This weekend Ireceived my new rappeling gear and just had to test it while geocaching. In the progress I made some mistakes. The line for the prusik knot that would secure the rope was slightly thinner than usual (turned out to be a mistake). It was still much stronger than the anticipated load. I made an initial test where everthing went fine. The prusik knot was only loaded with about half of working load (one more mistake). I decided to go for the cache. It went smooth to point where I had the container back in its hiding place. The prusik knot was locked and I could not take enough load from it to open it again. After some attempts in vain I decided to cut the securing line. Having backup for the line and a Buck Crosslock Helped very much. The hook on the Crosslock is ideal for cutting the line without risking to damage the rope. It goes without saying that I knew how belay my breaking device to stop the rope for the operation.
Maybe some of the people who plan to use rappeling gear for their escape plan can learn from my mistakes.

The book “On Rope” By Allen Padgett & Bruce Smith is a good resource for climbing techniques and properly setting up ropes.