Rappelling down the Arc cave

Since I came back here I have adapted a rather lazy schedule, waking up usually after eleven in the morning, but on Monday morning I woke up rather earlier, around nine, feeling I did not have enough sleep, shortly after I woke up I received a phone call from Sobhi, my brother in law, and my companion for sportive and extreme activities, he proposed to go and do rappelling at the Arc cave, this is an ancient cave which had most of its roof collapse except for a curved strip at the front of the cave, creating a structure resembling an arc. We headed to the cave, which is located in the north of the Galilee, only a few kilometers of the border with Lebanon. We took this trip on the background of two recent events, the first is the death of an experienced instructor a few days before, he fell to his death from the top of the arc, a 40 meter height, he survived the fall but not for long, as he died before the medics arrived, the reason ? he forgot to tie his rope ! the second event was the skirmishes along the border between Israel and Hezbollah, that took place the day before, artillery fire and rockets were exchanged across the border, Israel retaliated after Hezbollah, launched an attack on some of its military bases, Hezbollah attack with triggered by the assassination of a Palestinian Jihad leader, who Hezbollah claims was assassinated by Israel, the assassination (denied by Israel) might be in response the Jihad firing home made rockets from Gaza, at the other side of Israel, anyway you get the picture of this seemingly never ending cycle of violence, neither event deterred us from going through with our adventure.


The cave was visible from the main road as we approached, located on top of a rocky, bush covered hill, the border fence and the patrol road were visible as well, and no more than a couple of kilometers away, at the foot of the hill a military check point was set up, but when stopped and gesticulated to the solders, signaling that we are not sure what to do, they simply indicated to us to just go around the road block and continue our way, I had slept most of the way, and I was feeling more fresh and ready for the challenge ahead.



We tied up a rope at the top of the arc, and I was to go first, so far I had done more climbing and less rappelling (going down ropes), and this would be the highest descent I have ever done, I also have a fear of heights, although it might have been less lately, I was a bit edgy as I attached my self to the rope, and began climbing down, Sobhi mentioned something about watching out for the Pruzek, which I absently heard, I started descending edgily down the rocks, and as I reached the edge of the rock part, were the arc ends and the open air descend starts, I got stuck , I forgot about the Pruzek, the safety knot connecting me to the rope, I was supposed to keep pulling it with me I go down, I forgot and it got stuck, to loosen it I would have to remove my weight from it , a difficult task , I tried pulling my self up using the rope and the rocks, but I had to do it with one hand and use the other hand to loosen up the knot, I could not do it, bloody hill, I was stuck, Sobhi said suggested something about making a step, but I did not know what he was talking about, I guess hanging at 35 meters in the air effected my brain function, then I heard him curse, and say something about not having an extra rope, anyway he managed to improvise a rope by combing all the straps and binds he had, and he lowered it to me, but I could not attach to me, it was still about 10 cm short, Sobhi told me to wait, suggesting he was going to work something out, I was stuck for about 15 minutes now, and my muscles started to ache, my legs , my forearms, exhausted by the effort, the tension and the adrenaline, a couple of minutes later Sobhi returned, apparently he improvised some kind of lever, he managed to left me just enough to attach my self to the extra rope, then he pulled me using the extra rope, removing the pressure from the Pruzek, allowing me to loosen the knot, I unattached myself from the extra rope and started descending , not paying attention to Sobhi pleads to wait, with all those muscles aching I was eager to descend quickly , the scenery on the way down was stunning, I could see the green valley bellow through the front openning of the cave, Sobhi was calling again telling me to stop, apparently he just wanted to take a picture of me hanging down the arc, anyway I condescended on the condition he makes it quick, then continued my descend, relieved to finally reach down and allow my muscles the rest they needed.


Sobhi followed next, on his way down he sent me the camera by sliding it down the rope, so I could take pictures of him , and they came out the better pictures, I guess will have to do it again if I want a good picture of me hanging down the arc.