Ok, this is something I'm currently putting my players through, and they're slightly stumped for good ideas, so I thought I'd put it out there and see what other ideas abound 
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Background: (Skip below for the actual issue)
1) Gestalt game, PCs are all lvl 17. 3.5 rules.
2) I have altered the Falling Damage rules, after you hit 200ft (20d6), the damage dice increases for every 50ft you fall, and after you hit 50ft above d12s, it's save or die (successful save puts you on -1, assuming the falling damage doesn' put you further). Yes I know it's not perfect, but it's in there to stop the "Hell, I've got 121 hp, I'll just jump it and cast Heal at the bottom" mentality that occured in my last campaign.
3) The PCs are in the area that they are in under disguise, so they don't have their usual animal companions, familiars etc (they're all left with the decoy duplicates to make them more convincing)
4) The PCs are currently undergoing the Cave of Trials in order to gain an audience with the leader of a Dwarven social movement that they feel is sus. They are unable to leave the cave (door is a several tonne block of granite, and the counterweights etc are on the other side)
PCs:
Druid/Rogue-Fighter-Artificer (Human)
Dread Necromancer/Beguiler (Chaos Gnome)
Rogue-Telfamar Shadowlord/Illusionist-Shadowcraft Gnome (Whisper Gnome)
Bard/Cleric (Human)
Ranger-Beastmaster/Warlock-Hellfire Warlock (Human)
Sorcerer-Argent Champion/Fighter-Dragonslayer (Raptoran)
Critical Note: This entire place is under an antimagic field
The PCs were reasonably well prepared for the trials, but didn't anticipate the AMF. This means that almost all of their useful gear is in their bags of holding/hewards haversacks, and thus cannot be got too.
The Actual Problem
* The PCs have found themselves at the top of a 1000ft deep shaft. Sheer walls, 30ft accross, circular.
* Every 60ft down from the top is a small alcove. Each of them did contain 50ft of rope, this have been retrieved. There are five alcoves.
* 230ft down, on the opposite side of the cavern is a larger alcove (will fit a gnome or dwarf), containing 1000ft of steel reinforced rope (ie, strong enough to hold together under it's own weight), and a large Piton.
* This Piton has now been nailed into the wall of the alcove, and the rope strung to the bottom of the pit, so there is now access from 230ft down the pit, to the bottom.
I wont go into the rest of the background/how they got to this setup, but the nutshell is this:
1) Two PCs (the Gnome rogue/mage and the Raptoran sorc/fighter) are at the bottom of the pit. The width of the shaft, combined with his Manouverability, mean that the Raptoran is unable to fly back up. The Gnome is the only one with Darkvision that works in the AMF
They have a few weapons (including a Gnomish Hook Hammer and various swords), three 50ft lengths of rope, and a Hewards Haversack
2) The other four PCs are at the top of the shaft. They have a makeshift torch with them, made by wrapping someone's shirt around the necromancer's shovel and lighting it with flint and tinder that someone miraculously *didn't* have in their bag of holding. This is rapidly running out but they should be able to cannibalise a couple more
These PCs have various more weapons, including a crossbow that may have Adamantine bolts. Three 50ft lengths of rope, and another 10ft of makeshift rope from people's clothing. They also have several more hewards haversacks and a bag of holding.
3) The PCs at the top need to safely get down the bottom, and then continue through the trials. They know nothing about the next area except that further down the tunnel it is *freezing*.
One PC has come up with an idea of stringing a couple of ropes accross the pit at the 230ft mark, and having the ones up top jump and land on/grab hold of these ropes to break their fall. (Hey, it's safer than just jumping ).
They've actually been reasonably impressive so far, doing things like going through the books to look at the material components for the common spells they cast so they can make torches from their spell component pouches, but they're a little stuck from here.
So. How would you get down?
If you need any more info on the setup etc, I should be able to provide it.
So you have 3 humans and a gnome at the top of a 1000' cliff, they have 160' feet of rope. They *may* have Adamantine bolts for a crossbow ....
You're the DM? Well, if you're feeling nice, and they do have Adamantine bolts, you could allow them to use them as makeshift pitons - have the three humans travel down the 160' of rope while the gnome waits at the top. When the humans reach the end of the rope, use a bolt (or several) to make a makeshift anchor, then have the gnome disconnect the top - he'll fall 320' (or 160' if the others want to try to catch him ...) and should make some kind of check to see if he can maintain his grip on the rope. If he fails, he plummets. Repeat until they reach the bottom or they run out of bolts (may be reusable, depending on the ingenuity of the players).
They may also be able to cannibalize the Haversacks - one could conceivably be cut into enough strips to allow another 10' or more of leather rope ... although whatever was inside may be lost (depending on how HH interact with AMF).
I don't understand what the 1000' of "steel reinforced rope" is ... the way you say it, it sounds like you could have the characters at the bottom 'build' a rope to the top.
So you have 3 humans and a gnome at the top of a 1000' cliff, they have 160' feet of rope. They *may* have Adamantine bolts for a crossbow ....
Yeah, we havn't checked the crossbow ammo yet, I mentioned it to the crossbow carrying PC out of game session, he hadn't checked his quiver so he isn't sure if he's got them with him or not, but I'd certainly say he should do.
You're the DM? Well, if you're feeling nice, and they do have Adamantine bolts, you could allow them to use them as makeshift pitons - have the three humans travel down the 160' of rope while the gnome waits at the top. When the humans reach the end of the rope, use a bolt (or several) to make a makeshift anchor, then have the gnome disconnect the top - he'll fall 320' (or 160' if the others want to try to catch him ...) and should make some kind of check to see if he can maintain his grip on the rope. If he fails, he plummets. Repeat until they reach the bottom or they run out of bolts (may be reusable, depending on the ingenuity of the players).
Yep, I'm the GM. The xbow bolts as pitons certainly could work, depending on how they used them. I'd actually had an NPC mage friend of theirs cast Hardening on all their weapons a couple of sessions prior, intending them to be able to be used, since I strongly suspected that they wouldn't think of needing climbing equipment in an AMF .
Unfortunately a re-read of the spell reveals that Hardening is permanent, not instantaneous, and so will be suppressed by the AMF
They may also be able to cannibalize the Haversacks - one could conceivably be cut into enough strips to allow another 10' or more of leather rope ... although whatever was inside may be lost (depending on how HH interact with AMF).
Yeah, the Haversack ruling is a grey area, I'd be happy to say that as long as the 'bag' portions of the haversack aren't breached, they can still get to everything inside once they're out of the AMF. I've already suggested using the straps, buckles etc as more rope.
I don't understand what the 1000' of "steel reinforced rope" is ... the way you say it, it sounds like you could have the characters at the bottom 'build' a rope to the top.
The 1000' of reinforced rope is basically a "If you got 240ft down the 1000ft cliff, then you've done well enough to be given the tools needed to get the rest of the way to the bottom". Just unfortunately only 1/3 of the party got that far down, so the rest need to reach at least that point.
It's steel reinforced because as a couple of my PCs pointed out, standard rope that long won't be able to hold up under its own weight.
The current best plan by one of the PCs (with a couple of inputs from me, but mostly hers) is to use the materials that they've got to make a makeshift sling at around the point the rope to the bottom starts, with loose pitons on one side and strong ones on the other.
Each PC jumps individually, (hopefully) lands on the sling, it breaks their fall, and the pitons on one side pull out of the wall (working on the theory that a dead stop is harder on the body than the thing you're falling on taking some of the weight and then giving way), and as long as they keep hold of the rope they'll pendulum-swing into the wall and can grab the rope to the ground.