Seattle practice sesh! 03/23/2019
Portlanders drive north to suspend from bridges.
Dusty Gold of Cascade Grotto hosted another training day at the Ravenna Park bridge in Seattle. I first came out to this event in Jan 2018. By that time i’d been sport climbing for about a year after a 15 year hiatus and had heard about caving and canyoneering, the all-weather technical rope work you can do year round. Ascending rope on prusiks and mechanical gear blew my mind, anything with an anchor point was accessible and I was free to roam. Fast forward and I’m heading up I-5 again, thinking about all the gnarly descents and everything I've learned in the last year.
We worked on ascending/descending, rebelays, emergency scenarios, the whole shebangabang. I learned why the Petzl Stop is unlovingly named the Petzl GO! by well seasoned-cavers. The device handles a lot different outside of the cave. A clean and thin (8mm) rope will rip right through it.
**more to come…
