Abseiling Gerko

ABSEILING What is abseiling? How is it carried out? Where can we carry it out? As stated in the Wikipedia, abseiling originates from a German word: abseilen which means to rope down. Abseiling is also known as rappelling in American English. It is the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope; climbers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection. Besides abseiling and rappelling which are the main ones, we do have slang terms for this activity. Slang terms for the technique include: rapping or rap jumping (American slang), deepelling (Canadian slang), abbing (British slang for "abseiling"), rappling (Hindi slang). The term rappel / rappelling is derived from the French language: French, recall, return, rappel, from Old French, recall, from rappeler, to recall: re-, re- + appeler, to summon. In the book, ―Rock Climbing and Abseiling‖ written by Paul Mason, he mentioned that ―these are sports that people do for fun, not necessarily for competition‖. Furthermore, Terry Adby and Stuart Johnson mentioned in their book ―The Hillwalker's Guide to Mountaineering: Essential Skills for Britain‘s Classic Routes‖ that abseiling is not a sport in itself but a technique used to retreat or advance. Although abseiling is one of the many recreational sports, always bear in mind that abseiling is a very dangerous technique. There are so many things that can happen while doing this activity. This includes the occurrence of a jammed climbing rope, equipment failure, ropes cutting through sharp edges or rocks, and other incidents that are risky to the abseiler. Take note that any of these can happen even if you think you have done everything to ensure your safety.

Abseiling Gerko

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