Vertical Practice Round Two

After such a successful first vertical practice, Mike decided to hold another this week. I came over early to help him sort through the gear and to practice rescue techniques. By the time people started to show up, I was in full gear and attached to a complicated-looking pulley system. We were having difficulty replicating a cave rescue situation because I was on the ground level. So, I detached myself and we decided to start practice. I gave up my gear to someone and tried to teach a group of people about the gear itself and how to changeover from ascending to rappelling. It started to rain lightly, just enough to cool everyone down.

After a few hours, Mike decided to rig the pulleys for another purpose: vertical caving treadmill. It was the strangest thing to watch. Essentially, Nina, who was in full caving gear, started ascending up a rope that was threaded through a pulley. Mike had the other end of the rope and he was feeding it through the rack. So, as Nina ascended, Mike would feed more rope and she would stay in the same place in the air. This way, she could actually ascend most of the rope instead of only the 30 or so feet to the top of the tree. Mike also tried a few rescue techniques and learned that if he ascended while Nina was just hooked in to the rope, they could both move up. We played around with the ropes and the gear for a while, attempting to try a bunch of different rescue techniques and vertical training. 

Events occurred: September 25, 2013