It's not the fall, its the sudden stop at the bottom......

First off, Mist has a great post today.  Check that one out when you get the chance.

I’ve invited another Guest Blogger.  She should probably have been on the list in the first place, but hey, I can’t get everything right or you folks wouldn’t have something to bitch about.

 

So before we get too far into the New Year, I really must get some input.  I made it an established goal to take myself less seriously this year.  So does that mean I can’t post serious items?  Hmmm, I need a referee judgment here.

 

There is a method of rappelling that I was taught while serving on the Special Reaction Team in the Military Police (Equivalent to a Civvy SWAT team).  The Aussies started the trend, and claimed the title.  Going “Aussie” on a rappel was developed as a way to run down very very steep, long hills, face first, rather than facing inward like a normal repel.  It’s in essence a long, barely controlled run face first down a mountain.  Then there is the “Spider”.  This involves starting a traditional rappel and then flipping completely upside down.  Once you adjust, you are basically inching downward with one hand free and one hand holding the brake on the line.  “Aussie” was never intended for a direct vertical with minimal foot touches.  Spider was never meant to be done quickly.  It was used as a way to inch down the outside of a building, and peek through the TOP of a window to spot the bad guys.  SWAT guys are nuts.  SRT guys are more nuts, because they get used a whole lot less, and therefore have to create their own fun. 

Here’s where the mix hits the fan.  We used to train on an old Jet Engine Testing tower.  The bottom of this tower rested over a carved out indentation in a mountain.  The tower itself was structural steel, and therefore had no “Flat Faces” to do a normal rappel from.  The tower was 60’ tall, the free fall to the ground below that was another 60’, making the whole thing 120’ of adrenaline pumping madness.  When you rig your rope around a d-ring, or a figure 8, you can do a double wrap, which increases the friction, gives you more time to react to problems, and a slower, smoother ride.  Or you can do a single wrap, which is the least friction and by far the fastest. 

The one idea behind the following is this – getting from the roof to an opening in a face of the building and popping the bad guy before he does a hostage.  You can spider slowly and do recon, but that’s not what we’re talking here.  We’re talking at a point where the situation went bad, no warning, and only an instant entry will save the people you are there to save.  Combining Aussie with an instant flip into spider position is the result of experienced troops, trained for a job, and bored to death looking for the rush, since the jobs are few and far between. 

We practiced this from the top of the tower.  You crawl over the top rail, the leap out into space.  This is free fall, now.  Like bungee jumping without the slow bounce at the bottom.  Mr. Gravity is now in full effect.  You start to brake, and immediately you are headed back toward the building, facing the ground.  As you stop, your legs hook the rope, and your face pivots directly toward the building, and you end up hanging upside down, facing the building.  If you have it down, you can end your fall within a couple of feet of the window, and lower yourself into position in a second and a half.  Elapsed time, depending on how far you have to go down, is about 5-6 seconds, during which time you are trying hard to concentrate on the job at hand and not about your life flashing before your eyes.  Your blood is boiling, and you feel like your heart is about to explode from the sudden Adrenaline flux. 

Does it work?  Hell yes.  Is it a true abortion of a real rappel?  Hell yes.  Were there problems while training on that tower?  Two examples – the guy who flipped to spider just as his face wrapped itself around the top rail of a floor.  Then the guy that was just practicing the Aussie part.  Stopping every floor or so to push off.  Until he misjudged a push off point.  Swung inside the tower.  With one leg on either side of a steel column when he hit. 

Now THAT’S funny.  I don’t care WHO you are!

 

Michael

 

PS:  This whole non serious thing is sucking the creative juices from my body.  And lose that dirty thought, Kristy.