Rappelling and the boys in blue
2017 has gotten off to a slow start for me, the sad reality of returning from an epic trip has it's consequences. Top that off with the winter blues I was in dire need of some sort of adventure. A friend of mine had always shown interest in doing some cool rappels, the good weather slowly approaching I figured we could find something cool to toss the ropes down.
Generally my go-to is Tews Falls in Waterdown, with the temperature lingering at a chilly 9 degrees I wasn't too interested in getting soaked hanging 150 feet from the ground. I had always wanted to rappel down the gorge next to Tiffany falls in Ancaster, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to check it out. The fairly easy access along with avoiding a rope line directly through the water made it a good choice to go scope out anchor options.
Coming off the overnight shift I had packed my gear the previous night, getting an early start on the adventure would help avoid ruining into any potential naysayers. I headed right for Hamilton from Pearson Airport, sleep is overrated anyhow - there was adventures to be had! I met Lily at the trail head where we sorted out the possible gear we'd might need and talked game plans. I had a pretty basic setup - lots of webbing, carabiners, static rope and just enough knowledge to get by without killing us
The approach to the falls is a pretty short jaunt up a well maintained trail through a shaded forest. After a 5 minute walk it spits you out at the bottom of a 70 foot aesthetically pleasing ribbon style waterfall. I had been several times before but never with the intention to rappel so we had some work to do. We scrambled up the muddy side of the gorge where a trail eventually led us to the top of the section we planned to descend. When setting up anchors it's important to build redundancy into the system, in case something fails you have a reliable back up. There was a fair amount of awkwardly placed trees above the edge and after a bit of trial and error we built something somewhat safe looking. It didn't occur to me how tired I was until I was attempting to tie a simple water knot and failing horribly at it - I made sure all my rigging had a once over before the system was weighted... Just in case... I tied into my personal anchor and slowly walked down the washed out slope to the edge of the cliff face. Quite a few spectators had gathered below, presumably enjoying the long awaited warmer weather with a nice hike to see the Falls. I yelled "rope!" as I tossed the rappel line down the rock face into the gorge. At this point we had gone relatively unnoticed but as the rope crackled down the icy talus we started to draw attention. I quickly attached my rappel device (a rescue figure 8 for those in the know) routed my line and weighted it before taking off my personal anchor. I was a bit nervous, the anchor looked bomber but it also looked like a bit of a hornets nest of webbing and static rope. I had decided to go first; I always feel obligated to go first when setting up a rappel, I wouldn't feel right if something were to happen to someone else on my setup.
I slowly descended back down the muddy slope to the edge, the rope line draped over a two inch diameter root which had some how penetrated the side of the cliff face. Very carefully i stepped onto root as it flexed below under my weight 100 feet off the gorge floor. Looking straight down the face my hands were starting to sweat, there were more than enough spectators to witness an awful tumble to my death if I did something wrong. I gently stepped down passed the root which in turn dislodged a small boulder which crashed down at the bottom of the wall exploding on impact - it was at this point I realized I had left my helmet at the top and was too far to retrieve it. I continued slowly descending down the chossy limestone carefully placing my feet. Hanging from the cliff face so focused on a smooth slow rappel i almost forgot to take a look around - the falls half frozen, the water rushing down the rock face to my left, the river cutting through the forest below, day hikers standing on the viewing platform taking photos. It was a beautiful day, the type of mini adventure I lived for... After that brief moment of clarity I continued down to the icy talus, unhooking myself from the rope and yelling up to Lily "Off rope!". After doing a few descents each we packed up our gear and craved some more adventure. I had told Lily I knew of a bridge close by that may be possible to rappel from, needless to say we were headed there before we knew it.
The bridge, located in the little town of Dundas Ontario was about 60 feet high at best, it spans across a small river flowing through a mixture of boulders and a man made concrete flood wall. We scrambled up the side to check out our best options for rigging an anchor. After debating the best options we built something we were fairly comfortable with and tossed the rope over the railing. At this point a small crowd had gathered on the nearby hiking trail to watch what we were getting up to. I routed the rope through my rappel device just as I had before and slowly started climbing over the railing. Perched on the other side of the rail my back was exposed to the open air, it was silent, time was of the essence as it was an active railway crossing and the sound of an oncoming train would not work out in our favor. I slowly weighted the rope and swung under the tracks free hanging below the wooden girders. I began descending making my way down the rope ensuring to regulate the braking strand slowly and smoothly. I was always a bit nervous at heights and trusting rope and other aiding devices is still new to me, needless to say the moment my feet touched the lightly rushing water below me I let out a small sigh of relief. A small cheer came from the group of onlookers behind me while I quickly detached myself from the rope and started to scramble back to the top of the bridge.
We did one more rappel each and quickly started to pack up our gear, amidst coiling the rope and stowing our equipment I noticed a police car parked down by the road, somehow I had missed when they arrived and didn't see the constables anywhere in sight. I told Lily to take her bag and start walking up tracks while I finished up and figured out what the plan was. Unfortunately it was too late, like a lion hunting its prey the police officer appeared behind us telling us to stop. Quickly I weighed out my options - 1) Run and likely get caught 2) Deal with the possibility of getting a fine 3) Start crying and tell them it was all Lily's fault.
Needless to say we stayed and to our surprise the officer was pretty cool. He reluctantly told us that we couldn't rappel here and that someone had called them to complain. We gratiously agreed and told him we wouldn't do it again. (we were just happy to not get tasered and end up on a viral police brutality video). We packed up the rest of our gear, high fived to a successful adventure day and hit the road.
Until the next one..
