Nothing happened.
He tugged again.Harder this time.
Nothing.
The Petzl ascender should have locked onto the rope.But the cam wasn’t engaging.Wasn’t moving at all.
He tried one more time and put more pressure on it.
Still nothing.
“Ascender’s not catching.”Teague examined it with his headlamp, and his stomach dropped.The cam was locked in the open position with teeth not touching the rope.Frozen.“Looks like it got jammed with grit or debris.Must have happened when I was scraping through that narrow section.”
Embarrassing.
Teague was meticulous about his gear.But the wet rock, the hurry, the narrow passage—something had fouled the mechanism.
And now he was stuck eighty feet down a dead-end shaft with no way to climb back up using his ascender.
“Can you free-climb?”Eden asked, her voice tight and controlled.
Teague shone his light up the shaft and assessed the walls.Smooth limestone, slick with moisture, barely any handholds.“Not easily.The walls are too smooth and wet.I could maybe do it if I had to, but?—”
“Okay.Listen.Can you see the ascender mechanism clearly?”
“Yeah.”
“The grit is probably in the spring mechanism.You need to create an alternate friction hitch above the ascender to take your weight, then you can work on clearing the jam.”
Teague blinked and stared at the radio like it might explain where this knowledge was coming from.“Where’d you learn that?”
“I read.”Her tone was clipped and professional.“Do you have a prusik loop in your gear?”
“Yeah.”Teague pulled the thin cord from his harness—bright red against his dark gear.His mind was still catching up to the fact that Eden was walking him through an advanced climbing rescue technique.“Eden?—”
“Focus, Teague.Loop the prusik around the rope above your ascender.Three wraps, then tie it off with a friction knot.You know how to tie a prusik knot?”
“Yes.”He did and wrapped the cord around the main rope with practiced movements.“But?—”
“Clip a carabiner to the prusik loop and attach it to your harness.That’s your temporary ascender.It’ll hold your weight while you work on the jammed one.”
Teague followed her instructions, the prusik knot gripping the rope as designed.He transferred his weight to it carefully—it held.
Good.
Now he could work on the Petzl.
“Got it.Weight’s on the prusik.”He examined the ascender’s cam mechanism more closely.“I can see grit packed into the spring housing.If I can clear it?—”
“Use your knife to scrape it out, but be gentle.You don’t want to damage the spring.”Eden paused.“And Teague?When you get out of there, you’re going to listen to me about waiting for backup next time.”
Despite everything—eighty feet down, stuck in the dark, Noah and Meg still trapped somewhere—Teague smiled.“When I get out of here, you’re going to tell me where you really learned all this.Because it wasn’t from reading manuals.”
Silence on the radio.Then: “Just fix your gear and get back up to the top.”
Teague worked the knife tip into the ascender’s mechanism and carefully scraped away compacted dirt and grit.Slow work.But gradually the spring began moving again—first sluggishly, then with increasing freedom.He tested it and worked the cam open and closed—smooth now.
“Got it.Ascender’s working.”He unclipped the prusik and let the Petzl take his weight again.It held firm.“Coming up.”
