Hauling directly from a Traxion pulley

Credits: This system is also known as the “far end haul”. I believe it was originally invented by legendary Yosemite dirtbag Chongo, and shown to me initially by Mark Hudon. Check out Mark’s great website for more on this.

Note the haul line going directly to the Petzl mini Traxion.

(Also note the haul line clipped in with a locker to the top part of the swivel as a backup.)

image: mark hudon

The traditional big wall set up to rig your haul rope to the haul bags is to pretty much connect them directly, something like this:

• Figure 8 on a bight (or better yet, a butterfly knot, easier to untie after loading) on the end of haul rope

• Locking carabiner

• Swivel (optional but highly recommended)

• Another locking carabiner attached to haul bag(s)

However, with the addition of just one more piece of (admittedly expensive) gear, you can make your life a whole lot easier in certain situations. All you do is add a progress capturing pulley, (aka PCP) like a Petzl Micro Traxion, to the locking carabiner upstream from the swivel, put your haul rope through that.  Note that you set this up on the ground from the very first haul, and keep it on the system the entire climb. 

Also note that you do not remove this PCP and use it as part of your hauling system, you need a separate PCP for that. (Yes, this sport is expensive . . .)

The rig looks like this:

• Haul rope through Micro Traxion (make sure it’s threaded the right way, duh)

• Micro Traxion to locking carabiner

• Locking carabiner to top of swivel

• Bottom of swivel to locking carabiner

• Locking carabiner to haul bag(s)

Here’s a close up or one way to rig it. Note the haul line is clipped above the swivel with a locker as a backup to the Traxion. Docking cord is attached to the long haul bag strap with a quicklink.

No, the teeth on the pulley do not damage the rope. That was my first reaction, isn’t the rope going to get shredded? But nope, it does not. (You ARE using a burly haul rope with a stout sheath, right?)

About the only downside to this system is that you’re adding one more bit of gear that costs about $100. But the upsides can be significant. 

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Here's a fancier way to set it up, from big wall expert Skot’s Wall Gear.

Here, Skot is using a pair of rappel rings (gold) along with a combination swivel and locking carabiner (appears to be the Director Swivel Boss from DMM). This makes a more compact set up, with zero chance cross loading the rings. Sweeeeet!

PHOTO: @SKOTFROMTHEDOCK, HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/P/C2NMW-BY0-3/

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The far end haul

Having a Traxion on the load also lets you set up what’s called a “far end haul”, which at first seems like some sort of sorcery. The far end haul system allows you to lift your load with a theoretical 2:1 mechanical advantage (MA) by pulling on the “far end” of the rope, rather than from the primary anchor. Here's a detailed article on how to set it up, along with some how-to videos.

But, even if you’re not soloing, it has a few advantages.

• You never again need to futz with the old school “water bottle knot protector” that slides up and down the haul line and gets in your way. If you don't have a knot, you don't need a knot protector, right?

• You can pull all the extra haul line through the Traxion before you release the bags from their docking cords, and use the extra haul rope to lower out the bags. (Remember to tie that back up knot after you pull all the extra rope through the Traxion; it’s easy to forget this,)

• You never have a loaded/welded haul rope knot to untie.

• The far end haul can minimize rope abrasion, because the haul rope doesn’t move.

• If you have to haul from a point or over a ledge with a LOT of rope friction, you can instead far end haul and have zero friction.

• You can easily move the bags around at the anchor; more below.

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Simply by redirecting the tail end of the haul rope through a higher anchor point, you can generate a 2:1 mechanical advantage to unweight the bags. This lets you do various shenanigans like transferring the docking cord from one part of the anchor to another. And I can tell ya, if you’re a beginning wall climber, you are just about guaranteed to have some flavor of anchor fustercluck that will require this, ask me how I know this!

If you didn’t have this set up, unweighting the bags once they are settled on the anchor is probably going to be a significant pig wrestle. You want to avoid pig wrestling whenever possible.

Here’s a video by wall ace Mark Hudon who shows exactly how to do this. Rather ingenious, no?

How to (and how not to) rack pickets

What beginning snow climber has not cursed the clanking cowbells and the strangle, tangle and dangle of pickets, hanging from ill-placed runners around your neck and shoulder, threatening to trip you up at each step!

Here’s a better way to rack pickets. Carry 6 pickets like this, with them more or less out of the way yet still easily accessible. (Think of this method as the least of all evils. Pickets are still a drag to carry, no matter how you do it, but this way sucks the least.)

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If you have very firm snow, you might be able to use a “top clipped” picket. In that case, girth hitch a single length (2 foot / 60 cm) runner through the top picket hole. Clip a carabiner to the runner, then clip this carabiner to the third hole from the top of the picket.

If you’re clipping the middle picket hole, you're probably going to need a double length (4 feet / 120 cm) runner. Girth hitch this long sling through the middle hole . . .

Then wrap the sling around the picket until there's a few inches left, and clip the carabiner to the 3rd hole from an end.

Then, clip the carabiner to your gear loop (harness or on your pack waist belt). By clipping the third hole, the picket rides high enough to (mostly) not trip you, and stays oriented vertically.

Another option: clip it to your backpack strap.

This works well for the leader and for the second / gear cleaner.

Rack the pickets (to begin with) on the opposite side of where your ice axe is generally held. For example, if you're heading more or less straight up or traversing left, and you're right handed, rack the pickets on your left side gear loop so they don't interfere with your axe.

And, a related tip on who the cleaner should be. Often the slowest or least experienced person can end up in the back of a running belay, and guess what, that person becomes the cleaner. It's usually better to put a less experienced team member in the middle of the team, and have someone more skilled doing the cleaning at the caboose end of the rope.

Also, it’s helpful if the caboose person is taller; the pickets will ride higher and be less of a tripping hazard.

Here’s a few more tips on the running belay.

Finally, it’s fine to girth hitch the runner through the picket hole. That dyneema sling is rated to 22 kN, weakening it by half with the girth hitch means it's still good for about 11 kN, which is way more force than you're ever going to put on a snow anchor. (But hey, if that's not your thing, feel free to clip the sling to the picket with a carabiner.)

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Finally, how NOT to rack pickets: don’t put the slings around your neck and let the pickets strangle, tangle and dangle, like this guy.

Use waterproof paper for maps

If you’re printing maps yourself (like you should be with great free software like Caltopo), you know the importance of protecting them from the weather. Most of the time, if you print maps on a color laser printer and keep them in a 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag, that's going to be good enough.

Besides maps, another excellent thing to print on waterproof paper is a SOAP note for your first aid kit.

But in in challenging, wet conditions, you may want to take some extra steps for durability. That's when you might want to consider waterproof paper.

In addition to weatherproofing, printing your maps on stout paper like this or putting them in a plastic bag makes them much more durable. You can fold them multiple times and mash them up in your pocket with little worry they're going to turn into confetti.

“Rite in the Rain” paper, is a fine choice and has been around forever. The one downside is it can tear. It costs about $18 for 50 sheets, or about $0.36 a sheet. If you want to experiment with waterproof paper, this is a low-cost option to get started.

image: AMAzon.com

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The next step up in waterproof paper is a type which is actually a sort of plastic, that takes color laser printing beautifully, basically tear proof, and complete waterproof.

How tearproof and waterproof? Watch the first 45 seconds of ths video to get an idea.

The downside of this paper is that it’s expensive (about $40 for 50 sheets, or $.80 per sheet.) But, if you only use it for maps where you really need the extra durability, such as maybe for canyoneering, ski touring in a storm, sea kayaking, or a longer mountaineering trip when you really need your map to last, it could be well worth it.

There are a few different flavors on Amazon. I have a box of the “iGage” paper. When I want to print maps, I make them in Caltopo, save them as a PDF file, put them on a USB drive, take that to the local FedEx store, put a few sheets of my waterproof paper in the top of tray #1, and print my maps as normal.

Disclaimer, this paper is made of a kind of plastic, and it's conceivable that it could jam or melt or do something weird in certain kinds of laser printers. If you do this at FedEx store, you may want to ask an employee if it's OK to use. Personally I've done it many times and never had a problem, your mileage may vary.

image: AMAzon.com

Ascender mod - quicklink in the small hole

Many styles of ascenders (the newer Petzl models being an exception) have two holes near the bottom. One is a big one that can fit a carabiner (or two), and the other is a small one that can’t usually fit a carabiner. This small hole can be used to tie a permanent tether from cord so you can’t drop your ascender, something more common on expedition-style climbing with a lot of fixed ropes. (Screen grab below from video about K2.)

Logical question: Why don’t ascenders have a slightly larger second hole so you COULD fit a small carabiner in it? I dunno! If anyone has the answer, please tell me.

image credit: youtube.com/watch?v=Ou3m2Ic4gFE

If you're a big wall climbing instead of on an expedition, here’s an easy enhancement you can do to make this little hole more helpful: add a small quicklink. This makes a handy second point of connection for a carabiner.

• I use a Kong 4mm stainless steel link. Cost was about $6. These look pretty darn small, and are not rated or certified by any official CE of UIAA, but apparently the major access breaking load is 1400 kg, which is #SuperGoodEnough. These are a hard to find. I got mine at HowNOT2.store.

• A 5 mm stainless link works fine as well. It is of course slightly bigger, and takes a greater variety of carabiner shapes. It also might inspire a little more confidence, so feel free to use 5 mm if you like =^)

• Crank it down with pliers and add some Loctite thread locker if you have it.

• For ascending and cleaning an aid pitch: use the large hole to clip your tether with a locking carabiner, and the quicklink to clip your ladder with a non-locking carabiner.

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Of course, there are some other options to attach your tether carabiner.

Newer Petzl ascenders have one large hole in the bottom instead of one large and one small. This lets you clip both your tether carabiner and your ladder carabiner into the same hole.

You could also clip your ladder carabiner to your tether locker, but I find having them separated with a quick link is cleaner and less prone to twisting and other weirdness.

The foundation of aid climbing is having simple, safe, and easily repeatable systems that you don't have to think about too much. This is one small way to do that. Every time you are getting rigged to clean a pitch, you know exactly where your tether and your ladders get clipped.

Or, if you use a Grigri for an ascending system, you can put a pulley or a carabiner on this quicklink to give yourself a downward pull and a little mechanical advantage when you’re ascending.

Here's the set up for for seconding / cleaning an aid pitch. Tether and locker to big hole, ladder and non locker to quicklink. Simple, clean, easy to check.

This is one of several ways to do it; give it a try and see if it works for you.

Add a release loop to your Fifi hook

The fifi hook, a near indispensable tool for big wall climbers to take a short rest, (emphasize short) often has a hole up near the top. (Use of the traditional fifi hook, as shown here, has decreased a bit in recent years, due to the popularity of the adjustable fifi, but this older style still has a place.)

This hole is for you to attach a short loop of cord. If the fifi is loaded, you can grab this cord, pull down on it, and it will lever the hook off whatever it's hanging on. (Sometimes this little “pop” can happen quickly, so be ready for it.) This can be quite handy in certain situations.

I'm using parachute cord tied with a double fisherman's. The orange webbing loop is fairly short, and I have a girl attached to my upper tie in point, that's my preference. Different links and connection options work for different people, try a few methods and see what's best for you.

"Riding the Pig" - rapping with your haul bag

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.

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Descending with your haul bags is the sort of opposite of hauling them, but many of the same principles apply. Here are a few words on hauling, from the excellent big wall climbing book, “Higher Education”, by Andy Kirkpatrick (Buy it here):

“Hauling is potentially one of the most dangerous aspects of big wall climbing. This translates to ultra-caution in all parts of your hauling system and interaction with bags, haul lines, docking cords, and pulleys. If you rush and make a mistake, drop a load or have it shift where it's not wanted, you could easily kill someone or yourself. I try and teach climbers to view their bags as dangerous creatures, like a great white shark, rhino, or raptor that is in their charge. The ability to keep them calm and under your control comes down to paranoia, foresight, and heavy respect for the damage they can do.”

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Left: Light to moderate pack or haul bag, hanging from the belay loop. Right: Seriously heavy haul bag, hanging from master rappel carabiner (and definitely not hanging from you!)

Learning to safely rappel with a moderate to heavy haul bag (or pack) is an important big wall skill. You may use it if you have to retreat, and you may do it as part of the normal descent, such as the East Ledges of El Capitan.

With a light to moderately heavy pack or bag, you can get away with clipping it to your belay loop. (In terms of weight, that's roughly the amount you can haul up with one arm.)

However, when you're dealing with a larger load, you do NOT want to attach it directly to yourself in any way. This is much harder to control and much less comfortable; yes, I’m talking sensitive groin area anatomy here!

For a heavy bag, you essentially put the bag on rappel, and then attach yourself somewhere to that system. This puts the weight of the pig on the rappel carabiner, and not on you.

(This is similar to a rescue style “spider” rappel, when you might have to rap with an injured partner.)

Here's a story that provides a great example of why you do NOT want to have your haul bag attached directly to you.

“Two climbers attempting the West Face of Leaning Tower in June decided to descend after arriving at Ahwahnee Ledge (the top of the fourth pitch), due to excessive heat and sun. While rappelling the very overhanging first pitch with the haulbag, Climber A rappelled over a small roof and got too far away from the wall to reach the ledge at the bottom of the pitch, despite clipping some directionals during his descent. With no way to anchor the haul bag, he could not detach it from the ropes nor reascend the ropes to reach the ramp.”

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Let's have a closer look at one method in the photo below. There are lots of different ways you could set this up, but this photo shows the main concepts. Some elements are removed for clarity.

1. Grigri and dedicated HMS carabiner. This is a good place for a triple action or Magnetron carabiner, you absolutely do not want that puppy coming open. There are pros and cons to using a Grigri, more on that below.

2. ATC works also. You can also rappel on a tube style device with one or two strands of rope. This can work better on old / crusty / large diameter ropes. If you do this, an autoblock backup hitch is mandatory.

3. Adjustable daisy chain (purple). Used to attach and release the haul bag at anchors. Having an additional longer docking cord could be a fine idea to back up this daisy. Whatever system you use, it must to be releasable under load.

4. Haul bag master HMS carabiner (gold). Here there's only one bag, but more bags and gear could be attached to this single point.

5. Adjustable daisy chain (green) and locking carabiner (blue). This is your primary connection to the system. The daisy is attached to your harness and clipped to the Grigri carabiner (#1) with the blue locker; this lets you easily separate yourself from the haulbags if you need to. Note that this connection is very short, so you can reach the Grigri handle. (If you're tall, you can lengthen the connection. If you're short, you could skip the daisy entirely and clip a carabiner from your harness directly to the rappel carabiner.) Not shown, some kind of additional tether for attaching yourself to anchors as you reach them. You can use this additional tether as a backup to the green one after you leave the anchor. (This adjustable daisy is optional, but very handy to fine-tune the length of your connection. If you don't have one, try a locking quick draw or something similar.)

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Notes:

• As with all critical climbing skills, practice this in advance in a controlled environment before you ever have to do it for real. Small variations in the system can have a big difference in comfort and function.

• Wear gloves.

• Descending with a Grigri (or similar device) can work well. However, be sure and practice this. Sometimes large loads on a Grigri can be difficult to control, plus your hand can get tired from constantly holding the handle open.

• With a standard tube style rappel device, gravity does the work and the rap is generally smoother. If you use a tube device, use a third hand auto block below it as a backup.

• Keep any slings connecting you and the haul bag to the master carabiner fairly short. Keeping the slings short means you can easily reach your rappel device. This is of course mandatory if you use a Grigri, slightly less important if you don't. A 60 cm / single length runner works well. Feel free to double up the slings for redundancy if that makes you comfortable.

• You need to have a way to dock the haul bags at each anchor. With a heavy bag, this needs to be releasable under load. Hopefully you've been using docking cords on your way up, so you can continue to use them on the way down. Learn more about docking cords here. You can also (as in the photo) use an adjustable daisy chain, such as a Yates.

• If you have a lighter bag and don't need a docking cord, have a 60 cm sling with a locking carabiner attached to the bag to secure the bag to anchors.

• Depending on your rappel device, you may want some extra friction. To increase friction, clip an additional belay device on your belay loop, and put the brake strands of the rope through that. You can also put two identical carabiners on the master point, and clip the rappel device through both of those.

• In a two person team, the haul bags usually come down with the second person.

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Have both you and your partner take a close look at your rigging before you start heading down. Keep things as simple and streamlined as possible. Haul bags have been dropped and people have been hurt from doing this incorrectly, so sure and double check your systems.

Begin heading down. Have the bag between your legs so you can kick off the rock as needed and guide it around obstacles. If you have things set up correctly, this should be a pretty relaxed and straightforward process. If you find yourself fighting the pig or straining with your brake hand to hold the extra weight, you're doing something wrong.

Pig riding is relatively easy if your rappel goes straight down. If it starts to traverse, is overhanging, or both, things get more complicated. Check out this article on negotiating over hanging or traversing rappels.

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Finally, here's a great video from the always amusing and informative Ryan Jenks, from HowNot2.com, showing different ways to rappel with your haul bag. Yes, it's long, over an hour, but lots of good stuff if you have the time.

Big wall bucket - 5 gallons of stout storage

Want to have delicate items on your next vertical camping trip remain unsquished from the grinding wear and tear of the big wall haulbag? How about keeping your phone, camera, water, snacks, rain shell, fleece jacket and sunscreen close at hand during the day? You should not be diving into your hall bag in the middle of the day, pull out what you need in the morning.

The answer: the big wall bucket.

What you need:

• 5 gallon plastic bucket, paint store or big box hardware store (or maybe free from a doughnut shop or big supermarket bakery)

• Gamma lid. This is a clever contraption that lets you install a screw-on lid to a 3 or 5 gallon standard bucket. This is a WAY better option than fighting a tight paint bucket lid with beat up wall hands!

• A few feet of 3 mm cord or other really strong cord, like bank line

• About 5 feet of tubular webbing, diameter not really important

• Drill and bits (or knife with sharp tip)

This is a gamma lid:

Install the gamma lid “ring” onto the top of your bucket. I found about the easiest way to do this is to position the ring part of the lid on the top of your bucket, put a 2 by 4 or piece of scrap wood on the top, and tap the wood a few times with a hammer.

Reinforce the handle with 1 inch webbing. The wire handles on these buckets are fairly strong for around the house, but not stout enough for the rigors of big wall climbing. Back up the handle by drilling a small hole in the side of the bucket near where the handle connects to the bucket, inserting one end of the webbing, tie a stopper overhand knot on the inside, spiral wrap the webbing around the handle, and then repeat the hole and knot program on the other side. Wrap some duct tape around the webbing/wire handle to keep it tidy.

Try to make the holes you drilled as small as possible to make it harder for water to get in. You’ll probably need some needle nose pliers to pull the webbing through the hole, and consider putting a dab of silicone sealant around the webbing hole junction as some additional water protection.

Add a keeper cord to the lid. Everything on the wall needs to keep record so you don't drop it. Take about 3 feet of thin cord, like 3 mm from the climb shop (or bank line) and drill two small holes, about 1 inch apart in the side of the bucket about 2 inches down from the top. Make these holes just a hair larger than the cord in the side of the bucket. Pass the cord through the holes, and tie a bowline knot to secure it.  Repeat this near the center of the lid. Now your lid is permanently attached to the bucket and you can’t drop it.

Hang this bucket on a tether cord below your main haul bag. You can pull up on the cord to access the bucket anytime you want during the day. And, anything inside it is guaranteed to be uncrushed and pretty much watertight. Read more on gear tethers here.

Wall buckets have been around for a long time. I first heard about this tip from Climbing magazine, published in 2002. The Gamma lid is a definite improvement.

Note the tied off ends of brown webbing inside the bucket, backing up the wire handle, and the lid keeper cord. Duct tape keeps the webbing and wire handle together.

Ascending - have both tethers the same length

When you’re setting up your tethers and jumars for ascending a rope, getting the correct length for the tethers is critical. If it’s too short you’ll be making short, choppy, and efficient strokes. If it’s too long, you can’t easily reach your upper ascender from the rest position, and you’ll flame out your arms and abs in a few minutes. 

(You may want slight variations on this “ideal” length. For lower angled slab pitches, you might want the tether a bit shorter; for steeper pitches, maybe a bit longer. But you do need a starting point.)

Here are a few guidelines for getting the tether length set correctly.

• With the tethers girth hitched to your belay loop or tie in points (there are pros and cons to both, see below), pull the daisy tethers up vertically in front of you.

• The bottom of the locking carabiner should be just about at the middle of your forehead. (See photo below)

• Now, clip the ascender to your fixed rope and put full body weight on it. If you reach straight up, your wrist should be at the top of the ascender. This positioning ensures that you have a gentle bend in your elbow when your hand is grabbing the handle, and you can easily reach the trigger on the cam. Take the time to get this right. (It’s been my experience that most new aid climbers initially make their tether too long.)

• Tip - Once you determine the correct connection length, mark this on your tethers. If you have adjustables, add a Sharpie pen mark. If you have traditional sewn pocket daisies, add a loop of 2mm or so cord or stout string (or burly tape like hockey tape) to the correct loop to mark it. By doing this, you set it once, and you can quickly adjust it to the right spot anytime in the future.

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Big wall ace Mark Hudon shared a good tip with me. Most people think only your dominant hand tether needs to be the perfect length, and the length of the other one doesn’t really matter.  

Mark says: have them both at the same length.

Reason: When ascending, whatever way the route goes, you should lead with that hand. Say that you’re right handed. If the pitch goes pretty much straight up or to the right, you’ll be leading with your right ascender. But, if the pitch leads to the left, you should be leading with your left hand ascender. In that case, the tether length should be the same as the right. 

Here’s a photo of the proper set up. See that the bottom of the carabiner is just about at the climber’s forehead? When weighted on the rope, it should settle into the correct position.

So, where to attach the daisies to your harness, the tie in points or the belay loop? Both locations have pros and cons. (The front of your harness is going to be a clustered junk show no matter what you do, so get used to it.) Try both and see what you like. If you want to take a deep dive into this, check out this article.

• Tie in points: redundancy, gets you closer to the gear and thus higher in your aiders (if you have an adjustable tether), but can be uncomfortable as it’s squeezing your groin as your tie in points are smushed together, like you just took a fall.

• Belay loop: more comfortable, can be redundant if you have a harness with two belay loops, puts you farther from placed gear.

Clip like size cams together

While many people find that clipping each piece of protection to their gear loops works fine, there may be some cases when you need to make a little more room. Such as:

• Long pitch where you’re bringing a lot of gear

• Big wall climbing, where are your harness / gear sling is always overstuffed

• Alpine climbing, where you might be using single gear loops on the waist belt of a backpack, or a shaved down alpine harness that only has two loops

• Multi pitch routes, where the back of your harness might have a few extras like windbreaker, water bottle, shoes for the hike off, etc.

If you have two cams of the same size, simply clip the racking carabiner from one cam to another. This clears up space on your gear loops. It can take a bit of practice to get used to racking this way. Give it a try and see if you like it.

This also works with quickdraws, assuming they aren’t too long.

(Hopefully this is painfully obvious, but you place the lower hanging cam first, and not the one on your gear loop, to minimize the chance of dropping both of them.)

If you’re fairly short, and/or your cam slings are a bit long, remember the climbing rule of thumb of avoid having anything hanging below your knees. Don't want to trip on your gear when you do that high step . . .

Skip the carabiner in the top jumar hole

A lot of beginner aid climbers want to add a “backup” carabiner to the top hole in their ascender, all the time. It’s not wrong, but usually not optimal. (Note: a locking oval carabiner works well here.)

I get it. The first few times you use ascenders it’s pretty scary, and you probably want every possible shred of psychological safety. If that carabiner on top can lessen the chance of the ascender coming off by 0.01%, that is a good thing, the reasoning goes.

Here’s the main reason why you usually do NOT want a carabiner in the hole. When you clean a traversing pitch, you probably will remove the top ascender and leapfrog it past the piece of gear you want to clean. To do this, you need to remove and re-attach that carabiner every time, which is a major time waster if you have a more than a few pieces to clean.  Now, if you’re cleaning an absolutely vertical crack, then sure, add a carabiner in that hole if it makes you feel better, because you won't need to leapfrog it past any gear. But such a crack is the exception, not the rule.

You only really may need this backup carabiner if the rope is stretched tight and you can’t tie backup knots, and/or if you’re cleaning a roof, and/or if the rope is running at an angle greater than about 45 degrees off to either side. In other words, some oddball rope angles not encountered on a normal pitch of cleaning.

If you’re worried about the ascender popping off, remember this. If it does, you have your second ascender, and hopefully the rope running to your Grigri and/or tying backup knots as a third point of contact.

Try this - set up a tensioned horizontal fixed line, clip an ascender to it, and try to torque it in every crazy way you can think of to get it to pop off. It’s darn hard to do it! Not to say it can’t happen, but it may be more secure than you think.

Also, ascenders usually pop off the rope due to user error. After you remove the top one and leapfrog it past a piece, it's a common mistake to not click the toothed cam back properly to the rope. Always be sure the ascender fully clicks closed onto the rope every time you put it on, especially if the rope is under tension in a weird direction.

So, it’s best practice, most of the time, to not clip a carabiner through the top hole. If you do, it’s probably best if you use an oval carabiner. Also, be sure you clip it correctly around the rope, and not in the completely incorrect position shown below!

Be sure you don’t clip the hole like the photo on the right! At first glance it appears to be clipped correctly, and will probably hold your weight. But only a small part of the cam is engaged on the rope.

If you’re ascending a severely traversing pitch, it’s probably a better plan to clip the locker that’s connecting your tether to the ascender to the rope with spare carabiner, something like this:

Doing this can help keep the ascender more in proper line with the rope. (Aider and locking carabiner not shown.)

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Finally, it's common when big wall cleaning to tie back up knots and clip them to your belay loop. This does a couple of things. It's a safety system in case your ascenders for some crazy reason fail, and it also helps with rope management, keeping the rope fairly close to you so it doesn't blow around and get stuck.

Using a Grigri to ascend fixed ropes

With just a Petzl Grigri and an ascender, you can quickly and safely ascend and descend a fixed rope.

Note: if you’re doing any kind of big wall climbing or going up multiple pictures of rope in a day, you’re probably going to find it more efficient to use the more traditional two jumar system. Once you get that dialed, it's probably going to be less strenuous.

This setup is favored by riggers, rock gym employees and climbing photographers, who often need to go up AND down to fine-tune their position on the rope. So, if you are not going out very far, and need to adjust your position, this system works great.

This system is also great for cleaning traversing aid pitches, because the Grigri is releasable under tension, letting you do a mini lower out as needed. This is extremely helpful - no more fighting with your lower ascender.

Note: while this system it does give you some mechanical advantage to lift yourself, you don’t want to get into the habit of trying to use your arms when you're ascending. You should always be stepping up in your ladders to gain the height, and then using Grigri and pulley to capture your progress.

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What’s slick about this system?

• You always have two points of contact to the rope (three, after you tie a backup knot, and technically four, because you’re tied into the end)

• You can lower yourself/rappel if needed with the Grigri at any time

• It requires a minimum of gear, most of which you probably already have on a big wall climb

• It uses some mechanical advantage to raise your weight

• You can mix and match hardware depending on what’s available

• The length of your tether chain connecting your harness and the ascender doesn’t matter (unlike using a tether with a regular two-ascender setup, where the tether length is crucial)

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Ascender hack: On my Petzl ascender, I added a 5mm stainless steel quicklink to the smaller of the two bottom holes. This makes a convenient place to clip a carabiner for the upper redirect, as well as a spot for clipping your ladder.

Read more on this modification here.

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There are a few ways to rig this. Here’s one that works for me.

You need: a Grigri or similar device, a handled ascender, an aider (or 7 feet or so of webbing), a tether, a few carabiners, and a pulley (optional).

1 - Feed the rope through your Grigri, and attach the Grigri to your belay loop with a large locking carabiner, just like you would for belaying.

2 - Clip an ascender to the rope above the Grigri. (Note that the ascender is usually for your non-dominant hand; ie, right handed climbers ideally should use a left handed acender. This example is set up for a lefty.)

3 - Clip a redirect carabiner (and ideally a pulley) through the quicklink (or webbing) tied to the bottom of the ascender. (Do NOT clip the carabiner through the hole at the top of the ascender unless you’re not cleaning any gear or if the rope is traversing more than about 45 degrees. If you have to pass any gear, you need to remove and replace this carabiner each time you do so, which is a Major Hassle.) The pulley is optional, but will make the system more efficient. If you have a DMM Revolver carabiner, you could use that in place of the carabiner and pulley combination. The blue webbing loop is optional; it allows the carabiner to twist and align itself with the pull.

4 - Clip the rope coming out the bottom of your Grigri to the pulley. This acts as a redirect, letting you pull downward rather than upward, which saves a lot of energy over the course of a pitch.

5 - Girth hitch a tether through your harness tie in points or belay loop (pros and cons to both, won’t get into those here) and clip it to the ascender with a locking carabiner. This is one of your two connections to the rope, so this carabiner needs to be a locker. If you don’t have an adjustable tether, a 120 cm / double runner should work as well. The length of this tether is not critical, but it should be at least 3 feet.

6 - With a non-locking carabiner, clip your aider to the locker joining the tether and ascender. (Note: This can be a simple sling or length of tied webbing, it doesn’t have to be an aider.)

To use:

1. Sit with your weight on the Grigri . This is your “rest” position.

2. Slide the ascender as far up the rope as you can, while advancing your foot in the aider in the same motion.

3. Stand up in the aider, and at the same time and pull down on the rope coming out of the pulley carabiner. (It can help to do a little “pop” up with with your hips to get a few extra inches.) The Grigri will lock up as you finish pulling down on the rope. Sit in your harness, weight the Grigri, and slide the ascender again up the rope. Repeat.

Need to rappel? That’s the easy part! Because your Grigri is already properly attached to the rope, all you need to do is unclip the ascender, and you’re ready to head down.

As with any climbing skill, this is a better show than a tell.

(Note that in the video below, the climber does not have an aid ladder, it's just a sling that serves as a foot loop. This is simpler, cheaper, and lighter.)

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Same concept, less gear

You can also set this up with a Grigri on your harness, and a friction hitch or emergency ascender such as a Petzl Tibloc (preferred) above you. Here's a photo of that setup.

Notes:

• If the terrain is fairly low angle, you may not even need the Tibloc. Just push your feet off the wall and pull the roof through the Grigri to make progress. The Tibloc and foot loop will be needed when things get steep.

• The yellow sling is somewhat optional and then it provides a second point of connection to the rope. If you wanted to skip that or didn't have it, you can tie back up knots below your Grigri To give yourself a second point of connection. (The blue sling is for your foot.)

• You can make the ascending process a bit easier by taking the tail of the rope coming out of the Grigri and running it through the carabiner on the Tibloc. This gives you a 3:1 mechanical advantage, and lets you pull down with your arm rather than up, which really makes a difference on a long climb. See the video below for an example of this.

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Here's a short video by IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap on a more minimalist way to set this up, using a Grigri, a Petzl Tibloc, and a double length / 120 cm sling.

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Here’s an action video. Note a few differences: He’s using a sling as a foot loop, not an aider, and he has the redirect carabiner clipped to the top hole on the ascender, because he’s not aid climbing and cleaning gear. Other than that, it’s the same basic system.

Introduction to MA systems

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First off, thanks to some Very Bright People who helped with these posts. High fives to Barry O’Mahony, Bryan Hall (with Rose City Ropes) Deling Ren, and Derek Castonguay. Thanks, friends!

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I'm busy and I have a short attention span. What's the takeaway?

• Start with learning 2:1 and a 3:1 until you can build them with your eyes closed. Every other fancy system is really just a combination of these.

• Real world mechanical advantage will always be less than theoretical mechanical advantage. Sometimes a lot less - that “3:1” is probably more like at 2:1.

• Use pulleys instead of carabiners when possible.

• Redirecting the pull adds friction. Don't do it unless you need to.

• A pulley on the anchor only serves to change the direction of pull. A pulley on the load or the load strand creates mechanical advantage.

• The efficiency of ratchets is worse than you may think.

• Redirecting the pull through the anchor magnifies your pulling effort on that redirect point.

• Mechanical advantage systems can increase forces on the anchor.

• Static ropes are more efficient than dynamic ropes.

• A pulley with a larger wheel is slightly more efficient than a pulley with a smaller wheel.

• Don't use more mechanical advantage than you need to get the job done.

• Alpine climbers and big wall climbers have different needs and different systems

• These blog posts are mostly arranged with easier topics at the top and more advanced topics closer to the bottom.

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Got some time and a longer attention span and really want to learn this stuff?

Good, let's get started.

I'll always remember my first encounter with pulleys. In the rural area where I grew up, we had a neighbor named Ray, who was always messing around with cars. One day my dad said, “Let's go visit Ray tomorrow morning, I think he has something special to show us.”

The next day we walk over to Ray's house. He’s elbow deep in an old Chevy, that’s parked under an oak tree with a stout branch. I see some ropes going back-and-forth between the tree branch and the car, but that doesn't mean anything to me. After a few minutes. Ray hands me a rope end and says, “OK, start pulling.” I pull hand over hand on the rope . . . and watch in absolute amazement as my 8 year old arms lift the entire engine out of the car! The magic of pulleys had me feeling, for a brief moment, like a superhero.

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Mechanical advantage (mostly referred to from here on as MA) which rather magically magnifies your pulling power, is one of the wonders of human ingenuity. Something as simple as running a rope back and forth between an anchor point and a load can somehow give you the power to lift a load many times your own body weight.

Mechanical advantage in various forms was a key component of building the Egyptian pyramids. Sliding a block up a ramp is shown below is a form of mechanical advantage, because you’re moving the load several horizontal meters and only one vertical one, which means it requires less force to move.

Systems of pulleys are used on modern cranes to lift amazingly large loads.

Applications of mechanical advantage have been used for many centuries in all kinds of different clever ways!

This series of posts takes a deep dive into MA, how it works, and how it can be applied to climbing situations. The goal here is for anyone reading this, especially non-engineering people, is to start simple, get a bit more esoteric, and by the end have a complete and solid understanding of MA pulley systems and how they apply to climbing. If you make through all these posts, you’ll be an expert!

Knowledge of mechanical advantage systems is not helpful only for climbers. White water rafters and kayakers use similar rescue systems, and this series of posts will be helpful for them as well.

Note that this post is NOT a rehash of the specifics of how to perform alpine rescues or big wall hauling. Those topics are already well described in many other places on the web and in print.

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Moving rice bags: a way to think about MA

Imagine you work at a grocery store. One morning a delivery truck drops off a pallet, on which are 10 bags of rice. Each bag weighs 20 pounds, for a total of 200 pounds.

Your job is move the rice bags from the loading dock into the store. How do you want to do this?

• If you’re feeling pretty strong, make a single trip: deadlift 200 pounds, and slowly walk it into the store. We could call this a 1:1, lifting and moving the entire weight once. 

• If you’re not feeling strong (and maybe getting paid by the hour) you could take one rice bag at a time and leisurely walk it into the store, taking 10 trips to move all 10 bags. It takes very little effort to lift each bag, but you have to do it 10 times. We could call this a 10:1. 

• Or, a more practical approach may be somewhere in the middle. You could take, say, two bags at a time, a manageable 40 pounds, and make five trips to carry the 10 bags into the store. We could call this a 5:1.  

In the end, all of the bags are moved from point A to point B. You haven’t magically made the 200 pound load any lighter, moving the 10 bags still took the same amount of “work”, but you simply changed the time and distance involved to move the load. Is one “easier” than another? No.

The basic question is, would you rather move 200 pounds one time, 20 pounds ten times, or maybe 40 pounds five times? There’s not one correct answer.

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Let's start with some definitions.

• Mechanical advantage, or MA: This is the magnification of your pulling effort. It's expressed as a ratio, such as 2:1, 3:1, and is pronounced “2 to 1” and “3 to 1”. The first number is the force applied to the load, and the second number, which is always one, is the effort that you apply to the rope. For example, in a theoretical 2:1 system, if you pull with 100 pounds, you can lift a 200 pound load. A 3:1 system with a 100 pound pull let’s you lift 300 pounds. Magic! 

• Theoretical (aka “ideal”) vs Real World (aka “actual”)MA: On paper, in a frictionless world with perfect pulleys and ropes that don't stretch, MA systems work as advertised. But in the real world, not so much. Mostly due to friction, real world, or actual MA will always be less than theoretical, or ideal MA. (Meaning, that theoretical 3:1 may be more like a 1.7:1, ouch!)

• Efficiency: Closely related to MA is efficiency. Think of efficiency as: how much of your effort is actually getting through to the load to do some useful work? High efficiency is good, because it means you need to do less work. (And let's face it, most of us are lazy.) In the real world, haul system efficiency is affected by a wide range of things, such as stretch of the rope under load, the quality of your pulleys, rubbing and twisting of the rope, how often you need to reset your hauling system, and a few other quirky variables.

• Friction: the main and messy variable that takes nice “theoretical” MA and turns it into “real world” MA. With a 2:1 system, in theory a 100 pound effort can lift a 200 pound load. But in the real world, friction will always mean you will be moving less than 200 pounds. Depending on your choice of gear, it can sadly be a LOT less. In climbing, friction mostly comes from the rope bending to go through a pulley or carabiner, or the rope rubbing on a rock ledge or a crevasse lip. Friction is not our friend, and we want to try to minimize it whenever possible.

• Fixed pulley: a pulley/carabiner that’s attached to the anchor. This pulley does not move, and serves only to change the direction of pull. It does not create MA.

• Moveable pulley: aka travelling or “tractor” pulley/carabiner. This is attached in some way to the load or the load strand. This pulley moves as you pull the rope. It changes the direction of pull AND creates MA. 

• Progress capture: aka ratchet. If you pull on a load, a progress capture means the load won’t slip back once you stop pulling. A progress capture in climbing is typically either a simple prusik knot or a pulley that is combined with a rope grabbing mechanism. These pulleys, such as Petzl “Traxion” series, are expensive, but very handy. Progress capturing pulleys are optional for alpine climbing but mandatory for big wall hauling. More on ratchets in a later post.

Below are two examples of a progress capture - the humble prusik and the Petzl Mini Traxion (shown open to illustrate rope grabbing teeth.)

progress capture: Petzl pulley and sterling hollow block tied as 3 wrap prusik.

progress capture: petzl mini traxion

Overview of a simple pulley system

Let's start simple.

I don't know about you, but when I start looking at diagrams of complicated pulley systems and 5:1 rescue setups, my eyes get crossed and my brain starts to fog. Good news is, we don’t need to analyze a 5:1. At least not right now. Let’s break this down by starting at the beginning and then working up to a simple MA system, so you can really see how this works.

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The basic 1:1 pull

Sticky the climber needs to haul a 100 pound load up to the ledge. Sticky ties a rope onto the load, and starts pulling. To even budge it off the ground, Sticky needs to pull up with 100 pounds of effort. Sticky pulls 1 foot of rope, and the load rises 1 foot. Sticky has no mechanical advantage or progress capturing, so Sticky’s arms get tired pretty fast!

In this case, it's probably not a good system. But in other situations, it might work just fine. Got a crevasse rescue with five people on top ready to pull? Great! Put prusiks on the rope for everybody, have them clip in, and start pulling, ideally with their legs and bodyweight. Probably no need for anything fancier than this.

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Bluehat thinks, “Hmm, how about clip a carabiner to that bolt, and clip in the rope? That way, I can pull DOWN with my bodyweight instead of lifting UP with my arms, and I won't get so tired. That should be easier, right?”

The 1:1 pull with a redirect carabiner

Does Bluehat gain any MA with this setup? No. He changed the direction of pull, but because the direction change is on the fixed anchor, he did not gain any MA. He’s still pulling a 1:1, just like before, just with the rope now moving down instead of up. He pulls 1 foot of rope, and the load rises 1 foot. This carabiner on the anchor is called a “redirect”, because it, umm, redirects your direction of pull.

Does he get an easier pull? Maybe. He can now use gravity and pull down using bodyweight rather than lifting up with his muscles. Pulling down is usually easier than pulling up! But the redirect adds a lot of friction. By running the rope through a carabiner, which is only about 50% efficient, he'll have to pull down with 150 pounds of force to move the 100 pound load.

Which is better, 100 pounds lifting straight up, using your arm muscles, or 150 pounds, pulling down, using your bodyweight?  There's really no right answer. It depends on how far you need to move the load, your weight, and your strength. (Personally, I'll take 150 pounds with the redirect pulling down, thank you very much.)

Does he need a bomber anchor for the redirect? Yes! When Bluehat is pulling, the force on the anchor is approximately twice the force they’re applying to the rope, or about 300 lbs. Which introduces a good general rule of thumb: a redirect on the anchor increase the load on the anchor.

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The 1:1 pull with a redirect carabiner and progress capture prusik

Bluehat thinks, “Well, it is easier pulling down with my bodyweight, but if I ever let go, this load is going to zing all the way to the ground again. How about I put a prusik on the load strand so I can take a rest?”

Excellent idea! This is known as a progress capture (aka “ratchet”). It allows the load to move up, but whenever Bluehat wants to let go and rest, the prusik keeps the load from sliding back down. (If you want to get fancy, you could use a progress capture pulley here, such as Petzl Traxion.)

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The 2:1 pull

Bluehat thinks, “OK, time to start working smart instead of working hard!” He clips one end of the rope to the anchor, puts a pulley on the 100 lb. load, runs the rope through the pulley, and starts hauling. Now he’s getting somewhere!

Does Bluehat gain any MA with this setup? YES! He’s now pulling with a 2:1 mechanical advantage. Look how the load is distributed on the rope. 50 pounds goes to the anchor, and 50 pounds goes to him. So, if he pulls with 50 pounds of force, the load will rise! He has to pull 2 feet of rope to move the load 1 foot.

Does he get an easier pull? Well, it depends how you look at it. In theory, he only has to pull with 50 pounds of force to move the load, which is good. But, he needs to pull twice as much rope, which is not so good. In the end, he's doing the same amount of “work”. Would you rather lift 100 pounds 10 times, or 50 pounds 20 times? In the end you’ve still moved 1,000 total pounds, it's all the same.

Here's another way to think about it: work equals force times distance. You're doing the same amount of work in the end, lifting a given load the required distance. But with a mechanical advantage system, you use a lower force to move the load over a longer distance. 

How’s he doing for efficiency? Great! By using a quality pulley on the load, he can lift the load with much less effort. Way better than the carabiner with a 1:1 redirect.

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The 2:1 pull with redirect and progress capture prusik

Bluehat thinks, “Well, this is definitely easier to pull, but my arms are still getting tired. Let's put a redirect on the anchor, and a prusik on the load strand.”

Now we're getting somewhere. He’s lifting with 2:1 MA, , and added a ratchet prusik so he can take a break whenever he needs to without dropping the load. Nice!

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This, right here, is the foundation of mechanical advantage systems. All the fancy stuff in the rock or crevasse rescue books that makes you go cross-eyed? It's all just adding and stacking additional redirects and pulleys in different variations on top of pretty much what we just saw.

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Now, the above diagrams might appear to be overly simplistic. But if we break them down, we can learn some important principles that apply to any flavor of simple or compound pulley systems.

• Changing the direction of pull at the anchor does NOT add mechanical advantage.

• Changing the direction of pull at the load (or the load strand) DOES add mechanical advantage.

• Even if a change of direction at the anchor does add friction, it might make your pull easier, depending on your own personal strength, body weight, and the weight of the load you need to move.

• A redirect on the anchor increase forces on the anchor. Be sure your anchor can handle this.

• Try to minimize friction at every change of direction by using a pulley rather than a carabiner whenever possible.

• Adding a progress capture / ratchet means your load will not slide back down if you stop pulling.

• In the end, the “work” you do is the same with an MA system. You move the same amount of weight over the same distance. So, in a sense it's not necessarily “easier” to move the load all the way up, you just get to pull less weight on each stroke.

A 3:1 “Z” drag, step by step

The “Z” drag (so named because the rope looks like the letter “Z” if you turn your head sideways) which gives you a theoretical 3:1 mechanical advantage, is one of the fundamental setups of crevasse and rock rescue. After you've done it a few times, most people get the hang of it. But if you haven't rigged it in a while, or if you're doing it under the stress of a real rescue situation, setting it up efficiently and correctly can be a challenge. (I’ve seen some quite experienced climbers have a complete brain fade trying to do this if they’re out of practice . . .)

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Here's a step-by-step walk-through. Hopefully this will help if you're new to rope rescue, or to dust off this skill if it’s been awhile. So get a rope, 2 prusiks, a few carabiners and a pulley if you have it, and follow along.

Note 1: This shows the basic mechanics of how a Z drag is set up, not all the possible nuances of gear and technique. Prusik minding and progress capturing pulleys, rope grabs, backup knots and releasable hitches, and other fancy rope tricks can be added after you know this foundation inside and out.

Note 2: Don't pull furniture around inside your house as it's tough on the floor and carpet, ask me how I know this . . .

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Step 1 - Construct a bomber anchor. Add a locking carabiner. Clip this carabiner to the rope with the load. You now have a 1:1 system (zero mechanical advantage) with the rope redirected.

Step 2 - Add a “capture” prusik on the load strand of the rope, and clip this prusik to the anchor. (This prusik loop “captures” your pulling progress, holding the load if you let go of the rope.)

Step 2A - The way it's set up now, when you haul on the rope, the prusik will pull through your carabiner. Not good. There are a few ways to prevent this. One is to add a quick link, as shown below, which should block the prusik from sliding through. The effectiveness of this depends on the few variables such as size of your quick link, and diameter and grip-tion of rope and prusik cord. Give it a try and see how it works. (You can get quick links that are actually CE rated for climbing from CAMP, discussed here.)

Another way is to have a second person “mind the prusik”, keeping it loose when you're pulling, but letting it go tight on the rope to hold the load when you stop pulling.

If you have a fancy and somewhat expensive “prusik minding pulley”, this is where you’d put it.

(And yes, clever reader, I know the trick of adding a tube belay device here, we're not covering that today.)

Step 3 - Add a second prusik, called a “travelling” prusik, onto the load strand of the rope. It's called the “travelling” prusik, because it moves when you pull. If your prusik cord is a little long, like the one I have here, tie an overhand knot to shorten it up. Shorter is better.

Step 4 - Put the free end of the rope through a pulley, clip a carabiner to the pulley, and clip that carabiner onto the travelling prusik.

If you don't have a pulley, use a carabiner here. A pulley is better. If you have only one pulley, put it on the travelling prusik to increase your hauling efficiency.

Sweet, you now have a 3:1 and you’re ready to pull! Pull on the rope until your load is where you need it, or until the travelling pulley touches the anchor. If this happens and you need to pull some more, set the capture prusik to be sure it can hold the load, and then reset the travelling prusik by sliding it as far as you can down the rope toward the load. Continue pulling.

Alpine vs. big wall - different needs in MA systems

In general, there are two basic user groups for MA in climbing. They each have distinct needs and equipment.

The first one, for rock/ice and glacier climbing, involves a rescue situation. Here, you typically need to haul a big load a single time for a short distance with improvised materials, the size, bulk and weight of gear are important factors, and you may likely be using a more complicated mechanical advantage system, like a 3:1 or 5:1, to raise your patient. It’s also unexpected and stressful, meaning you may have to rig a more complex haul with improvised materials, quickly, without much practice.

Big wall climbing can also involve hauling big loads. But instead of 30 feet, you’re doing it for maybe 3,000 feet! Bulk, weight, and cost of equipment are factors, but not nearly as important as in alpine climbing. You are unlikely to be doing a 3:1 or greater haul, 2:1 is typically all that’s needed even for honker haul bags. And, because you are repeating the same movement so many times, you’re willing to take some time and invest in a perfectly dialed system that uses more expensive and slightly heavier gear, if it increases your pulling efficiency even a tiny bit. To summarize:

In alpine climbing . . .

• You start your climb not knowing if you will need to haul (and hoping you won’t!)

• Need understanding of various MA systems, 2:1, 3:1, 5:1, etc.

• Probably won’t have the exact right tools for the job, creative gear improvisation may be required

• Weight and cost of gear may dictate what you choose to carry

• Usually need to move a load only a short distance, so highly efficient systems are generally not so important

In big wall climbing . . .

• You start the climb knowing you will have to haul

• Typically only using 2:1 MA, more MA not required

• Carrying the exact right tools for the job is a priority, even if they are expensive, bulky, and weigh more

• You are moving a heavy load for a very long distance, so well practiced and efficient systems becomes very important

A few basic questions and answers about MA systems

When I start looking at some of the more crazy pulley diagrams of 5:1, 6:1, 9:1 . . . my eyes glaze over. As a climber, what's the most basic system(s) I need to know?

Learn how to do a 2:1 and a 3:1 pretty much with your eyes closed. These are the foundation systems that are used most in rescue and hauling scenarios. Any system that creates greater MA than a 3:1 is just a combination(s) of 2:1 and 3:1. Once you have these dialed, you can play around with combining them in various way to make a 5:1 or maybe a 6:1. That should be everything you should ever need for a rescue scenario. Learn these basics first and don't get confused by the fancier stuff.

Note that it’s not likely you’ll be able to lift someone just with a 3:1 unless they are actively assisting. To be really sufficient for various rescue scenarios, add a 5:1 or 6:1 to your engrained memory. Here’s a great way to make a 6:1, for example.

The good thing is, you can practice these at first on the floor and in the comfort of your warm, dry house. But then, please go try them in a more realistic setting.

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What are some real world climbing situations where I need to know this stuff?

Alpine climbing - In a crevasse rescue, you may need a 2:1, 3:1 or even 6:1. Or, perhaps various rock rescue scenarios where you might need to haul your second past a difficult move or two with a 3:1, and less commonly, setting up an “alpine block and tackle”, which can be a 4:1 or a 6:1 theoretical MA, which we cover in this tip here.

Big wall climbing - You’ve got two big honker haul bags for you and your partner to spend a week on El Capitan. The total load is going to be well over 200 pounds, and is going to absolutely suck to haul 1:1. Time to rig a 2:1 haul system. The scope of setting this up properly is a complicated topic and is covered in a separate post here.

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I don’t quite understand the math around pulley efficiency. Can you explain that?

Sure thing. One way to think about it is how different pulley efficiencies determine the effort needed to lift a load. Let’s use 100 pounds as a nice round number.

The table below pretty much spells it out. 

What do we notice? With high pulley efficiencies of 70 to 90%, you’re not going to notice much real world difference when lifting a load. When pulleys start to fall below about 60%, you’re definitely going to start noticing a difference. If any component in your hauling system is much below 50% efficient, you need to ask yourself why you’re using it at all.

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I don’t quite get how a redirect increases force on the anchor in the real world. Can you explain that?

Sure thing. Say our friend Sticky decides to raise her 100 pound load through the carabiner redirected through an anchor point. The carabiner is roughly 50% efficient. From the table directly above, we can see that for her to lift 100 pounds, she needs to pull down with a force of 200 pounds. That force gets applied to the strand of rope she’s pulling. At the same time, the 100 pound load is weighting the other strand of rope. So together, her pulling force of 200 pounds plus the 100 pound load add up to be a 300 pound load on the anchor.

Now, let's say she has a pulley that's 80% efficient, and she runs her load through that instead. From the table above, we can see that she would need to pull with 125 pounds of force. We add this to the 100 on the other side, and get a total of 225 pounds on the anchor. Hopefully this convinces you to use a pulley whenever possible!

(I did this myself with a 10 pound barbell weight, a spring scale hanging from the ceiling, and a 9 mm climbing rope. Sure enough, set up exactly like below, it took 20 pounds of pull to lift the 10 pound barbell plate off the ground.)

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If a 9:1 is easier to pull than a 3:1, why don’t we use a 9:1 for everything?

Well, first try pulling with the 3:1 that you already have set up. If that's getting the job done, don't make it more complicated. Remember, every additional redirect and pulley that you add increases friction and decreases the real world MA. It also increases the amount of rope you have to pull through the system to raise your load, requires more gear like carabiners, prusiks and pulleys, and it may increase how often you need to reset the haul pulley. It can even add some more unexpected weird variables, like ropes twisting, ropes rubbing on each other, and prusiks slipping. Remember the law of diminishing returns from that long ago economics class; adding more input does not always get you a good return on the output.

A good rule of thumb: use the minimal mechanical advantage system that you can to get the job done. The best system is not necessarily the one which creates the greatest MA.

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How about something like a DMM Revolver carabiner, that has a little wheel in it, or the Petzl “ultra legere” orange plastic wheel thing. Can I use these instead of a pulley?

Probably not. The Revolver carabiner was really designed to minimize rope drag when lead climbing, not serve as a proper pulley in a block and tackle system. (My real world tests showed a Revolver carabiner was pretty much the same as a regular carabiner in hauling efficiency.) The legere I personally have found quite difficult to use in a crevasse rescue scenario, because the rope does not properly stay in place and wants to skip off of it at every opportunity. It also has it safe working load of only 1 kN, so that means it's appropriate for lifting your pack, but not a body. Get a real pulley (or two). See some real world test results here.

image: dmmclimbing.com

image pinterest.com/pin/369295238177239123/?lp=true

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What kind of pulley should I get for crevasse / rock rescue?

There are two main types of pulleys, which you could refer to as fixed plate and swing plate. With the fixed plate pulley, the sides of the pulley look like a letter “U” and are made from a single piece of metal. Because of this wider shape, these can usually only be used with a oval or HMS belay carabiner. With the swing plate pulley, the two sides are separated, allowing one side to swing down to more easily insert the rope. The swing plate pulley is probably the most useful one to have for alpine rescue. The advantages are, it's easier to put the rope in, and it works with just about any kind of carabiner.

Having said that, it's usually better to use an oval shaped carabiner with a pulley if you can. If a D-shaped carabiner tilts the pulley off to one side, you're going to lose efficiency, because the pulley bearings will not be properly sharing the load.

image: https://smcgear.com/crx-pulley-orange.html

The American Alpine Institute recommends this model pulley for their glacier travel and crevasse rescue classes: the CRx, made especially for crevasse rescue. (“CR” Crevasse Rescue, get it?) It's a solid pulley, from the respected company SMC (Seattle Manufacturing Company), and best of all it's only about 15 bucks. I have one, it’s great.

Note that the wheel (aka sheave) in the CRx pulley is plastic, not metal. This makes it a hair lighter and less expensive, both of which are good for a lighter duty rescue pulley. But if you’re looking for a big wall hauling pulley, you want a larger diameter metal sheave with sealed bearings, both of which will increase your hauling efficiency, which is important when you're doing it 3000 times. More on big wall hauling systems and pulleys is in this post.

Petzl, SMC and CMC all make quality pulleys. Pretty much any small pulley by a name brand climbing company is going to work fine. You can find a lot of small inexpensive pulleys on Amazon; some of these are probably great, and some of them probably suck, so personally I'd stay away from those. There are ways to skimp on gear - rescue equipment is probably not a good one.

There is also a flavor of pulley called a “prusik minding” pulley, or as some manufacturers call it, a “PMP.” These pulleys have a wider faceplate on either side of the wheel, which is designed to keep the prusik from being sucked into the wheel during a crevasse rescue. If you're going to get one pulley for crevasse rescue, you very likely want to get a PMP. Like I said, don't skimp on rescue gear. PMPs vary a lot in price. That’s why this CRx is such a good deal.

Where to put the pulley?

I only have one pulley. Where should I put it to get the easiest pull?

Excellent question! We often have to improvise with limited equipment, and the location of the pulley can make a difference in the efficiency of your hauling system.

You should use your “good” pulley on the position that’s closest to your pulling force (aka, your hands).

A simple explanation, in the words of rigging expert Richard Delaney: "...the best place is closest to where the effort is applied, as this preserves maximum effort moving into the system rather than wasting it at the first bend."

Or, to say it another way, any inefficiency at the first pulley is compounded throughout the system, so you want your most efficient pulley closest to the pulling force (that’s you).

For a 3:1 (below), your pull is closest to the travelling pulley, so that’s where the good pulley should go.

For you engineers and physics folks out there, an Alpinesavvy fan on Instagram (@jared_vilhauer who's way smarter at this stuff than I am) calculated that:

• If you have a 50% efficient carabiner on the tractor, your real world mechanical advantage is 1.95.

• if you had a 90% efficient pulley on the tractor, your real world mechanical advantage is 2.35

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If you want to take a deeper dive into this, here's a nice video from The Rope Access Channel that walks you through each step. His example shows a redirect off the anchor (good practice if you need to lift the load vertically instead of horizontally) but the principle is the same. If you put the pulley closest to the load from the pulling force (aka you) that’s optimal.

image credit : the rope access channel screen grab from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMFvf_E5Y8

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A lot of folks think the pulley always should go on the moving part of the load to gain easiest pull, but this is not always true. Below, in the 2:1 with a redirect, the pulley should go on the anchor. Again, it’s because the anchor is closest to where you’re actually pulling on the rope.

This may seem a little counterintuitive (it was to me!), but it's easy to set up a test and prove it to yourself. Get a pulley, a carabiner, a rope, something heavy, and an anchor point. Set up each way and notice the pulling force needed in each set up. In this case, a pulley on the anchor is better.

Confession: this did not intuitively make sense to me, so I did a little observational study to prove it to myself.

I set up a 2 to 1 system, redirected through a top anchor point, as in the diagram above. I had a 10 pound barbell weight, and attached an inexpensive spring scale to the pulling strand. I pulled at a slow steady rate, and noted the most common whole number reading on the digital scale while I was pulling.

• 2:1 - pulley on ANCHOR, carabiner on load: 8.5 lbs. of force needed

• 2:1 - pulley on LOAD, carabiner on anchor: 11.3 lbs. of force needed

• 2:1 - pulley on BOTH anchor and load: 8.2 lbs. of force needed

Clearly, putting the pulley on the anchor is the best approach. I almost didn’t need a pulley on the load, as the force needed with a pulley or a carabiner on the load was almost the same.

Pulley vs. carabiner - What’s the difference?

You may be wondering, does it really make that much difference if I use a pulley or a carabiner?

Short answer, it can make a lot of difference. Use pulleys whenever possible. We had a look at this above with the Sticky diagrams, but it's important to get this, so let's have a quick review.

Say you need to lift 100 pound load, with a 1:1 system redirected through a high-quality pulley which is 90% efficient, which is pretty typical for a standard rescue pulley. Here, you need to apply 111 pounds of pulling force to move the load. (The math for this is 100 divided by 0.9).

However, let's redirect that same 100 pound load through a carabiner, which has an efficiency of roughly 50%. Here, you need 200 pounds of pulling force to move the load. (The math for this is 100 divided by 0.5).

So, use a pulley and pull with 111 pounds, or use a carabiner and pull with 200 pounds? Easy choice!

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Here’s a table of pulley efficiencies. You may have seen this in another post, but it’s important, so I’ll include it here again. This is for a 1:1 haul through a redirect point. (If that last sentence made no sense to you, read this post first.)

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OK, so that's for 1:1 redirected pull. How about for a 3:1 hauling system?

Great question. Check out the series of four photos below.

• Top left: the most efficient system, with 90% efficient pulleys. MA of about 2.7 to 1, about as good as it's ever going to get.

• Top right, carabiner for progress capture, pulley on tractor. MA of about 2.4 to 1. Still not bad!

• Bottom left, pulley for progress capture, carabiner on tractor. Disappointing MA of about 2 to 1.

• Finally, bottom right, carabiners in both places. Lousy MA, about 1.8 to 1.

A few thoughts on this . . .

• My calculations use a pulley efficiency of 90% and a carabiner deficiency of 50%. (Yes I rounded off in a couple of places, don't beat me up on the math.)

• It's clear that having a pulley closest to the hand that is applying the pull is the best way to rig.

• Many people think that you should always put the pulley closest to the load. That is obviously not true.

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Here’s a chart takes a little deeper dive into this for different systems.

With an MA system of 3:1 and only use 50% efficient carabiners, your real world MA is going to be about 1.75:1, ouch! (Plus, you still have the dismal progress of a 3:1, with only 1 foot of lift for every 3 feet of pull, even though you're pulling harder than you should have to.)

In this case, you may be better off using a 2:1 with one good pulley than a 3:1 with carabiners! We can see from the chart that a 2:1 with 20% friction (i.e., a 80% efficient pulley) gives us an MA of 1.80:1. But, a 3:1 with carabiners gives us an MA of 1.75:1.

So, use real pulleys whenever possible.

image: https://roperescuetraining.com/physics_friction_raising.php

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If you have to use a carabiner, which kind is best?

I’ve heard over the years that generally, a carabiner with round metal stock is is going to be more efficient than the new style “I-beam” construction with a narrower cross section. But is it really? if so, how much?

Here’s a Camp Nano carabiner on the left, and an old school Petzl Attache carabiner on the right.

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What about the DMM Revolver carabiner?

The DMM revolver carabiner is a cleverly designed piece of gear. It’s a standard snapgate carabiner with a tiny roller wheel in the bottom. The Revolver carabiner was designed to minimize rope drag when lead climbing, not serve as a proper pulley in a block and tackle system.

Many people think (hope?) they can use a Revolver to lighten up their rescue kit, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I don't know precisely why, but I think the pulley wheel is so small that under any significant load, it's sort of compresses and you end up with an efficiency pretty much the same as a standard carabiner. I actually tested it and found about 50% efficiency.

If you want a proper combination carabiner and quality pulley, check the Petzl RollClip (or Edelrid Axiom). It has a more substantial pulley in the bottom and works as advertised under load. It’s not used much by recreational climbers, but it's common equipment for rigging and rescue professionals.

I couldn’t find any sort of formal testing online that showed this, so I decided to try a little observational study myself. 

Components: 

• 10 pound barbell weight

• Digital spring scale (about $11, I used this one)

• 9 mm dynamic rope

• Old style Petzl Attaché carabiner (rounded)

• New style Camp Nano carabiner (I-beam)

• brand new rescue pulley

I tied the barbell onto the end of the rope, ran the rope through the carabiner on a bolted anchor to get a 1:1 with a redirect, clove hitched another carabiner in the pull strand and clipped the spring pulley to the carabiner.

I tried to pull straight down in a slow steady haul, and noted the most common reading on the scale. Any force over 10 pounds shows the inefficiency of the system.

• Force needed with rescue pulley (baseline): 13 lbs - 77% efficient

• Force needed with rounded carabiner: 20 lbs - 50% efficient

• Force needed with a “I-beam” carabiner: 23 lbs - 43% efficient

(Math: 10 / 13 = .77; 10 / 20 = .50, 10 /23 = .43)

So, the rounded Petzl carabiner gives a slightly easier haul. (Note, this result was spot on with the often stated 50% efficiency rating of carabiners.)

Would you notice that extra bit of inefficiency in the real world? I’m not sure. But, if you have the option to use a round stock carabiner over an I-beam type carabiner use the round stock. Every little bit helps, right?

(Also, just for fun, I rigged two identical Petzl Attache carabiner side by side. The force needed to lift these was just 21 pounds, basically the same as the single Petzl Attache carabiner. In this case, adding one more carabiner really did not change the friction one way or the other.)

Now, something that definitely ventures into engineering-land that is beyond the scope of my expertise is something called “coefficient of friction”, which is a technical way of measuring how “slippery” something is. From my limited reading on this, the coefficient of friction for steel is different than that of aluminum, so apparently a steel carabiner will offer less friction than an aluminum carabiner. I don’t have a steel carabiner or else I would’ve tested this, it would have been interesting.

So, in summary, use a pulley if you have one!

Progress capture options

The progress capture (aka ratchet), is a critical part of a hauling system. It allows you to take your pulling tension off the rope to rest or reset, without the load sliding backward.

There are a few possibilities for the ratchet. Here are some common ones, listed in increasing order of cost and/or weight:

• Garda hitch

• prusik

• plaquette style belay device (like a Black Diamond ATC Guide or Petzl Reverso)

• Grigri

• Petzl Traxion

Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of these. 

Note: especially for crevasse rescue, it’s really important to practice these different ratchet systems in the real world. It’s one thing to have them work in your living room floor, it can be completely different to see how they work under a lot of tension with snow being jammed up inside them. 

I measured the efficiencies of these systems and wrote about them here.

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Garda hitch

Pros: free and weightless. (So far, so good!) Cons: even when it’s set up correctly the carabiners can get a little wonky and fail to lock up, so it’s not the most reliable system, in my opinion. Plus, it adds a HUGE amount of friction, making your haul a lot harder! Personally, I would maybe use the Garda hitch for some non-critical tasks like hauling up a backpack, but not in a rescue scenario unless it was really the only option. Read more on the Garda hitch here. (And yes, I know it’s best not to use screwgate lockers for a garda hitch, sorry about that in the photo . . .)

Prusik loop

The classic method, and one still often used by guides, rescue teams, fire departments, etc. Pros: inexpensive, lightweight, can be improvised out of almost any kind of sling material. Cons: If it’s cinched down hard on the rope, it can add friction to your pull. You always want the prusik to be loose when you’re pulling, but in the confusion and stress of a rescue this can be an easy step to overlook. Unless you have a prusik minding pulley, (also known with the great acronym of “PMP”), or an extra person sitting next to it with the unenviable title as “prusik minder”, or someone who’s coordinated enough to do both the hauling AND the prusik minding at once, the prusik can get sucked into the pulley and cause all kinds of problems. Plus, every time you slack off from pulling, unless someone slides the prusik back toward the load, the load is going to slide backwards the length and stretch of the prusik loop, which can mean when you reset your pulley you’re losing a foot or so of hard-earned lift. (Your partner stuck in the crevasse will NOT appreciate being a lowered a foot or two when this happens.)

An old-school Crafty Rope Trick (CRT): if you don’t have a prusik minding pulley or just a carabiner at the anchor: run the rope through a tube style belay device like an ATC before you clip it through the carabiner. The belay device keeps the prusik loop from getting pulled through the carabiner. It actually works surprisingly well, give it a try. See photo below.

Black Diamond ATC Guide

(or similar plaquette-style device). If you set these up in autolocking belay mode, the rope will slide through as you pull, but when you let go, will lock down immediately. Pros: no loss of progress when you stop pulling. If you’re already belaying your second from the ATC, it's very simple to set up a 3:1 left. Cons: An extra piece of gear you may not have with you, especially on a glacier climb.

I did some informal testing on this, and believe it or not, found it does not add any significant friction. This surprised me a lot, because when I tested the ATC simply as a redirect for 1:1 progress capture, it had a terrible efficiency of only about 15%, and I assumed this would also transfer over to doing at 3:1. Happily, it does not!

I tested this with both a 10 pound load and a 100 pound load. Real world mechanical advantage was the same in both cases: about 1.5 to 1. This is pretty much the same as using only carabiners and no progress capture at all.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I know why this is happening. When you start to pull, you generate a little bit of slack at the ATC, and this slack means the rope passes through the ATC with minimal tension, so no extra friction. I am no engineer, and this is just one observational study, but it seems to me that’s why it works reasonably well.

Grigri

The Grigri functions much the same as the plaquette style belay device, with pretty much the same pros and cons. You may well have one with you when rock climbing, but not for a crevasse rescue situation. A Grigri also has the benefit of being able to release under load, which can be a great help if you need to release tension for some reason.

As mentioned just above with the ATC Guide, I did some testing on the Grigri to check the real world efficiency. It turns out to be the same as the ATC guide, which is pretty much the same as just running the rope to the carabiner. In other words, it does not introduce any significant extra friction. I tested agree with a 10 pound weight and a 100 pound weight; the results were the same in both cases.

The real world mechanical advantage with the Grigri as a progress capture is about 1.5 to 1. This is a good thing! It means you can use commonly carried devices as a progress capture with no friction penalty of decreased efficiency.

Petzl Traxion

These little suckers have a high efficiency pulley combined with an ascender type spring loaded rope grab. They give you a great easy pull combine with zero loss of progress . Pros: work perfect.  Cons: cost about $100, ouch! (Kind of a lot for seldom-used rescue gear, IMHO . . .) Traxions come in various flavors: the Micro, the Mini (the one I have, in the photo below, now discontinued) and the Pro. For alpine climbing, you want the Micro.

If you’re doing a 1:1 haul of fairly heavy bags on a big wall climb, you probably want a slightly larger diameter pulley wheel to get a small increase in efficiency. One popular ratchet pulley for big wall climbers is called the Kong Block Roll.  (I don’t have one, but word is they work great.)

MA in the real world

In a previous post, I did a little testing of 1:1 pulls redirected through various devices. Now, I wanted to see how things worked with some actual mechanical advantage.

I tested various rigs of 3:1, 2:1 and 2:1 “far end haul” systems.

Here’s what I used, and here’s what I found.

Components:

• Anchor about head height

• 10 pound barbell weight

• Two reasonable quality rescue pulleys 

• 9 mm dynamic climbing rope

• Sterling hollow block or WIld Country Ropeman as a prusik

• Digital spring scale

• Various carabiners (Petzl Attache rounded stock, Black Diamond Neutrino and DMM Revolver)

I tied the end of the rope directly through the barbell weight for the 3:1, ran it up through the anchor, and set up pulls using different gear. For the 2:1 tests, I ran a short runner through the barbell plate and clipped the rope to that.

I did several slow, steady, pulls on the rope and recorded the most common number from the scale. 

This is hardly a scientific test by any means, but I think I can give a pretty good idea of relative efficiencies. Try to replicate this yourself. All the extra gear you need is a 10 lb weight and a spring scale, about $11 on Amazon.

My testing set up looked like this:

What do we see here?

• 2 pulleys in a 3:1 gives the most efficiency, but it’s still basically a 2:1 in the real world.

• If you have just 1 pulley, put it on the load strand of a 3:1 to get the most efficiency.

• Not much difference between round stock and non-round stock carabiners, use what you have.

• A 2:1 with a pulley required the same pulling force as a 3:1 with carabiners. You may want to use the 2:1, because you get more lift with your pulling strokes.

• Use a pulley with a far end haul - using carabiners gives a less than 1:1 mechanical advantage.