- Hard Fall by James Buchanan Read Free Book Online Page A

instructing other climbers. This didn't quite feel like that.
    "If Joe falls," the pitch reined back to something more pragmatic, Kabe continued, "as he's moving up to set the next anchor, I can belay him. Unless the anchor comes out, we're good." He adjusted his harness and began knotting in.
    "Zipper falls are fun. Fall, stop on the belay, anchor tears loose, fall some more."
    I could see it not quite working through Nadia's mind. I could play instructor, I'd done it before. "Belays are like brakes for ropes. He's tied to me," I flicked the rope that would link us. "I'm strung through his belay. If something happens, Kabe has to slow my fall with the belay and take the force on him and the anchor. Which means my life depends on me setting them good, 'cause if I don't they'll rip loose when my weight hits 'em." By the way Nadia's lip twitched up and her eyebrows met above the bridge of her nose, the logic of that seemed to hit. "Anyway, I don't intend on using 'em.
    So I go up, set the next anchor, tie myself off. Kabe'll clear the bolt out of the face and climb up to the next one. And we keep dancing like that until we reach the top."
    "Normally," Kabe barely glanced up from inspecting his rigging, "that's the point where you rappel back down, but we're doing this one bass-ackwards."
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    Hard Fall
    by James Buchanan
    Since the tree line wasn't that far from the rim, I decided to use an old growth pine for the multiple anchor points.
    Actually two trees about thirty feet apart ... redundancy in the number of anchor lines and anchor points is key to survival.
    Darn things I chose were bigger 'round than both my thighs, straight and well rooted. It took Kabe and I a bit to set the multicolored webbing and steel rings, yank on it hard a few dozen times from a few dozen positions, but I'd rather be safe than dead. I double-checked his double-check. Kabe did a final check 'round. The boy was as meticulous about the process as I was, we'd have drove Fred nuts.
    Then we tied into the figure eights ... mine the typical heavy duty first responder steel model and Kabe's the lighter aluminum sport type. I'd go first on the rappel as well as the climb back out. I looked up from my knotting to where the ranger crab walked along. I smiled at the sight and shouted over, "You okay there, Nadia?"
    "Yeah, not much to see on solid rock." Slapping her hands on her thighs, she stood. "I'll see if I can spot any evidence on a perimeter walk, but you're good to go here."
    I walked to the edge of the cliff and took a deep breath. A different kind than before, this one got all mixed up in a prayer. Rappelling was the part of the climb I hated the most.
    When I'm on my way up, I got a load of backups to keep me from falling. Rappels were all about the equipment. Best I could manage for safety was knotting a double figure eight in the rope's tail end so I wouldn't slip off and shanking a couple Prusiks, specially tied short loops of rope, to act as secondary belays.
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    Hard Fall
    by James Buchanan
    My right hand held my brake rope, the left the primary rope, and both ran through the rappel device and clips. Easy, slow, I walked backward over the lip. There's always that sudden terror as you step off the cliff and leave your life in the strength of your gear. My torso upright, my toes on the rock, I tried to keep everything as smooth as possible as I played out and walked down the face, but I still jerked now and again. Before I knew it, I was darn near at the end of my rope.
    Flatlanders just have no real idea what that expression means.
    Now I needed to set some anchors so I could continue the rappel. I actually had to jug back up a bit to find a spot I liked. Then I tied the lock off knots in my rappel rope and began setting gear. We could have extended the rappel with webbing or such, but I'd rather play it safe. Plus, what I set now would allow us to set up a Z-pulley system so that I could haul the body easier. Once it all felt set, I hooked