaged section of rope with an alpine butterfly being the fastest option. My main thought was that I didn't want to forget to check my rope again and have the issue again, so simpler to cut out the section and fix the rope then and there. Either way we did it there was no need to pass the knot. A 'biner block allows the whole group to abseil single rope and still retrieve the ropes from the bottom. Had this happened somewhere cold, like a canyon, or on a day where we were short of time, I definitely wouldn't have bothered with making a fire and sorting out the ropes there.
Tim

Yeah cool. I kind of assumed the biner block make the stuck ropes worse?

[FatCanyoner]

I kind of assumed the biner block make the stuck ropes worse?

It probably did, but more because we weren't careful enough. We still used it for the successful final abseil, and the ropes pulled cleanly. It was one of those relaxed trips with mates that meant there was too much talking and not enough thinking! Done correctly it shouldn't impact on the pull down.