From oconnord@ucsu.Colorado.EDU Fri Mar 3 13:52:06 EDT 1995 Article: 29606 of rec.climbing Xref: dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU rec.climbing:29606 Path: dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU!metro!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!in1.uu.net!boulder!ucsu.Colorado.EDU!oconnord From: Darren O'Connor Newsgroups: rec.climbing Subject: Re: ATC jaming Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 21:50:39 -0700 Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Lines: 40 Message-ID: References: <3htekp$3p4@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <792922734snz@moorside.demon.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsu.colorado.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In-Reply-To: <792922734snz@moorside.demon.co.uk> On Thu, 16 Feb 1995, Alan Little wrote: > In article <3htekp$3p4@newsbf02.news.aol.com> > outdoorny@aol.com "OutdoorNY" writes: > > > Hi folks; has anyone had any difficulty with the Air Traffic Controllers > > (ATC) jamming during a repell?? > > > I've never had this problem. I had hideous problems on long steep rappels > at the Verdon Gorge with the ATC NOT jamming - i.e. running too freely, > requiring a lot of brake hand effort and being altogether hard work and > scary. I ended up using an old Tuber that I was carrying as a spare device. > > -- > Alan Little > > I have definitely had this problem, and so has my climbing partner/fiance. I can tell you the cause and a solution. First, the cause: the two strands of rope bent around the carabiner catch the plastic-coated wire hanger on the atc. The solution: don't run the atc plastic-coated wire hanger inside the locked carabiner with the rope. This works well, but makes me nervous. Having any dangling loops outside my carabiner makes me nervous on rappel! I've switched to using a figure eight for both rappelling and belaying. If you use the eight's small hole for belaying (run the rope through the hole and back, with the created loop in your locking biner, just like with the atc), it has the benefit of locking the rope when subjected to a quick force (like a leader fall). Tubers are good for this as well. The atc's on the other hand, though having the problem of sticking on rappel, have the opposite undesirable of allowing rope to slide easily through when belaying a falling climber. Anyone want to buy one cheap? e-mail me! Darren o/ /O/\ /