Suburban Underground Vadders

Urban Assault

This cliff is a nice repelling and proving ground for SUV located in Austin’s “Greenbelt”. The Greenbelt provides a natural place to hike, bike, swim, climb and repel. It is basically a belt of trees that runs for 4 miles through part of south Austin and follows the Barton Creek. Now you may ask then, why would this rock wall climbing/repelling location be called Urban Assault. I think it’s because you can most easily get to it by taking the Gus Fruh Access, which can be found, on the edge of an upscale neighborhood. Suddenly you go from Suburbia to the great outdoors. Couldn’t think of a better name myself.

Now this cliff is not much good for climbing but for repelling it’s a rush. It’s approximately a 100ft wall with a twist. (I measured by the fact that my rope is 120ft long and after securely tying off it just reaches the ground with about 5ft to spare. The first 1/3 of this wall is a nice vertical wall good for hoping down. Then after 1/3 of the way down the wall comes the twist, the wall goes back about 30ft making a roof and a free repel with nothing but the rope. It would be kind of like repelling into a building from the skylight in the middle of a room.

We used this place to test out a few techniques and practice as well as take a few pics. Not much in the way of urban exploration but it would prove useful in deciding how to tackle other obstacles in the urban jungle.

These pictures are the first time we actually decided to wear masks to protect our identities so we can use them for this site. I (RevSM) am wearing the British S10 gas mask used by the SAS. Marbrough is using the Canadian M69 with the 40mm adapter.

Here’s a pic of me (RevSM) in which you can see the forest in the valley below. You can also see some of our gear on the ground in the foreground.

Marbrough standing at the edge, but most of these pics make it look like it’s not really that tall.

Here I am ready to take the plunge, you can see the valley in the distance. The rope is securely tied through 3 pins in the rock and doubled back and tied to the tree next to my foot. I don’t think it’s coming untied.

Just over the threshold with the dry creek bed far below.

Bouncing like a rabbit just before the wall disappears and there’s nothing but rope and air.

Hey, who ever said don’t look down.

Here’s a first person view… looking down to the rocks and brush below.

Ok, now you can see a little better how tall this thing is. That’s Marbrough at the top waving.

Marbrough’s turn to step over the edge.

Marbrough looking up almost to the end of solid wall. That’s not actually trash at my foot but an old t-shirt used to protect the ropes from the sharp parts of the rocks.

Talk about bouncing down the wall.

Finally a picture of Marbrough at the bottom.

Here you can see the little bit of rope left at the bottom. Remember that’s a 120ft rope. All in all it’s a nice place and a good repel.