![]() It takes surprisingly little effort to arrest even the biggest fall and a relatively light belayer can protect a big fall from a much larger climber safely. To prevent the rope from traveling upward through the device (and allowing us to travel downward toward the ground), our partner has to drop their hand to "lock" the rope off via the friction provided by the ATC tube. This anchor, the one attached to our partner, will be augmented, however, by the ATC, which serves to guide the rope vertically downward through the carabiner and then immediately back upward. The rope will run downward from the anchor above us through this carabiner and back up as a sort of mirror of the anchor above. Attached to this second climber's harness is a carabiner, a small metal oval with a locking or spring-loaded gate. Our climbing partner below is left to manage the rest. The friction of the first anchor above us soaks up over half of the falling force. First, ahh! Next, we feel the rope catch. Say we tried to plant a foot on an unexpectedly slick nub of rock and with no warning we're airborne. The spoilers are out, the airbrakes scrape through the now-dense air, the plane flares. ![]() And the ground is coming so quickly until it's suddenly there. Every foot closer to the ground means one less foot to recover from … an incident. It will be just a small portion of the total flight time, but it's where consequences start happening really, really fast. As someone that climbs rocks and dreams about airplanes, I can give you this assurance: the metaphor is sound. It comes together, as it always does, but the experience will never not feel novel. Like the aircraft, you are capable of this and have done it many times, but every ascent-every moment spent suspended against the acceleration of gravity is by virtue of technical ability, whether granted by aerospace engineers or years of physical and mental conditioning. Now nearing arrival and preparing to descend, you the rock climber have spent one or perhaps many pitches nervously and with absolute deliberation warring against gravity. Should the belayer get knocked unconscious, the climber is protected (and in some scenarios the belayer is also better protected).Rappelling does feel a lot like landing in a jetliner.
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