“We had 1 rope rigged, 3000 feet long, from the diving board on the nose of El Capitan.”
These guys descended 2,650 feet down El Capitan in one continuous rappel using a style of rigging called Single Rope Technique, or SRT. The technique is most frequently used by cavers exploring vertical caves. It uses a variable friction device called a long rack so the user can have less friction at the top of the rappel. At the lip the rope weighs approximately 210 pounds, allowing it to behave like a steel cable that won’t bend.
As the rappeller continues to descend the rope begins to weigh less and less, so they switch the rope from 5 bars to 7 bars throughout the entire rappel. The same devices are used in caving, allowing cavers to rappel safely and smoothly in rope caked with clay and mud.
Once he made it to the bottom, the rappeller used a rope walker system to climb back up the Dawn Wall, reaching the top in 2 hours 15 minutes. He clarifies that he’s caver, not a climber, and that all of the gear used is the same he would take into deep TAG pits.
Descending El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is usually done either by rappelling or by one of the descent trails. Descending the entire 2,650 feet with one rope is a much less heard of technique.