Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.

Transitioning from climbing up to rappelling down is often a complicated and time-sucking part of your climbing day.

The traditional method of each climber using a leash to connect in close to the anchor, each person untying from their respective ends of the rope, threading the anchor and then each person rigging for a rappel separately can be awkward at tight stances and often takes a lot longer than necessary, especially with less experienced folks.

There are several different techniques to increase efficiency. Here’s one of them: lowering the second climber to set up the rope for the first climber to rappel.

• The leader arrives at the top anchor, builds an equalized anchor with a master point (say a quad).

• The leader clips their climbing rope with a clove hitch to the master point.

• When the second arrives at the anchor, instead of clipping to the anchor hardware with a tether, instead they clip to another clove hitch on the backside of the leader’s clove hitch connection. 

• This frees up the second’s end of the rope. 

• The second unties, threads the rope end through the anchor hardware, and re-ties into the rope.

• Next, you rig a lowering system for the second, typically with an ATC on the anchor.

• Now , when the second is lowered, half of the rope moves through the anchor hardware, which perfectly sets up the next person to rappel. Hence the name, “self thread lower”, schweeeeet!

• (This is closely related to the backside clove hitch transition to rappel, which we cover at this article.)

Like many things in climbing, this is a much better show than a tell. Watch the two video clips below to see how it's done.

Why lower instead of rappel?

• Low angle, blocky, rope grabbing terrain that makes throwing a rope problematic.

• High winds, which could cause some big problems if you throw your rope.

• You may not know exactly the distance to the next anchors. Lowering can ensure the first person gets there and does not find themself dangling in space at the end of the rappel. (Then you probably need to do the #CraftyRopeTrick of an extended rappel, which we cover in this article.)

• Maybe a beginner climber who’s not comfortable with rappelling.

• Many climbers are hesitant about being lowered from above. Interesting that these same climbers have no concerns with top rope climbing, when you are lowered from below, so what's the real difference? Yes the rigging is a bit different, and you need to practice that for sure, but in the end it's functionally about the same.

For this to work:

• You need to know your descent and be SURE you're able to make it to the lower anchors or ground with at least half of the rope left. (If you just climbed the pitch and the belayer did not pass the middle mark, you should be fine).

• On a multi pitch rappel, you need to be sure that the first person down can safely secure themselves to the anchor, which might be a concern with a beginning climber.

• You need to have a good middle mark on your rope.

Assuming these requirements are meant, you can see from the videos below what an efficient technique this can be.

It might appear that this technique puts extra wear and tear on the anchor hardware, because it seems you're lowering directly through it, which is generally not best practice. Turns out, this is not the case. Almost all of the friction from the lowering is happening on your belay device, and the rope is simply redirected through the anchor hardware that's higher up.

From AMGA Rock Guide Cody Bradford.

Sadly Cody is no longer with us, but his excellent Instagram account is still up, highly recommended for many other climbing tips like this. Rest in peace, my friend.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbqClsZhOXc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Nice YouTube short from Summit Seekers Experience showing this technique: