Individual Tuition & Guidance

http://www.acclimbatize.co.uk

A popular half-day abseil training activity for all age groups, often as part of a multi activity day/course.

Below are photographs from a typical course taken at Millers Dale Viaduct & Matlock in Derbyshire.

We can facilitate fund raising events (Charity Abseils) clients in the past include 'SCOPE' & The British Heart Foundation.

For further information about our Group bookings and Corporate events please leave your enquiry below. We will contact you as soon as we receive your request.

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All your details are kept strictly private. They will only be used by us to contact you. We hope you like your stay at Darwin lake and we look forward to making your holiday one to remember.

History

The origin of the abseil or abseiling is attributed to Jean Estéril Charlet, a Chamonix guide who lived from 1840-1925. Charlet originally devised the technique of the abseil / abseiling (or rappel) method of roping down during a failed solo attempt of Petit Dru in 1876. After many attempts, some of them solo, he managed to summit the Petit Dru in 1879 in the company of two other Chamonix guides, Prosper Payot and Frédéric Folliguet, whom he hired (a rather paradoxical move for a guide). During that ascent, Charlet perfected the abseil.

Equipment

• Ropes: Climbers often simply use their climbing ropes for rappelling. For many other applications, low-stretch rope (typically ~2% stretch when under the load of a typical bodyweight) called static rope is used to reduce bouncing and to allow easier ascending of the rope.
• Anchors for rappelling abseiling are sometimes made with trees or boulders, using webbing and cordellete, or also with rock abseiling climbing equipment, such as nuts, hexes and spring loaded camming devices. Some climbing areas have fixed anchors for rappelling.
• A descender or rappel device is a friction device or friction hitch that allows rope to be paid out in a controlled fashion, under load, with a minimal effort by the person controlling it. The speed at which the rappeller descends is controlled by applying greater or lesser force on the rope below the device or altering the angle at which the rope exits the device. Descenders can be task-designed or improvised from other equipment. Mechanical descenders include braking bars, the figure eight, the abseil rack, the "bobbin" (and its self-locking variant the "stop"), the gold tail, and the "sky genie" used by some window-washers and wildfire firefighters. Some improvised descenders include the Munter hitch, a carabiner wrap, the basic crossed-carabiner brake and the piton bar brake (sometimes called the carabiner and piton). There is an older, more uncomfortable, method of wrapping the rope around one's body for friction instead of using a descender, as in the Dulfersitz or Geneva methods used by abseiling climbers in the 1960s.
• A climbing abseiling harness technique is often used around the waist to secure the descender. A comfortable climbing harness is important for descents that may take many hours.
• A prusik might be used as safety back-up on any abseil.
• Helmets are worn to protect the head from bumps and falling rocks whilst climbing or abseiling. A light source may be mounted on the helmet in order to keep the hands free in unlit areas.
• Gloves protect hands from the rope and from hits with the wall during abseiling. They are mainly used by recreational abseiling abseilers, industrial access practitioners, adventure racers and military as opposed to climbers or mountaineers. In fact, they can increase the risk of accident by becoming caught in the abseiling descender in certain situations.
• Boots or other sturdy footwear with good grips for any abseil.
• Knee-pads (and sometimes elbow-pads) are popular in some applications for the protection of joints during crawls or hits.

Abseil Application

Abseiling technique is used in a number of applications, including:

• Climbing, for returning to the base of a climb or to a point where one can try a new route.
• Recreational abseiling training course.
• training for Canyoning, where jumping waterfalls or cliffs may be too dangerous.
• Caving and Speleology, where underground pitches are accessed using this method (Single Rope abseiling Technique).
• training for adventure racing, where events often include a how to for abseiling and other rope work.
• Industrial/Commercial applications, where abseiling techniques are used to access parts of structures or buildings so as to perform maintenance in the course of cleaning or construction, e.g. steeplejacking, window cleaning, etc.)
• training for access to wildfires, the how and the why.
• Confined spaces access, such as investigating ballast tanks and other areas of ships.
• abseiling rescue applications, such as accessing injured people or accident sites (vehicle or aircraft) and extracting the casualty using abseiling techniques are all part of the course.
• Window cleaning
• Of course there is also military and police applications, such as entering a building through a window or hard to reach spaces via helicopters. This is a technique used by special forces and SWAT teams.

Safety and ecological issues and how to think about these issues

Abseiling can be dangerous, and presents risks, especially to unsupervised or inexperienced abseilers. According to German mountaineer Pit Schubert, about 25% of climbing deaths occur during rappelling, most commonly due to failing anchors. people need to follow a strict course run by professional climbers

Abseiling is prohibited or discouraged in some areas, due to the potential for environmental damage and/or conflict with climbers heading upwards, or the danger to people on the ground. Most issues like these should be addressed on a good training course on this pastime.