Abseiling
rope-controlled descent of a vertical surface
Abseiling ( AB-sayl or AHP-zyle; from German abseilen 'to rope down'), also known as rappelling ( RAP-pell or rə-PELL; from French rappeler 'to recall, to pull through'), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in contrast to lowering off, in which the rope attached to the person descending is payed out by their belayer.
Description
The technique is used by climbers, mountaineers, cavers, canyoners, search and rescue and rope access technicians to descend cliffs or slopes when they are too steep or dangerous to descend without protection. Many climbers use this technique to protect established anchors from damage. Rope access technicians also use this as a method to access difficult-to-reach areas from above for various industrial applications like maintenance, construction, inspection and welding.
To descend safely, abseilers use a variety of techniques to increase the friction on the rope to the point where it can be controlled comfortably. These techniques range from wrapping the rope around their body (e.g. the Dülfersitz technique) to using custom-built devices like a rack or a figure of 8. Practitioners choose a technique based on speed, safety, weight and other circumstantial concerns.
In the United States, the term "rappelling" is used.
The public source identifies “Abseiling” as rope-controlled descent of a vertical surface. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Abseiling, rope-controlled and descent.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abseiling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.