The girls have rappelled every year for as long as I've been a leader, but I haven't gotten to try it before - the first few years because my girls weren't old enough to do it, and more recently because I've been in charge of some other area of programming for the weekend.
But this year, I got to rappel!
We rappelled off a tall tower. There was a wall about 70 feet tall, with a platform above it. The picture to the right is actually the tower we were on. The wall we used is on the left side in that picture.
To rappel, the Army rappel
master hooks a rope to your harness. You stand at the edge of the platform with your heels over the edge. You lean back, leading with your butt until the rope is tight and you are in an L-shape (like the guys in the picture - that's also the tower we were on). Then you start letting out rope and walking down the wall. You can also let out rope and jump off the wall.Because I'm an adult, I was last in line. This weekend was about the girls, you know. I had watched many girls have a hard time with it. The hardest part is the leaning back. All the girls that got that far made it down the wall, although some did it in tears. Several girls didn't make it to the leaning back.
So as I said, I was last in line, and time was of the essence since the goal was to let everyone do it twice - once on the wall and once on the "skid" (you can see it on the left of the second picture - it's the bottom of a helicopter). While I expected to be nervous about it, I didn't really have time to be. I just got up there, got hooked in, put my heels of the edge, leaned back, and headed down the wall.
It was a lot of fun. I took a few steps down the wall, but then I jumped the rest of the way. That was the best part. The bad part is that it's over so fast. 70 feet flies by a lot faster than you'd think.
All of my girls tried it. Only one didn't make it down, and all but two did it twice. I was proud of them.
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