How to Rappel Down a Cliff

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Scott and I'm the owner of Climb On indoor rock climbing gym in Wilmington, North Carolina. Today we are going to discuss rappelling down a cliff. Any time that we are rappelling or rock climbing it is important to get the proper instruction from a qualified professional. Generally you can take these lessons at your local indoor rock climbing gym. The first thing we would do when we rappel down a cliff is tie a knot at the end of our rope. This ensures that we can't rappel off the end of our rope if it doesn't touch the ground. Once you have dropped your rope down the cliff you are then going to hook up into your rappel device. The device that I am using today is called an ATC Guide. Once I am hooked up I am going to take the slack out so that I know that everything is holding correctly and I am going to sit down in my harness. At that point I am going to turn around and begin my rappel down the cliff keeping my brake hand on the rope the whole time. Once we have reached the bottom we want to try to get our ATC or our rappel device off of the rope as quickly as we can. The heat can transfer through your rope. Again I can't stress how important it is to get qualified instruction on how to do this. This has been rappelling down a cliff."