Ever done abseiling?

Done it twice from the top of buildings; The Hilton in Leeds city centre and from the op of Morden Civic Centre both for charity and then down a water fall in a cave...somewhere??!! as part of an outward bound thingy in Ullswater in January feck!! that was cold!!

try going down the cliff face face first - looking where you're going rather than where you've been. It's an awesome experience...........

Did it for the first time two weeks ago!
Off the top of county hall in Chelmford 110 ft aparently.

I enjoyed the experiance. I intend to do it again, from somewhere higher if possible.

To link to another thread - how about abesiling races for AR08?

Originally Posted by hoodlum

try going down the cliff face face first - looking where you're going rather than where you've been. It's an awesome experience...........

That's great fun, not for those with the vertigo.

Not so sure on where they let you keep your hands, with a figure 8 and a proper harness I'd keep only one hand on the rope to feed through the 8 and keep the other well out of the way. I always used a glove too. Don't like burning my hand, but like going fast.

I've done it out the side of a chinook. I've also parachuted out the back of a Hercules.

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by BigApe

I've done it out the side of a chinook. I've also parachuted out the back of a Hercules.

Oh man! I am soooooooooooooooooo jealous of you Ape.

I did some absieling in the cadets when i was much younger. I really aint great with heights and the idea of hanging off a cliff on a flimsy looking bit of rope (ok they did tell me it had a 2 ton breaking strain but it still looked bloody skinny to me) really did nothing to help...until i went for it. OMG how much fun is that. Even if my footing did slip a coupe of times that day and i discovered why you shouldnt try and snog mountains it was great fun.

Alway wante to do it out the side of a chopper, SAS styleee, or off the post office tower is my other fantasy.

Glad you tried something new Zunkus and enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by hoodlum

try going down the cliff face face first - looking where you're going rather than where you've been. It's an awesome experience...........

Yeah, an experienced friend of mine told me I could go down head first but I'm a little apprehensive about that. It seems more dangerous. Then again I'll give it a try next time round.

I got stuck in a world war two shelter once, which caved in in some places. It was an ex british fortress site called Selmun fortress overlooking the sea. I panicked when we couldn't go forward anymore whilst crawling on all fours and my friend behind me found it difficult to reverse. Become claustrophobic since then. I still love caves but the fear is there.

It's good fun, except when you're trying to do it with a 40lb pack and an SLR strapped to your back.

Originally Posted by BigApe

I've done it out the side of a chinook.

I've done it underground, under a waterfall, in perfect darkness, with 100m of rope and an ammo box clipped on to me.

The Chinook probably wins though.

In a way its easier to step off underground, because you cant see the bottom. When you are on a long pitch, and you are transferring from one rope to another, 50m above the next thing to stand on, while hanging on the rope you are transferring off, you tend to focus.

Only ever done it off 40ft abseiling tower when I was much younger and suffered from vertigo ... great fun though and would certainly do it again. Once we got the hang of it we were seeing who could get down in least number of jumps ... we managed it in 2 jumps eventually ... one bang in middle of tower and 2nd one hitting the floor

We went to do it on a 100ft quarry face somewhere and I chickened out there ... but the funniest part was watching one "know it all" jump out and swing back in and twist his ankle, after the group had been specifically told not to jump due to the uneven terrain. Dunno what it is, but it's always quite satisfying seeing those "know it all"s falter

Same bloke fell in a canal pushing a "long boat" out ... we were all in the boat looking out the "port hole windows" and waving at him as he gradually got outstretched (hands on boat, feet on shore) ... so funny