Alpine Tips
Will Gadd: Keeping your hands & feet warm, Part 3
The last of a three part series: battle tested tips from Canadian ice climbing expert Will Gadd for keeping your hands (and feet) warm.
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Will Gadd voiding the warranty on his boots. Photo: @pete.hoang
Veteran Canadian ice climbing expert Will Gadd knows a few things about staying warm. This article is part 3 of a series of posts he made on Instagram. I’m sharing it here with Will’s permission.
Connect with Will on his website and Instagram, @realwillgadd
Warm feet - General Tips
A lot of the “Hands” tips are also about keeping YOU warm and happy first, and the same is true for your feet. Feet are harder to manage, and seem to get seriously cold more often.
I’ve never seriously frozen a finger, but I’ve frozen my feet at least twice to some extent, and have to work harder to keep them functional than my hands most days.
Realize that keeping your feet warm takes action on your part. It won’t just “happen” with one set of clothes or approach, you’ve got to be flexible with the environment, think ahead and act regularly to prevent misery in the future. It’s a war of many small battles, not, “My feet are really cold, doh!”
Cold feet start primarily when your core temp drops and your body decides to sacrifice the peripheral bits such as feet and hands. So don’t let that happen!
Control your core temperature to keep your feet warm. Have a light “moving but not sweaty” outfit and a “standing almost bivy” outfit that will keep you warm even if you’re standing around for an hour or so in the temperature you’re out in that day.
The difference in body heat output while moving vs. standing is massive, far more than peeling a few “layers” can deal with. If you just open the Goretex vents on your jacket you’ve done nothing useful. Take it off.
Layers are for onions and cakes. We need to think more “raging furnace while moving” vs “standing sleeping bag.”
Move in the least amount of clothing you can for the elements you’re in. You can move in less than you think mostly. Most people can run at -30 with running shoes on if they are moving hard enough. You’re a furnace, if you’re moving. Move, dress to stand, or freeze.
Test this in a low consequence environment, like hiking fast near your home/car on a cold day for an hour or so. Dress lightly at first. Once you're moving and body temperature is up, you may be pleasantly surprised at how little clothing you need.
A “standing” outfit means a big jacket, insulated pants, maybe mitts etc. Your “moving” outfit may be nothing more than a thin synthetic, or it may be close to your “standing” outfit if your output level is low. When I coach XC kids skiing I get laughed at for my puffy pants and jacket, but kids move so slow I have to totally overdress or I freeze.
Warm Feet: Specifics
Feet are big compared to hands. They take longer to get cold, and longer to warm up. If you start a day with cold feet you’re starting with a problem.
Unless you’re moving fast for 20 minutes or so right away you’re going to have cold feet until you do, or maybe for the day. So start the day with warm feet.
I don’t put my boots on while driving to climb or ski for this reason; my feet get cold sitting at my desk, as there isn’t enough blood circulating to keep them warm. Most of the time there isn’t enough warmth in the back of a car to keep your feet warm either, and they can actually get really cold. Oddly, some people think the exact opposite, and that’s OK too, but think about it. If your boots are really warm and you are too then your feet will sweat in the car, so make sure you keep your feet dry for the ride. Keep your boots in the car, not the back of the truck or trunk. Crank the heater and warm ‘em up on the drive.
If your feet are cold you have to get your core temperature up, and you have to circulate blood through your feet. This means moving, not just adding insulation! If your feet have gotten cold you will have to “overdrive” your body to pump enough blood through your feet to warm them up.
It takes about five minutes of going hard uphill to get the blood really pumping through your feet, and another five or so for them to be truly warm. Or 200 squats and 100 “leg swings” on each leg if you’re standing at a belay. Anything else won’t work.
Constriction on your feet is terrible in winter. If you stuff your boots so full of socks that they are tight on your feet, I guarantee you will be cold. Leave room! If you crank your ski or climbing boots down and then don’t loosen them you will get colder feet. Loosen your boots at belays or when resting, the difference can be amazing! If you have to bivy then loosen your boots right off. It may save your feet.
Want to know if antiperspirant is affected to keep your feet warm? How about what to do if you get your boot(s) completely soaked on a cold day?
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Will Gadd: Keeping your hands & feet warm, Part 2
Here are some winter-tested tips from Canadian ice climbing expert Will Gadd for keeping your hands (and feet) warm. This is part two of a series of three articles.
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image: Will Gadd collection; Helmcken Falls, BC Canada - https://www.instagram.com/p/C7wtpfsRLNj/
Veteran Canadian ice climbing expert Will Gadd knows a few things about staying warm. This article is part 2 of a series of posts he made on Instagram. I’m sharing it here with Will’s permission.
Connect with Will on his website and Instagram, @realwillgadd
How to have warm hands: General Tips
Take your gloves off immediately if your hands start to sweat. Even at -20 you can walk or ski with bare hands, but if you get your gloves even a bit damp you will suffer. Same with your hat. Open the front zipper of your jacket. Take care with your gloves—drop them in the snow and they get wet, you get cold. They are precious. Cargo pockets on your pants or bibs can be a good place to stuff your gloves for temporary storage.
Keep the next pair of gloves you’re going to wear inside your jacket, preferably next to your skin. Putting them on will feel glorious!
The colder it is, the more you have to move. Below about -20c I just don’t multi-pitch. If it’s really cold go top-roping. Set a timer, each do 15 minutes of hard laps in your moving outfit, insulate up, repeat. Good to go even at -30!
If your hands are getting cold fix them NOW by moving. At belays I’ve done hundreds of squats, arm swings, leg lifts, jumping jacks, whatever it takes, but if you’re starting to get cold in your standing outfit the situation is not going to improve. Move. Even just doing stomach crunches in place is going to help. On lead that may mean doing 50 arm swings, or squats if the climbing is slow, or just moving fast if safe to get your core up.
Warm sugary liquids. I usually fill my water bottle or light thermos with hot water and some sort of sweet powdered stuff. This encourages drinking it, and also just feels nice. Like hot packs I’m not sure if they make a material difference to heat, but stress/not happy is a bad.
How to have warm hands: Tech Tricks
Wet anything = cold. It sucks, but change your shirt after the approach. The worst is to arrive wet, put on your standing outfit, and then lose all your heat drying out your shirt. It can literally ruin the day. A moment of pain is worth it! Dry = happy.
On colder days add more clothing to your legs. Slightly thicker long underwear, thicker pants = happiness. If it’s really cold, wet or windy I’ll wear Gore-Tex pants while climbing. That can make all the difference, but if it’s not cold/wet/windy then you will sweat out and be miserable. Be sure they are cut for climbing and not ski boots, loose legs are deadly with crampons. Tape if necessary.
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Will Gadd: Keeping your hands & feet warm, Part 1
Canadian ice climbing expert Will Gadd shares some of his top tips for keeping your hands (and feet) warm. This is part one of a series of three articles.
Premium Members can read the entire article here:
photo: Will Gadd collection
Will Gadd, Canadian ice climbing expert, knows a few things about staying warm. This article is from a series of posts he made on Instagram. I’m sharing it here with Will’s permission.
Connect with Will on his website and Instagram, @realwillgadd
How to have warm hands - Gloves
Cold hands suck the fun out of ice climbing. It’s a huge topic, and there is no “one” solution. I’ll come at the problem from a few different angles, hopefully one or two resonate with you.
Tip 1: Don’t wear big gloves. Big gloves are for belaying only, they will make your hands cold if worn for activity. Sounds backwards, you need big gloves to stay warm, right? Nah. What happens with big gloves is that your hands will sweat in them as you move. Once the interior of your big gloves has even a tiny film of water in them you are doomed to have cold hands.
To test this theory, stick your hands outside while dry. Now do the same thing with wet hands. The moisture on your hands makes it feel way, way colder, and that’s what happens when you have even slightly wet fingers: you get cold hands unless you’re operating at very, very high heart rates. Even then you may be sweating and have frozen hands. Only use big gloves when you are standing around and NOT sweating.
Big gloves also don’t dry fast if there’s a tiny sheen of sweat on your hands, because there isn’t a big enough temperature gradient to drive the moisture up through the fabric to the outside. So they get wet, and stay wet inside, and you are miserable.
Big gloves also require more force to constrict around your ice tools, which means you’re squeezing harder, which means less blood flow, which means cold hands . . .
So, for moving you need “disposable” gloves as your hands will sweat in even thin gloves. That’s OK if you’re Nordic skiing and giving it, but for climbing we’re going to stop moving. At that point a slightly damp thin glove has served its purpose, and is tossed into the bottom of the pack, dry your hands, belay gloves on . . . I bring up to one pair of gloves per pitch if I think it’s going to be wet.
If it’s very cold and you still have to use your hands, try mitts and a very thin liner glove for standing around. Having all your fingers together helps them stay warm, and the thin layer also really helps them stay warm in the brief intervals you bring them out. But thick gloves don’t work as well because you end up taking them off to do anything. Misery sucks.
Get flexible gloves that aren’t tight. A little larger is better if they are flexible, but stiff and tight will make you hang on too tight and constrict circulation, which equals total misery. This is why heated gloves generally don’t work too well; too stiff to climb or easily open carabiners.
How to have warm hands: Layering is BS.
I have watched kids play bare-handed, physical outdoor games at -20, not because they’re Canadian but because that’s how our bodies work: If your body temperature is warm enough then your hands will be too, pretty much regardless of gloves or air temperature. What really matters is the temperature inside your body.
When that drops, your body gives up on keeping your hands warm and focuses on your core. Less blood goes through your hands. You have to use this knowledge to balance your clothing, your furnace (your muscles etc.) and the temperature. If any one of these three systems is out of whack then you will suffer cold hands or worse relatively soon. How to balance them? Dress for where you’ll be, not where you are. If you’re skiing and hot you’ll only get hotter. Strip down.
Layering is nonsense, most of the time we are either moving or standing, not adjusting a thin layer while prancing along. If moving and heating up, strip down until you are warm to slightly cool but no longer sweating (if possible). When you stop put on enough clothes that you can stand there comfortably for as long as you need to plus 20 minutes or so.
If you stop moving and wait to feel cold before putting on clothes you’ve missed the temperature cues and will suffer cold hands. I routinely belay in my down pants and huge down jacket. Together they weigh very little, but I could almost bivy in them if I had to, even in -20. My hands will be warm if my gloves are dry (see last post). Before I start climbing again I’ll strip down to my moving layer, switch to smaller dry gloves, and be a tad chilly (but my core isn’t yet dropping so my hands are still warm) before moving again.
With minor variations, I have a “moving” outfit, and a “standing” outfit. That’s it.
Layers are for onions and fashion victims, no one can calibrate their heat output that precisely. I have never see anyone de-layer on the fly other than adventure racers, and that’s another topic.
So, strip early, strip lots, dress early and more than you think you need.
How to have warm hands - General Tips
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The "Swiss cheese" model of risk mitigation
The “Swiss cheese” model is a metaphor for how risk can be reduced through overlapping and redundant safety systems.
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The Swiss Cheese model is a metaphor used in safety science. It illustrates how accidents typically occur due to multiple, overlapping failures rather than a single cause.
Each "slice" of cheese represents a layer of defense (such as safety measures or procedures) within a system.
Each “hole” in the cheese symbolizes a potential weakness or failure.
If a hole in one slice of cheese is covered by a solid part of the next slice, you have a partial problem but is not (yet) a catastrophe.
Even if a slice of cheese is only 5% holes, there’s still a small chance that two holes could align, and that's when you could have a serious problem.
How does the Swiss Cheese model apply to climbing?
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How to safely shorten your tether
Need to shorten your connection to the anchor when using a tether? It's common to unclip and reclip your locking carabiner, but this can increase the chances of clipping it incorrectly. Here's a simple and more secure method.
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At a busy anchor, especially when you have some distractions, it's quite easy to clip your rappel tether / PAS incorrectly.
I’ve done this myself, and fortunately realized my mistake very soon after, yikes!
The main cause of this problem is often when changing the length of your tether.
A common way to do this is to completely unclip the carabiner from one loop, and then clip it into another.
When you do this, you introduce the chance of clipping it wrong.
Here are two recent accidents where this seemed to be a direct cause. (Both of these reports are from the American Alpine Club’s website called The Prescription, which offers a monthly blog and archive of North American climbing accidents.)
Here's the analysis of one accident from the American Alpine Club:
Laycock’s accident was eerily similar to another recent incident, suffered by a climber in Arizona. Both fallen climbers had tied overhand knots in a 120cm length loop of 20mm sewn webbing to create adjustment pockets for a home-made PAS. This is a common practice. In both cases, it appears that the tether was not clipped correctly with the carabiner, but instead the knot caught in the bottom, non-gated end of the tether carabiner.
Wow, that photo is scary! You can see that clipped like this the knot MAY jam into the carabiner temporarily, even under light bodyweight. This could easily fool you that you are properly connected, when in fact you're absolutely not!
Here's a simple way to pretty much eliminate this problem: keep a locking carabiner as your primary connection to the anchor, always on the end of your tether. To shorten your tether, don't move that carabiner at all. Instead add a second one and use that to adjust the length of your connection.
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Worldwide climbing accident reports
Starting in 1948, the American Alpine Club has published an annual report of climbing related accidents in the US and Canada. What other countries do the same? Here is a summary. If you can add to it, let me know!
Even though this is an article published after January 2024 and would normally be a shortened version, I decided to make the entire article available for free on the nonmember pages, in the interest of learning and reducing risk for everybody. =^)
Accidents in North American Climbing 2023, from the American Alpine Club
Reading about climbing accidents is NOT fun.
However, it’s an important way to learn, and hopefully reduce risk and avoid future accidents.
Starting in 1948, the American Alpine Club (AAC) has published an annual summary of reported climbing related accidents in the US and Canada, titled “Accidents in North American Climbing” AAC members get this for free.
(The AAC also publish a monthly accident report “sampler” on their website, called “The Prescription”. This is free, offers an archive of recent accident reports, and is a good representation of what you’ll find in the complete publication.)
I was curious: what other countries publish a similar report?
I made a post asking about this on my Instagram. Many helpful people offered info and links about accident reports from different countries.
Here’s list of climbing related accident reports from around the world.
If a link is broken and you know a better one, please let me know.
If you know a resource that's not listed here, please let me know and I’ll add it.
Australia - Australian Climbing Accident Register, “a volunteer-only project to promote open discussion of incidents and near miss events in recreational climbing in Australia.”
Britain - the British mountaineering Council (BMC) publishes accident reports.
Chile - Annual review of accidents from escalando.org. Also: Book about accidents in Chile by Rodrigo Fica
France - SERAC, database of accident and incident reports
France - Understanding Mountain Sports accidents, from the Petzl Foundation
France - ANENA - National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches, avalanche related accidents
Germany - indoor climbing and outdoor climbing reports; (links are at bottom of page)
Spain - Spanish Mountain Federation
Switzerland - Free PDF downloads for the last 10 years or so of accident reports, in French
Turkey - Mountain accidents report, in Turkish.
De-cluster your anchor with the ”revolving door”
Sometimes at a busy anchor, you may have a rope on top of another one, and those two ropes need to trade places. Here's an elegant way to do this: the "revolving door" technique.
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At a busy anchor (maybe with several people, or a big wall) it's very common to have one rope/cord/sling under another one.
For whatever reason, sometimes those ropes need to “trade places”, as in, the top rope needs to be on the bottom, or vice versa. How can you (easily) do this?
You might be tempted to try the “anchor limbo” by physically shimmying underneath the rope, or maybe even untying completely to move the rope above or below the other one. I’ve done both, and they both suck.
But there’s a much simpler (and elegant) method: the “revolving door”.
It's deceptively simple, and to my eye, looked like a bit of a magic trick the first few times I did it. Once you learn it, you might laugh at how easy it is!
To do this, you need two things: 1) the rope that you need to move above or below needs to be clipped to a carabiner, and 2) the rope needs to NOT have a giant load on it.
Brief description: say you have a rope on the top, and it needs to be on the bottom/under of what we’ll call the “fixed” rope.
Go to the carabiner that's clipped to the fixed rope. The gate on this carabiner needs to be facing up.
Open the carabiner.
Clip the “top” rope into the carabiner.
Here's the key move: Spin (aka “revolve”) the carabiner 180°.
Now, the gate on the carabiner should be facing down. Open the carabiner, and unclip the bottom rope.
Schweeeet! The “top” rope is now UNDER the fixed rope! Give yourself a high five for being so clever. =^)
You probably will want to revolve the carabiner back again to its original position, with the gate up. If it was a locker, relock it.
Like I said, kind of magical! Definitely a #CraftyRopeTrick!
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How to best connect a tether to your harness?
“What's the best way to connect a tether to my harness?” Turns out there’s not one best answer. While some people feel strongly you should always use your tie in points, the truth is that the “best” method depends on a few different factors. Let's take a closer look.
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Have you ever heard some version of this?
“You should NEVER connect your tether/PAS to your belay loop. Todd Skinner did that, his belay loop broke, and he died. So, you shouldn't do it either.”
or maybe:
“You should ALWAYS run soft goods, like rope and slings, through the tie in points, and clip hard goods, like carabiners, to the belay loop.”
I’ll start off with my opinion on this, right up front: I think, in most cases, it’s fine to attach a tether to your belay loop.
There are a lot of people who feel differently, and if you prefer your tie in points for a tether, that’s great. But know that in most cases, your belay loop is going to work fine as well. There are very few black and white, “Should”, “Always” and “Never”, “Gotta do it this way or else” rules in climbing. This is not one of them.
Here's what IFMGA guide Dave Searle thinks about it, and I agree!
When ascending a route, it's usually best practice to use the rope and clove hitch yourself to the anchor. But when it's time to rappel, you're probably going to want a tether. Whether you use a designated tether like a PAS or a Petzl Connect, or make one DIY with a double length sling, or you’re an aid climber and have a pair of daisy chains, you need to choose where to connect it to your harness - belay loop or tie in points?
The truth is . . . it depends! There are some cases when attaching your tether directly to your belay loop is not only acceptable, but the recommended practice. There are some other situations where it's probably not such a great idea.
What kind of climbing (rappelling, big walls, via ferrata) are you doing?
What does the manufacturer say?
What’s your tether made of?
What kind of knot or hitch connects the tether to your harness?
These are all nuances in technique that need to be considered, rather than a binary “always” or “never.”
Alpinesavvy tries to offer ideas and information, not advice. So, read on and make up your own mind.
Here are some general guidelines and considerations:
First, and perhaps most important, check your harness regularly and retire it without hesitation if it shows significant wear for any reason.
If you do connect a tether to your belay loop, don’t leave it tied there permanently. Doing this can prevent the loop from rotating and may concentrate wear in a single spot. Remove the tether when you're done for the day, or after your rappel.
If you're girth hitching a designated PAS type tether, the usual manufacturer recommendation is to use both tie in points. (Even then it's a bit of a “soft” recommendation, see below.)
If you're girth hitching a “DIY” tether with a skinny Dyneema sling, it’s probably best to use both tie in points. (Should you use a use a Dyneema sling as a tether at all? See the “expert photo” section below.)
If you're girth hitching a tether (or adjustable daisy for aid climbing) with a wider nylon sling, either the tie in points or the belay loop should be fine.
If you're using a rope style lanyard such as the Petzl Connect Adjust, follow Petzl’s recommendation and girth hitch it to your belay loop.
If you’re doing via ferrata, the standard practice is to girth hitch the lanyards to your belay loop.
If you're big wall / aid climbing, the tie in points are usually better, because that gets your waist a bit closer to the gear you're clipped to. Every inch helps!
And . . . if you're not using a girth hitch and using a double loop bowline tether, it's okay to tie it through your belay loop with any kind of material.
What are some of the pros and cons of attaching a tether to your belay loop?
Pros:
Comfort. Having a weighted tether girth hitched through your tie in points can cause your harness to squish together on some, shall we say, sensitive body parts, ouch! This depends a bit on the design of your harness and ahem, personal anatomy, your mileage may vary. This can be especially true for women with wider hips and a higher waist.
Easier to rig and check. For cold weather climbing with bulky clothing, gloves, etc., it can be easier to properly thread your tether through your belay loop, as well as glance down and be sure it's threaded correctly. (This goes for checking your partner also.) Plus, the comfort factor: with more clothing on, tethering to the belay loop will usually be more comfortable.
More reach. If you have a shorter tether and you’re a taller climber, having it on your belay loop can give you a few extra inches of reach.
Less cluster. This probably applies more to big wall climbing, when the front of your harness can get very busy with two daisies, fifi hook(s), rope tie in, etc. Using your belay loop can spread out these connections a bit. Also for big wall climbing, you’re probably sleeping in your harness as well, so a belay loop connection will typically be more comfortable.
Cons:
Not redundant. You're connected to one point of your harness while you could be connected to two. (This introduces a whole other conversation of all of the other non-redundant components in the climbing system you rely on the time, but let's save that for another discussion.)
Puts extra wear and tear on your belay loop. (This argument may be countered by pointing out that the wear and tear is not eliminated, but instead transferred to your tie in points.)
Let's look at some more specific cases of where to attach your tether.
First, let's check out recommendations from Black Diamond. Their website tells you that girth hitching a daisy chain through both tie in points gives you the “green check” of approval. End of discussion, right?
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
Well maybe not. Using the bottom tie in point is clearly a no-no, because it might flip you upside down. But the belay loop or the top tie in merits only the orange “caution” notification, not the red skull and crossbones, “Yer Gonna Die”.
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
What else gets the Black Diamond orange caution? Getting your tether wet, icy, or dirty! Sheesh, we all know that happens to your gear all the time and it's hardly the end of the world. So, attaching a tether to your belay loop is in the same category of “it's best to avoid doing this a lot, but if you do, it's not going to be catastrophic.”
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf
Let’s consider the following . . .
1 - No warnings from harness manufacturers
The Alpinesavvy web gnomes looked carefully at the technical documentation for harnesses from Black Diamond, Petzl, and Edelrid. None of these manufacturers give a warning against attaching a tether to the belay loop. If doing so is “wrong”, do you think the top harness manufacturers might warn against it in their technical documentation?
2 - Petzl Connect Adjust, Beal Dynaconnexion, CAMP Swing, and Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop
In 2015 Petzl introduced their “Connect”series of lanyards. These are made from dynamic climbing rope, and have a stitched, fixed loop at one end. It's a pretty sweet piece of gear.
Petzl recommends girth hitching it to your belay loop, as shown in this illustration from their website.
image: petzl.com
Let's check out another nice diagram from Petzl.
1. Where do I attach my lanyard?
“From a safety and strength perspective, the lanyard can be attached to the belay loop or to the two tie-in points. But as a matter of comfort, it is preferable to attach your lanyard to the belay loop.”
So, sounds like the final recommendation from Petzl is the belay loop.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Belay-loop-and-tie-in-points--where-do-I-attach-my-lanyard--my-belay-device-and-my-rope-?ActivityName=Multi-pitch-climbing
Beal Dynaconnexion: use the belay loop.
image: https://www.beal-planet.com/en/index.php?controller=attachment&id_attachment=8219
CAMP Swing: use the belay loop.
CAMP swiNG https://www.camp.it/d/us/us/outdoor/product/2166
Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop.
Edelrid Switch - https://avs.edelrid.com/images/attribut/54625_GAL_SWITCH_SPORT_ANSICHT_DINA4_Homepage.pdf
3 - Via Ferrata: use the belay loop
Standard practice in via ferrata is to girth hitch your tether carabiners to your belay loop. Keep in mind that a via ferrata fall can can generate tremendous force on your anchor system, harness and your body, greater than a factor 2.
Here's a diagram from Edelrid. The text accompanying this diagram reads: “Via Ferrata sets or systems with tie-in loops are fastened to the tie-in ring (belay loop) with a choke hitch (girth hitch).”
image: edelrid.de/en/sports/harnesses.htm
Here’s a similar diagram from Petzl. Clearly, Petzl recommends that via ferrata tethers go onto the belay loop.
imae: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Harnesses/CORAX - technical notice PDF download
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“Getting the shot” - photo tips from Andy Kirkpatrick
British climber Andy Kirkpatrick wrote a great article for his website about climbing photography. I'm sharing it here, lightly edited, with permission.
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This is from a blog post written by British climbing expert Andy Kirkpatrick, shared with permission. Connect with Andy on Instagram @psychovertical and his website.
Andy enjoying a lovely afternoon in Antarctica. Credit, Andy Kirkpatrick collection.
I’ve always considered myself as a pretty average photographer, who just happens to find himself and his camera in un-average places. That was until last year when I gave a slideshow at the Gigon film festival in Northern Spain. The talk went well, and afterwards the organiser came up and told me my climbing photos where the best he’d ever seen. Knowing that Heinz Zak had done a slideshow the year before, I asked if his weren’t better. “No” he said, “he is only a photographer . . . you are an artist!”
Well, I’m not sold on the idea, but lots of people email asking about photography, so here’s a simple list of thoughts and ideas that might help those who aspire to be more than just a photographer!
Don't get hung up with technology (don't be a camera nerd) - There are those who take photos and there are those who talk about them. What you shoot is far more important than what you shoot it with, be it a mobile phone, disposable camera or a homemade pinhole job. The image gives the photo life, not it’s DPI, and in my experience it’s out of focus, thumb obscured shots that people remember. Real life isn’t 300 dpi, it’s also not in focus . . . well, not if it’s any good.
Have your camera where you can use it - It’s no good having your camera in your rucksack lid. Get a camera pouch, hang it around your neck, stick it in a pocket. (If you're using your phone, use a tether so it's un-droppable.)
Take photos when you least want to - The best climbing shots are similar to good war photography. They are real and are dangerous to catch. Mid-pitch, mid storm, mental breakdown, they show a climber and climbers at their most vulnerable.
Catch people off guard - I hate the shots in mags where the climber knows they are being shot. What you see isn’t the real climber, it’s what the climber wants you to see. A good example are the images from Steve House‘s ascent of Nanga Parbat. Basically you need to shoot people when they are at their most pissed off, scared or vulnerable. So no saying cheese.
Take lots of shots - Try and photograph each part of the climb, everything from getting out of the car to getting back to the car. Imagine you have to make a slideshow out of the climb.
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Climbing on a chopped rope - lead rope soloing
Yikes, your rope got damaged near the middle from rockfall, and for whatever reason you have to keep climbing up instead of rapping down. The highly advanced technique of lead rope soloing is one way to solve this unfortunate and unlikely situation.
Premium Members can read the entire article here:
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.
image shared with permission: https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/rope-solo/
Yo! Lead rope soloing is a VERY advanced technique and far beyond the scope of this article to teach you how to do safely. I’m only introducing this technique if you have to use it in the following unfortunate and unlikely situation.
You’re on a committing route and have the following misfortune:
Due to whatever random act of the goddess, your lead rope gets a severe cut or is damaged by rockfall.
To make it even more challenging, the cut is close to the center of the rope. (If the damage is near one end, you may be able to cut the rope and continue climbing on whatever you have left. You may have to get creative with belay anchors.)
Due to the route, your position on it, or whatever, you decide that it’s better to continue leading UP rather than to rappel DOWN. (In many cases, heading down might be the better choice. There are several clever ways to rappel when you can avoid passing that pesky knot entirely. Here's an article on that.)
If you cut out the damaged part of the rope and tie the two pieces together, the knot won't go through protection if you climb and belay in the normal manner.
So, the crucial question: how do you continue to lead?
An option is lead rope soloing. When lead rope soloing, the rope doesn’t pass through the placed gear like in normal leading.
This lets you climb with a knot in the middle of your rope, schweeeet!
But, it's gonna be awkward, slow and kind of scary, so that's not so schweeeet!
Lead rope soloing is normally the realm of socially inept big wall climbers, who can't find a partner for their week+ vertical camping trip on El Capitan, or big wall speed climbers, who do what’s called “short fixing” to efficiently keep lead climbing while their partner is cleaning the last pitch.
Yann Camus of Bliss Climbing, has online classes in both lead rope solo and top rope solo, Check him out!
You can get a discount on his classes by becoming an Alpinesavvy Premium Member.
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Use the "Alpine Handrail" for a better bivy
The alpine bivy - like camping, only different! If you're spending the night on a small-ish ledge, here's a great way to secure both yourself and your gear.
Credit for this tip: blog post from Andy Kirkpatrick, shared with permission.
If you're spending the night at an exposed ledge, you hopefully have some room to move around and also to organize your gear. You want to do both without any concerns of falling off or dropping anything.
One solution: the “alpine handrail”.
Build a second anchor off to one side of your ledge away from the main anchor. It's ideal if these anchors are bolts. If not, be sure the anchor can take a sideways pull.
Tie a B I G figure 8 on a bight with a loop that's big enough to reach both anchors. In the photo I'm using a cordelette. On a larger ledge, use your climbing rope. Or tie two cordelettes together; get creative.
Tie two additional knots, and clip those to each anchor. In the photo on the left we have a clove hitch, which makes it easier to tension in the top strand.
Now you've made a sort of two story handrail. Make the upper rail fairly tight and the bottom one looser.
Use the upper rail to clip yourself with a tether, and the bottom rail to clip all your gear. You can move along the top rail without having to unclip to move past anything (other than your partner).
Because you made a loop, if any anchor fails, everything won't slip off of one end of the rope.
But what about that horizontal rope strand on the top? Doesn't that make sort of an American Death Triangle (ADT) / vector pull, maybe putting a large load on the anchors?
Excellent question! Short answer is yes, it kind of does, but it should not be a concern if you're on a reasonably sized ledge. That top strand is only if you make a careless stumble, or to keep you stable when you're sleeping.
If you are at a full hanging belay, where you’re putting a real load on the anchor all the time, you want to have a more typical anchor with a distributed load, NOT like this.
Besides, the so-called “death triangle” is probably not as bad as you think. Here's a whole article on it.
Extra points for using your climbing glove as a secure spot to hold your well-earned canned beverage. =^)
Faster rope flaking - over your back
Here's a simple way to quickly flake your rope. Simply pull it over your back and shoulder and down into your pack, tarp, rope bag, or whatever.
Want to flake your rope in a hurry, like into a backpack, tarp, or rope bag? Here's one good method if you don't have something to clip the rope to.
If you have any sort of high point around, it’s probably going to be faster to clip a carabiner to that, clip the rope through the carabiner, and then pull downward to stack it.
One other benefit: you usually work most of the twists and tangles out of the rope when you do this.
If you have twists in the rope, run the rope through a ATC style belay device on the high point to help remove them.
It's good to have a shirt or jacket with a hood on it, because you might get a little rope burn on your neck if you don't, ouch.
Another technique that's occasionally used: clipping a carabiner to your helmet strap and running the rope through that. It's probably because I'm not very coordinated, but the few times I've tried this, I end up slapping myself in the face with the rope, so that's not my favorite method. :-)
image credit, shared with permission: https://www.instagram.com/climbing.technical
How can rope drag increase your fall factor?
The theoretical definition of fall factor doesn’t account for rope drag, which can reduce the effective length of rope that’s actually absorbing the force of the fall. So, in the real world, even if you have a lot of rope between you and your partner, you still might need to be concerned with a high factor fall.
The idea of fall factor is a fundamental concept in climbing. It’s mentioned in most all the books, and hopefully you learned it on your first day leading.
Short version:
On a multipitch route, if you take a fall close to the belay without much rope to absorb the force, you can take a high fall factor. Bad!
But as you get higher on the route, there's more rope in the system to absorb the force of a fall, so four factor is not an issue anymore.
However, similar to mechanical advantage, there is a “theoretical” version and an “actual” version, and they can be quite different. Let's take a closer look.
image credit: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
First, let’s look at the theoretical definition of fall factor.
Fall factor is a way to look at the the relative impact force of a fall. It's a ratio, calculated by dividing the fall distance by the amount of rope between the belayer and the climber.
In normal climbing scenarios, this will always be a number between 0 and 2. (You can’t have a factor 2 fall on a single pitch climb, because you hit the ground, OUCH!)
The higher the fall factor, the greater impact force on the climber and gear.
Takeaway: a lower fall factor is better!
Let's have a look at the diagram above, from the always awesome Petzl website. In both cases, the lead climber falls a distance of 4 meters.
In the left example, the 4 meter fall is divided by 10 meters of rope, which gives a relatively low fall factor of 0.4. That means low forces all the way around: on the belayer, the climber, and the top piece of gear. That's good!
Compare that to the diagram on the right. The climber takes a fall of the same distance, 4 meters, but in this case it's right off of the belay on a multi pitch climb, without clipping any gear, with only 2 meters of rope between him and the belayer. This results in the highest possible fall factor of 2, which puts very large forces on the entire system. That’s bad!
How rope drag affects the “actual” fall factor
If you’re leading with lots of rope out, you might think that fall factor should not be a concern. “Schweeeeeet, I've got 30 meters of rope between me and my belayer. If I fall, all that dynamic rope will give a nice soft catch, so no worries about a big fall factor, right?”
Well, that would be true according to the theoretical model of fall factor. But what about rope drag? How does that affect the theoretical model?
There are two reasons why rope drag is bad.
One of them is pretty obvious: you need to work a lot harder to pull up the rope.
But there’s another, less appreciated and perhaps more important reason: rope drag can increase the actual fall factor.
How does this work? I can't say it better than the Petzl website:
“The theoretical fall factor does not take into account the rope friction against the rock and in quickdraws. This friction prevents the rope from stretching over its entire length. Thus, only a part of the rope (solid line) will absorb the energy of the fall: this is called effective rope length.”
In the diagram below, the lead climber has a lot of rope drag because of the zigzagging route. Even though the leader has 10 meters of rope out and they take a short fall of only 4 meters, that short fall is effectively being absorbed by only 4 meters of dynamic rope (the solid blue line) , which gives a relatively high fall factor 1, ouch!
That could easily be enough force to rip marginal gear out of the rock, injure the climber, and put a big strain on your rope. This can especially be a concern when aid climbing, where you’re often placing small gear that may not hold much more than body weight.
Petzl did some real live-body testing on this; see the article and results here.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
The “theoretical” fall factor has an equation like this, based on rope length between belayer and climber:
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
The “real” fall factor has an equation like this, using the length of rope that is effectively absorbing the force of a fall.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
Here's a similar diagram from the excellent book “Higher Education” from Andy Kirkpatrick.
Andy notes that with lots of rope drag on the left, we have a higher peak force over a shorter time (bad). With minimal rope drag on the right, we have a lower peak force absorbed over a longer time (good).
Also note that in the zigzag example on the left, there's basically no force felt by the belayer when the lead climber falls. Typically upward displacement of the belayer can absorb a significant amount of force in the system, but here it's not happening at all.
image: Andy kirkpatrick, “HIGHER Education” used with permission
How can you avoid rope drag?
A properly bolted sport climb should not zigzag too much, so this generally should not be a big issue when clipping bolts.
For traditional climbing, when you're placing gear, bring a good selection of 60 cm and maybe a few 120 cm sewn slings, and extend your gear as needed to keep the rope running as straight as possible. Doing this will minimize rope drag and allow your rope to do its job properly, absorb the falling force along most of its length.
You can use double ropes. With proper clipping technique, even a zigzag route can be adequately protected and rope drag minimized.
Why bother learning advanced techniques?
A good approach when learning climbing: have a small selection of standard techniques that you know 110%, that you use pretty much all the time. However, when your experience and skill increase, it can be good to have more tools in the toolbox in the rare event you might need them. Here's a great quote from Andy Kirkpatrick on this.
“I already know how to build an anchor, set up a rappel, and belay in the normal way. Why should I learn . . .
Five different ways to set up a top rope anchor?
Rappel with a carabiner brake?
Belay from above with a Munter hitch?
Ascend a rope with a prusik tied with a shoelace?”
British expedition and big wall climbing expert Andy Kirkpatrick has an answer, from his outstanding book, “Down”:
Cons (and pros?) of linking pitches
“Hey, it looks like these next two pitches are pretty short. How about we link them together? After all, we have a 70 meter rope!” It might appear that climbing one L O N G pitch is faster / more efficient than two short ones. However, there some downsides to linking pitches; learn ‘em here.
“The topo says the next pitch is 30 meters, and the one after that is only 25. Let's link both of those together!”
Are you itching to put your new 70 meter rope (or maybe fancy 2 way radios) to full use? Many people think they can save time (and maybe get some style / coolness points?) by linking pitches.
Linking pitches might sound faster, and occasionally it can be.
But it usually comes with some downsides:
Communication (verbal and visual) is more difficult
Increased rope drag
Usually need a larger rack; more gear is heavier
Potential of a longer fall because more stretchy rope is out
Potential of a longer fall because you may be short on gear and need to go farther between good placements
Risk of running out of the gear you need to adequately protect the climb
If you want to increase your climbing efficiency, it might be better to focus on improving your belay transitions rather than linking pitches. If you only spend a minute or so at each belay changeover, you may find that climbing the route as “designed” is actually faster and less hassle than trying to link pitches.
Some ways to increase overall efficiency:
When cleaning, keep the gear reasonably sorted and tidy.
The leader keeps the rope stacked carefully, coiled or knotted on a sling or carabiner, or even in a rope bag.
Swapping belay devices is a good trick for faster belay transitions.
Conversely, if you have challenging conditions, like low visibility or high wind, you may want to make the standard pitches even shorter, so you can maintain visual and verbal contact. Maintaining visual contact is an underappreciated way to increase team efficiency in lots of small ways. For example, the belayer can usually see when the leader has stopped and is starting to build an anchor, and then the belayer can start breaking down their system and getting ready to climb.
Consider using the so-called “silent system” of belay communication to minimize yelling and keep communications clear.
You MIGHT be able to climb more efficiently, by linking pitches if everything is in alignment, but it doesn’t always lead to a faster or less risky climb.
Did you climb a route in five pitches instead of seven? Sorry, that doesn't make you cooler. =^)
The "hybrid quickdraw"
Did you intend to go trad climbing but changed your mind to clip bolts? Here's a way to change those floppy alpine draws into easy-to-clip “hybrid” quickdraws”.
This #CraftyRopeTrick comes from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Adam Fleming. Connect with Adam on Instagram: adam.fleming.climbs
Here's how to turn that 60 cm or even 120 cm sling into a sport draw.
Did you intend to go trad climbing, but changed your mind to try some sport routes?
Are you on a long multi pitch route that has a mix of bolts and trad gear?
If the sport climbing is at your limit, it can be pretty annoying to try to clip that bottom carabiner that always seems to be flipping around and facing the wrong direction. And you probably don't want to take a whole separate rack of sport draws just for the bolted part.
Here's a simple trick to help solve this.
Take a 60 cm sling, double it, then make a girth hitch onto the bottom carabiner. This locks the sling in place, similar to a sport quickdraw, and makes it much easier to clip. Adam call this the'“hybrid quickdraw”.
Check out a short video Adam made about this on his Instagram.
Rope ascending with a Grigri and belay device
Do you need to do some improvised rope ascending? You don't need a designated waist and foot prusik cord. Instead, be resourceful with the gear you probably already have. All you need is a friction hitch, long sling, and a modern belay device like a Grigri or “guide-mode” style belay device.
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.
Hopefully you don't need to do this very often, but knowing some ways to ascend a rope without specialized gear (like handled ascenders and aid ladders) can be a useful self rescue skill. Why might you need to do this?
Stuck rappel rope (need to ascend it and fix the problem, yikes!)
Rappel down too far and miss your next anchor
Fall on an overhang or traverse, and are hanging in space or in unclimbable terrain
Can't make the moves and need to do some rope climbing to get past the hard part
Go up the rope to deal with an injured/scared partner
The old-school method was using some kind of dedicated foot and waist prusik loops. These can work, but they have some problems. It can be very slow and awkward, they are prone to tangling on your harness, and it's a specialized piece of rescue gear that you may always carry with you but never use. My opinion: in most cases, don't bother carrying them at all.
Another approach to rope ascending: creative use of gear you probably already have with you. With just this gear, you can get up a rope:
Grigri (or plaquette style belay device like an ATC Guide)
a short friction hitch
a double length / 120 cm sling
If you have some more modern tools, such as a Petzl Tibloc, Micro Traxion or Rollclip carabiner/pulley combo, this procedure becomes quite a bit easier. But for now let's see how to do it with the bare minimum of gear, okay?
A few notes:
The basic way this works: tuck your foot under your butt, stand in the foot loop to create slack, and then pull the created slack through the belay device.
Rigged like this, you have some mechanical advantage. It's not much, because of the friction every time the rope changes direction. Don't think you can do one arm pull ups and get yourself of the rope, you gotta use your legs. See the first point: stand up, create slack, pull slack through the device.
Interesting side question, what is the mechanical advantage here? Is it a 2:1 with a redirect, or is it a 3:1 because you’re lifting yourself? Well, there are some pretty smart people that feel pretty strongly one way or the other, but I'm gonna roll with rigging expert Richard Delaney from RopeLab. Richard says this is a 3:1. There are three strands of rope supporting the climber’s weight. For you to move up the rope 1 meter, you need to pull 3 meters of rope through the system. Yes, this may hard to get your head around, it was for me! Here's an article from moi and video from Richard explaining how this works.
Typically you're going to have less unwanted friction if you use a Grigri. This can depend on a rope diameter and whether the sheath is slick and new or old and crusty. If you have a Grigri, try that first.
If it's fairly low angle, you may not need the foot loop. Use the friction hitch as a handhold, lean forward, pull up with your arm, and pull slack through the device.
With the foot loop, it can help to take an extra wrap of the sling around your foot. This holds your foot in the sling so it doesn't slide out.
If the angle is quite steep, you may find it easier to clip a redirect carabiner into the friction hitch and clip the tail of the rope through the carabiner. That's what I show in the photos. This allows you to pull DOWN on the rope rather than UP, which can be more ergonomic if you're doing it for a while.
When ascending a rope, it's best practice to be connected to the rope in two places. My preference: every 6 meters or so, tie a backup bight knot in the rope below you, and clip it to your harness. You could also attach another sling from your harness to the foot prusik, but I find that to be annoying and tangle prone.
Think of rope ascending as a “movement sandwich.“ That’s a short movement of exertion, in between two periods of rest. Rest > move > rest. Rest > move > rest. Tuck your foot under your butt before standing, and use your legs. If your arms are getting pumped, you’re probably doing something wrong.
If it's vertical or overhanging, it may be more efficient to add a second foot loop with another 120 cm sling. This lets you push up with both your legs and can help save energy. On lower angle rock, it's not required.
Example 1: Improvised rope ascending with a Grigri
Sequence:
Set it up as shown below. Be sure the rope is loaded correctly in your Grigri.
Sit back in your Grigri. This is the “rest” position.
Slide the friction hitch as far up the rope as you can.
Put your foot in the purple sling, tuck your foot under your butt (important!), stand up, and pull the slack you created through the Grigri. Sit back down to weight the Grigri and rest for a moment.
Repeat. Tie overhand backup knots and clip to harness whenever you’re getting scared. =^)
Example 2: Improvised rope ascending with a plaquette style belay device
Same sequence as above. Be sure you set up the rope correctly through your belay device, as shown below.
Sit back in your belay device. This is the rest position.
Slide the friction hitch as far up the rope as you can.
Put your foot in the sling, tuck your foot under your butt, stand up, and pull the slack you created through the rappel device. Sit back down to weight the device and rest for a moment.
Repeat. Tie overhand backup knots and clip to harness as needed.
Finally, here's a quick demonstration from IFMGA certified guide Karsten Delap, getting it done with a Grigri and a Tibloc.
Hauling - not just for big walls
Are you on a longer multi pitch route and have a backpack for your extra stuff? The second doesn’t always need to carry it; it might be more efficient to haul with a second skinny rope (like the Petzl PURline) instead.
On a long multi pitch route, you’re probably going to have at least one pack with food, water, extra layers, shoes for the walk off, headlamps, and maybe that #4 cam you only need for one pitch.
While climbers typically default for the second to always carry the pack, a better option is often for the leader to haul that extra gear. Previously, that might have meant lugging along a larger-than-needed additional rope.
Fortunately, with modern specialized equipment, hauling becomes much more feasible. Progress capture pulleys such as the Petzl Traxion (or even a Tibloc), combined with a 6 mm rope like the Petzl PURline, which is specifically made for hauling and a rappel pull cord, work great for lighter loads. (Plus, you have a perfect rope for a rappel pull cord, should you need it.)
Two good progress capture options (top photo) are the Petzl Traxion or Tibloc. The Traxion is a much more efficient pulley, so hauling with that will be quite a bit easier.
A few hauling tips . . .
Once the leader is secure at the top anchor, the first thing they do is set up the haul, and pull the bag a few meters off of the lower anchor. This allows the second to start breaking down the anchor.
The next thing the leader does is put the second on belay. Then, the leader can start hauling as fast as they can, while the second is deconstructing the anchor and getting ready to climb. That way the leader is (mostly) not trying to belay and haul at the same.
Small diameter ropes like the 6mm Petzl PURline can be very tangle prone. A stuff sack or rope bag is highly recommended, ideally one that has a little rigidity to it so it holds itself open when you’re stuffing in the rope. See an example below.
It's nice to rack your Tibloc and/or Micro Traxion on an oval locking carabiner.
If you have a Tibloc (or even another Micro Traxion), you can add a large carabiner to it and use it as a handle to pull down for moderate loads. This is a lot easier on your hands than pulling directly on the 6 mm cord. See photo below.
Don’t have a Tibloc? No problem. Take a large carabiner, take add a few wraps of rope, and use that as a handle to save your hands.
If you’re using a Tibloc as a progress capture, Petzl suggests rigging it as shown below, with the rope clipped through the carabiner. If you rig it as shown on the right, the progress capture function still works, but it can be hard on your rope.
image: petzl.com
If the load is heavier, you can try the method in the nice Petzl diagram below. Clip a Tibloc / ascender or something similar to the haul strand, clip in a double length sling (or aid ladder) for a foot loop, step in it, and haul with your bodyweight by stepping down in the sling. Usually this is easier than hauling with your arms. This is one of the common ways to haul when big wall climbing.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Ropes/PUR-LINE-6-mm
Rope bags are great!
Here’s 65 meters of 6 mm Petzl PURline in a stuff sack about the size of a basketball, and weighs just a hair over 3 pounds / 1.3 kg. Smaller diameter ropes like this love to get hopelessly tangled unless you take active steps to avoid it; a bag like this is one approach. A bag that is slightly larger, and has a stiff opening, makes it easier to insert the rope.
Another option for minimizing tangles is to daisy chain your haul rope, as shown below. Here's a whole article on that technique.
Here's another tip: pre-thread the rope through your haul pulley as shown. You can do this on the ground and keep it that way for the entire climb. Doing this gives a couple of benefits: it's just about impossible to drop your haul rope, and setting it up is faster.
Finally, if you don't have a progress capture pulley, you can try the old school Garda hitch. Hopefully this is for a fairly light load, because it can add quite a lot of friction, but it still works.
To minimize evil friction, pull up on the “load” strand to create slack, and then down on the “haul” strand to capture the slack.
Rope ascending with the Petzl Traxion
The Petzl Traxion is a handy device for many different climbing situations, including ascending a rope. Here are a few different ways to set it up.
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.
The Tibloc micro ascender and the Traxion progress capture pulley are a pair of versatile tools from Petzl that are handy in a variety of self-rescue scenarios.
They work especially well for those (hopefully rare) times when you unexpectedly might have to ascend a rope (working WAY better than a trasditional prisik / friction hitch.)
Important:
When ascending a rope with any kind of toothed device like this, keep the rope tight between you and the anchor at all times. Do not allow slack rope between you and the anchor. A fall or slip with even a tiny amount of slack rope can generate enough force to damage the rope. Petzl has done some sobering studies on this, read them here.
The Tibloc has a reputation as being hard on ropes. Using a rounded stock locking carabiner, and not suddenly weighting the device, can help minimize this.
With both of these methods, you need two points of connection to the rope (your tie in knot doesn’t count). Never rely on just one ascender. A failure may happen for one of three reasons: the ascender comes off of the rope, the ascender fails to properly grab the rope (mud, ice, etc) and your tether carabiner can become unclipped. The simplest backup: Every 5 meters or so, tie a overhand on a bight and clip it to your belay loop with a locker. (More often if you’re scared.)
As mentioned above, definitely practice with this in a controlled environment close to the ground before you ever try it for real!
Let's look at three different methods. If you have this gear, try them both and see which one works for you. (The standard figure 8 tie knot is omitted for clarity.)
Tips:
Think of rope ascending as a “movement sandwich.“ That’s a short movement of exertion, in between two periods of rest. Rest > move > rest. Rest > move > rest. Use your legs. If your arms are getting pumped, you’re probably doing something wrong.
What carabiner to use? With both devices, a wide gate HMS belay carabiner (or oval locker, if you have one) is usually the better choice, as it aligns the load better. A “D” locking carabiner is acceptable.
Method 1: Traxion attached to your harness, Tibloc is the foot loop
Sequence:
Girth hitch a 60 cm sing to your belay loop.
Put Traxion on rope, with teeth facing down.
Clip the sling to it with a locker.
Next . . .
Clip the Tibloc to the rope below the Traxion.
Clip a 120 cm sling, this is your foot loop.
To climb the rope: Put your weight on the Traxion. Push the Tibloc as far up the rope as you can. Bend your foot under your butt, stand up in the foot loop, and simultaneously slide the Traxion up the rope. Sit back on the Traxion to rest. Repeat as necessary.
Tie a backup bight knot and clip to harness every 5 meters or so.
Method 2: Tibloc as a foot loop, Traxion attached to your harness
Sequence:
Clip Tibloc to rope. (if you don't have a Tibloc, you could use a cordelette tied in a friction hitch shortened with an overhand knot for your foot.)
Clip a 120 cm sling to the Tibloc; this is your foot loop.
Put Traxion on rope, and clip to your belay loop. (Clip the Traxion “Teeth toward Toes”, i.e., teeth pointing down.)
To climb the rope: slide the Tibloc up the rope as far as you can, bend your foot under your butt, stand up in the sling, and simultaneously pull any slack rope through the Traxion.
Tie a backup bight knot and clip to harness every 5 meters or so.
From the (always awesome) Petzl website. It looks like this diagram shows an extra backup sling running from the Tibloc to the harness. That's another way to do it if you don't want to tie backup knots, as this provides a second point of connection to the rope.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Pulleys/MICRO-TRAXION
Method 3: Traxion as a foot loop, Grigri as progress capture
If you have a Grigri, you can use that is the progress capture.
Sequence:
Clip Traxion to rope, with teeth facing down.
Clip a 120 cm sling to the Tibloc; this is your foot loop.
Put Grigri on rope, and clip to your belay loop. Be sure the rope is fed correctly.
To climb the rope: slide the Traxion up the rope as far as you can, bend your foot under your butt, stand up in the sling, and simultaneously pull any slack rope through the Grigri.
Tie a backup bight knot and clip to harness every 5 meters or so.
And finally, if you're on low angle terrain and maybe want to bend a few safety rules, you could clip a Traxion to a fixed rope, clip it to your harness with a 60 cm sling, and use the carabiner /device to pretty much Batman up the rope.
Check out this Instagram video that shows an IFMGA Guide demonstrating this (pretty-darn-fast-but-probably-not-approved-by-Petzl) method.
Mobile phone SOS texting via satellite
Big news for emergency backcountry communication: As of Nov 2022, iPhone 14 users in North America can send an SOS text via satellite, no cell coverage or extra hardware required. Expect expansion to other countries, other phones and expanded services soon, this is huge.
As of Nov 15 2022, you can send an emergency text (in the US and Canada) on an iPhone 14 via satellite - no cell coverage required. If you’re outside cell coverage and run your car into a snowbank, crash your mountain bike, have a climbing accident, or simply get lost, your potential epic may have a MUCH better ending.
You knew it was coming; I've been predicting and waiting for this advance for a long time. It’s starting with Apple, and it's very likely Android will soon follow. This is a great use of technology that will definitely save lives, and will surely be welcomed by Search and Rescue (SAR) teams.
Map of cell phone coverage from all carriers in the western United States, (from a GaiaGPS screen grab)
You can see substantial portions of Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado Rockies, Oregon and Washington Cascades, and the California Sierra lack cell coverage. That's where most of the fun is!
image: GaiaGPS screen grab
Apple iPhone 14
Here's how it works:
This service is for emergency communications only, and not for normal calls, texts, or data.
To begin, dial 911. If you can't be connected through the cell network, satellite connectivity is initiated.
For best results, you need to point your phone toward a satellite in the sky. Your phone walks you through this. Having a clear view of the sky and minimal tree cover is best.
There are some programmed screens that walk you through the process of requesting emergency help, check the screen grabs above.
Very cool: There's even a demonstration mode, so you can practice going through all the steps before you (hopefully never) use it for real. This demo mode uses real satellite connectivity so you can see how it works in real time. Settings > Emergency SOS > Try Demo.
If you have a predefined emergency contact on your phone, that person can also be notified, and be included in the ongoing text chain between you and 911. (Settings > > Emergency SOS > Set Up Emergency Contacts in Health > Create Medical ID). Check the last box for “Share During Emergency Call.”
If you're in an area where emergency services can receive text messages, the text message will be sent directly, otherwise it will go to a relay center with Apple-trained specialists that will be able to place an emergency call for you. (Note that many 911 call centers in the United States can’t receive text messages directly; I know, that’s pretty sad . . .)
If you don’t have an emergency, you can share your location through the “Find My” function to show others where you are. This could be used similar to the “Here’s my coordinates, everything‘s OK” check in function that comes with standalone satcom devices.) See photo below.
This service will be free for two years, and then Apple will probably start charging some sort of subscription fee.
Starting December 2022, this service will be available to certain European countries - France, the UK, Ireland, and Germany. (Expect the rest of Europe to soon follow.)
Apple says the service might not work in places above 62° latitude, such as northern parts of Canada and Alaska.
Globalstar is Apple's satellite operator.
Read more: Detailed explainer article
Here's a photo of how you can share your location via satellite in a non-emergency. This could be used as a daily check-in with concerned folks at home, for example.
image: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/11/apple-iphone-satellite-sos-emergency-explainer.html/amp
Here's a nice video that shows the process.
T-Mobile and Starlink . . . someday
In August 2022, T-Mobile announced a partnership with Starlink. Starting with the next generation of Starlink satellites, to be launched next year, T-Mobile 5G service will include satellite text messaging.
Now, if this was just Elon Musk tossing out his latest dream-of-the-future that’d be one thing. But it was announced at a major T-Mobile promotional event, so I’d like to think that carries a little more weight.
Here’s a summary of how it’s supposed to work, as best as I can piece together from several web articles:
T-Mobile’s “vision” is for it to be included for free in the carrier’s “most popular plans.”
For lower cost data plans, some sort of monthly service fee will probably apply.
Two way text messaging is offered initially. Voice and limited data may come later.
Service will be “everywhere in the continental US, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters.”
Your current phone can use the satellites, no additional hardware required.
T-Mobile says, “There may also be a considerable delay of half an hour or so until the message is sent or received.” (Whoops, that doesn't sound so good.)
Anticipated timeframe: mid 2023
Read more: T-Mobile website
Sounds like if you have an iPhone 14 and your carrier is T-Mobile, you might have access to both of these options?
Whether or not you choose to switch to T-Mobile, love or hate Elon Musk, or don’t want to upgrade to the latest iPhone, I think we can all agree that this is a great use of technology that will absolutely save lives.
What if you already own a dedicated satcom device, such as a Garmin inReach, or my favorite, the ZOLEO?
That probably depends on the remoteness of your trips, how long you stay out, the potential risk of your activities, and what your texting needs are.
The iPhone is (for now) geared towards emergency communications only.
If you . . .
have anxious loved ones at home who want a daily check-in text that “all is well”
park your camper van/truck in the boonies for a week and need to stay in touch
are a social media star and want to post to your fans from your latest through hike or expedition
need weather forecasts in remote areas
Then may want to hang onto your satcom device.
However, most everybody else will probably choose their phone. Doing this avoids carrying an extra unnecessary device, and saves you $$$ - the initial several hundred dollar cost of a satcom device, plus the monthly subscription fees (which can definitely add up). I think all data carriers and phone manufacturers will offer a similar service in the next few years, this is just the initial wave.
If I were the head of Garmin or Zoleo, I’d be a pretty nervous right now. Finding yourself suddenly competing with Apple and Elon is generally not a good thing.