Just a quick question. Who puts in the rappel rings and webbing on routes? I climbed Dennis over the weekend and saw the old rappel next to Jackie is gone. I'm just wondering if anyone can just put a few webbing and a couple of rap rings on the big trees. I don't want to slap webbing and rings all over the place. Just want to keep the place clean.

Slings & rings appear & disappear from the tree atop Jackie with regularity.

It is easy enough to walk down from there .... if the Uberfall isn't pouring or iced over, say.

It's also reasonably easy to rap from other nearby stations .... if you already know where they are.

In general, "climbers" may replace fixed gear with like kind.

The webbing ontop of Jackie is cut and replaced frequently. I beleive the reason is that it is close to the walkoff, and when people rap from the top of P2, it further crowds the already crowded Jackie/Classic/Pink Laurel Ledge.

I am certainly not the source on if it is ok to add new rap stations or not, but I would think it would be ok to replace existing slings at anchors and trees, but I would say it is probably not a good idea to add new rap stations. One reason is, as you said, it could be seen as littering and a bit of an eye soar. The other reason is that someone will most certainly cut your new slings if you try to build some sort of a new rap anchor. There is an easy decent option from just about anywhere in the Trapps already. Whether that would be a rap from that particular climb, rap from a neighboring route, or a walk off.

Yeah... seems like the slings and rings on Jackie do disappear quite quickly...

Am I missing something? It's been a year or so since I've been at the Classic/Jackie first pitch ledge, but aren't there bolts w/rings and/or chains on the wall just behind the tree?

(which would explain the lack of rappel slings and rings on the tree itself).

I think the original poster is referring to the top of P2, not P1.

JDW

Careful. You're gonna cause brains to explode when people realize there aren't a ton of one-pitch climbs in the Gunks and that most are 2 or, gasp, even 3!

Yup, P2. Anyway, I just want to make sure.

There are no official rules about where rappel slings can or cannot go. Anyone can install them, and anyone can take them down. But surely rappelling from the top of Jackie into what is almost always a large collection of climbers is at the very best extremely rude and inconsiderate and at worst endangers others. In view of the fact that a party can walk down and return to the base faster than two people can set up and carry out two rappels, there is no reason to rappel from the top of Jackie (well, maybe if the Uberfall is totally iced up) and many very good reasons not to. This isn't about some old-school love of walking back. It's about behaving with a modicum of consideration and common decency.

I imagine that folks who get hit by ropes thrown from the top are rather inclined to go up there and cut down any slings that encourage such behavior, and that's why rap stations up there don't seem to last long.

Yeah....What he said