Being in m y eighth decad, my climbing has slowed way down, but i still occasionally rappel when necessary to retrieve paleontological or archaeological material from exposed cliff faces (there are a lot of those on the Channel Islands (USA).
Right now I am instructing successors, because I won't be doing this forever.
Some years ago (fifty, more or less, I was involved in archaeological projects at Canyon de Chelly which (sob! oh the agony...) often required climbing and rappelling on low grade sandstone. I routinely carried at least sixty feet of climbing rope (and often more - up to six hundred feet) for various projects.
The rap rig was minimalist - the rope and my tender body - the old fashioned body rappel has its advantages - extremely light weight an easy to assume
