Slightly random question, but how would you do it?
Lets say you're on the 3rd floor of a building and trapped in a room with fire a fire preventing your escape down the corridor. You have 100ft of proper 550 paracord and a pair of gloves to protect your hands. How do you escape safely?
Would you tie the cord to something and fast rope out the window (would it be thick enough to grip and not cut through your clothes)?
Or perhaps tie loops in the cord to make a ladder?
Or even a set of prusik knots or similar?
Apologies for my rambling thoughts and if this is in the wrong board!
Dan
This is actually a quite good question. It shows forethought and analytical approach - and is as such an example of where prudent preparation really can change the potential outcome of a dangerous situation. Such approach applies easily both to wilderness travel and common urban life.
Short answer: It can be done - but please read the rest of the reply, as the real trouble may not be where one would instinctively think.
I have rappelled down quite a number of different cords and ropes - ranging from doubled masons twine to clothesline - and of course paracord. All of these experiments have - of course, as I am rather fond of this life - been done with redundant array of UIAA climbing/abseiling equipment.
The strength of the cord is issue number one.
The dynamical load on the cord is issue number two.
The braking mechanism is issue number three.
Issue one : Tensile strength of the cord:
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Almost all of such cords are manufactured in a way which does not GUARANTEE such tensile strength. Is is merely used as a nice overall figure. Real MilSpec Paracord may be different; but at least I find it rather difficult to distinguish between the original and the copy.
Furthermore, as the cord is tied to some furniture or implement in the flat, as to facilitate an improvised anchor for the rappel, the tensile strength is drastically decreased. The knot itself may not even be the largest factor, as the cord may pass over other items of furniture or the windowsill itself any small edges along this will have vast impact on overall tensile strength.
For my tests, the paracord has been tied in a figure of nine, to distribute the load evenly. I have not tested the impact from windowssills or such, as these test were conducted in a classic top-anchored climbing training environment.
Using a mat or similar (which should be absolutely free from grit and such) under the cord, where it passes any kind of edges would be essential.
Issue two:
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The paracord is rated for static load. Any rappel is going to involve dynamic loading. The cord will - of course - not be required to arrest a falling person; but as you move down the cord the inherent elasticity of the cord will make you bounce up and down. Your mission is to make these bounces as small as humanly possible. You will therefore have to move very slow and deliberate; which leads us to the next issue, braking.
Issue three:
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The braking issue would be the most single most influential factor in relevance to the potential succesful outcome of the excercise.
Such small diameter cord is EXTREMELY hard to brake using any of the available body-rappel methods. Simply wrapping the cord around ones waist would be yet worse, as it would cinch hard on the internal organs and severely restrict ones ability to breathe. Combine this with the abrasive action of the paracord as is transverses under high tension across ones body or clothes would make a very effective meat-saw.
The correct way to do a body-rappel is the Dulfer:
(Image cortesy of
http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org)
This is a quite hard technique to master, as one have to both control the balance and braking action with ones actual body. The method was actually quite well-used in the traditional mountaneering - but as a testament to the inherent dangers of this method there were several well-experienced climbers which actually strangled themselves to death as a result of this method.
In the bygone era of climbing the ropes were of substantial larger diameter than today. Doing a dulfer with a single (thin) modern rope is nearly impossible to do without burns from the friction. With a doubled rope - and lots of padding - it is doable.
With paracord - single or double - it is bordering outright insanity. The abrasive action - as mentioned above - would be severing both the collarbone and the femoral artery by the time the 30 feet decent was finished.
If one foresee the probable need to do an emergency rappel one would therefore be advised to preposition rope of suitable diameter and tensile strength (preferable static - and maybe even a cheap (unpolstered) climbing harness.
If the intended situation is of improvised nature it would be very prudent to include an UIAA locking carabiner to the kit. With the use of an hms-knot (or simply wrapping the rope around the spine of the carabiner) it would be quite possible to rappel down doubled or even tripled paracord. Single layer paracord breaks at the smallest dynamical load you would introduce. A fast improvised harness can be tied with a triple bowline:
Triple Bowline:
(Image courtesy of
http://www.mountainproject.com)
HMS-knot:
(Image courtesy of
http://www.wikimedia.org)
Recommended solution:
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My solution to the problem is Dyneema. Dyneema SK-75, tp be excact. A 3mm cord made of Dyneema SK-75 has an ultimate tensile strength of over 800 kgs, and is thereby plenty strong for improvised rappels. It should be stressed, though, that the cord is NOT designed to absorb any kinetical energy in a free-fall situation. (It is, of course, neither designed to rappel from. Only UIAA (or similar) stamped gear should be used for planned rappelling activities.)
I have 30 meters (about 100 feet) of such Dyneema SK-75 tightly rolled op in a little pouch which conveniently fits in the right back pocket of my trousers. I have a UIAA locking carabiner holding my keys, in a belt which is designed to hold my weight with a considerable safety margin, and a pair of abrasive-resistant climbing gloves tightly packed around the cord in the abovementioned pocket. I probably need not mention on a bushcraft forum that a knife (of some sort, whatever is allowed by the various autorities in your relevant country) is a tremendous asset to any rope-based rescue - improvised or planned, and should therefore always be awailable.
I have in two separate occasions had to use this setup to facilitate an improvised rescue in situations where the outcome otherwise would have been dubious for the unfortunate persons involved.
I should stress, however, that NEITHER of these incidents were in conjuction with any of the wilderness courses I teach (where I, BTW, allways bring more robust rescue gear anyways). Both incidents were in urban settings, where wating for official rescue relief were simply not an viable outcome.
// Kim Horsevad
