The Death Brake

It was a beautiful Spring day in Boulder, and Maggie and I were in high spirits as we headed up the Bluebell trail toward the Third Flatiron. Maggie Herz was a grad student in the Physics Dept, I was a 2nd-year grad student in the Astrogeophysics Dept, and both of us were hiker/climbers in the CU hiking club. I had my 50-m rope, and she had hers. We needed two of them because we planned to do the famous 50-m (165-ft) free rappel off the high point of the 3rd Flatiron down into Poison Ivy Gully. Each of us had been up on top there before, but neither of had rappelled off the 50-m cliff. When I had done the Flatiron climb the year before, it was with one of my teachers, who showed me how to do a body rappel off the back side of the Flatiron, where the drop was only 25 m, so it could be done with a single rope. The body rappel had been invented at least 6 or 7 decades before, and it was still being done even now in the enlightened age of 1967 because braking carabiners hadn't been invented yet (or at least Yvonne Choinard's Ironworks factory wasn't supplying the stores). But the ever-inventive Rocky Mtn Rescue folks who hung out with the CU Hiking club had invented a system of 3 carabiners that worked fine as a rappel brake--so long as you put them together correctly.

The climb up the face of the Flatiron went smoothly. Maggie and I swung leads (that is, we alternated leading and belaying). The climbing was easy, because the slope is only 40 to 50 degrees, the rock is "sticky", and the holds in the red sandstone are solid. Belay bolts had been placed at 100-foot intervals, and you could see them sticking out of the smooth slope even as you began the ascent. If somehow you slipped off your foot and handholds, you would just slide down, probably scraping the skin off your hands and elbows, but the rope would catch you before any serious damage would be done. In any case, I've never heard of any fatalities from roped climbs on faces of the Flatirons. (Roped-up, no, un-roped yes.)

Being the first "lead" climb I had ever done, it was an exciting climb for me. Maggie had done some other "leads" before, so it was not a first for her. At the top we sat and enjoyed the view of Boulder below us as hawks and vultures lazily soared around, many of them below our airy perch.

After a quick lunch, we traversed over to the great cliff we planned to rappel down. It was a breath-taking view straight down from the rappel bolt, and the adrenaline coursed through my veins (and I'm sure Maggie's) as we fed one end of a rope through the eye of the bolt, and tied the other rope to it with the regulation fishermans's knot. Then we tossed the two ropes down into space, one at a time. We checked that they hadn't snarled on the way down, and saw that the two ropes hung vertically 165 feet down to the ground, and that they actually touched the dirt of the gully--which appeared to be blessedly free of poison ivy.
When the ropes had been set, I volunteered to go first, and took out our 3 carabiners to construct the rappel brake. To make the brake, you put two ovals against each other (see picture), push the paired ropes through the two ovals, and then insert the 3rd 'biner between the rope and the 'biners. When the ropes were put under tension, they rubbed against the 3rd biner, and slid smoothly through the other two.
The old way--correct
The new way

I attached the brake system to my waist loop with a short sling, and stood up. I was ready to step backwards from the bolt towards the air, and was leaning away from the bolt, with my butt hanging over the cliff. But Maggie shouted, "Wait!".

Thirty eight years have passed, and the scene is still fresh in my mind. Last week, for the first time since that moment, I put a 3-'biner brake system together, just to see what would happen. I had never used that kind of system after my first use because 1-piece brakes came out in the climbing shops shortly afterwards and so I had never given a second thought in those 38 years to a bad 3-'biner arrangement.

So what happens when you pull hard on such an improperly setup system? At first, the gate opens only a little, but if you do any twisting, it opens more (see pictures), and first one rope slips through, and then the other, leaving a straight rope. So on that day in 1967, I was only a "Wait!" call from a death fall.
The old way---wrong
The old way--going...
The old way--gone!

Maggie pointed to the brake system and I saw that I had inserted the 3rd 'biner backwards, with the gates under pressure from the ropes. This was a definite no-no, because it was theoretically possible for the tensed ropes to open the gate, and one or both of the ropes then could slip through. Then you'd have no braking at all, and you'd plummet to the ground as if you had no rope.

Immediately I stood forward from the cliff, and re-arranged the 3rd biner into its correct position. Without another thought, I leaned back into the air, and rappeled smoothly down to the ground. Back at the top, Maggie put her brake system together correctly, and slid down to the bottom herself. Although Maggie had probably saved my life, neither of us put any more thought into what had happened, though I now think of that improperly assembled system as the "Death Brake".

-- 4-lives rakkity