Enter_Narne

Interesting question. I happened to be idly sitting around and wondering the same thing this week. But it was more along the lines of casual speculation. "Out of the box" if you like.

Just as background, I climbed and rapelled for many, many years.

Something about your question seems to imply that you have not (or don't regularly) rappel. Normally the smallest diameter rope used for raps is 9 mm rope. It works fine - but you need to watch your setup a little bit to make sure you've got enough friction in the system. Obviously you don't want to get into a run-away situation while descending. Cave explorers have the most elaborate rappel gear - quite nice stuff!

If you have not rapelled - learn that method first using standard techniques and equipment.

Now back to your question. Could paracord be used? It would be a very risky thing to try to do. It would require that you weight the paracord carefully and that you do not bounce at all going down. It would also require that the cord should not snag or rub over any abrasive surface. You could not afford to lose any strength from the cord at all. But the main thing would be to figure out some sort of rappel rig that would create a LOT of friction with a very small-diameter cord. NONE of the normal rappel techniques do this. You would have to take time to develop something quite new (or nonstandard). The whole maneuver would fall into the category of an emergency high-risk operation. It's pushing the outer bounds of safety.

Let us know if you ever succeed - without killing yourself!

And if you do actually do experiment with this - for goodness sake set up a safety line with a proper rope (11 mm) and a harness on your body ... so you don't ground out if you screw up - or something breaks.

Pete