lower oneself with a double rope coiled around the body from a mountainside; "The ascent was easy--roping down the mountain would be much more difficult and dangerous"; "You have to learn how to abseil when you want to do technical climbing"
To rappel down a cliff or rock face means to slide down it in a controlled way using a rope, with your feet against the cliff or rock. They learned to rappel down a cliff. to go down a cliff or rock by sliding down a rope and touching the rock or cliff with your feet British Equivalent: abseil (rappeler )
Using a rope to descend from a climb Modern rappels are generally done with a rappel device, which creates friction on the rope to help control the descent Also called abseiling