Features
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 18. 1991
11
over the
edge...
Kansas rappellers descend buildings, not mountains
By Nedra Beth Randolph Kansan staff writer
magine jumping off the top of a five- story building.
After climbing more than 60 stairs to the roof, you step onto the edge of the building. You turn around so that the heels of your feet are touching the ground and that is keeping you on the building as your balance.
Your legs are shaking. Your palms are sweating.
Your mouth is so dry that your tongue keeps sticking.
Your hands are sizzling.
You look over the edge and suddenly five stories seems like five miles. The people at the bottom look like ants running on the solid ground below. Then you lean back and you are gone, over the
Some people would say it is suicidal. Other people would say it is fun
Rappelling, the act of descending a steep height from a rope secured at the top, is an increasingly popular sport done alone or in combination with rock climbing.
In Kansas, rappelling usually means scaling down the side of a building. Elsewhere, rappelling usually means going over the edge of cliffs and mountains.
Greg Daniels, Kansas City, Mo., senior, has known how to rappel for eight years. He first learned to rappel on the sides of buildings in Springfield, Mo.
The highest height Daniels said he had ever rappelled from was a 120-foot drop.
He said his favorite place to climb and rappel was in the mountains in Colorado.
"Rappelling is pretty fun," he said. "It's good for people, who are just getting started climbing."
Daniels said he mostly rappelled when he was rock climbing.
Daniels joined the Kansas City Climbing Club two months ago to get more experience climbing and rappelling. The club is the nearest group for Lawrence residents who want to climb and canel.
Bob Allison, Kansas City Climbing Club president, said knowing how to rappel was essential for
"Rappelling is a quick way for a climber to get down from where they just climbed to," he said.
Allison said the club offered a class twice a year that taught rappelling alongside climbing.
There is no charge for the class but Allison said only members of the climbing club could attend.
Club meetings are held the first Tuesday of each month to discuss trips. The club travels one weekend of each month from March to November to climb and rappel.
On other Tuesdays, the club has access to a climbing and rappelling wall in Kansas City. Mo
Allison said the club had about 50 members, five of whom are from Lawrence.
For those who already know how to rappel,
sunflower 804 Massachusetts St. offers the equipment
for aerial work. (312) 655-9978.
Sunflower sells the rope that leads you as you go down, the figure-ring eight that provides the resistance that keeps you from falling too fast and the webbed harness that holds you as you descent.
Dan Hughes, Sunflower employee, said the store did most of the rappelling gear business in the spring.
"We do have a good number of people coming through here who are rappelling," he said. "About half want to learn, and about half already know how to rappel."
Hughes said he rappelled 40 to 50 times a year. He usually rappels off of rocks, walls or cliffs.
"You can rappel just about anywhere you can jump off of," he said. "I’ve don’t off the old Theta
"It's quite a rush to sit back on the rope and go down."
Last week, members of KU ROTC from the Army and Marine divisions and ROTC members from Washburn University practiced rappelling from the Fire Station No. 2 training tower at 1941 Haskell. About 90 cadets rappelled off the tower's one-story and five-story drops.
Another way to learn rappelling is to join the military.
Arne Suit, the Army ROTC cadet officer in charge of the ROTC roppalling exercise last week, said the first time he rappelled was four years ago with the ROTC when he was a freshman.
"the hardest part is getting over the edge — especially if you're afraid of heights," he said.
The ROTC usually rappels once each semester. They practice rappelling on a wall inside the Military Science Building before going out and rappelling down the entire side of a building.
"The only way to get hurt is to hook up," he said. "If that's wrong, then you go down real fast."
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Arnie Sult, Lenexa senior, rappels down the wall of the Fire Station No. 2 training tower in Lawrence.