One or two ropes, doubled through the anchor. (Back-up secondary anchor sling omitted for clarity.) When you can’t unweight your rappel line, your partner can tie off one side of the rope by setting a prusik on the rope. In most cases, at some point, you’ll have to pass the knot joining the two ropes. Pulling down on the jumar side of the rope as shown lifts up on the opposite side of the rope and voila, up you go. Use the “slingshot” technique to quickly and easily climb doubled rappel ropes that are rigged through metal hardware at the anchors. At some point in your career, however, despite the planning, you’ll probably end up at the bottom of a double-rope rappel, marooned in space, staring wistfully at the rap anchors 60 meters overhead. Fear not! With a little bit of knowledge, you can quickly and easily climb the rap ropes. Often, troubleshooting the descent will eliminate problems, or at least simplify them when they arise. Or, you accidentally rappelled past a station. The reasons why you might need to regain the anchors are as countless as the sands: The last person down didn’t properly rig the station for a pull, or the ropes partly pulled, jammed and luckily you still have both rope ends. In my 30 something years of climbing, I’ve only had to do this twice, and both times were epic. Having to re-climb doubled rappel ropes is one of climbing’s most taxing situations.
