Meet prusik 2.0 - the "VT" prusik

SAR teams, arborists and riggers have been using what's called “eye to eye” hitch cord for a long time. Traditionally, the eye to eye hitch was tied with a length of medium sized cord, such as 7 mm, with a couple of loops tied in each end. A modern version has a sewn eye on each end; there are various flavors made by different manufacturers.

This handy piece of gear is becoming more popular for canyoneering and recreational climbing. It can be used to tie a directional friction hitch, but it has some big advantages over the traditional perlon cord prusik loop.

Canyoneering expert Rich Carlson designed a version he calls the “VT Prusik”, and it’s pretty slick.

• Made by Blue Water Ropes

• Costs about $25

• About 33 inches/84 cm long

• End-to-end strength is about 20 Kn, and basketed it’s about 30 kN.

• Comes in both 8 mm and 7 mm flavor. The 8 mm is intended for ropes between 8 and 13 mm, and the 7 mm works on ropes between 8 and 9.5 mm. (Yes, you can use an 8 mm VT on an 8 mm rope, which is kind of amazing.)

• Technora (similar to Kevlar) sheath and a nylon core. (Won't melt on your rope, even if you rappel like a special forces cowboy.)

• Bluewater removed some of the sheath fibers, which makes it a bit thinner, so it flattens more on the rope. This helps it grip better in some configurations.

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“VT” stand for “Valdotain Tresse”. I learned from @notlufton (in an Instagram comment) the origin of this interesting term. “Valdôtain” is a dialect of Arpitan spoken in the Aosta Valley in Italy, and “Tresse” means braid in German. (There you go, I becha you learned something new today. =^)

The Valdotain Tresse / VT is one of many different types of hitches you can tie with this tool.

(The word “prusik” can be confusing because it's a verb, adjective, noun, and surname. Same with the term “VT prusik”. The VT is specific type of knot, which is a different knot than a prusik, but Bluewater chose this name for one thing they sell and . . . Yes it's kind of confusing, so let’s not get too hung up on the terminology.)

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So, what’s cool about the VT prusik?

The main benefit is that you can tie various friction hitches that both grab tight and release easily. This eliminates the two main problems with the traditional prusik knot - cinching down hard on the rope when under load, and then wrestling to release it when you need to.

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Let’s look at some ways to rig the VT prusik.

There are lots of fancy knots, with exotic names, you could tie with the VT prusik. Here are two of the more common ones:

1. The asymmetric prusik for moving upwards, or hauling anything in an UPWARD direction, like a progress capture.

2. The Valdotain Tresse aka “VT hitch” for moving DOWNWARD on the rope, like for a rappel backup. (With certain cautions, more below.)

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1) You can make a “asymmetric” prusik, which allows you to move the prusik UP the rope much more easily after it’s been weighted. This knot works best in any situation when you need to move UP the rope. (This is also known as a “Schwabisch” hitch.)

Note: unlike a symmetric prusik, which holds equally well in either direction, an asymmetric prusik like this holds best on the rope when pulled in one direction. This is handy if you want a hands-free, one direction rope grab to protect you on a fixed line in fairly easy terrain.

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2) You can tie a Valdotain Tresse hitch, which has a few unique qualities. Even when it's fully loaded with your bodyweight, you can still release the hitch. This can be useful in some situations using it as a rappel backup ABOVE your device, such as if you know that you need to pass a knot on a single strand rappel; admittedly a pretty rare situation. (If you have a double rope rappel, you should never have to pass the knot at all, as I cover in this article.)

However, most of the time, it's best practice to have your rappel backup BELOW your extended rappel. If you have it above, it's possible that you can unintentionally squeeze the hitch when you need it to serve as a backup, which usually means it's not going to fully catch on the rope. Many accidents have happened this way; more info in this article.

You can use the Valdotain Tresse hitch for ascending. But you lose a few inches of slack every time you weight the hitch, and it’s harder to slide up the rope due to the increased friction from the extra wraps. That’s why the asymmetric prusik mentioned above is usually is a better choice for ascending a rope.

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Check this link to see an “animated knot” sequence of how to tie it.

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Here's one other way you can tie a friction hitch. It's sort of a French prusik / autoblock.

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You can also tie more traditional friction hitches like the standard three wrap prusik, or an autoblock / French prusik / Machard.

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Nice! How else can I use the VT prusik?

• The VT hitch can be used as a rappel backup attached ABOVE your rappel device. Normally you wouldn’t do this, but because you can release the VT hitch under tension, it works fine. As mentioned above, use caution with this method; if you grab it in an emergency it may not work correctly.

• In the unlikely event you might ever need to “rappel” a rope that’s under tension, a VT hitch lets you do this, because it's releasable even when loaded.

• You can use it to more easily pass a knot, again, because you can slide the prusik even when it's holding your full body weight. (Side note: you should pretty much never have to pass a knot if you set up your rigging correctly.)

• You can use it as a third hand / French prusik / autoblock backup beneath your rappel device anytime you’re doing a lower or rappel (similar to a Sterling Hollow Block). The VT prusik lets you more easily fine tune the amount of friction than a loop style autoblock. Note, it’s best to do this with a rappel extension.

• You can use it as a quick draw, either halved or at full extension.

• You can use it as a personal lanyard; clip one end to a locking carabiner or quick link on your harness and the other end to a locking carabiner.

• In a hauling system, like for 3:1 “Z drag”, you can use it as a progress capture device on a non-prusik minding pulley. Because of its width, the VT prusik is less likely to get sucked into the pulley like a standard prusik loop. See image below.

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Sweet! Where do I get one?

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As with most aspects of rope work, it's a better show than to tell. Watch this YouTube video below made by Rich Carlson, the inventor, for a complete review of his clever tool.

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Finally, here's a nice video from our friends at HowNot2.com doing some break testing and general shenanigans with the VT prusik.

Petzl - Accessing an exposed rappel station

The tip and diagrams below are from: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Accessing-an-exposed-rappel-station

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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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The amazing and informative Petzl website is full of great Crafty Rope Tricks (CRT). Here’s a good one on accessing an exposed rappel station. It's written for canyoneering, but it could also apply in some rock climbing situations. (There are various ways to accomplish this, this is just one.) Note: canyoneers like using rope bags, as shown here, but it’s not required.

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Step 1 - Set up some sort of an anchor in a safe position away from the cliff edge. (Note that any anchor material you use will be left behind.)

Step 2 - The first person ties into the end of the rope, and then lowers themselves through their rappel device to the rappel anchor on the cliff edge.

Step 3 - After securing themselves with a leash/lanyard to the anchor, the first person ties the end of the rope and a loop of the rope into the rappel anchor, fixing the two strands.

Step 4 - The second person can now safely descend to the rappel anchor, either with two leashes and carabiners, as shown here, or down climbing with friction knots (or maybe a combination.)

Step 5: Once both climbers are secured to the rappel anchor, the rope can be untied and pulled from the upper anchor, and then set for the actual rappel.

Weather forecasts made beautiful - Windy.com

Windy.com is a mesmerizing way to look at worldwide weather patterns. But, if you can make it past looking at Pacific Ocean wind patterns and dreaming of your next round-the-world sailboat trip, or checking out the typhoon in Sri Lanka, it's pretty darn good for local forecasts also.

What’s cool about windy.com?

• Accurate and comprehensive forecasts (better than other sites like mountain-forecast.com)

• It has a solid mobile app

• No advertising

• Local webcams, for an immediate look at road conditions

Here’s how to get a local forecast with Windy.com. (It works pretty much the same on your phone.)

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Zoom into your general area of interest. (or use the search box in the top left.) Today, we’re after a forecast of Mt. Hood Oregon. Your screen should look something like this.

Next, click the three horizontal lines, (aka. the “hamburger”) then click “Settings”. On a phone tap the hamburger icon in the bottom right and scroll down.

Toggle the settings to your preferred measurement flavor, metric or ‘Merican. Here, everything is set to ‘Merican units.

Next, zoom in a bit more with either the scroll wheel on your mouse or the “plus” button in the top right corner. The map should change to be a lot more legible. Pan the map until the area where you want the forecast is visible.

Now right click (or long touch your phone screen) and choose “Forecast for this location”. On the bottom of the screen, you should get a nice multi day forecast for the exact spot you clicked. Be sure the “Basic” forecast button in the lower left of the screen is selected. Check out the other options on the bottom row if you want to get fancy.

A somewhat hidden but very useful feature of Windy is the “Compare forecasts” button on the bottom.

Click that, and see several different forecasts for the same location at a glance. Cool! Do they all line up more or less? Then that is a pretty good consensus. Is there a lot of divergence? Then the forecast is probably more questionable.

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One more helpful feature - “Click for webcams”. Click this and it will show the available web cams that are on the map, that can be pretty darn handy.

National Park Service technical rescue manual - free PDF

image: Department of interior National Park Service

National Park Service SAR (Search and Rescue) professionals, with skills honed over decades at parks such as Yosemite, Grand Teton, and Grand Canyon, have a technical rescue manual. It’s online as a free PDF file, hosted on the Mountain Rescue Association website, MRA.org.

If you want to get into some serious rope geek material, this is some solid reading. This 290+ page document pretty much covers it all; below is a screen grab of the table of contents to give you an idea.

It starts with the basics and then gets increasingly technical and complex. Even if you're not on a SAR team, there are some expert techniques and tricks here that can benefit anyone interested in small team self rescue. Check it out.

Note: Some of the more advanced techniques have evolved since this was published in (I think) 2014. Most recreational climbers won’t need to know the detailed benefits of the dual tension system over the older style main and belay, for example. If you're looking for a more up-to-date reference, check out “The Technical Rescue Riggers Guide, Third Edition” by Conterra.

(And, in case the MRA.org link above doesn’t work, you can see a copy here.)

image: Department of interior National Park Service

Make a stopper knot semi-permanent

My local climbing gym, does this this on the belay end of every top rope. Pretty crafty! It’s not a tip for an everyday climbing situation, but hey, it might come in handy.

If you want to make a stopper knot semi-permanent, one way to do it is to run a zip tie through the knot and crank it down. The knot will be pretty much impossible to untie without cutting the zip tie.

• Top roping with beginners all day and you want to be sure the rope system is “closed”, by always having a knot in the end of the rope?

• Making a DIY lanyard with something like the Kong Slyde (or replacing the thick 9.5 rope in your Petzl Connect Adjust with something thinner, like 8 mm, hint hint) and need a permanent blocking knot in the end of the rope?

• Ropes course?

• Zip line?

• Tree swing?

• Caving?

• SAR teams?

• Riggers?

• Window washers?

Who else might have a need for this?

Use the rope to extend your anchor to a cliff edge

Scenario: you’ve finished leading a pitch, and find yourself on a big ledge. You see nothing near the edge to use for an anchor, but about 15 feet / 5 meters back from the edge, there’s a nice big tree. You want to build an anchor on the tree, but then belay from the edge of the cliff. Being on the cliff edge lets you see your partner, minimize rope drag, have better belay communication, and who knows, maybe even toss the occasional pebble at them if they’re making it look too easy. =^)

Here’s one of several ways to rig this (and no, you thankfully don't need a heap of 1 inch webbing!) This assumes you have at least 30 feet . 10 meters of rope left after your lead.

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Walk over to the tree, put a sling or cordelette around it, clip a locking carabiner or two to the sling, and clip the rope through the carabiner(s). Walk back toward the cliff edge. You’re still on belay the entire time.

(You could skip the sling and carabiner and just walk around the tree, assuming you can easily do this, and the tree is not going to get evil tree sap on your rope. If it’s a conifer tree, a sling might be a better choice.)

When you get close to the edge about where you want to belay, pull up a few feet of slack, and tie an overhand on a bight using BOTH strands of the rope. (This is known in some corners of the climbing world as a Big Honkin’ Knot, or “BHK”.)

Done! 1) You’re fixed to the anchor. 2) it positions you nicely on the edge so you can watch your partner, and 3) it gives you a nice master point from which you can belay your second or set up a hauling system on a big wall. (Note the ATC Guide clipped to the overhand loop, ready to belay up the second.)

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What about a more exposed location?

The example above assumes a pretty large, flat ledge that you can't fall off of. If you need to approach something that is maybe downward sloping, loose rocks etc. with more chance of a potential fall, here are a couple of options.

Rigging option #1: Put a Munter hitch on the anchor, and sort of belay yourself as you walk to the edge (while remaining on belay from your partner the entire time.)

Rigging option #2: Back yourself up with a friction hitch on the backside of your clove hitch. (This might sound like a lot of fussy steps, but it's quite simple.)

1. Build your anchor on the tree.

2. Estimate how far you want to stand from the tree; in this case let's say it's 5 meters.

3. Pull up about 7 meters of rope.

4. Tie a clove hitch onto the anchor. You are now secure to the anchor, with 7 meters of rope between you and the tree.

5. Tie a friction hitch onto the backside of your clove hitch and clip the friction hitch to your belay loop with a locker.

6. Carefully walk to your chosen belay spot, sliding the friction hitch along the rope.

7. With the extra 2 meters of rope, tie a butterfly above you. Clip your belay device to this, pull up the slack rope, put your partner on belay.

8. If you need to fine-tune your position by shortening the rope a bit, you can tie an overhand on a bight to take up some of the extra rope, then remove the friction hitch.

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One caution, because of the dynamic rope, keep in mind that if your second takes a big fall, the rope might stretch enough to potentially pull you over the edge. Try to keep a tight rope on your second when belaying, use an auto locking belay device such as a Black Diamond ATC guide, and try to brace your feet a bit on something if possible.

One other possible enhancement: If you have any concern about your ropes running over a sharp edge, or rockfall onto them, or if they might get damaged in anyway, or if redundancy simply gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, you could tie an overhand on a bight and clip it to the anchor point, giving you two redundant strands.

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Here's a short Instagram video from Swedish guide Nikki Hammarstrom showing how it's done. (Note the pine tree - if there is any visible sap on it it's probably better to use a sling rather than your rope.)

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Here’s a related technique that's more suitable when using double ropes. Put both strands of rope through the anchor, walk back to the edge, tie a double overhand loop for the belay, tie another a double overhand loop and clip it to your harness. See photo below, contributed by Alex Kostadinov; thanks Alex!

photo: Alex kostadinov

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A reader mentioned to me that there is an excellent article about this at climbing.com, called “belay extensions.” Read it here.

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This technique can also be used for big wall climbing, to rig a hauling a point to minimize friction.

True life story: my partner and I had topped out on The Prow, a classic big wall route in Yosemite. The last pitch concluded in a series of fourth class ledges. We set up our anchor on a tree above the ledges that made our hauling absolutely miserable from all the extra friction. Following us on the route were a team of two New Zealand mountain guides. Their leader finished, went to a nearby tree, rigged the anchor exactly as shown above, walked back down to a low-friction place to haul, and set up his hauling system directly on the overhand loop. He got his bag to the top with minimal cursing and MUCH faster than we did. Lesson learned!

The "Voodoo Hitch" - a magic tensioning hitch

Let's start with a little honest disclaimer right off the top: This bit of rope wizardry is probably not something you will use in very many climbing situations. However, if you’re an aficionado of #CraftyRopeTricks, well, this is one of the craftiest you’ll see! It's halfway between a knot and a magic trick. The day I learned it, I tied it a dozen times and was still scratching my head as to how it works.

The voodoo hitch is a way to add a moderate amount of easily adjustable tension to a fixed rope. (It's somewhat related to the the trucker’s hitch, an extremely useful knot that just about every outdoors person should know. Here's a nice short video that shows how to tie a trucker’s hitch.)

The voodoo hitch is known by a few different names. Some call it the rather boring “Transport hitch”, others the “PM hitch”, which stands for “Pure Magic”. (I've even heard it referred to as the WTF hitch. =^) The way I learned it is the “voodoo hitch”. You'll learn why it's called a voodoo hitch after you tied a few times and see how it miraculously holds tension when it sure likes like it wouldn’t.

Like the trucker’s hitch, the Voodoo creates a 3 :1 theoretical mechanical advantage - you need to pull 3 meters of rope through the system to move the load 1 meter. But, because of all the carabiners adding friction, the real world mechanical advantage he's pretty much 1:1.

Just get a climbing rope and a few carabiners and try out this rope sorcery. It's cool, magic, and fun.

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Here’s what's nifty about the voodoo hitch (and how it differs from the trucker’s hitch:)

• You can fine-tune the tension on the rope without untying and re-tying the knot.

• There's no lock off half hitch required, the voodoo just magically holds tension by itself.

A few notes:

• I was taught this knot in a canyoneering class using all clove hitches. Clove hitches work, but there are several other knots work fine too, such as a butterfly or figure 8 on a bight. I’m liking the butterfly knot, because it's easy to untie after it's been loaded.

• You can use any kind of carabiners for this: lockers, non-lockers, large belay lockers or tiny wiregates.

• You can use pulleys to make tensioning the system a bit easier, but don't use them everywhere. Friction holds the whole thing together, see below. If you use pulleys at every redirect point, it fails.

• How does it work? Opposing tension, or friction, or voodoo, or magic, or something? A clever Alpinesavvy fan on Instagram (@govanathon) shared this: “3 stands on one side of the sliding carabiner, 2 stands on the other side. Moving one way lengthens 3 while shortening 2 so net tension increases. Moving the other way lengthens 2 while shortening 3 so net tension decreases. Friction on at least 1 redirect point is necessary to hold the tension or the rope will just feed through the system and loosen.”

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Here’s a good article on the Voodoo hitch, along with this nice graphic. (Note, the end of the rope is fixed at point A.)

image: https://rigginglabacademy.com/voodoo-marcel-rodriguez/

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As with pretty much anything related to learning knots, this is a better show than a tell. Check out this short (2:20) video that shows you exactly how to tie it.

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Finally, if you really want to nerd out on the voodoo hitch, here is a deep-dive video from my pal Ryan at HowNOT2.com.

The “Snap Bowline” - a very crafty knot

Note: when used in climbing applications, the “simple” bowline as shown below in the photos is NOT considered safe unless the tail is backed up in some way. This is typically done with a barrel or overhand knot in the tail. (Having said that, knowing how to tie a bowline is helpful in many different non-climbing applications, even the “simple” version shown here, so it's still a great knot for the tool kit.)

If you want a deep dive into proper application of knots, the Australian Professional Association of Climbing Instructors (PACI) website is a great place to start.

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Ah yes, the bowline knot. A favorite of sailors, Boy Scouts, and sometimes climbers, commonly used to tie the free end of the rope around a boulder or tree as a fixed line, or possibly stringing up a tarp.

However, for some reason, this knot is deceptively difficult for many people to tie correctly. (I’ve seen otherwise very experienced climbers screw this knot up on many occasions.)

Many people seem able to tie it properly in a somewhat controlled setting, like practicing it around a table leg. But put them on the other side of the rope, or make them tie it facing a different direction than usual, or some other minor switcheroo, and “knot dyslexia” seems to set in. And, to be honest, I’ve experienced this myself a few times.

Well, there’s a very cool way to tie a bowline that seems to solve all these issues. It’s fast, reasonably idiot proof, and most people find it much easier than the old-school “rabbit comes out of the hole, around the tree and back into the hole” method. And, as with some of the best rope techniques, and there is a bit of rope magic happening that would make you blink and say “Dang, did I just really see that?!”

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Pass the end of the rope around your anchor object, here a post.

2) Make a slipknot.

3) Pass the end of the rope through the loop of the slipknot. (Keep the slip knot and loop fairly loose, as you see here.)

4) Tighten the slipknot. It will invert and make a “snap”, then you should magically have a bowline. (Note, for climbing, you need to tie this with a longer tail of a foot or so, so you'd have enough rope to tie a proper backup knot in the tail. But for setting up a tarp, this should be fine)

Yes, you need to try this a few times at half speed to see this sorcery for yourself, it really is sort of a magic trick!

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Note: depending on how you feed the free end through the slipknot, the final version of your bowline could be in one of two configurations.

One, you may end up with the free end inside of the loop (as we see above) which is the standard garden-variety bowline. Or, you may end up with the free end outside of the loop, which is known in some circles as a “cowboy bowline.” Even thought knot-nerds love to argue about it, one is not conclusively stronger / better / preferable to the other, so it appears not to really matter which way the tail ends up. You can read more on this discussion here.

“Standard” bowline on left, “cowboy” bowline on right.

image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_bowline

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As we like to say at Alpine Savvy, most any sort of hands on skill like learning a knot is a better show than a tell.

Here’s a short video that shows you how to do it. First example is around your waist, second example is around a tree. (There's probably some crazy rescue scenario that I hope never to be involved in that might require someone lowering a rope down, and me tying it around my waist like this. Unlikely to ever need it, but fun to practice!)

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Finally, here’s an example of why you want to dress your knots, use a backup, and avoid cross loading a bowline. (Yes, this is a large diameter rope, and yes, it’s tied too loosely and not dressed, but it's still an interesting demonstration.)

"Webbing knotcraft" video from canyoneer Rich Carlson

Connect with canyoneering expert Rich Carlson on his website, Canyons & Crags, and his great Youtube Channel

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Sure, you know how to tie a water knot. But there's a lot more you can do with webbing, and canyoneering folks are experts at webbing related Crafty Rope Tricks (CRTs).

Webbing tends to be 1” for canyoneering, but climbers who favor the lighter 11/16” can do all the same rigging. See more climbing gear strength ratings here.

• 1” webbing = about 18kN

• 11/16” webbing = about 13kN

Alpine climbers often find that having a few 9 foot long tied runners with tubular webbing can be handy. You can use them as a standard double length runner, or use them for many of the “knot craft” techniques shown below. Read more on that here.

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Some crafty rigging you can do with tubular webbing (all shown in the video below:)

• When tying a water knot, what's the minimum recommended length of the tails? What's a quick way to check this when you’re tying it?

• Do you know how to tie a re-threaded overhand knot in webbing around an object like a tree trunk?

• If you basket hitch webbing around a tree, what are the downsides of tying an overhand knot at the master point?

• Tying a knot in webbing may weaken the webbing by about 1/3. If you wanted to retain more strength, how can you position a knot (on say a tree) to do this?

• What’s a “wrap 2, pull 1” anchor? What are some cases when you might want to use this?

• Is a “wrap 2, pull 1” anchor redundant? (Answer, no.) How can you tie it to make it redundant?

• How do you use a Frost knot to set up a courtesy anchor?

You get the idea. There’s lots of Crafty Rope Tricks beyond the water knot!

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See an excellent video here by canyoneering expert Rich Carlson covers these tips and more.

Stuck rappel ropes - use brains, then brawn

You’re pulling the ropes after a rappel, on the ground and dreaming of that post climb pizza and malted beverage, and . . . “#$%^(*&^&%!!!”, the rope is stuck! What are your options? Before you try the advanced (and scary) maneuver of ascending the ropes to free them, try everything you can from below first. There’s two basic approaches: finesse and brute strength. Here’s a few tricks:

• Examine the situation before taking any action. Some stuck ropes come free with finesse, some with brute strength. Generally, try finesse first, as pulling hard too early can make a bad situation worse. Pulling hard can lodge it further in a crack, damage your rope on a sharp edge, and possibly pull down rocks. That's why it's the second choice.

• If you’re on the ground, try walking back from the cliff or far to one side and pulling from a different angle.

• Sneaky Finesse “Flick” Trick: If you suspect the rope might be stuck in a crack or around a horn or something like that, try this Crafty Rope Trick (CRT): Clove hitch the rope to the end of a stick, trekking pole, ice axe, etc, the longer the better. This gives your rope “flick” a larger diameter and can be a lot more effective in freeing it from a small obstruction,  If it’s just hung up on a small knob, this often does the trick.

• Rubber band trick: You and your partner grab opposite ends of the ropes and pull, hard. One of you keeps the “pull” pressure on, while the other suddenly releases her end. The “rubber band” effect of one end of your dynamic rope “springing” upwards often will get a stubborn rope moving. This also works with a Grigri.

• Brute force trick: After you try the above with no luck, time for the muscle. Tie a foot loop and stand/jump on it. One or more people can put the rope through a prusik loop or belay device, jump upwards and lock off on the rope, adding full or multiple body weight. (If you’re off the ground, be sure you’re safely anchored for this.) The next step beyond this is to maybe build a 3:1 mechanical advantage system to try to apply some serious force to the rope. 

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If it doesn’t come loose after this, you may be faced with one of the scariest situations in climbing, reascending a stuck rappel rope. Hopefully you’re never in this situation, it’s gonna suck. If you still have both ends of the rope, this is a lot safer, because you know the rope is still running through your anchor. Put a couple of prusiks on both strands and get busy.

If you have a Grigri, it might be faster to use that and a foot sling to ascend the rope, provided you fix the other strand to the lower anchor. Learn how to do that here.

If you only have one end of the rope, you’ve hopefully done the 3:1 pull and it still hasn’t come loose. That can give you a little peace of mind that your bodyweight carefully ascending the rope is probably not going to pull it off either. There are various ways to safeguard this. Here’s one: Tie in to the bottom end of the rope, and build an anchor set for an upward pull. Ascend the rope with a prusik and place gear as you can, clipping the rope below your prusik. If the upper stuck section comes free, you take a leader fall onto your prusik and your highest piece of gear. (This approach assumes you can place gear.)

But it’s still going to suck. Good luck.

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Of course, preventing the problem in the first place is far preferable to solving it later. Here are some tips to avoid getting your rope stuck.

• If you’re doing a two rope rappel, be aware of potential obstacles near your anchor where the knot can get stuck. Use this Crafty Rope Trick (CRT ) to move the knot past the obstruction.

• Before you do your pull, carefully look at the terrain above you and decide which strand you should pull to keep the falling rope away from potential obstacles. (if there is an obstacle on the right as you look up, pull the left strand to hopefully keep the rope away from it as it falls.)

• If you're doing a double rope rappel, try to plan the previous step from above. Look down the route. If you see an obstacle on the rappeller’s right looking down, then consider pulling the knot on rappeller’s left. Doing this will hopefully help the rope drop away from the obstacle.

• If you have a short rappel and a long rope, considering pulling some of the rope through the anchor before the last person rappels.

• Before the last person heads down, the lower person should do a test pull by moving the rope side to side, and see that it moves freely. (Yes, this step can be difficult if the upper person has pre-rigged their rappel, which is about the only downside to pre-rigging.)

• If the cliff is steep, giving your rope a flick through the anchors right as the top passes through can help send the end further out into space.

• If the cliff is lower angle, it might work better to NOT flick the rope, and let it slither down under its own weight. Doing this minimizes making large rope loops that may want to catch on rock features.

• In general, it's better to do more short rappels than fewer longer rappels if you’re in terrain (trees, shrubs, blocky alpine rock, vertical cracks) where the chances of a stuck rope are high.

Debrief after your climb

Treat every climb, summit or not, as a learning experience to analyze what you did and to improve your performance next time you’re out.  A great way to do this: a post climb “debrief” talk with your team (even if that’s just you and one partner). On the car ride home, the hike out, or at dinner heading home, when details are fresh in your mind, is a great time to discuss things like:

Time - How long did the climb take? Was this faster or slower than what you planned for? Look at the segments of your climb (approach, climb, descent, hike out); Were your estimated times close for each of those? What factors contributed to the overall pace/speed of the team? (If you hit your planned time within plus or minus one hour for each day, you can pat yourself on the back for good planning.)

Technical aspects - What was the technical crux of the route? Was the entire team prepared for it? Were there any aspects that could be improved to be faster or safer next time? (Think simul climbing, downclimbing rather than rapping, rope management, order of team members.)

Routefinding - Was your pre trip route planning adequate?  Were you ever “lost?” Did you camp in the best spot, or did you notice a better place (and mark it with GPS or on the map for next time?) Did you take the best line, for ascent and descent? Did you take adequate photos or notes so you remember the details? Did you record a GPS track? Can you draw your route and save it in CalTopo, for future reference or to share with someone else?

Gear and food - Was the gear you brought suitable?  Did you have too much or not enough or anything? (rock pro, snow pro, ropes . . . ) What pro did you bring that you did not use? Was your food sufficient and tasty?

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The main question: What would I do differently next time?

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Now, when you get home, if you write these details in your ongoing climb journal, you’ll really have a good record of the trip that you can learn from yourself, or pass onto someone else when they try the route. (The benefits of keeping a climb journal are covered in another Tip coming soon.)

Make a regular habit out of reviewing your climb journal, and look for repeating patterns. Are you consistently making similar “mistakes”? (For me, this is typically forgetting the lip balm and bringing a bit too much food.)

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Hey, don’t just take my word for it. Expert alpinist Steve House made a video on the topic, as part of his excellent five part “Alpine Principles video series on YouTube, highly recommended. Check it out below.

Adrenaline induced tunnel vision

It was my first weekend of learning to trad climb with the rock climbing class of my local climbing club. I was paired up with Eugene, a tall, lanky Brit with a quick smile and a sharp wit. I excitedly started up the moderate two pitch climb, and soon got to an obvious large belay ledge.

However, there was one big problem: the only available crack was flaring, awkward, and did not want to take any of my gear. After futzing with the pro for about 10 minutes and getting in a few marginal pieces, I spiderwebbed them together with a tangle of slings, clipped in with my rope, and called down. 

“Hey Eugene”, I stammered, “Belay is on, but . . . ”, I paused, “um . . . don’t fall.”

Eugene hollered up, “Well, that’s not what I want to hear before I start climbing, but I’ll take your advice!”

A couple minutes later he arrived at the ledge. He stood looking at my sorry excuse for an anchor for a few seconds, and then cracked a wry smile.

“Well”, he said, “I have two things to say. One, you’re right, this anchor is absolute crap, and I'm glad I didn't fall on it. And number two, the bolted anchor that you SHOULD have used is right up there.” He turned and pointed upward about 15 more feet to my right, where I could now clearly see two shiny new bolts.

Yes, this was without question the low point of my anchor building career.

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There are many lessons in this, but the one that stayed with me, and which is applicable in many other climbing situations, is the tunnel vision inducing effects of adrenaline.

It was one of the first times I had ever led on trad gear, and an onsight to boot. I was pumped. Adrenaline was circulating, and it had a variety of interesting effects. (One of them is shutting down your kidneys and intestines; this is a reason why a lot of climbers find that they can go the whole day without peeing, and are often not hungry for lunch). The other, more relevant here, is tunnel vision. This is a normal physiological response to a “flight or fight” type situation, hardwired into our body through human evolution.

For our long-ago ancestors on the African savanna being stalked by a hungry predator, that situation demanded your complete focus of vision, to the exclusion of anything other than that lion in the grass. Adrenaline induced tunnel vision is may helpful to avoid a hungry lion, but it's probably not going to be your friend when you’re climbing.

So, are you feeling pumped and excited? When you’re on lead and looking to place some good gear, or looking for anchor options (at what may or may not be the belay ledge), first do two things.

One, take a few deep breaths. Deep breathing (ideally in through your nose) will help calm your body, reduce your adrenaline load, and help lessen your tunnel vision.

Two, expand the “tunnel vision” look around. Many more options may appear. Are you crack climbing, and starting to get a little pumped? Look side to side, you might well find a face hold or a place to stem to grab a rest. Did you finish leading your pitch, you're at the ledge, and need to build a gear anchor?  First, expand your vision, look around, and survey ALL your options. You may well find better gear placements other than what's in a one meter cone right in front of your nose.

Oh, and have a look at the route topo before you leave the ground. That always helps too. =^)

Great snow climbing tutorial from the AAC

You know how the biography and qualifications of an author often appears at the end of an article? Well, here’s a link to a great tutorial on basic snow climbing techniques from the American Alpine Club (AAC), and I’ll mention the authors right here, up front - Dunham Gooding and Jason Martin. (Bold text mine.)

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Dunham Gooding founded the American Alpine Institute in 1975 and has taught courses and guided expeditions in the Cascades, Canada, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Patagonia. He has served as chairman of the National Summit Committee on Mountain Rescue, president of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA), and president of the Outdoor Industry Association.

Jason D. Martin is the director of operations and a senior guide at the American Alpine Institute. He is on the board of directors of the AMGA and has written two guidebooks and co-authored Rock Climbing: The AMGA Single Pitch Manual.

So yeah, If you're going to get climbing advice, these are two pretty good guys to listen to.

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This article is about a 10 minute read, and covers just about all of the basics of snow climbing. If you’re a beginner climber, this is an excellent place to start. Even if you've been in the game a while, you may learn a few things. Highly recommended.

A simple way to carry an injured patient

This tip is from the excellent MedWild YouTube channel. Recommended!

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If you have to deal with a minor injury in the backcountry, the patient may need to be carried out. If there’s at least two people to share the load and some basic equipment, here is a quick and easy way to rig a carry.

You need:

• at least 2 rescuers

• 2 backpacks

• trekking poles, raft paddles, sturdy stick (or similar item)

• padding (sleeping pad)

Note: this is for someone with minor injuries, such as a sprained ankle, twisted knee, altitude illness, dehydration, etc.

Here’s a screen grab from the video to give you a quick idea of how it works. Rescuers are wearing backpacks, sticks/poles/raft paddles go on top of the pack waist belts, patient sits on those between the rescuers.

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMeqn3P3WGc

Check out the short (4:16) video for the method.

“Decision making matrix” for alpine climbing

image credit: Walter Siegmund, via Wikimedia Commons

We all have access to detailed and generally very accurate weather forecasts before we head to the mountains. How can you use this information to help decide if you're going to leave town or not?

When on a climb, the decision to continue up or head down is often a difficult, subjective and emotional choice. How can you add some objectivity into the process?

The decision / weather matrix below is from the excellent mini route descriptions published by the Mt. Rainier climbing rangers / National Park Service. (Anyone climbing the more popular routes on Rainier would benefit from these route descriptions. Read more about them at this post.)

And, as mentioned again below, “The matrix was created with input from guides and rangers, and represents cumulative knowledge of thousands of ascents” so this is a well tested tool.

It's pretty simple. Ideally in town before you leave, look at four different weather variables in three different categories, assign them a number, and add everything up. You’ll come up with a point value between 4 and 12. Then, plug that into the bottom graphic, and you’ll land in one of three categories appropriate for your team’s skill level - green, yellow, or red. Use that to guide your decision.

Ideally this happens in town before you leave. If the weather is unexpectedly changing quickly on your climb, you can use this while en route.

While intended for climbing on Rainier, a similar decision matrix may well be useful on other mountains. Is this a set-in-stone rule for every trip? No. But, it can be a useful tool to add some objectivity into an often difficult process. Also, it does not cover avalanche conditions. That's another important and often complex factor to consider in trip planning.

(Personally, I know I'm not going to remember all this, so I made a few color photocopies on waterproof paper and have one in the first aid kit and a PDF saved onto my phone. Heck, I may even tape one inside my helmet.)

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Here’s a link to a PDF so you can easily print one yourself.

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Here’s a description of the weather matrix directly from the climbing guide:

“To assist in making a decision if one should climb based on the weather forecast, we have created this matrix. This Go/ No Go Matrix only takes weather into account for a given team experience level. Other factors such as avalanche conditions, equipment issues, other team dynamics, etc., need to be evaluated as well. The actual number output from the matrix can be a rough guide, but the important part of the exercise is to discuss conditions with your team and arrive at a consensus as to what the experience level of your team is and determine how prepared you are to deal with the forecasted weather. As always, one should choose to turn back if the weather looks to be deteriorating. The matrix was created with input from guides and rangers, and represents cumulative knowledge of thousands of ascents.

Start by going down the gray column on the left. First assess the wind component at either 1, 2, or 3. Then proceed to the precipitation component, add 1,2, or 4 to your running total. Continue down the list, summing all the factors from the four rows. Then place your score in the evaluator tool relative to your team’s experience level. You can see from the below matrix that precipitation and visibility can be showstoppers, certainly on a summit climb, but even for a trip to Camp Muir.

On the lower mountain below 10,000 feet, these weather factors can often be mitigated by equipment and exceptional experience, however, there are far narrower margins of error on the upper mountain for everyone. With weather and navigational concerns, it can become all but impossible to reconnoiter your way and survive.”

image: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-depth-route-descriptions.html

image: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-depth-route-descriptions.html

Ranger-written "route guides" for Rainier

image: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-depth-route-descriptions.html

The hard-working and highly skilled climbing rangers at Mt. Rainier National Park maintain a great blog on current route conditions.

Now, they've taken things a step further, writing essentially mini guidebooks on four of the most popular routes - Disappointment Cleaver, the Emmons-Winthrop Glacier, the Kautz Glacier, and the Liberty Ridge routes. They have the somewhat pedestrian name of “In Depth Route Descriptions”, and each one is between 20 and 30 pages.

Every climber attempting one of these Rainier routes will benefit by having a close look at these documents.

(And, in case the National Park Service ever decides to take down these route guides, I downloaded the PDFs, save them to a Google Drive, and you can see the same files here as well.)

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Now, to be honest, my expectations for these descriptions were pretty low before I started to read them. We’ve all seen the plain vanilla climbing advice from government entities before, “Be sure you have adequate fitness, take the 10 essentials, leave no trace”, blah blah blah. But, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of quality writing and helpful information in these descriptions.

You’ll see:

• detailed climbing and weather stats

• case histories of Search and Rescue (SAR) missions

• very detailed route descriptions

• gear list

and great graphics! Here are a few examples from the Disappointment Cleaver route description.

All images below are from: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-depth-route-descriptions.html

How about a three-year average of weekly distribution of climbers?

image source: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-depth-route-descriptions.html

Or maybe a chart of average and extreme summit temperatures during climbing season?

or maybe a “go, no-go” decision matrix, a more objective way to make choices on the mountain:

You get the idea. Lots of solid information that will be a real benefit to most climbers. Check it out, and be thankful for the professional Rainier climbing rangers that are trying to help you have the best trip possible.

Short rappel? Pull some rope first

Say you have multiple raps to get down a lower angle, blocky, chossy alpine route, complete with a few small trees and shrubs - prime rope eating terrain. Even though you have a 60 meter rope, you decide to keep the rappels short, because you’re concerned about rope induced rock fall, lots of friction making for a strenuous pull, or the rope getting stuck. (Yep, you might make an extra rappel or two, but that is far preferable to having a stuck rope.)

Crafty Rope Trick (CRT): If you have plenty of rope at the new stance, pull down as much rope as you can BEFORE the final person goes on rappel.

This can reduce the chances for a hangup or rockfall when the rope is pulled, because there’s less rope going over blocks, into cracks, and around shrubs that may get caught. If the rope does get caught when it's being shortened, the last person on rappel can fix it when they head down.

The last rappeller can help pull rope to shorten the strands. (The person at the lower anchor should of course have control of both ends of the rope so one end does not get pulled out of reach.)

This tip is from “The Mountaineering Handbook”, by Craig Connally

Learn the "thermal burrito" for patient packaging

This tip and diagram comes partially from the American Alpine Institute blog. It was written by Jason Martin, AMGA Certified Rock and Alpine Guide, and Executive Director of the American Alpine institute, or AAI. The AAI blog has lots of solid backcountry tips, check it out.

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One thing you can count on with most backcountry medical emergencies: you’re far away from help, and any outside assistance is likely to take a LOT longer to arrive than you think.

So after the initial treatment of your patient, you need to keep them as dry, warm, and comfortable as possible, because you’re probably in for a long wait. Provided you have some basic gear with you, an excellent way to do this is with the “thermal burrito”. (This technique has several names, but thermal burrito is by far the catchiest. =^)

In addition to basic patient comfort, this is also a good treatment for hypothermia. If you're doing this just to warm someone up, you probably don't need the rope wrap as shown in the video.

If treating for hypothermia, the patient's clothing should be removed if it's wet, and ideally replaced with dry clothing.

If treating for some kind of injury, it's important to maintain access to the injured area so you can continually check the affected body parts, so don't wrap them up so tight that it's difficult to remove the packaging.

Good rule of thumb in wilderness medicine: use the patient’s gear when possible. (If your patient is going to be evacuated by any sort of ground rescue or helicopter, the chances of you ever seeing that equipment again are pretty low, so keep that in mind when you offer your sleeping bag. =^)

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Here's a nice article from the American Alpine Institute blog that discusses this technique. Direct quote and image from the article:

1. Lay out a tarp or ground cloth on the ground.

2. Place 1 or 2 pads down on top of the tarp. Two pads are always better than one.

3. Stack three sleeping bags on top of the pads.

4. Place the victim inside the sleeping bag in the middle.

5. Wrap the victim in the tarp.

6. If treating for hyperthermia, provide the victim with hot water bottles. These should be placed under the arms and at the crotch. Additional bottles may be held or placed at the victim's feet.

image: http://blog.alpineinstitute.com/2019/03/the-burrito-hypothermia-wrap.html

And, here's a video that discusses basically the same technique, with the addition of creating a daisy chained climbing rope around the patient. If you think you may have to transport your patient, even for a short distance, this is a nice feature to have.

Note the addition of trekking poles underneath the patient, this can give some rigidity to the rope litter if you need to carry it.

And finally, here’s a longer video from the excellent WildMed youtube channel, where they call it a “Cocoon Wrap”. They describe in detail a few extra components, such as the importance of padding, ways to keep the patient dry, and how to lay out the rope.

How to warm fingers and prevent frostbite

Cold hands are something everyone has endured. (And if you have Raynoud’s syndrome, where the smaller arteries that supply blood to the skin constrict excessively in response to cold, this can be especially problematic.)

Here's a solution - “windmill” your arms. The centrifugal force from doing this moves blood into your fingers and hands.

(Conversely, a lot of people will blow into their gloves, thinking the warmth from their breath will help warm up their hands. It actually has the opposite effect, because the water vapor from your breath chills your hands even further.)

Check out the short video below from the excellent MedWild YouTube channel.

Measure map distance with a twig

Here’s an easy navigation trick to quickly estimate straight line distance between points on a map. This works for maps at any scale, provided you have a scale bar, which most maps should have.

Take a twig and break it to match a convenient distance on the scale bar on your map. For many maps, that might be 1 mile or kilometer. Here it's 2 miles. (Often the mile and km scale bars look very similar and are right next to each other. Be sure you’re using the correct one.)

Now, put your twig on the map to get a quick estimation of straight line distance between real world points. To measure longer distances, “leapfrog” the twig between points.

To measure a curving distance like a trail, road or river, it’s better to use the “finger” scale, learn how to do that here.