Rigging the 2 strand "mega toprope"
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.
If you're not confident you can do this technique correctly, then go top rope somewhere else.
This Crafty Rope Trick comes from Adam Fleming @adam.fleming.climbs Adam is an AMGA Certified Rock Guide based in Utah.
Indian Creek Utah, and many other climbing areas, hosts some LONG pitches. Even with 80 meter ropes becoming more common, sometimes you'll need two ropes in order to return to the ground and toprope those mega 200' routes. Here's Adam’s preferred method. This is one of several ways to do it.
Before we get into the techniques, here are some important considerations:
This is uses some fairly advanced techniques, so pay attention! (But if you’re top roping 70+ meter pitches you're probably ready for it.)
The video link below shows the leader descending with a single strand, counterbalanced rappel with a Grigri. The counterbalanced rappel may be new for a lot of people. The leader is counterbalanced by the weight of the belayer on the ground, which means even though the leader is rapping, it's vital that the belay always remain ON. Talking it over on the ground and having complete agreement with your partner is vital for safety. As mentioned above, practice this in a controlled environment first! Remember, stay on belay the whole time!
The counterbalanced rappel is a good approach if the route is overhanging and/or traverses, because the leader can rappel directly to the ground without having to rappel through gear that might be difficult to unclip and then re-clip. If the route is more or less straight up and down and vertical or less, the standard two strand rappel with a tube device is probably fine.
A Flemish Bend or Double Fisherman's Bend is the preferred joining knot because it handles cyclical loading (subsequent loading and unloading) better than other common bends, such as the flat overhand bend. Adam uses the Flemish Bend (not to be confused with the flat-8) because it is easy to untie.
Ropes stretch! One popular 9.8mm rope has a static elongation of 8.6%. That means it could stretch over 34' at the start of a 200' pitch. Keep your climber extremely tight when they are near the ground and above ledges. Before the climber starts, they can “pre-stretch” the rope by fully weighting it, and the belayer can take in the slack through the Grigri.
A static rope can be used as the tagline and greatly reduce dangerous rope stretch. Be sure the climber always ties into the dynamic rope if you're incorporating a static rope.
Half/double/twin ropes stretch even more than single ropes and can be hard to control when lowering. Adam prefers single-rated ropes when using this method.
A Grigri (or similar Assisted Braking Device) is highly preferred for this technique. They allow you to more easily manage the additional stretch.
Have the first top-roper clean most of the gear but leave any necessary directionals, reclipping them while lowering.
Adam keeps the upper belay device on the rope when lowering climbers. This makes the transition when another climber ascends a touch faster and easier.
While this method can be done with a single belayer, it's often easier with a pair of belayers (one for each rope) who assist and check each other during the transition.
Regarding passing the knot when belaying. . .
The video below shows different techniques to pass the knot. You may think this is unnecessary, all you need to do is pull the knot up until it touches the anchor, have the climber on the ground tie at that point with a figure 8 on a bight and maybe a couple of locking carabiners, and off they go. When the climber reaches the anchor, the knot should be at the belayer, and you don't need to pass it. Easy, right?
Sounds good in theory, but . . .
When tying in short, the climber will have rope dangling down between their legs. This can be pretty annoying.
Because of rope stretch, the belayer very likely will have to pass the knot anyway. One option is to walk backwards from the base of the cliff to take up some of the rope, but in many places doing that’s not an option. You might get lucky and not have to pass the knot when belaying, but it's better to be prepared to do it with an extra device and ideally an extra person to help.
Like most fairly complex things in climbing, it's a better show than a tell. Here's a video from Adam showing how it's done.
