Abseiling.

Corega

It's been a while since I've done a bit of abseiling, however the last time i did it I thoroughly enjoyed it, great craic. I've done it twice so i'm not really an expert at it, but I was just curious if anyone else was into it, and if they could post up a few link's, tell me a few good places to abseil around Dublin etc.

I've never done it in Dublin as the last two time's were in Achill and Killary respectively.

TacT

Last time I did that was in Gartan adventure club for a week of all sorts of various malarchy. Good place to start looking would be the rockclimbing wall in the ucd sports complex. Me and a few mates used to go in there every Saturday/Sunday afternoon and climb as high as we could then jump off into the safety matresses

I'll dig up some links for you later, although I'm sure if you look up adventure sports clubs in the golden pages you will get plenty of info there. Or drop into the Great Outdoors and I'm sure they could point you in the direction of various clubs/groups of people that arrange outings for the weekend/day for this kind of thing.

Kali

and go down face-first.. its so much better...not advisable to jump too often that way though.

Mystic Fibrosis

Ah the last time I abseiled was in Maine, last christmas.

Evil Phil

You could try

http://www.climbing.ie

They have a message board so you could post a request.

or

Great Outdoors

who don't actually do it but could point you in the right direction.

But if you're into abseilling then maybe you should upgrade to rock-climbing. Try you're local college or UCD Climbing wall for courses. You could also try

Mountaineering Council of Ireland on courses. I know Tiglin do 1 day intoductory courses in Dalkey Quary if you're in Dublin, or evening sessions in UCD. They also do great weeks/weekends away for a more serious intoduction or an improvement of skills etc. Those courses are always great fun.

Join the MCI (above) or is it the IMC and you'll get discounts of climbing gear in G. Outdoors and other Outdoor shops.

<shamless plug :rolleyes:>
If you're intrested in climbing visit my website, I'm away travelling and climbing for a year. The link is in my sig below (hehehe).
</shamless plug>

TacT

well plug away phil, this is not the for sale board, if you have a site that might interest anyone then it's more than welcome to the pot.

will3k

hi guys,
I've been wanting to do abseiling for like ages. any body got any sites I could check up on, how would I start. Anywhere in Dublin? Any info would be helpful.
Cheers,
Claire:D

FX Meister

Evil Phil wrote:

<shamless plug :rolleyes:>
If you're intrested in climbing visit my website, I'm away travelling and climbing for a year. The link is in my sig below (hehehe).
</shamless plug>

No it's not!!!

Flashling

I went abseiling for the first time yesterday with an adventure centre in the Mourne Mountains, which isn't in Dublin but they do residential courses. Oh my god, it was amazing! Only six of us got to go down because it was snowing, and I strained a tendon, but it was worth it! I wish I had found out about it years ago….

cavedave

Not quite absailing but SRT (google images "Single Rope Technique") is carries out by cavers and canyoneers. If you've been to a university most have a caving club you can join if you want to.
David

FX Meister

Why would anyone want to use SRT to ascend a rope if they are into abseiling? I find ascending a rope to be a right pain in the ass and only do it if I really have to.

Evil Phil

FX Meister wrote:

Why would anyone want to use SRT to ascend a rope if they are into abseiling? I find ascending a rope to be a right pain in the ass and only do it if I really have to.

Have to agree, its a last resort. Abseiling isn't in my top ten list of things that I like doing either - a neccassery evil more than anything.

Btw: http://www.showerofbastards.com/ used to be in my signature but that was quite some time ago.

cavedave

I am not sure I undestand your question but here goes.
In climbing you come up to a cliff. Go up it.If you cannot walk down from it you abseil off?
In caving you come to a cliff. Have to go down it. So you abseil down it. Usually you have to go back up the cliff to get out and the easiest way to do that is a form of prusiking.
With the right kit, correctly set up ascending a rope is very easy.

FX Meister

Nah, it's a pain in the ass going up.

cavedave

Nah, it's a pain in the ass going up.

kinda hard to argue with the argument "Nah". If you have a rope walker correctly set up gear and a bit of practice scaling pitches is easy. I'd estimate a speed of two metres every three seconds and because your only using your legs its not tiring.
David

FX Meister

Ok, I prefer to climb. Any time I have to ascend a rope I use a grigri and some other yoke from petzl. Not too enjoyable but if I have to do it I have to do it. But then I would also hate to go caving.

cavedave

Fair enough. Climbing is great fun. If theres a rope already there its easier to use it though. Your right its mainly a caving thing as even in canyoning you rarely have to go back up a rope.
David

Cork Skate

Abseiling has to be the best buzz ever, I abseiling the cliffs of Moher .... 620 feet and it was excellent. Have abseiled down cliffs and off bridges and bridges have to be the best fun, with nothing around you to look out for and being able to push off the bridge while you are standing upside down underneath it is the job.

Facing forward and running at full speed down the side of a cliff and jumping and free falling seriously wakes up the senses at 10.00 on a Sunday morning. Brilliant stuff.

FX Meister

Cork Skate wrote:

Facing forward and running at full speed down the side of a cliff and jumping and free falling seriously wakes up the senses at 10.00 on a Sunday morning. Brilliant stuff.

Not to mention a great way to wear your rope out really quick.

cavedave

speaking of the cliffs of moher this also looks like fun
http://www.dreamcatcherproductions.ie/previewflv.htm
There some good cliff jumps between Doolin and the cliffs of moher as well.

Speaking of abseiling what sort of rope do you use? Also what descenders do you use. 9mm static can be burned out with a petzl descender unless the rope is wet.
David

Cork Skate

cavedave wrote:

Speaking of abseiling what sort of rope do you use? Also what descenders do you use. 9mm static can be burned out with a petzl descender unless the rope is wet.

I'll be honest i dont actually know, i leave that to others to sort out, i'm a slack bástard like that I know its made of Kevlar and any ropes over 700 foot are cut after six goes.

The decenders? Do you mean the figure of eights? We have them scanned and x-rayed all the time, and they are stress tested aswell (i think every second time, not sure)

Fairly important to have all that sorted out anyway from what i gather.

FX Meister

Scanned and xrayed? Who do you do this abseiling with?

cavedave

The decenders? Do you mean the figure of eights?

yeah a figure of eight is a form of descender. I find they tend to get very warm though. On a big pitch a rack would be preferable but a petzl stop is more usual
http://www.cspoutdoors.com/peradewibrba.html
http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=1024&parent_category_rn=4500696

Cork Skate

FX Meister wrote:

Scanned and xrayed? Who do you do this abseiling with?

Figure of eight and a crab, there probably aren't the technical terms but i dont know another names from them !?!

cavedave wrote:

yeah a figure of eight is a form of descender. I find they tend to get very warm though. On a big pitch a rack would be preferable but a petzl stop is more usual
http://www.cspoutdoors.com/peradewibrba.html
http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=1024&parent_category_rn=4500696

Jebus, they look the part alright, can you still go fast though? We can drop 100 feet in just over 5 seconds (no all the time obviously)

What do you use for your hands lads? We just use welding gloves .... haven't found anything else that works.

cavedave

We can drop 100 feet in just over 5 seconds (no all the time obviously)

No we wouldn't be going that speed. Static rope would not enjoy that. You do occasionally get really big pitches

but usually theres deviations rebelays and a host of other pieces of rigging every few metres so speed is not that great.

I just use gardening gloves. I suppose caving is not really an extreme sport in the sense that your not really going for an adrenalin kick your just trying to explore, adventure sport might be a better word.
David

FX Meister

Cork Skate wrote:

Figure of eight and a crab, there probably aren't the technical terms but i dont know another names from them !?!

I said who, not what. If you get them XRayed after use I was wondering who does this? I've never xrayed any of my gear. As for a fig 8. They are horrible.