NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Abseil

In British English, abseiling (from the German abseilen, "to rope down") is the process of descending on a fixed rope. British English (BrE) is a term used to differentiate the form of the written English language in the United Kingdom from other forms of the English language. ...

It is also known as: rappelling or rappeling (American English), abbing (British slang), rapping (American slang), roping down, roping, seiling or jumping (Australian slang), snapling, snappling or snappeling (Israeli slang). American English (AmE) is the form of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. ... Diagram showing the geographical locations of selected languages and dialects of the British Isles. ... Jump to: navigation, search Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ...

Abseiling is used in a number of applications, including:

Rock climbers returning to the base of a climb or to a point where they then try a new route.
Recreational abseilers, who return to the top of the line by track, stairs or other methods and abseil again.
Recreational canyoners, who travel down mountainous watercourses where waterfalls or cliffs may need to be descended and simply jumping is too dangerous or impossible.
Recreational caving, where underground pitches are accessed using this method.
Adventure racers, whose events often including abseiling and other rope work.
Industrial/Commercial workers, who may use abseiling techniques to access parts of structures or buildings so as to perform maintenance, cleaning or construction. (eg window cleaners, railway scalers, quarry workers, etc.)
Access to wildfire by rapelling from a hovering helicopter.
Military or police applications, such as rapid deployment from helicopters or access to buildings as part of raids, etc.
Confined spaces access, such as investigating ballast tanks and other areas of ships.
Rescue applications, such as accessing injured people or accident sites (vehicle or aircraft) and extracting the casualty using abseiling techniques.

The majority of abseiling is done using specially designed devices called descenders which allow the abseiler to connect themselves to the rope and control their rate of descent (through adjusting the level of friction applied to the rope by the device). There is also the older, but more uncomfortable, method of wrapping the rope around one's body for friction, as in the Dulfersitz or Geneva methods popularly used by climbers in the 1960s. Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ... Canyoning (also known as Canyoneering) is the sport of travelling down canyons using a variety of techniques including walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, swimming and li-loing (using an inflatable air mattress). ... ... For other uses, see Pitch A pitch is a significant underground vertical space in mining terminology. ... Adventure racing is a combination of two or more disciplines, including orienteering and navigation, cross-country running, mountain biking, paddling and climbing and related rope skills. ... The Old Fire burning in the San Bernardino Mountains (image taken from the International Space Station) A wildfire, also known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, brush fire, or bushfire (in Australasia), is an uncontrolled fire often occurring in wildland areas, but which can also consume houses or... The worlds most popular helicopter, the Bell 206 of Canadian Helicopters Robinson Helicopter Company (USA) R44, a four seat development of the R22 A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors (propellers). ... Rescue refers to operations that usually involve the saving of life, or prevention of additional injury. ... A wide range of equipment is used during climbing. ...

Practice and equipment

Helmets are worn to protect the head from bumps and falling rocks. When needed, the primary light source is mounted on the helmet in order to keep the hands free.
Gloves protect hands from the rope and from hits with the wall.

On the feet boots are worn. Pith helmet of Harry S. Truman For information about the band Helmet, see Helmet (band) Pickelhaube of a Swedish Royal Guard soldier A helmet is a form of protective clothing worn on the head and usually made of metal or some other hard substance, typically for protection of the head... A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a type of garment which covers the hand. ... Boots is the name of at least five different albums and singles: Boots by Nancy Sinatra (1966) Boots by Mighty Gabby (1984) Boots by Condemned Eighty Four (2001) Boots by KMFDM (2002) Boots by Noe Venable (2003) It is also the name of a large chain of chemists in the...

Knee-pads (and sometimes elbow-pads) are popular for protecting joints during crawls or hits.
Ropes used for descending are typically of kernmantel construction, with a multi-strand core protected by an abrasion-resistant woven sheath. For most applications, low-stretch rope (typically ~2% stretch when under the load of a typical bodyweight) is used to reduce bouncing and to allow easier ascending of the rope.
A Harness is used around the waist to secure the descender. It should be comfortable if you are planning on spending many hours hanging from it while descending.
Various mechanical devices are used for controlling the speed of descending, attaching rope to the rock or wall and to the abseiler. These braking devices, or descenders include the basic crossed-carabiner brake, braking bars, the figure eight, the abseil rack, the "bobbin" (and its self-locking variant the "stop") and the "sky genie" used by some window-washers and wildfire firefighters.

A lightweight retrieving line or reepschnur can be used for releasing or pulling down a rappel rope from the anchor point once a siege climber has reached the bottom of a pitch, thus permitting a longer rappel (the entire length of the rope rather than half). An x-ray of a human knee In human anatomy, the knee is the leg joint connecting the femur and the tibia. ... Elbow redirects here. ... Coils of rope used for long-line fishing A rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength, for pulling and connecting. ... The term harness has been used for many centuries for part of the collection of equipment known as horse tack, essential in the domestic, military, and agrarian use of horses. ... A wide range of equipment is used during climbing. ... A wide range of equipment is used during climbing. ... Firefighter in full turn out gear with a pickhead axe. ...

NOTE: Abseiling can be a dangerous sport, and should only be undertaken by and/or under the supervision of trained persons.

Practice and equipment GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

See also

Practice and equipment