Repelling at Keeners

In our 3rd week of knots for gnar, keeners have the opportunity to repel off of the 150 foot tower that Wilderness Tours owns. Most people decided to repel of the tower including myself. First we had to find a harness that fits you properly. After putting the harness on you have to make your way up the 150 foot tower. This is the scariest part because it is a vertical green ladder all the way up to the top and you have almost no support except a cage keeping you from falling back. At the top there were 3 different repelling lines set up. After the person in front of me went and sent all of his gear back up it was time for me to go. After getting knowledge on how to repel I was asked to step over the gate, lean back, and hold on tight. I slowly made my way down the part of the tower your feet can touch then I let my feet go and was hanging by a line 150 feet off the ground. This was pretty scary at first but it became more comfortable as I got closer to the ground. To repel there is a metal piece of equipment called a figure 8 that is attached to your harness and the line is put through it in a special way so it does most of the work holding you up instead of yourself. It isn't tight enough to hold the line from stopping you completely but instead it allows you to let line out slowly until you reach the bottom. Once on land I took all the gear off and sent it back up via the repel line, took my harness off, then asked if I could do it again. To all future Keeners: Repel off the tower! You will regret it if you don't.

                                                  Repel tower at Wilderness Tours

By: Will Moore