

And just like that, we're rescued. The team members clean up gear, figuring out which slings, ropes, and devices belong to whom, and then gather for a debriefing. They dissect the whole operation in excruciating detail for nearly 45 minutes, going over everything from the miniscule issues to the big mess-up: the tangling of the mainline and the backup line while they were raising Siemer and me. The focal point, where the two ropes met the cliff, was poorly chosen, and when they went to lift us, the ropes bound up in a little crack. But they realized the problem, addressed it and eventually fixed it. Kennemore says that such an instance of problem solving under stress would have led to a pass if they were being tested by the MRA.