| Thanks to John Bicknell and Ed Crothers, owners of Colorado Mountain School, one of America's premier mountain guide services, for reviewing this book and offering many valuable suggestions. Thanks also to Joe Josephson, who created the initial outline and contributed many ideas on rappelling. |
| Much appreciation goes to my great models who suffered through my sour moods when re-shooting certain sequences for the third time, or when the deadline was looming like a guillotine: Jen Barrientos, Steph Davis, Carol Adair, Joe Corsini, and Silvia Luebben. |
| Finally, thanks to the following companies for contributing gear: Trango, Misty Mountain Threadworks, Five Ten, Petzel, Stonewear Designs, and Sterling Ropes. |
| My introduction to technical climbing was by way of rappelling at age fourteen. We bought a seventy-foot piece of 9-millimeter rope and wore it out rappelling off the outdoor handball courts at our junior high school. In time, rappelling for me became only a tool for descending from climbs. |
| Rappelling is used in many endeavors, though: spelunking, canyoneering, urban and wilderness rescue, military maneuvers, window washing, bird research, tree climbing, rock and ice climbing, and mountaineering. Many people consider rappelling a sport unto itself. Though this book is written from the climbing/mountaineering perspective, the principles covered are relevant to all disciplines of rappelling. |
| Rappelling is serious business. It consistently ranks among the leading causes of climbing fatalities, according to Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Performed with care, you can make thousands of rappels without incident. Get careless, and your next rappel may be your last. |
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