On the surface, rappelling seems like it should be one of the safest activities you can do while out in the mountains. However, it has serious consequences and should not be taken lightly

So, is rappelling dangerous? Yes, rappelling is dangerous and is the fourth most common cause of climbing accidents. There are a few things that make rappelling dangerous:  

• Natural Hazards
• Reliance on equipment
• The prevalence of human error

The problem with rappelling is that it’s an activity of extremes. Very few people are minorly injured while rappelling; they either get to the bottom fine, or they fall and sustain a serious/fatal injury. Because of this, rappelling is responsible for a disproportionate amount of the fatalities in climbing, compared to how simple of an activity it is. In the article below I’m going to go into each of these four elements in more detail and describe what exactly it is that causes accidents while rappelling. Then, we’re going to talk about some ways to make your rappel extra safe.

Why Is Rappelling Dangerous?

As I mentioned above, rappelling is a disproportionately dangerous activity. On the surface, it should be incredibly safe: there’s very little dynamic movement involved, you’re not putting excessive strain on your equipment, and the motions are easy to execute. So, what gives? Why do so many people hurt themselves while rappelling?

The data out there is a little bit fuzzy, but speaking from experience, it has little to do with the actual difficulty of the activity and everything to do with the mental state of the person who performs it. Most of the time, rappelling is a way to achieve something, not the primary goal itself. A climber uses rappelling to get down from the route; a canyoner uses it to descend a particularly steep section; a caver uses it to aid in their exploration. Very few people leave the house with only rappelling in mind.

Because of this, people tend to take their rappelling for granted and not see it as the dangerous activity it is. They focus on the main activity that their engaged in, be it a difficult pitch of climbing or a particularly exciting cave.

This compounds with something called the Descent Effect. The Descent Effect refers to the fact that 75% of hiking injuries happen on the way down rather than the way up. People on the way down are physically tired from their ascent, so they’re more prone to a mistake. Their also often not in the right headspace; they’re either elated from the summit and not paying attention, or their letdown because they didn’t reach their objective and fall into a funk. This causes slips, falls, and lapses in judgement that lead to otherwise preventable accidents.

Rappelling, by nature, is often an activity that’s performed on the way down. Combine the two elements that I talked about above, and you have a pretty good recipe for disaster:

• People overlook rappelling because they view it as an accessory to their main objective (e.g. a climb)
• People overlook the descent because they are tired and in the wrong headspace

With these two phenomena acting together, people tend to make mistakes while rappelling that they wouldn’t have made under ideal conditions. They forget to tie a knot, miss a sturdy anchor spot, or tie into a bolt that looks a little too rusty, all because they’re eager to get down and they assume that the danger is already over.

If you want to stay safe rappelling, this is the single most important step: never assume you’re out of the woods until you’re back at your car.

Causes of Rappelling Accidents

When accidents occur, it’s rarely because of one bad thing happening. It’s usually a string of unfortunate events that, when compounded together, lead to disaster. It’s the same in rappelling. The mentality described above combines with some other factor, and before you know it, you’ve decked out on a lower that should have gone smoothly.

Now, I wouldn’t be able to list all of the dangers that you’ll encounter while rappelling in one article even if I tried. What I can do, however, is group them into three main buckets and talk a little bit about them. Those three buckets, as described above, are:

• Natural Hazards
• Equipment failure
• Human Error

Natural Hazards

Sometimes, mother nature just decides that she wants to have her way.

Whether it’s rockfall, wild animals, or the weather, one of the most common causes of climbing accidents are the dangers presented by the natural environment. These are hard to mitigate, and most of what you can do to prevent them comes from proper preparation.

Specifically focused on rappelling, the biggest natural hazard that you’re going to face is that of rockfall (ice/snowfall can also be included in this category). When you’re halfway down your rappel, there’s sometimes nothing you can do if a chunk of granite comes loose from the wall and starts tumbling towards you. Similarly, it can be difficult to predict the weather in mountainous environments, and there’s a good chance you’re going to find yourself stuck halfway down a multipitch route with thunder and lightning all around.

So, how do you stay safe in these situations? As I said above, the main thing you can do is properly prepare. Bring a helmet to protect against rockfall and a jacket so that you don’t get wet. Read the weather report in the morning, and don’t hesitate to bail early if it looks like conditions are going to turn ugly.

Another thing you need to do is to actually use the safety equipment you had. I cannot tell you how many times people will bring along the equipment they have, only to leave it in their pack because they can’t be bothered to take it out. A helmet does you no good if you don’t bother to strap it onto your head.

This plays into the mentality I was taking about above, where people become over-tired and over-complacent. If you’re exhausted after a long summit day and confident in your rappelling skills, it can become easy to skip some of your normal safety procedures in favour of just getting down the route. This is fine until a chunk of rock comes loose and hits you on the head, or your snow anchor gives away because it wasn’t properly set up. No matter how tired you are, or how elated you may feel after bagging your summer project, you need to make sure you stay prepared, or else mother nature is going to catch you with your pants down.

Equipment/Anchor Failure

One of the best things about rappelling is that it’s so simple. One of the worst things about rappelling is that it’s so simple. Your life depends on three things: the belay device you’re using, the rope you’re tied into, and the anchor that you’re lowering from. If any of these three things fail, you can find yourself in serious trouble.

So, what are the main dangers you need to be aware of? How can you mitigate them?

Belay Device

This one is probably the one you need to worry about least. There’s very little chance that your belay device is going to randomly break on you mid-rappel. Despite that, though, you need to make sure you’re not complacent. Inspect the device at the start of every season (or after any large fall) to see if there’s any chips or cracks you need to be aware of. Always double check that you’ve properly clipped the device into your harness and locked the carabiner. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the device beforehand so you know what you’re doing. Finally, tie a backup knot just in case the device does fail.

Rope

Proper rope care is one of the most difficult parts of climbing. You should inspect your rope every time you use it, even if it’s just a quick once-over to check for obvious structural damage. More thorough checks should be performed at the start and end of every season to see if there are any core shots or points of weakness.

Another important thing to consider is where your rope is going to be hanging. Keep it away from sharp rocks, areas of drag, or lines where it might have rocks fall on it. John Harlin, a famous American Alpinist, fell to his death on the North Face of the Eiger because a rock fell and severed his rope mid-rappel.

Anchors

Choosing an anchor is maybe the most important step you’re going to make while rappelling. Sometimes life is kind to you and you’ve got a nice set of new rappel rings that you can lower from. Other times, however, you’re going to have to get a little bit more creative with your lowering technique.

Picking a safe anchor would require an entire guide to be written on its own, so I’m not going to go into that here. However, there are some things that you absolutely should avoid using as anchors:

• Trees less than 6 inches in diameter
• Boulders weighing less than 400 pounds, or any boulder that looks unstable
• Existing webbing that is frayed or sun-bleached.

If you’re unsure about your anchor, you can always run a backup system. A backup is a secondary anchor that’s secured to a different point in the wall, designed to catch you should your primary anchor fail. I would highly recommend backing up your rappels whenever possible.

Human Error

Finally, we move on to what causes the majority of climbing accidents.

I’ve already laid out the mentality that causes people to hurt themselves while rappelling. It’s a combination of assuming that rappelling is going to be easy and being in the wrong headspace on the descent. Between these two things, it becomes very easy for someone to miss a critical step while setting up the rappel, and sometimes one mistake is all it takes.

So, what are some of the most common errors that you’ll see? Again, there’s very little hard statistics, but a few common errors come to mind:

• Not backing up your rappel
• Not tying a stopper knot
• Setting up your anchor incorrectly

The stopper knot is one that I want to highlight further. For such an essential step, it’s crazy how common of an error this is. Furthermore, it’s not just amateurs who make it; in one famous story, Tommy Caldwell had to stop his partner from rappelling off the ends of their rope while on El Capitan. That just goes to show that it’s such an easy mistake to make that even the experts make it sometimes. More recently, Brad Gobright fell to his death after his partner failed to tie a stopper knot.

Avoiding these common missteps is a simple matter of building some sort of rappelling checklist and sticking to it no matter what the circumstances are. This needs to start right when you begin learning to rappel. Every time you set yourself up for a lower, follow the exact same steps and do them in the exact same order.

This second part is incredibly important. Doing the steps in the same order turns your rappel into a routine; once you have everything down to a sequence, it becomes way easier to notice when you miss a step.

For example, say a part of your routine goes something like this:

• Pull the rope through the anchors
• Center it
• Tie you stopper knots
• Throw the rope
• Clip you rappel device
• Lock the carabiner
• Tie you backup knot

If you memorize the steps in that order, you’re less likely to skip one of them because you become so used to the routine; each step naturally follows after the last, without you even needing to think about it. If you simply do the steps in hap-hazardous order, it’s easy to pass over one and forget about it because you’re tired.

How To Stay Safe Rappelling

So, we’ve now talked about some of the most common mistakes that people make rappelling. We’ve also gone over why people make them and some of the factors that you need to look out for (natural hazards, equipment failure, and human error).

So, how do you mitigate these dangers? What are some of the steps you can take to really make your rappels as safe as possible?

Skip the Rappel

This one might sound dumb, but it’s actually the best thing you can do to avoid getting injured while abseiling. In fact, the American Alpine institute now recommends that you avoid rappels at all cost because of how many people get injured doing them.

If you’re at the top of a sport route, have your partner lower you instead of choosing to rappel. If you just climbed a multi-pitch route, see if there’s an option to hike out rather than choosing to string a long series of rappels together and risk making an error along the way.

It won’t work in every scenario, but if you have the option to not rappel, take it.

Learn to Rappel (before you do it)

It’s difficult to build good habits if you start on the wrong foot. Before you start rappelling, make sure you’ve done enough research to know all the necessary steps so that you can stay safe. It can also help to find a teacher, although you need to be careful about who you choose. More experiences climbers can be a great source of knowledge, but they can also be a good source of bad habits and skipping steps. Make sure to do your own learning so you know if you’re being taught bad information.

Online resources (like this blog) can act as a good starting point, but they should never be relied upon as the sole source of your knowledge. More comprehensive guides, such as a Freedom of the Hills textbook, can provide you with a great starting point to learn rappelling. If you can afford it, a trained and certified guide will always be the best source of information.

Practice

Once you know how to rappel, you need to repeat the motions so often that they become automatic. That checklist that I was talking about above should be repeated in a safe environment until it’s drilled into you.

Rappelling can seem like a lame thing to have to practice, but I promise that it’s worth it. Besides keeping you safer, it will also make you a whole lot better whenever you need to set up and execute a rappel; you’ll save time while in the mountains, which means you’ll be able to get down sooner.

Back Up Your Rappel

Last but certainly not least: tie a backup knot.

I’m going to repeat that one more time, in case you missed it: Tie. A. Backup. Knot.

Backup knots are the seatbelts of rappelling. They take literally twenty seconds to apply and can save your life in so many ways that it’s absolutely ridiculous some people skip this step. Whenever you’re rappelling, make sure to back yourself (want a more comprehensive guide as to how to back up a rappel? Check it out here)

And that’s it! That’s my guide on why rappelling is dangerous and what you can do to make it a little bit safer. Thanks for reading!