Lowering a climber - reasons and methods
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 an experienced climber, 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 and your partner have topped out on the classic West Ridge of Forbidden Peak in the Washington Cascades. Now it’s time to descend; a series of short rappels and down climbing the low 5th class ridge. Problem is, the wind is ripping and you see all kinds of rope-eating blocks ready to entangle your rappel rope if you toss it in the normal manner.
This is a good time to think about lowering your partner.
If the first climber down is lowered on one strand, with the other rope end clipped to a locker on their belay loop, there is minimal chance of the rope hanging up anywhere, causing a spaghetti pile halfway down, or blowing into some rope-eating rock crevice.
Lowering can also be a Good Idea when:
If you have an injured climber who might be unable to rappel on their own.
Climbing with a beginner who may not know how to safely rappel.
You're climbing at an area that has good access to the top of the cliff (Ouray Ice park, for example), so you can lower the first person to get the rope down.
Someone dropped their belay device, whoops.
Someone wants to take another lap on the route, or try the crux moves a few more times.
Climbing teams below you who might get annoyed if you suddenly drop a rope on their head.
More efficient descending: You and your partner climb a two pitch route. If you can lower one person to the ground from the top of the second pitch, then the second person can make two rappels. (If you're counting, that's one lower and two rappels, instead of four rappels.) In certain circumstances, and depending on the skill level of your partner, this might be faster and decrease the risk.
If you’re rapping into unknown terrain where the location of the next anchor is uncertain. If the next anchor down is farther than half of your rope, you need to do some crafty rope tricks to get there. It's much better to figure this out while you’re on a safe top rope than from dangling at the very end of your rappel ropes! The first person down may need to pendulum to locate a good anchor spot, and this is much easier to do when you can use both hands. Also, If the first person down is lowered a little too far past the anchors, hopefully they can climb back up on belay, rather than doing a rather complicated rope trick of transitioning from rappel to ascending the rope. Communication between partners is of course very important when doing this. Consider using hand signals to avoid yelling.
Notes:
This is best done with a single rope rappel.
The climber being lowered can bring both ends of the rope with them as they are lowered.
Communication needs to be rock solid between the partners, because of course you don’t want to lower the first climber past the anchor. But on many alpine routes you want to be doing short rappels anyway to minimize the possibility of a rope getting stuck, so communication is often easier because you’re closer together.
Lowering is best used when you and your partner can clearly see one another.
Avoid having the rope run over any sharp edges.
Using an autoblock third hand backup is strongly recommended.
Remember to close the rope system by having the top climber tied in to the end, or at least a solid stopper knot.
Having a middle mark on the rope is especially helpful so you (hopefully don't have to) lower them past halfway. If your rope does not have a clear middle mark, find where it is by flaking from the ends and slap on some tape to make a temporary one.
Here are several common ways to rig a lower:
Munter hitch
Redirected plate device
Redirected Grigri
1 - Munter hitch
Probably the simplest way is to tie a Munter hitch on the anchor master point and lower off of that. Add an autoblock friction hitch to the brake strand and attach it to your belay loop as a “third hand” backup. Note that lowering from a Munter hitch can put some mean twists in your rope! To help minimize this, try to keep the brake strand parallel with the loaded strand.
Photo: Left, good technique with the load strand more or less parallel with the brake strand. Right, holding the brake strand out to one side can introduce twists to your rope.
2 - Redirected plate device
This is slightly more complicated to set up, but offers solid advantages. No rope twist. Excellent friction and control. No pulley effect increasing force on the anchor. Easy to lock up and go hands free if need be. And, although it looked like it might twist your rope, it (generally) doesn't.
Let's look at a few different ways to rig a redirected plate.
Here's one of the simplest. Because the device is oriented downward, we have to redirect the brake strand through something, otherwise you're just running a rope around a carabiner with zero added friction.
(Side note: if you accidentally clip the LOAD strand rather than the BRAKE strand back into the carabiner, your mistake will be instantly obvious as the device will get sucked up into the carabiner and do all kinds of weirdness. You’ll probably only make this mistake once . . .
It's easiest to simply take the brake strand and clip it to some higher component of the anchor. A third hand auto block, clipped to your harness, is a highly recommended backup.
I find it easiest to set this up by holding the belay device in front of me (just as if I were lowering someone off my harness) threading it with the load strand on the correct side, and THEN clipping the device onto the anchor.
Note: if you're redirecting it to the shelf of an anchor, be careful that the moving rope is not running over sling or cord.
If you're short on locking carabiners to redirect the strand up high, or the anchor does not have a convenient higher clipping point, you can also use the same carabiner that the device is clipped to, as shown in the photo and video below. (This can misbehave a little bit depending on which strand of the tube the rope goes through, the shape of the carabiner, and a few other variables. I recommend practicing with this one a lot if you think you want to use it, and as a first option, go with the method shown above.)
Here’s an Instagram video by AMGA certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford that shows the method.
Here's another way to rig a redirected plate device - with am offset quad anchor. This is tied like a regular quad, only with a pair of loops at two different heights rather than having them all the same height. With this offset, it gives you a perfect place to clip your file plate on the lower loop, and the redirect carabiner on the upper loop. Learn more about the offsite quad here. Here's a photo from the article:
Here's an efficiency tip: If you’re lowering the first person from a rappel anchor and the second also needs to rappel (which is highly likely), you can save time by pre-threading the rope through the hardware, and then setting up the redirected lower. By doing this, when the first person has reached the lower anchor, the second person will already have the rope threaded and be ready to go on rappel.
Note how the belay device is attached to the carabiner. You clip the rope through the device just like you were belaying from your harness. You do NOT set it up in guide mode, like you would to bring up your second.
At first glance, you might think this is wearing out the anchor hardware, but that in fact is not the case. All of the load is on the belay device, and the brake strand without any tension is passing through the hardware.
Here's a short Instagram video on how to set this up from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford. (I can’t embed this on my website, you'll have to use the link.) In the video, note the very Crafty Rope Trick of using the backside of the leaders clove hitch to connect the second, which enables their rope and to be untied and threaded.
Here's a nice video from Smile Mountain Guides showing the redirected plate lowering technique. (Start at about 8:10.)
3 - Redirected Grigri
The redirected Grigri works on a similar principle to the redirected plate. The brake strand must be redirected through some higher component of the anchor to provide adequate lowering friction.
If you’ve seen the odd looking Petzl “Freino” carabiner, and wondered what it's for, this is it - an easy additional friction point. If you’re guiding and lowering people from a Grigri a lot, it might be worthwhile to get this specialized and expen$ive carabiner. (I don't have one, so no action photos.)
image: https://www.rei.com/media/product/716219
For the rest of us, you can do the same thing with a simple redirect - here, with the brake strand clipped through the wire gate carabiner. Be sure and rig the Grigri so the handle is facing out from the rock, and the camming action of the Grigri is not impeded by rubbing against the rock.
