Multnomah Falls Rappel - 4/26/09

Today I had the unique oppertunity to do a ~550 foot rappel off of the top of multnomah falls as part of a garbage collection and "public safety demonstration" (the area is usually off limits to climbing and rappeling). Once a year Oregon State Search and Rescue units conduct a high angle clean up of all the trash that gets tossed off the cliffs, which means that a group of us got to rap the big one. It was certianly one of the cooler things I've done with SAR, and all the driving was certianly worth it!


Drew practicing at the Gresham Fire Rescue training tower


View from the top


Rocky from Portland Mountain Rescue scoping out the line

Next is a sequence of my rappel that Mel shot from the lower deck. You have to click the picture to actually see me because it's so big!











Drew's at the fire tower... The objective was to rappel with 40 lbs of weight below you to simulate the weight of 600' of of rope below you. Half way down the guiding line begins to pull you away from the wall... At this point, for training, we practiced locking up the ASAP (a device that clamps down on the rope if it suddenly accelerates), and then unlocking it. It's a unique setup to go along with a unique problem!


I shot this about 2/3rds of the way down...