Learning the ropes was easy. Trusting them was another story.
Up on the roof of La Fonda on the Plaza, the 62-foot drop to the pavement didn’t feel like a far distance. The process of preparing to rappel down the side of the hotel, one of Santa Fe’s tallest buildings, was simple.
An attendant gathered participants — known as “edgers” — around a ladder and explained they would be harnessed into two industrial-strength ropes rigged to the roof. Each participant climbed some rungs of the ladder and practiced rappelling a few feet down.
The whole ordeal — a Saturday fundraiser for the nonprofit Girls Inc. in which 60 people raised or donated $1,000 or more each for the experience — didn’t seem like a big deal.
Until you were hanging over East Water Street.