Alpine Tips
Adrenaline induced tunnel vision
A normal response of your body to adrenaline is to narrow your visual focus. Generally, this is NOT helpful when you’re climbing. Read a short cautionary tale, and some simple things you can do to mitigate this.
It was my first weekend of learning to trad climb with the rock climbing class of my local climbing club. I was paired up with Eugene, a tall, lanky Brit with a quick smile and a sharp wit. I excitedly started up the moderate two pitch climb, and soon got to an obvious large belay ledge.
However, there was one big problem: the only available crack was flaring, awkward, and did not want to take any of my gear. After futzing with the pro for about 10 minutes and getting in a few marginal pieces, I spiderwebbed them together with a tangle of slings, clipped in with my rope, and called down.
“Hey Eugene”, I stammered, “Belay is on, but . . . ”, I paused, “um . . . don’t fall.”
Eugene hollered up, “Well, that’s not what I want to hear before I start climbing, but I’ll take your advice!”
A couple minutes later he arrived at the ledge. He stood looking at my sorry excuse for an anchor for a few seconds, and then cracked a wry smile.
“Well”, he said, “I have two things to say. One, you’re right, this anchor is absolute crap, and I'm glad I didn't fall on it. And number two, the bolted anchor that you SHOULD have used is right up there.” He turned and pointed upward about 15 more feet to my right, where I could now clearly see two shiny new bolts.
Yes, this was without question the low point of my anchor building career.
There are many lessons in this, but the one that stayed with me, and which is applicable in many other climbing situations, is the tunnel vision inducing effects of adrenaline.
It was one of the first times I had ever led on trad gear, and an onsight to boot. I was pumped. Adrenaline was circulating, and it had a variety of interesting effects. (One of them is shutting down your kidneys and intestines; this is a reason why a lot of climbers find that they can go the whole day without peeing, and are often not hungry for lunch). The other, more relevant here, is tunnel vision. This is a normal physiological response to a “flight or fight” type situation, hardwired into our body through human evolution.
For our long-ago ancestors on the African savanna being stalked by a hungry predator, that situation demanded your complete focus of vision, to the exclusion of anything other than that lion in the grass. Adrenaline induced tunnel vision is may helpful to avoid a hungry lion, but it's probably not going to be your friend when you’re climbing.
So, are you feeling pumped and excited? When you’re on lead and looking to place some good gear, or looking for anchor options (at what may or may not be the belay ledge), first do two things.
One, take a few deep breaths. Deep breathing (ideally in through your nose) will help calm your body, reduce your adrenaline load, and help lessen your tunnel vision.
Two, expand the “tunnel vision” look around. Many more options may appear. Are you crack climbing, and starting to get a little pumped? Look side to side, you might well find a face hold or a place to stem to grab a rest. Did you finish leading your pitch, you're at the ledge, and need to build a gear anchor? First, expand your vision, look around, and survey ALL your options. You may well find better gear placements other than what's in a one meter cone right in front of your nose.
Oh, and have a look at the route topo before you leave the ground. That always helps too. =^)
“Decision making matrix” for alpine climbing
Despite access to solid weather forecasts, deciding to continue on a climb or bail is often a challenging and subjective decision. The climbing rangers at Mt. Rainier National Park made a clever decision matrix to help remove some emotion from this important choice.
image credit: Walter Siegmund, via Wikimedia Commons
We all have access to detailed and generally very accurate weather forecasts before we head to the mountains. How can you use this information to help decide if you're going to leave town or not?
When on a climb, the decision to continue up or head down is often a difficult, subjective and emotional choice. How can you add some objectivity into the process?
The decision / weather matrix below is from the excellent mini route descriptions published by the Mt. Rainier climbing rangers / National Park Service. (Anyone climbing the more popular routes on Rainier would benefit from these route descriptions. Read more about them at this post.)
And, as mentioned again below, “The matrix was created with input from guides and rangers, and represents cumulative knowledge of thousands of ascents” so this is a well tested tool.
It's pretty simple. Ideally in town before you leave, look at four different weather variables in three different categories, assign them a number, and add everything up. You’ll come up with a point value between 4 and 12. Then, plug that into the bottom graphic, and you’ll land in one of three categories appropriate for your team’s skill level - green, yellow, or red. Use that to guide your decision.
Ideally this happens in town before you leave. If the weather is unexpectedly changing quickly on your climb, you can use this while en route.
While intended for climbing on Rainier, a similar decision matrix may well be useful on other mountains. Is this a set-in-stone rule for every trip? No. But, it can be a useful tool to add some objectivity into an often difficult process. Also, it does not cover avalanche conditions. That's another important and often complex factor to consider in trip planning.
(Personally, I know I'm not going to remember all this, so I made a few color photocopies on waterproof paper and have one in the first aid kit and a PDF saved onto my phone. Heck, I may even tape one inside my helmet.)
Here’s a link to a PDF so you can easily print one yourself.
Here’s a description of the weather matrix directly from the climbing guide:
“To assist in making a decision if one should climb based on the weather forecast, we have created this matrix. This Go/ No Go Matrix only takes weather into account for a given team experience level. Other factors such as avalanche conditions, equipment issues, other team dynamics, etc., need to be evaluated as well. The actual number output from the matrix can be a rough guide, but the important part of the exercise is to discuss conditions with your team and arrive at a consensus as to what the experience level of your team is and determine how prepared you are to deal with the forecasted weather. As always, one should choose to turn back if the weather looks to be deteriorating. The matrix was created with input from guides and rangers, and represents cumulative knowledge of thousands of ascents.
Start by going down the gray column on the left. First assess the wind component at either 1, 2, or 3. Then proceed to the precipitation component, add 1,2, or 4 to your running total. Continue down the list, summing all the factors from the four rows. Then place your score in the evaluator tool relative to your team’s experience level. You can see from the below matrix that precipitation and visibility can be showstoppers, certainly on a summit climb, but even for a trip to Camp Muir.
On the lower mountain below 10,000 feet, these weather factors can often be mitigated by equipment and exceptional experience, however, there are far narrower margins of error on the upper mountain for everyone. With weather and navigational concerns, it can become all but impossible to reconnoiter your way and survive.”
Try a “racking sling” for slings
There are more ways to rack slings than you might think. The traditional “put everything over one shoulder” looks pretty cool for photo ops, but it's probably going to make a royal mess when you want to try to take one off over your neck. Instead, try this - a designated racking sling.
Anytime if you want to carry slings longer than a quick draw, you need to choose how to carry them. The choice is pretty much boils down to on your harness, or over your shoulder somehow.
It’s very much a matter of personal preference, but many climbers like to have the gear they are actually using on the route over their shoulders, and not on the harness. This can be especially true when you’re alpine climbing and probably wearing a backpack, where the waistband can limit access to your harness gear loops.
Having your gear on a shoulder length sling can make it easier to rack when cleaning, slightly easier to place when leading, and easier to hand off gear to your partner when changing leads.
However, if you put the slings one by one over your head and a shoulder, odds are they’re going to become a tangled mess when you try to pull one off over your head, and even more so when you’re pumped and need to place gear fast.
A better system is using a designated “racking sling” to carry your other slings.
The purple racking sling is just a length of about 4 feet of 9/16 inch tubular webbing, tied in a loop with a water knot. It could also be a distinctly colored sewn single length / 60 cm runner (ideally wider webbing so doesn't cut into your shoulder. )
Below we see several different styles of slings you might be carrying. From left to right:
The ”alpine quickdraw”, a 60 cm runner with one carabiner passed through another to shorten it up. A crafty alpine trick that every climber should know, read more about it here.
A standard sport climbing quickdraw. Not so common in the alpine, but hey, you might want to have a few if the route goes straight up.
A double length / 120 cm runner, twisted around itself a few times to form a nice bundle. Another good trick and you can read more about here.
FInally, this is a clever way to rack a single length / 60 cm runner. Pass one end through your racking sling, and re-clip it to a single carabiner. To deploy, unclip one strand and pull. It should extend to full length with one hand and no tangles. If you're on a route with lots of cam placements that wanders a bit from left to right, this can be a good racking strategy, because you can use the racking carabiner on your cam to clip to the sling.
You can keep a few spare carabiners on this racking sling as well, to clip gear like stoppers where you typically need two carabiners.
Use this same system when you’re cleaning gear. Have a designated racking sling on one shoulder for slings and spare carabiners, and another racking sling over the other shoulder for rock protection. When you get to the top of the pitch, changeover with your partner is fast and easy; just hand them the slings with the gear mostly sorted, and they should be pretty much ready to lead.
Bring a few long tied runners for alpine routes
Svelte Dyneema sewn runners may have replaced humble nylon tubular webbing for most of your rack, but a tied nylon runner or two can be great on an alpine route. Here are a few reasons why they’re handy.
For alpine climbing, it’s often handy to have one or two double length / 120 cm tied runners. Why are these helpful?
Inexpensive. 11/16” (or 5/8”) tubular webbing is about $0.30 per foot from the bulk spool at the climb shop. You need 9 feet for a tied double runner, so $2.70. A sewn double length / 120 cm Dyneema runner costs about $15. You can have five tied runners like this for the cost of one Dyneema runner. (Frugal climbers, unite!)
Plenty strong. 11/16” tubular webbing is rated to about 13kN, plenty strong for just about any climbing application. More on the climbing gear strength ratings page.
Easy to cut and leave behind for rappel anchors. Always get double duty out of your gear - don’t bring extra “just in case” webbing for raps. And, as mentioned, it's inexpensive. You're not going to think twice about leaving behind $3 worth of webbing at a rap anchor, But you may not be too thrilled about cutting up your $25 cordelette. (And you DO have a knife, right?)
With a little work, you can untie it, thread it around a large tree / chockstone / icicle, and retie it. You can’t do this with a sewn sling. (And, it's difficult to tie a secure knot in Dyneema; that's why you can't buy it in bulk like you can tubular nylon webbing.) Yes, untying a knot in webbing after it's been loaded can be difficult. (Needle nose pliers on a multitool are your best friend.) If it's really welded shut, don’t fight it; just cut out the knot and use the rest of the webbing.
Or, you can rig it “rabbit runner” style, with an overhand knot loop in both ends; see photo below. (If you rig it this way, buy 6 feet of webbing rather than 9, because you get about the same usable length with less material. Use 18 inches of each end to tie the overhand knots. Adjust shorter as needed by cutting off 1 inch at a time from one end and retying one overhand loop. It should be about 4 feet end to end when you’re done.) This lets you easily pass the whole loop around large trees or boulders, and also use it as a standard sling if you want to. Read more about the DIY rabbit runner here.
Pro tip - Whenever you're buying bulk webbing, ask the shop to cut the webbing on their hot knife at a 45° angle. This makes it a bit easier to thread when tying a water knot or double fisherman’s.
If everyone on your team carries a tied double runner or two, you should be equipped to make safe raps off most any route.
About 6 feet of webbing tied “rabbit runner” style.
Knife options for climbers
From cleaning up messy rappel anchors to cutting away your partner a la Joe Simpson, carrying a knife for emergency or rescue purposes can be a fine idea. Here are a few options.
YUCK! A rat’s nest like this is confusing and dangerous. Cut out the old slings and pack them out, and maybe add a new one of your own to make it simpler and stronger.
image credit: Silas Rossi, @silasrossi
Carrying a blade of some sort can be a smart thing to have on alpine climbs. No, you’re probably not going to pull a Joe Simpson (see below) and have your partner slice the rope and drop you to free themselves; the normal cases for knife use aren’t nearly as exciting.
What are some uses for a knife when climbing?
Cleaning up ancient, sun baked webbing from rappel anchors, and cutting some of your own new webbing or cord to enhance existing anchors
Some sort of self rescue situation, when some piece of rope or webbing is loaded and it needs to get unloaded, and the only way to do that is to cut it loose
Maybe your rope gets damaged and you want to cut away the bad part
and, maybe prepare the occasional peanut butter sandwich
There are three general approaches to climbing knives: razor blade, tiny cheap lockblade, or nice designated climbing knife.
Razor blade
If you want to carry a blade for strictly emergency use, it’s hard to get much more lightweight than a single edge razor. Put a few layers of athletic tape over the blade to cover it. I’ve heard of people taping a razor inside their helmet, or keeping a zipper pocket on the chalk bag, but to me that sounds a little sketchy in case of a fall. Keeping it inside a small first aid kit in your pack sounds like a much better idea. Are you in the fast’n’light camp and want something for emergencies only? This is a good choice.
Cheap tiny lock blade
This is my personal pick. I got one for under $5 next to the hardware store cash register. It’s tiny, has a wicked sharp serrated edge, and it’s a lock blade. The serrated edge can be especially helpful for cutting webbing. Be sure there is a hole in one end of the knife so you can add a little keeper loop to clip to a carabiner. Make the loop with a bit of of bank line or 2 mm cord. If you find yourself doing more alpine routes, where your liable to find funky anchors, this could be a good call.
(I keep this knife on a small locking carabiner, along with a mini ascender, and call it my “Oh S**t Kit”.
Whatever knife you choose, it needs to be absolutely secure so the blade can never open accidentally, to cut you or your equipment. You can tape it securely closed with athletic tape, and or add a thick rubber band cut from a discarded bicycle inner tube, or both. Below, I’ve added a stout rubber band from an old bike tube to secure the blade.
Carry a “real” knife
A definite step up in quality from the hardware store lockblade is this nice little knife, the Trango Pirana. It folds, and has a clever design that prevents it from opening if a carabiner is clipped through the large hole.
image: backcountry.com
If you think you’ll be using your knife for more day-to-day things, such as slicing bagels or making that peanut butter sandwich, you’ll want something with a longer blade. Petzl makes a popular model called the Spatha. Personally, I don’t feel the need to carry a blade this big for occasional use, so this is not my choice, but it could be an option for you. (Note the large hole that can take a carabiner.)
image: backcountry.com
If you really have to cut the rope in an emergency situation with no knife, you can take cord and saw it rapidly back-and-forth with your hands through whatever needs to get cut, and the rope will eventually get cut by friction.
I've tried this and it works remarkably well. Here's of an article and video about it.
One of the most harrowing climbing epics of all time was endured by Joe Simpson in his classic book, “Touching the Void”. On a challenging climb in Peru, Simpson was being lowered by his partner down a steep face, was lowered into a crevasse, and his partner above was stuck. He made the agonizing choice to take out his knife, cut the rope, and drop Joe to what he thought was a sure death. A classic read it if you haven’t.
Headgear for climbers
There are lots of different options when it comes to headgear. One can even keep you from a coughing attack.
Some people have a glove fetish. Me, I’m more of a hat guy. Here are a few different flavors of hat you might consider for your next climb.
Sun hat with a visor (and neck protection)
If you’re in open snow terrain (especially on a south facing NW volcano route) you’re in a giant solar reflector oven. Heading downhill back to the trailhead you’re going to want some shade on your eyes and very possibly coverage for your neck. I’ve noticed a lot of the guides on Mt. Rain-here have the Outdoor Research Sun Runner hat. It is a little spendy, but it’s quality gear.
Balaclava
“Baklava” is a tasty middle eastern dessert that goes in your mouth, not on your head.
“Balaclava” is a hat that tastes terrible. But should always be in your pack, as it’s pretty much the best bang for your buck when it comes to warmth and weight. This should be standard emergency gear for just about anyone, and generally part of your 10 essentials kit of extra clothing. Get one that’s thin to medium weight so it fits underneath your helmet. It does not need to be name brand from the outdoor store. Costco, of all places, has a terrific one on sale at this writing (Jan 2019) for just 10 bucks. It’s made by Bula, from soft stretchy fleece, and can be worn in lots of different configurations. Recommended.
Online these appear to be $20, they are $10 each at Costco.
Ear warmer
This is just a band of stretchy fleece that covers your ears and keeps the top of your head exposed. On cold windy approaches, it’s nice to vent some heat from the top of your head, but still have your ears covered so you don’t get an earache. For me, this seems to be especially true in early mornings on Mt. Hood.
There are loads of Inexpensive ones at the online retailer that starts with “A”. Search for “ear warmer headband”, you’ll find a bunch. Here’s a photo and a link to one I have that works great. Also good for cold bicycle rides, as it fits nicely under my helmet. Get one in a fun color.
Neck warmer
Having just a bit of coverage on your neck can make a surprising difference in staying warm. It’s a tube, so you can clip it to a carabiner. For chilly morning or routes in the shade when a balaclava may be too much and a buff not quite enough.
A balaclava does pretty much the same thing, but is a bit heavier and bulkier.
Buff
OK, this is not really a hat, but it can have a place on outdoor trips, especially high altitude treks and climbs. A friend of mine recently returned from a climbing expedition to Nepal. A very common problem with high altitude climbers is known as the “Khumbu cough”, a hacking awful cough that usually starts with sucking a lot of cold dry air. She told me their expedition leader was adamant that people breathe with a buff over their mouth pretty much all of the time, and a balaclava covering their mouth at night. This creates a higher humidity environment right around your nose and mouth, which can dramatically cut down on dry cough and hack attacks. And she said it worked great. Simple solution for a common problem.
A buff can also be worn combined with a balaclava in super cold conditions, And it can replace a balaclava in mild conditions.
image: https://www.alpineascents.com/blog/gear/buff-101/
What’s a “closed” rope system?
You may have heard rope systems described as either “open” or “closed”. Not very descriptive, is it? If these terms leave you scratching your noggin, this article will help. Hint: closed is good.
You may have heard the term “closed rope system” in various books and websites. However, I’ve rarely seen it clearly defined, so let's talk about it.
A “closed rope system” means that both ends of the rope have a knot of some kind in them. It’s best practice to make this the default system for pretty much every climbing situation.
The closed rope system can take many forms. Here are a few:
A stopper knot in the free end(s) on a rappel or when top rope belaying
The end of the rope clipped or tied to a pack, rope bag or similar. This is helpful for single pitch top roping. If you start pulling the other end of the rope, you’ll immediately notice the other end is clipped to a pack. This avoids the extremely common problem of pulling the stopper knot up the route out of reach, whoops! If you use a clove hitch, once you shake out the knot, the rope is free to pull. See above photo.
Your retraced figure 8 tied directly to your harness
The rope ends clipped to the anchor, as you might do with the “J loop” technique on a multi pitch rappel
This is a simple habit that can prevent the end of the rope from ever going through a belay or rappel device, two common causes of climbing accidents.
Think of closing your rope system with knots the same as wearing a seatbelt when driving. Most of the time you're never going to need it, but that one time you do, you're going to be damn glad you had it.
And, it's worth mentioning again, pretty much always close the system when rappelling. (The exception to this can be a one pitch rappel and you can clearly see the ends of the rope or on the ground.)
Comments . . .
Some people object to tying knots in the rappel strands, saying they “don't want the knot to get stuck”. I’ve never understood this. Unless you have some very unusual deep rope eating cracks right below you, the first person down should easily be able to pull the knot out of whatever crack it might be in, and toss it on down the cliff. A basic rule of rappelling is to never descend past any rope that is hung up; the job of the first person down is to de-cluster any problems and toss the rope down and cleanly.
If it's a crazy windy day and you're worried about getting your knotted rope stuck in some far-off rock crevice, you have some options. You can lower your partner with both ends of the rope, or the first person can saddlebag the rope.
Think of it this way: how many people have died from a knotted rope end getting stuck? Compare that to, how many people have died from rappelling off the end of the ropes?
Do you have a rope that's “long enough”? Don't be complacent. Say you’re climbing a 25 meter route and you have a 60 meter rope. No problem, you think, I have an extra 10 meters of rope. But, if your belayer backs up from the wall or walks downhill, you might suddenly end up short when lowering off. Having a knot in the end of the rope, or having the belayer tied to it, eliminates this potential accident. Always close the system, even if you're doing single pitch sport climbing and initially appears you have plenty of rope to lower off your partner.
When your rappel ends on the ground, have the first person down untie the stopper knots. You’re on the ground, so obviously they’re no longer needed, and they need to be untied to pull the rope. So, get into the habit of having the first person do this. This helps prevent that all-too-common mistake of starting to pull the rappel rope with a knot still in one end, yikes!
For a rappel, consider tying your stopper knot at least 2 feet from the end of the rope. By doing this, you give yourself enough extra rope to at least tie an overhand. This gives you something to clip your tether to, in case you screw up and reach the knot. If you don't do this, yes, you did prevent the catastrophe of rapping off the end of your rope, but now you might be kind of screwed, because you maybe can't do much else.
Think you’d never make a mistake like this? If it can happen to Alex Honnold, it can darn sure happen to you.
In 2016, Alex was dropped by his belayer because they were using a 60 meter rope on a 70 meter route, there was no knot in the end of the rope, and his belayer was not tied to the end of the rope. Whoops, open rope system. While the belayer was lowering Alex, the end of the rope zinged through their Grigri and Alex fell onto some “gnarly rocks”. Luckily he only suffered mild injuries. Other climbers in the same situation have died.
Team of 3 in moderate terrain? Try end roping
If you have a team of three on a moderate climb that still requires a rope, end roping can be a good strategy that balances speed and relative safety.
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.
Scenario: You have a team of three climbers and one rope. You’re in moderate technical terrain - low fifth class rock with good climbers, 4th class with occasional “steps” of harder moves, a open big slab, or fairly steep snow. The terrain falls lies that in-between spot, ranging from “No prob, I can solo this!”, to, “Hmm, I think I want a rope!”
This might be a good time for end roping.
Look! It’s our friend Sticky! She’s back, and climbing with her 2 pals. Hi Sticky!
This is a technique often suited to alpine climbing, where you may have many pitches of easy to moderate climbing, and speed can become more important. It’s best not to use it on much anything higher than mid 5th class.
The leader heads out as usual, but the two followers tie in close to each other near the end of the rope. (End roping, get it?) The leader then belays up both followers at once.
The “end” follower ties in to the rope end as usual with a rewoven figure 8 knot. The “middle” follower, about 4-5 meters away from the end person, ties in with one of several ways, more below.
With the middle person on a large bight of rope, it gives them some freedom of movement. If the end person falls, the middle person may not be pulled off because of this loop. And, it means the followers do not have to be moving at the exact same rate.
A few things to note:
You need to use a single rated rope, not a skinny twin or double.
This is ideally for rock and maybe steeper snow. For ice climbing, you always want your seconds on separate ropes and end roping is not a good choice.
The anchor needs to be especially stout, because it could potentially be loaded with the weight of two people with a little slack in the rope.
If the last person falls, it’s possible they will pull off the middle person. Because of this, it’s best if the strongest climber of the two followers is on the end of the rope.
This is really only a safe system up to low fifth class for most people. For more difficult terrain, you probably need a different rope system.
If you're in an area where the rope is going to be potentially loaded over sharp rock edges, keep in mind that you could be putting a double load on the rope if the seconds fall together.
This works best if the route is pretty much straight up. If you start any kind of a traverse, a slip by either of the two followers will probably result in a fall for both of them.
Communication between the belayer and the followers needs to be clear and obvious, in case something goes wrong. If the route is long, it goes out of sight around the corner, it's a windy day and it's hard to hear each other, or all of the above, this may not be the best technique.
The large loop connecting the middle person to the rope is a bit of a trade off. The loop can give you more freedom of movement, but it also can also be a tripping hazard. Use your judgment here. A smaller loop (1-2 feet) might be a better choice depending on terrain, skill of the climbers, if you have crampons or not, etc.
Use some common sense. If the consequences of a fall are low, meaning the terrain is a slab or snow or not very blocky, and it goes pretty much straight up, and your climbing team is skilled enough to mean a very low chance of a fall, this technique will probably work fine.
Anything more advanced or difficult than this, you're probably better off using a two rope system and bringing up each climber on a separate rope.
There are a few ways for the middle person to connect to the rope. Here’s one that's pretty straightforward - tying in directly to your harness with the rope. There are a few ways to do it. This example uses a bowline knot.
1 - Tie an overhand knot, leaving a large bight of rope about 5 feet long.
2 - Pass this bight through the two tie in points on your harness, and tie a bowline knot. (Yes, you use both strands of rope, and this might look a little funky if you've never done it before. It's the exact motions as tying a bowline with one strand of rope.)
3 - Finally, secure the tail of the bowline with a locking carabiner to the loop through your harness.
Another option is to clip this bight of rope to the middle’s belay loop with two carabiners, opposite and opposed, with at least one being a locker. (If you are feeling a bit bold, one good locker with the carabiner properly aligned with no chance of cross loading is probably okay too. It's really up to your personal level of acceptable risk. Me, I like two carabiners.)
Cross loading the carabiners is the main thing we're trying to avoid here. There are several ways to avoid this:
Use the belay loop rather than the harness tie in points, as this minimizes tri-axial carabiner loading.
You can tie a clove hitch in the bight loop and crank that down on your carabiners.
You could use a nifty new-school locking belay carabiner, like the Black Diamond Gridlock, that has a clip that captures the carabiner so it can’t be cross loaded.
Basic set up: overhand on a bight with 2 opposite and opposed carabiners.
Add a clove hitch and cinch it down to hold the carabiners in place.
Or, go with the sweet Black Diamond gridlock or similar carabiner designed to resist cross loading.
image: blackdiamondequipment.com
Climbing "shades of grey" - Dealing with conflicting advice
Beginning climbers often hear a confusing mish-mash of different advice and rules. Read this Tip to discern what's a definitive rule, and what’s more personal preference.
Short version: A vast majority of climbing techniques are not black or white, right or wrong, but exist along a continuum of subjectivity and best practice. If you receive climbing advice that differs from what you already know, ask "Why do you like to do it this way, and what might happen if I do it differently?"
It’s day one of climbing school. You’re out at the local crag with a handful of instructors and a few other eager students. One instructor, over the course of an hour or so, shows you how to belay and tie a few knots. You take a break, rotate to another instructor, and they then proceed to tell you a different method to belay and a different way to tie the same knots.
Aaaaaarrrgh! Confusion and frustration! Who should you listen to?
Sound familiar?
Just about every climber can think of situations in their climbing education where they received wildly different advice on a particular topic or technique. Your climbing mentor tells you to belay with your palm up, but the "Freedom of the Hills" instruction book suggests belaying palm down. There seems like a dozen different ways to tie a butterfly knot and everyone wants to convince you their way is the best. You get the idea. When you’re learning, it sometimes seems like everything is like this!
(And let's not get started on YouTube, where Reinhold Messner himself could post a climbing instruction video and even then some yahoos would rip his "incorrect technique" apart in the comment section.)
After you have some experience under your belt, you may be better able to interpret conflicting advice like this, but it can be especially confounding for the newer climber.
New folks are doing their best just to get their heads around the foundational skills, while underneath it all, anxiety is amplified because we all know we are doing a sport that can get you killed in an instant if you do something critical the wrong way.
Here are two approaches to hopefully cut through this fog. One is to understand that climbing techniques exist along a sliding scale. Two is to remember a back-and-forth dialogue needs to happen when you hear conflicting advice.
Let’s dive into each of these.
One: sliding scale
It’s part of human nature to want to put things in a binary box. Is it A or B? Am I right or wrong? Are you liberal or conservative? Is this restaurant great or terrible? This worldview takes less mental energy than trying to weigh the nuances of real life.
But, we all know that most things in life exist along a continuum, a sliding scale of ambiguity between one extreme or the other. The same is true in climbing.
There are actually very few climbing techniques that we can call black or white, set-in-stone, always-do-it-this-way-or-you’re-gonna-have-serious-consequences. I’m giving this a very subjective number of about 10%.
What are some of those black and white rules? Try to think of a few right now.
Never glissade with crampons on.
Never take your brake hand off the rope when you're rappelling or belaying.
Always check your partner's harness and knot before they start to climb.
Always double back your harness buckle.
You can probably think of a few more, but there really aren’t a whole lot more than that!
That means the other 90% of climbing techniques exist along a continuum somewhere in the middle. You could divide these into five general categories:
1 - Never do it this way, you're gonna die or get seriously hurt. Example: Glissading with crampons.
2 - Outdated technique that has a few problems, but you’re not gonna die. Example, using 1-inch webbing for everything.
3 - Completely up to you, flip a coin. Example: using loose chalk or a chalk ball.
4 - Generally preferred modern method, best practice: Example: belaying directly off the anchor in fifth class rock, as opposed to off your belay loop.
5 - Pretty much everyone agrees you should do it this way: Example: Tying knot(s) in the end of your rappel rope so you don’t zing off the ends.
So, this means that the vast majority of climbing techniques are fairly subjective and generally up to your personal preference. Good news, if you do it a different way, you’re probably not going to die! Hopefully this is comforting to the beginning climber who's trying to sort out all this well-intended advice that often comes from different directions.
So, that tells us that this climbing game is not as black-and-white as some people might lead you to think. What's the next step of sorting through the advice? How to decide what you want to absorb and what you want to discard?
esteemquotes.com
Bruce, that's terrific advice, but as new climbers, it's hard to decide "what is useful and what is not". How do we do that?
Here's how. Simply ask, “What could happen to me if I do it differently than what you just showed me?”
Two: Reasons and Consequences
For the giver of advice (instructor): when you offer advice or suggestions, try to follow that up with your rationale(s) for doing so, and the potential consequences of doing it another way.
For the receiver of advice (student): if you hear something that's different from what you already think is correct, try to ask two questions (in a respectful way and ideally at a time that doesn’t interrupt the teaching flow.)
The first question is: “Why do you like to do it that way?”
The second question is, “What might happen if I do it another way?”
(Of course, this is much easier to do when you’re face-to-face with someone, as opposed to reading a book, magazine, or web post).
“Why do you like to do it that way?” If the person offering the advice can immediately answer with a few tangible reasons WHY, then you might well think: “Dang, they know their stuff and have clearly thought this through. It’s different than what I’ve learned, but I’m going to consider this alternative method.”
On the other hand, if your instructor person shrugs their shoulders and says “Well, I dunno, I’ve just always done it like that and I think you should too," then that’s not a very compelling argument for their technique.
“What might happen if I do it another way?” If the answer is "Ehhh, not much", then no problemo, you can pretty much choose whatever method suits you. But, the answer is "If you do it differently than what I taught you, there's a good chance of serious consequences, which are X, Y and maybe Z,” then that's something you should probably pay attention to.
I think you get the idea. Subjectivity is an essential part of climbing, and it's not nearly as black-and-white as many instructors make it out to be. Do your best to embrace the “shades of grey” and develop your own techniques and style within the sliding scale of accepted methods.
A learning sequence for any vertical rope skill
When learning any climbing skill where a mistake has potentially lethal consequences, it's good to take a very conservative approach. Here's one step-by-step method.
If you want to learn any rope skill that if you screw it up, there's a high chance you're going to die, here’s a conservative learning sequence you might want to follow. It increases the odds of you learning the skills and getting through the process in one piece.
Yes, that may sound a little dramatic, but learning new vertical rope skills is no joke.
For beginners, this might be rappelling. For more advanced folks, it could cover Crafty Rope Tricks like passing a knot on a single rope rappel, or moving the rappel knot past an obstacle.
Let's use learning to rappel as an example.
Watch any solid instructional videos you can find. (Start on the alpinesavvy Video page)
Recruit a friend who knows what they’re doing with a few tasty beverages or dinner.
Start first on flat ground. It’s easy to do this in a park by throwing a sling around a tree and just walking backwards to get a feel for the basic movement.
Then try doing it on a staircase. Again, work with your partner. This gives you the feel of actually putting your body weight on the rope with minimal consequences if you screw up.
Finally, you’re ready for something vertical yet very close to the ground, where you can practice your moves under the careful eye of your experienced friend. Unfortunately, due to liability issues, most rock gyms do not smile upon people practicing Crafty Rope Tricks. Always ask first. You may have to be resourceful and find something on your own, A short retaining wall of 10 or 20 feet as a possible option. How about a tree? The first few times you rappel for real, having a back up belay of some kind is an excellent idea.
FInally, You can try rappelling from a real life stance, ideally with a skilled climber standing next to you while you do the entire set up, and remaining on a belay of some kind the first few times you try it.
Airflare - An app that helps search teams find you
Airflare is a sophisticated yet easy to use phone app that can potentially help a Search and Rescue team find you much faster. Learn more about it here.
The AirFlare app is a unique way to use your phone to assist search and rescue teams to find you in the wilderness.
For an app that’s essentially weightless and for a very modest monthly cost, you could have additional peace of mind on your backcountry adventures.
The technology behind it is quite sophisticated, but it’s well explained on their website if you want details.
From their website:
“AirFlare transforms your mobile phone into a wilderness rescue beacon that provides search teams multiple ways to find you on and off grid. AirFlare adds no weight or bulk to your pack, works with limited or no cellular service, extends off-grid battery life to a week or longer and requires no user action to be searchable. Leveraging the cell phone already in your pocket, AirFlare is a low cost, easy to use, lifesaving tool you don’t need to remember to pack.”
As more search and rescue teams hopefully embrace this technology, having the app on your phone becomes more and more useful.
Protect a descent with “downleading”
Here's how to protect the last person downclimbing a route from taking a big fall.
Scenario: Your team needs to descend a tricky section (steep snow / low 5th / 4th class) that’s about 1 pitch long. The most skilled climber on the team feels fairly confident they can safely down climb it . . . but they’d feel better with some sort of backup.
A Crafty Rope Trick (CRT), sometimes called “downleading”, can be used to protect the last climber in this situation.
First, one end of the rope is fixed to an anchor and the other end tossed down. Then, all but the last 2 climbers descend the fixed rope, by rappelling the single line or by downclimbing protected by a friction knot.
Here's what happens next.
The second to last climber places protection (snow or rock) as they descend, and then clips the rope to the pro. These placements should be below any tricky moves, not above.
The last person, typically a more skilled climber, unties the fixed rope, then ties the rope into their harness.
A climber at the bottom puts the top/last climber on belay.
The top climber then downclimbs the pitch cleaning gear as they come to it, just as if they were “seconding” a route. The gear prevents the last climber from a big fall should they come off. The last climber ideally climbs below each piece of gear before they clean it, to reduce the length of any possible fall.
diagram: Andy kirkpatrick from his great book, “Down”
The Kiwi coil – shorten the rope on varied terrain
When your rope team is transitioning between glacier travel, pitched climbing and easy terrain, you probably don’t want the rope at full length, especially for the easy parts. Solution: the Kiwi coil.
Taking in coils of rope to shorten the distance between you and others on your rope team, (aka the Kiwi Coil, apparently named after the New Zealand guides who invented it) is a very useful but often misunderstood and underutilized technique. Often, quickly shortening your rope, tying it off, and then walking just a few feet away from others on your rope team is faster, safer, and a more efficient way to move in alpine terrain than keeping your rope team stretched out.
Consider this scenario: You and your two pals are on the Disappointment Cleaver route on Mt. Rainier. From your high camp at camp Muir, you first cross a glacier for about 15 minutes, then go up a rock/scree spur for about 20 minutes, then another 30 minute glacier crossing, then get on the rock/scree of the Cleaver for an hour or so, then back again on to glacial ice, . . . you get the picture. Of course, you need to be roped up with proper distance between partners on the glacier. But when you get to the rock section and don’t need a rope for safety, what you do? You have three choices: 1) completely untie and store the rope, 2) continue walking with 40 or so feet of rope between you, and 3) shorten the rope and tie it off.
Plans one and two both have drawbacks. Completely untying, coiling and storing the rope can take a lot of time, if you need to do it repeatedly on a longer route. Continuing to walk on easy terrain with 40 feet of rope stretched between you is a Big Hassle, as the rope will constantly get caught on small outcrops of rock or snow, and possibly cause rockfall on you or others.
A better technique is to take in coils of rope until you are just a few meters away from your partner, then securely tying the rope off. After a bit of practice, you’ll be able to do it in about one minute without even stopping. When you again find yourself on terrain where you need a full rope length between you, dropping the coils and stretching out the rope takes just a few seconds.
Note: Tying off coils of rope like this may not be the best choice for glacier travel. It can work, but with a few extra steps, such as tying an extra overhand loop between you and your partner, so you can clip the rope to an anchor and let out the slack rope without strangling yourself. Also, a kiwi coil can raise your connection point closer to your chest, which might make it more difficult to arrest a fall because your center of gravity is higher. For glacier travel, a more common method is for the end climbers typically will take in about 30 feet / 10 meters of rope, clip into a fig 8 or butterfly loop, and then simply stash the extra rope in or on their packs.
While the technique is simple, it is rather hard to describe in words. (But we’ll try:)
1) take in coils around your neck, 2) take a bight of rope about 3 feet long, 3) pass the bight through your tie in loop and the coiled rope loops, 4) tie off the bight with an overhand knot on the load strand of the rope, and 5) cinch the knot tight against the coils.
Clear as mud, right? Fortunately, here’s a great instructional video from the excellent American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) video series, featuring IFMGA Certified Guide Emilie Drinkwater of Cloudsplitter Mountain Guides.
Color code your runners
When buying runners, try keep all your single runners one color, and all your double runners another color. This lets you grab the right one with just a quick glance at your harness.
This might be a well-known trick more experienced climbers, but it's still worth mentioning for newer folks - Try to coordinate the length and color of your runners. Doing this allows you to give a quick glance to your harness and grab the proper length of runner that you need.
For example, try to make all of your single (2 feet or 60 cm) runners the same color, say yellow, and all of your double (4 foot or 120 cm) runners a different color, say blue.
A general rule of thumb for a moderately meandering alpine pitch is to have about a 4 to 1 ratio of single slings to double slings. So, maybe eight single runners and two double runners. Of course, the length of the pitch and how much it wanders around has a bearing what you carry.
(And, keep in mind you can shorten a double or connect two singles together to extend them if needed.)
Finally, sport climbing quickdraws are not used so much in alpine climbing, so you might want to save those for the bolted routes.
One double (4 foot) runner in blue, and four single (2 foot) runners in yellow.
Start with this “4:1” short to long sling ratio and you should be good for most routes.
Eat and drink on the way to your climb
Here are a few food and drink suggestions for the early morning drive to the trailhead.
When you’re driving to the trailhead, especially in the early morning hours, make a point to eat and drink in the car.
Tasty and fast to prepare eat-in-car foods include pre-peeled hard-boiled eggs in a baggie, bran muffins (gotta love the 24 hour Starbucks) bananas, a canned protein drink, and cereal bars - try the "this apple walks into a bar" bars from Trader Joes.
Many people find that having a fairly high protein meal before a big climb day really helps performance. (Personally, I bonk in an hour or so if I just have instant oatmeal, but if I stir in some protein powder it keeps me going for much longer.)
Some of the high protein and drinks/shakes are a good way to easily get this into your body in the early morning. Check out the protein shakes from Costco - tasty flavors, reasonably priced and a full 30 grams of protein.
For hot drinks, a thermos of tea or instant miso soup can hit the spot as well. Go easy on the coffee - it can mess with your lower GI tract in some Less Than Ideal ways, especially the nasty brew you're likely to find at a 24 hour minimart at 3:00am.
For water, try to down at least 20 ounces of water in the hour or so before you start your climb. Conveniently, a 20 oz. plastic Gatorade bottle is the perfect sized container for car water consumption (20 oz. is about the amount of fluid you can typically absorb in an hour.) Be sure your car nibbles and water can be accessed from your seat, and not buried in your pack in the trunk.
“Cheapskate locker” - use tape on a carabiner gate
Short on locking carabiners? Tape the gate closed to make a “cheapskate locker”.
Note: This is not standard climbing practice. Whenever possible, use a locking carabiner or two normal carabiners, opposite and opposed. This technique is for improv, emergency, and backup situations only.
Eventually you’ll find yourself in a climbing situation where you might need a secure carabiner setup, but you don’t have any more locking carabiners nor an extra regular carabiner to rig the “opposite and opposed” set up. When might this happen?
Building multiple rappel anchors with your own gear, where you may need to conserve your equipment and want to leave only a single carabiner behind at the anchor.
Building any kind of rappel anchor with your own gear; after all, you’re a proud and frugal dirtbag climber! Why leave behind a $15 locker when you could leave behind a $5 regular carabiner with a taped gate? Some people are comfortable rappelling from a single non-locking carabiner. I’m not.
Some kind of unusual, improvised situation (swift water rescue, backcountry scrambling with minimal gear, etc) when you may not have a locking carabiner.
Big wall climbing, where it seems like you're always short on lockers. Wall climbers have used this “tape on the gate” trick for decades.
Provided you don’t need to open and close the carabiner, a simple solution might be called the “cheapskate locker”. Use a regular carabiner and tape the gate closed, with whatever tape is (hopefully) handy.
Cheapskate locker tips:
If you plan on removing the tape, fold the tape and back over itself to leave a little tab for you to grab.
Typically for a most anchors, you have the gate down and facing out, aka “clip and flip”. But for a retreat rappel carabiner, you may want the gate “up and out” with the opening at the top, which means it's farther away from the rope. This may add a slight bit of extra security; if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, then go for it.
I've certainly heard from a few people on social media that this is a wacky and unsafe practice. Unusual, maybe. Unsafe, absolutely not.
Still skeptical? Read this article in Rock and Ice, written by IFMGA Guide Jeff Ward. He shares the crafty tip about pre-wrapping a bit of tape onto a carabiner so you're already set to make a cheapskate locker. This tip is especially clever, because you’re unlikely to have a roll of athletic tape on a long alpine route. Prep a few carabiners ahead of time if you think you might need them, and you 're ready to go. See photos below.
Jeff writes: “I also like to have a few carabiners with tape wound around the spine. Once the anchor is rigged for the rappel, you can unwind some of the tape to “lock” the carabiner gates closed. Taped biners are more useful than quick links since you can also use them for climbing, and they are less likely to be stolen by the next team. Having a metal point on the anchor prevents the ropes from sawing and damaging it, and makes the ropes easier to pull.”
Here’s a second article from Climbing magazine, where they advocate doing it.
(Sorry, the article links below are now apparently behind the Outside media conglomerate paywall . . . )
There was an awful accident on El Capitan, when a haul bag somehow came loose and fell onto someone. Connecting the haul bag to the haul rope needs to be an absolutely bulletproof connection. This seems like a fine time to use a locker, and further secure it by wrapping that sucker with tape. I don't know all the details on this accident so I can't say for sure if a secure carabiner might've prevented the problem, but for everyday hauling, it can add some peace of mind.
Here's a photo from big wall ace Kevin DeWeese / @failfalling. Yep, that’s a portaledge hanging off of a single dodgy looking bolt/rivet, quite a spicy way to spend the night! Kevin backed that up with the taped gate carabiner and a butterfly on the blue rope.
1 - Take one of your least favorite carabiners. Tear off about 4 inches/12 cm of athletic tape. (I like hockey tape.)
2 - Wrap the tape around the spine of the carabiner. Don't wrap it too tight, it'll be harder to get off.
3 - When you need a cheapskate locker, unwrap the tape and rewrap it around the gate opening. To make it easy for you or someone else to remove, fold the last bit of tape back onto itself, as shown.
Minimize rock fall - clip some gear in easy terrain
Are you roped up and ascending an easy but loose, chossy gully? Put in a few cams and clip the rope to lift it away from the loose rocks.
Here’s another solid tip from the excellent American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) video series, featuring IFMGA Certified Guide Emilie Drinkwater of Cloudsplitter Mountain Guides.
Scenario: You and your partner are on 3rd-ish class terrain with a fair amount of loose rock. Ideally, you might take a minute or so and shorten up the rope with a Kiwi coil and walk with just a few meters of rope between you, but for whatever reason you decide not to do this.
A simple way to keep the rope from getting hung up on the rocks, as well as the rope potentially causing rocks to tumble down onto your follower, is to simply find a few high gear placements along the way and clip the rope into them.
The gear placements are not needed for fall protection, they just keep the rope out of the rocks. Probably best to use a cam if possible, to make cleaning fast and easy for your follower.
Check the short video below for a demo.
Racking your cordage - Do the Twist
A basic climbing skill is knowing how to rack your cordage In a tidy and fast manner. One great method: Do the Twist. Learn how in this short video.
A basic climbing skill is learning to rack your cordage - slings, runners, cordelettes, prusiks - quickly, in a tidy loop, and making sure they never hang below your knees, where they can trip you up.
I've seen lots of people take several minutes to rack their cordelette with some cutesy macramé project. Yes, it may look nice on your harness, but I prefer simple and speedy, especially for gear that you're using every pitch. Here's one good way to rack it:
Do the Twist!
If you take any sort of loop (sewn or tied), twist it a few times, and then hold the ends together, the material will rather magically do this sort of double-helix twist around itself, resulting in a tidy, compact bundle.
It may look like a complete mess, but to deploy, simply unclip it, give it a shake or two, and it should return itself to full length, ready to use.
This also works with 60 cm slings and even a long cordelette. You need to double up these longer slings to get them down to about two feet long before you start.
As we'd like to say around here, this one is a better show than a tell. Here’s a quick video demo on how to do this.
Keeping track of a group in low visibility
Here are two simple and quick ways to be sure your team always stays together at night or in low visibility.
If it’s dark and/or a white out and you have a large group of people to keep together, here’s a couple of techniques. They might sound a little cheesy if you’re reading this on a bright sunny day, but each can bring peace of mind to the team, and some psychological comfort that everyone is part of the group and not isolated.
(Of course, the leader can remind people to take breaks when everyone in the group stops and not to randomly stop whenever they feel like it, which can easily lead to getting lost in the dark.)
1 - Assign everyone a buddy. After a break and when you’re ready to get going again, the leader calls out “buddy check”. Everyone on the team looks around and hopefully finds their buddy. If they see them, they don’t say anything. But if their buddy isn’t there, they give a shout to indicate someone is missing.
2 - Count off. Everyone on the team gets a consecutive number, and they shut out the number one at a time to make sure everyone is accounted for. Make one person the leader, “one”, so when they call “one”, everyone answers in order: “two”, “three”, etc.
This tip is partially from the excellent book "1001 Climbing Tips" by Andy Kirkpatrick
Bring some earplugs
Want to get a good night’s sleep on your next alpine climb? Bring some earplugs.
Getting a good (well, at least passable) night’s sleep can be a big factor in your climbing success. A tent flapping in the wind or a snoring tentmate can be easily thwarted with the humble earplug.
Tip – buy a pair that’s connected with a foot or so of string. When one falls out (and it will) it can be easily retrieved and won’t be lost in the folds of your sleeping bag.
Carry them in small plastic bag so the string doesn’t get too tangled up. Get the plugs at a good hardware store or online . They do get lost, even with the string, so get a few pairs when you’re shopping.
