Accidental Rope Pull In Canyoneering Retrievable Anchors: How Much Force Is Needed

Smooth Operator/Fiddle, Macrame, and CEM are 3 of the most popular retrievable canyoneering anchor rigs (where I live in the Southwest US anyway). There are lots of videos out there covering how to set them up, and how to use them, so I’m not covering that here. Weeks ago, a friend and I got into a discussion whether to use Smooth Operator or Macrame on this one long rappel. I opted for SO because I believed it would make an easier rope pull on that rappel afterwards. He wanted macrame because “it is harder to accidentally pull down the rope when someone is rappelling“. This prompted me to make this video/set up experiment to compare how much force it is required to execute a rope pull while someone is rappelling. Given the number, not saying the bigger the pull force required during rappel the better. Also have to consider which rig makes it easier to retrieve the rope afterwards. That may be for another video. This video is what it looks like when you take Jackass, King of the Hills, and How Not To, and mesh them together. Created with the #GoPro App on my iPhone.