UKC

Hi all. I'm a writer not a rock climber although climbing features in two of my thrillers. I'm currently writing a third one and I need someone to give me a bit of advice generally but also specifically about rappeling while self belaying. Anyone up for it? Thank you so much if you can. Jane

The BMC have a how to abseil page https://www.thebmc.co.uk/climb-skills-abseiling

at the start of the T Rex video you see Trevor abseiling down with good practice/technique.

you could check out the page on this site as well for a couple of nice videos 

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/montane_instruction/how_t...

Does that help?

Hi Jane,

Whilst I am a fairly novice climber, I am well acquainted with all of the systems that we use to ascend and descend our various projects.

Feel free to ask away and if I can help in anyway, I'll be happy to

BR,
Gareth.

If your book is set in the UK the first piece of advice is that we don't rappel. The British term would be abseiling.

They're both foreign words! I prefer rap.

Not sure what you mean by "rappelling while self belaying" but might I suggest that perhaps the best way to learn more is to go and try it. I'm sure someone will be along to offer to take you out but you need to be sure that they have the relevant experience.

Good god what on earth is there to dislike about what I said.  Go get a life.

When´s the novel set? Methods have changed a lot in the last 100 years ...

Allthough I'm not a disliker, I did roll my eyes a bit at the suggestion someone who had never climbed before should try to self belay (even with someone more experienced). Perhaps not the best advice.

Anyway, you have now broken the unwritten UKC rule and mentioned the like/dislike function so I (and every other cantankerous a**hole like me) shall now be hammering dislike on all your posts like a man possessed.

On some days I enthusiastically rap and on others I insouciantly ab

I'd recommend that for realism, your protagonist should be abseiling down an established route.

If it is a 'thriller', the grade of that route should be E0.

Point taken and perhaps I should have been clearer, I was thinking more about the abseiling.  The link between abseiling and self belaying was too tenuous for me.

Hi Jane,  Can you tell us the name of your books (or email me the info).

Is Ab Rapping where you knock out some tunes as you descend?

“Steve threaded the ab rope through his belay device and walked back to the cliff edge…”see you at the bottom” he said as he stepped off and abbed down, free hanging in space.

it was only when he un clipped at the bottom that he saw the body.”

How am I doing? No doubt the victim was killed by being hit with a very large Hex…

If the book is based in the UK, the term is "Abseiling".  NOT rappeling which is an American expression.

 

A cold wave of terror hit him when he looked down and saw the face of the body was his own! How could this be? Had his evil twin brother Roderick tracked him down even here at Baildon Bank where he thought he'd be safe?

I reckon stabed through the heart with a nut key would be more realistic, I mean who carries hexs these days? Or maybe somthing exotic like being crushed by a Bigbro. Oh god I can't get being murdered with climbing kit out of my head now....

“Only the previous day the victim had been on UKC arguing about the grades at Baildon Bank.

his last post had garnered a lot of dislikes….”

Yes, we British prefer the German while Americans stick with the French.

I'm not an author but I think I have the germ of an idea.

'Tiffany tugged at her hood as the precipitation transitioned from dull drizzle to fully formed rain. She enjoyed the anonymity of having her hood up. Sheathed in Gore-Tex, hiding her elfin features, how could her companions know about her past as a Kay’s catalogue model.

She checked the anchors once again, she never confronted Steve, but her eyes had been previously drawn to his slap dash use of non-opposed snap gates when constructing belays. The same attention to detail that had allowed her to direct her own modelling shoots was now paying dividends as she tweaked the hexcentric to allow its mild camming action to come into play.

Abseiling was a necessary evil for Tiffany, she was contemptuous of those who sought out the vicarious thrill of rappelling as end in itself. There was no choice, if Tiffany was going to access this hard severe she needed to step into the void. As she approached the edge she instinctively reached into jacket and pulled out her necklace. The crude piece of jewellery was fashioned from size 3 Tricam and a strip of Dyneema. Caressing the worn Tricam between her thumb and index finger she remembered the fateful day she had built the belay for Lexi. She squinted, now was no time for sentimental distractions, she needed to focus. Her mind drifted back to that autumn day. Lexi’s gay laughter filling an air already heavy with sexual adventure.'

To be continued…

Well, abseil is a German word, and rappel is French...

Rekon it's cos Brits are a bit naff at it? I pretty consistently get down rope but often fail on the recall part

Beat me to it...

Hiya Jane, feel free to DM me via the 'email user' button on my profile. I can help - got a few decades recreational climbing and professional instruction experience under my belt.

It's great that you're asking - plenty of what's out there in the written word and on screen is so unrealistic.

Apologies for the bickering on this forum - it's nothing to do with you!

Cheers!

Well Jane, this is what we do here; we hang around waiting for a novel (haha) topic to come up, and then everyone piles in. I’d say you’ve stimulated a good cross section of us to stir in our sofas so far; well done, and welcome to UKC! Just take the offers of help and ignore the rest of us

Maybe spend a day climbing with a guide? It might be particularly helpful to go to the area you're book's set in and get them to take you up some routes and show you the techniques you want to write about.

It’s all about the context really. If I’m cruising an awesome free climbing splitter, bringing on the vibe with my home boys, and plugging in a set of totems for the sponsors ( not for my own protection you know cause I don’t need or use that kinda shit )    Then me and my best bros tend to rap off back to the valley floor
Likewise, if I’m up in the real mountains, bending my mind on some gnarly frozen turf, torquing basically feck all and facing full on double death, probably in conditions that would make even Dave Mac start crying, then I’d probably ab off after submitting 

most likely however I’d probably just throw my rope off the top of the crag and walk round 
 

My late uncle refused to entertain all this foreign nonsense and would always "rope down".

Hi Everyone

And thanks. I wasn't expecting such a huge and varied response! Loved reading your replies! And to discover some budding writers too.... Seriously though it's great to come across a lively forum.

To all of you who have offered help - I'll mail you with some more information.

For anyone who's interested I write as Jane Jesmond. And two of my books - On The Edge and Cut Adrift have a mad climber as a protagonist. I must have been crazy to embark on these books because I have never climbed in my life! Have a look if you're interested. They're available on all the normal book selling sites and in many bookshops or libraries. A caveat - they are written for non-climbing people so I keep the climbing terminology and detail simple although I've tried very hard to keep everything vaguely feasible and be true to the spirit of the sport. You are free to disagree and I'd love to know what you think.

Many thanks again

Jane

I bet he also didn't "quest" routes, "project" them or "throw shapes"

So your alternative English word is...............................?

Either abseil or rappel. But neither is an 'English' word.

You started well, but it all went wrong with the size 3 tricam. Lterature should only feature size 0.5

I predict that the climbing protagonist in your third novel is going to be a mad, argumentative, detail-obsessed pedant.

I climbed Queersville at Stanage, amongst other routes, with a woman who told me she wrote a book where a climber murdered her partner by causing him to fall.   I tried not to be too provocative,  just in case.

There was a short story in OTE told in first person narrative where the narrator starts off as a unreliable climbing punter and is ultimately revealed as a professional assassin. Can't recall who the author was. 

I've often thought how easy it would be to murder a climbing partner and get away with it. A simple trip setting up an abseil. That sort of thing.

Years and years ago there was an episode of Taggart where they worked out the murderer was a climber because of the knots they used to tie up their victim.

I always tie up my victims with granny knots for that very reason Never an alpine butterfly.

vimeo.com/86882301

Putting this on a public forum could be interesting if you're ever involved in an accident ...

"accident"

Wycliffe on TV solved the murder when the jealous leader killed the second on a Cornish sea cliff. It's just not worth it usually.

That is literally the UKC demographic - from armchair experts & miserable downvoters to some very accomplished climbers (along with experts from a broad range of fields).