Zachary tied the rope that didn’t reach the ground completely, but that wasn’t an issue. The real issue was the inclination of the mountain that Zachary was using to reach down. He actually had to drop 5 to 10 feet in one go which wasn’t an easy thing to do. He knew the circumstances that come along the drop. You always have the possibility of the rope breaking from the middle. But Zachary didn’t stop there and did the first drop of 5 feet. The deeper he went the noise became more and louder.