Link/video is from a news station in Wolfe County, KY. The team responded to a lost hiker that required them to rope down a cliff to retrieve her. During the descent, the Chief ended up in a free-fall situation that left him with cracked vertebrae and some messed up fingers. He mentions in the interview that he knew something was wrong and causing him to descend faster than he should have been right from the start. https://www.lex18.com/wolfe-county-...ring-team-evaluating-equipment-after-big-fall
He was now in a free fall situation. This has always been my BIGGEST fear while on rope, esp descending.........self lubricated free fall.......you descend and the rope starts melting, adding lubricity , which adds speed which adds more heat and lubricity, resulting in an INSANE freefall to death.
Always sucks when something like this happens. I'm really interested to hear what ended up causing the multiple equipment failure, as I have next to no knowledge about technical rope work. As an aside, I couldn't imagine the pucker factor the second guy going over the edge must've been having.
