Sunday Skill builders: Advanced Rappel

You know how to rappel - now let's make you faster, smoother, and ready for the awkward situations real descents throw at you. This hands-on session goes past the standard extended rappel into the tricks experienced climbers use to descend efficiently and get out of trouble: closing the system every time, pre-rigging a whole team, speeding up group rappels, taming tangle-prone ropes, and solving the "oh no" moments partway down a cliff. We'll build and practice each system on the wall's fixed anchors so the moves are in your hands, not just your head. This is ground school - learn the rigging indoors, then apply it outside. It's geared toward climbers who already rappel confidently and want to level up their descent toolkit.

What you'll learn (we won't get to all of these - topics flex to the group):

• Dialed fundamentals: the BARK safety check, an extended rappel with a solid third-hand autoblock, and clean device on/off
• Closing the system: stopper knots and the "J-loop" so you can't rappel off the ends
• Joining ropes well: the flat overhand bend and how much tail is right (and why "just long enough" matters)
• Faster team rappels: the pre-rigged rappel and the fix-each-strand method
• Rope management that prevents epics: cast (don't throw) your rope, saddlebags in wind/blocky terrain, and a fireman's belay from below
• Rappelling on a GriGri and on a single strand
• Retrievable single-strand / carabiner-block rappels (and when to use a tagline)
• Problem-solving: passing a knot, freeing a stuck device, ascending the rope, and removing rope twists
• Descending with a damaged rope
• Why simul-rappelling is in so many accident reports - and safer alternatives
• Building redundancy into rappel anchors, and passing other teams on a route