Eagle Tower and Ropes Course

06 July 2011

Today was probably one of the best days thus far here at Ft. Benning. As usual, we woke up at 0400 and were doing PT by 0545. Chow was at 0800 and we actually got to eat about 5 mins longer (roughly 10 mins overall). We then set out as a company to Eagle Tower and the Ropes Course. The march was about a mile which was not too terrible, but it was hot! The temp reached about 95 degrees today.

Eagle tower is a 40' repelling tower with three lanes. Attached to it is a series of obstacles made out of ropes. I will describe those first. The first obstacle was 2 ropes about 30' off the ground that were spaced roughly 4' apart (top to bottom). We had to cross the 2 ropes (a span of ~50') to the other side. The key was to keep balanced and try to make it across before falling 30' into a big black net. I made it fine, but it was the hardest of the three. The next one, I know everyone has seen before. It was a single rope about 2 inches in diameter stretched tight over the same 50' span. The goal here was to wrap one foot over the rope and let one leg hand off and pull yourself to the other side. This one went well, but I did get a little rope burn on my chest, which felt really nice later. The 3rd obstacle was a series of ropes that looked like a one -rope bridge with 2 ropes acting as rails. This one was pretty easy and went well.

The highlight of the day came when we got to repel down Eagle Tower. This process took a while for several reasons. We were taught a class on rope tying and we got to tie our own harnesses out of climbing rope. We used what they call a "c-swiss" knot to make our harness. I had to re-tie mine several times because I wanted to make sure that if for some reason I fell off that tower, it wasn't because of my harness. So after I got a "go" on my c-swiss, I went to the 10' practice tower. No problem there, so I was cleared to proceed to the Eagle tower. Since, Jesica and I repelled on our honeymoon, I wasn't nervous at all and was actually really excited to do it again!  I climbed to the top of the tower and waited for my turn. One kid, poor guy, had every drill sergeant on the range yelling at him to go. He was so nervous, but he made it. Everything went well with my jump, so the day turned out to be really fun! It was a rather long day though, so I am really tired! Hope all is well!

Matthew