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Places to Rappel

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Sorry OP, I just couldn't help it. My first specialty school fresh out of The Benning School for Boys in route to The Division was the Airborne Course.


I did attend the Air Assault School at FT Rucker 4 years later. Did you know that The Air Assault School was taught at FT Campbell and FT Rucker simultaneously in the early 80's to the mid 90's? Crazy, I know. I did my rappelling out of a UH-60A....Yeah that's right the A model, lol.

About 12 years later I attended the Marine Corps version of Air Assault Rappel Master School, The HRST Master Course taught by the fine fellows of SOTG at Stone Bay (Camp LeJeune). Rappelling out of UH-1N and CH-46E and FAST Roping out of the UH-1N, CH-46E and the CH-53D and doing SPIE ops out of the CH-46E.

Equipment? I would ditch the Swiss seat and Stubi 85 karabiner and spend the coin on a rappelling harness, a figure 8 descender (you can use your current locking D karabiner to secure the figure 8 to your harness), and a good 150 ft static kernmantle rope. That's about $350 worth of gear, but hey good rappelling ain't cheap. Bluewater makes good rope. I have used the 11mm Assaultline series, tough as steel, low elongation, good rope. My last harness was a CMC, but there are many good climbing/rappelling harnesses out there. Gloves? Meh, any set of heavy duty leather gloves will work.

Places to rappel? I really don't know of any close. If you have any contacts in the fire department, they have a nice tower at their training facility on North Avenue. It's about 60 or 70 foot with a suspension platform you can free rappel from and several windows you can assault into on the wall side. What about The Forum? If you have a contact there it has a maintenance catwalk that is suspended above the arena to service the lights. Lots of good anchor points and once you climb over the rail it's a 80 foot free rappel to the floor. A great place to do a little "slack jumping"! Good luck on the search.

Congrats on graduating Air Assault School. Do they still make you do the 12 mile timed ruck on graduation day with the pace man breathing down your neck for the first 2 miles? Run the first 2 miles, then walk to a power pole, run to the next power pole, repeat for the next 10 miles, lol. I hated that!
 
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Sorry OP, I just couldn't help it. My first specialty school fresh out of The Benning School for Boys in route to The Division was the Airborne Course.


I did attend the Air Assault School at FT Rucker 4 years later. Did you know that The Air Assault School was taught at FT Campbell and FT Rucker simultaneously in the early 80's to the mid 90's? Crazy, I know. I did my rappelling out of a UH-60A....Yeah that's right the A model, lol.

About 12 years later I attended the Marine Corps version of Air Assault Rappel Master School, The HRST Master Course taught by the fine fellows of SOTG at Stone Bay (Camp LeJeune). Rappelling out of UH-1N and CH-46E and FAST Roping out of the UH-1N, CH-46E and the CH-53D and doing SPIE ops out of the CH-46E.

Equipment? I would ditch the Swiss seat and Stubi 85 karabiner and spend the coin on a rappelling harness, a figure 8 descender (you can use your current locking D karabiner to secure the figure 8 to your harness), and a good 150 ft static kernmantle rope. That's about $350 worth of gear, but hey good rappelling ain't cheap. Bluewater makes good rope. I have used the 11mm Assaultline series, tough as steel, low elongation, good rope. My last harness was a CMC, but there are many good climbing/rappelling harnesses out there. Gloves? Meh, any set of heavy duty leather gloves will work.

Places to rappel? I really don't know of any close. If you have any contacts in the fire department, they have a nice tower at their training facility on North Avenue. It's about 60 or 70 foot with a suspension platform you can free rappel from and several windows you can assault into on the wall side. What about The Forum? If you have a contact there it has a maintenance catwalk that is suspended above the arena to service the lights. Lots of good anchor points and once you climb over the rail it's a 80 foot free rappel to the floor. A great place to do a little "slack jumping"! Good luck on the search.

Congrats on graduating Air Assault School. Do they still make you do the 12 mile timed ruck on graduation day with the pace man breathing down your neck for the first 2 miles? Run the first 2 miles, then walk to a power pole, run to the next power pole, repeat for the next 10 miles, lol. I hated that!
I did AA at Ft. Benning. There were AA classes at Benning, Campbell, and West Point. The paceman didn't take off like in your class. I just purchased and used the Bluewater 11mm assaultline rope too. I didn't know they were out of Carrolton. I think it would be cool to learn how to fast rope... I've also heard SPIES hurts. There's a few places around town I want to check out once it stops raining. I'm still using a swiss seat because that's what I know... I'm not too familiar with the figure 8s.
 
Any recommendations on the aforementioned gear? Best gloves, best rope, ect

I use PMI rope. They have a Pit Rope that’s fairly economical and tough as nails, Max Wear is the best and the EZ Bend is more user friendly for knots, but not as tough as the other two. They have great gloves too.

I have never been in the military, so I don’t know what you were taught, I do know I have worked with a few military guys and my idea of safety and theirs were pretty far apart. Could have been the individuals, could have been that they were trained for situations where the acceptable level of risk was different. But if not on your gear list I would highly recommend:
  • A copy of On Rope, by Bruce Smith - first and foremost
  • high quality STATIC rope as mentioned above
  • High quality comfortable harness
  • A good rack, aluminum will work but I prefer steel, I also prefer the j-style
  • Good set of ascenders and extensive knowledge on using them
  • Plenty of good oval locking and non locking carabiners
  • Plenty of webbing for rigging
  • Ability to handle any situation at height
Train low to the ground with a sturdy tree branch on passing knots, self rescue from the hanging upside down position, passing an injured or incapacitated person on a rope, rescuing a incapacitated or injured person on a rope.

And please make sure you have an experienced person with you if you are exploring Crockford anywhere underground, nothing under there is for beginners.
 
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