In-descent exposure: Thoughts from 418 feet up
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Thank God for the "Anti-Fun Device."
Once you’ve successfully rappelled down 31 stories, something disconcerting happens.
You become smug. You live a unique life, and everyone needs to know. You’re like the guy who doesn’t own a TV, or CrossFit-ers. Or Vegans.
You find ways to insert your 31-story rappel into every conversation for at least 72 hours afterward.
“Could you pass the ketchup? My arms are still sore from my 31-story rappel.”
“Boy, it’s nice out today. It’s actually about the same temperature it was the morning of my 31-story rappel.”
“I totally understand the challenges of your divorce and bankruptcy, because I, too, have faced challenges — during my 31-story rappel. Have I told you about it?”
Your smugness is made possible by the Philadelphia Outward Bound School’s 2014 Building Adventure. For three years now, POBS has partnered with the Over the Edge organization to coordinate the event — to rappel, participants must raise $2,000, which funds POBS’ expeditions and scholarships.
This year brought in over $260,000, said Katie Newsom Pastuszek, POBS’ executive director. The goal is to coordinate a fundraiser, she said, that mimics POBS’ work with students.
Like when POBS sends students on expedition courses: They navigate, and if they go astray for a mile or two, the instructors don’t step in at first.
“They let them realize they’re going the wrong way,” Pastuszek said. “That empowers the students. You are relying on yourself.”
On Oct. 23 and 24, 130 people rappelled 418 feet down One Logan Square. I was among them.
The challenges:
- Waiting for your turn. (I spent the time dreaming up the most dramatic ways my rope would snap. Perhaps a rogue falcon would soar by and bite it in half?)
- Settling into the harness while hanging off a roof. Sounds so easy.
- Squeezing a lever and feeding a rope for 31 stories. Peculiar forearm muscles get sore.
- Knowing that earlier that day, significant winds had shut down one of the rappelling tripods on the top of the building. You can hear this wind — along with, if you listen closely, my piercing internal screams — in the beginning of the GoPro video below.
The best moments:
- When I asked if my GoPro was on, Nose Ring Guy [at 0:52 in the video] said yes, “it’s going…pro,” and then subtly cringed at his own lame joke. This relaxed me. Lame jokes are my Xanax.
- Learning that even though you’re using a lever to lower yourself, you can’t go very fast at all down the building. Should you start to go “too” fast, a safety mechanism kicks in and locks your rope. An experienced rappel-er I talked to called the mechanism “The Anti-Fun Device.” I like to call it “The Anti-‘Terror Diarrhea’ Device.”
- The first 10 feet down the building — once you get into a groove, the sheer thrill of what you’re doing sets in. This is also the smugness event horizon.
- Getting close enough to the bottom to hear the DJ. Because nothing says “You did it, and you are a bad bitch of the highest order,” like Beyoncé.
Helmet footage!
