Alpine Tips

Knots John Godino Knots John Godino

Knot geeks rejoice - this is your website

The Professional Association of Climbing instructors (PACI) in Australia has compiled a rather amazing library of technical articles related to knots and rigging. If you want to take a deep dive into climbing knots, this is a gold mine.

 

The Australian Professional Association of Climbing Instructors, (PACI) has a deep collection of technical articles on knot tying. (Would you believe a 76 page article on just the bowline?!) If you’re a rigger, rescue professional, or a citizen climber with a curiosity about rigging methods, this website is a great place to start.

Many of the articles / papers are written by Mark Gommers, a man who clearly takes his work very seriously and a guy I would love to meet someday.

Climbers should probably start with article number one at the top, simply called “Knots”. It's described as a: “Comprehensive compilation of life support knots - includes test data and tying methods”.

(Note: some of the PDF files are password-protected, but if you use the link below, they tell you the password most of the time, so access is easy.)

A rainy afternoon, a length of rope to practice with, and a big pot of tea are recommended accessories.

 

Here’s one page from the “Knots” article as an example. The below image is copyright PACI.com

PACI bowline knot.jpg
 
 
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Gearhead's Delight John Godino Gearhead's Delight John Godino

Seek - iPhone app for instant plant ID

Most of us would probably like to learn the names of more backcountry flowers and trees, but who really wants to carry a botany book and take the time to key out a flower? With this app, you don't have to. Point your camera at a plant, and this app tells you what it is in seconds.

 

Learning the names of backcountry plants and animals is both personally rewarding, occasionally practical, and can lead to a greater empathy and connection with nature.

But, how many of us REALLY want to lug the plant ID book into the woods, and take the time to stumble through it to put a name to that flower or tree?

Well, as they say, there’s an app for that. iPhone users, check out Seek. 

 

This machine learning based app does a remarkable job of identifying plants, wild or domestic. (And apparently animals to, but I haven't tried that yet.)

Here’s basically how it works.

  1. You see a plant you want to know the name of.

  2. You open the app and point your camera at the plant.

  3. In a few seconds identifies the plant (or critter), usually the species.

  4. For any of us who have struggled through the tedious process of keying out a plant in a botany book, this is pretty much the Holy Grail of plant identification. 

 
bearberry.jpg
 

Notes:

  • Is it perfect? No. But still pretty darn impressive.

  • It’s free. In these days of high dollar premium phone apps, this is a refreshing change.

  • It works in airplane mode. You can save your battery in the backcountry and still identify plants without a cell connection, very cool.

  • It seems to work best for plants in North America. It tripped up on a Norway spruce and a Korean pine, although it did get it down to the correct genus.

  • Supposedly it works for animals also, but that little brown bird I saw didn’t hold still long enough for me to take a picture of it.

  • The app ID’d flowering plants correctly from the leaf structure only, without seeing the bloom. Going to have to try it next spring when wildflowers are out for sure. 

  • Supposedly it works on mushrooms also. (But, as a long time mushroom hunter, I wouldn’t use this to identify edibles; might want to wait for version 2.0.)

One nice feature: it stores all the plants and critters you have successfully identified, so you can look back at them and refresh your memory. When you tap a plant you’ve saved, it gives you a paragraph or two about it, and the taxonomy of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, which can give you a little more background botany, if that's your thing.

 
i seek plant id examples.jpg
 

It’s really fun to use. I first gave it a run at what I thought was the perfect spot, the Portland Arboretum. It has a lot of unusual trees, most of them are labeled, and it seemed a perfect place for a test drive. The app did have a stumble or two, (between a fir and a spruce tree) but overall it was about 90% correct.

I’ve been walking by Arctic Butterbur and Hooker’s Fairybells my whole life and never knew the amazing names of these unassuming little flowers!

This app is similar to the amazing improvements in real time translation. You could take years to become proficient in another language, or you can use a translation device that lets you speak with a non-English speaker, in real time, no study required. Call me lazy, but I think I'll usually take the modern technology. =^)

 
 
iseek ginger.jpg
 
 
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Gearhead's Delight John Godino Gearhead's Delight John Godino

A phone app for first and last light

Knowing the time of the first usable light in the morning can be useful for all kinds of outdoor adventures. Here’s a clean and simple phone app that tells you exactly this info.

 

Knowing the time of first light and last light can be important for outdoor adventures.

  • Surfers want dawn patrol.

  • Photographers want the “golden hour” just after sunrise and before sunset for good lighting.

  • Climbers often want to plan a trip around first available light - like hike the approach trail in the dark, but then reach the first part of tricky route finding, crevasses or technical climbing when you can see what you're doing.

There are a few ways to figure this out. For example, at my latitude of about 45° north in Oregon, the sunrise time minus about 30 minutes (and the sunset time plus about 30 minutes) gives a pretty good approximation for first and last light. (Sunrise and sunset are available on just about every basic weather app on your phone.)

But, if you want to get a little fancier, such as figuring out first light at some point in the future for an upcoming trip, or in a different location/latitude, or both, then things get a little trickier.

There are some in-depth websites that show times for civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight, that relate to the number of degrees that the sun is below the horizon, but not many people really know what those technical terms mean. (For our purposes, we're interested in civil twilight, which is pretty much when you can stumble around outside without a headlamp and not fall on your face.)

If you want to geek out and get more into this, you can go here and here.


So, how about a phone app that simply tells you first light, last light, sunrise and sunset, with a nice clean interface and no fluff? 

Well, here’s an iPhone app that does this one thing and does it perfectly - Sunrise Times. (Android peeps, you're on your own.)

It tells you sunset, sunrise, first light and last light of anywhere on earth. Long touch on the map to show a location different than where you are.

This is the free version. Pay an extra $7.50 annually for the paid version, and you get to choose a date in the past or future, helpful for trip planning. (When this came out a few years ago it was $3 for a lifetime subscription, which I personally found it more palatable . . .)

 
 
sunrise times.jpg
 
 
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Rock Climbing John Godino Rock Climbing John Godino

Protect a fixed rope with 1 inch webbing

It's a good idea to protect a fixed rope that's loaded over an edge. Here's a inexpensive and quick way to do it with a short piece of 1 inch webbing.

 

When you fix a single strand of rope over an edge, be it for big walls, ropes courses, caving, rescue, etc. it's often a good idea to pad the edge so tension on the rope does not damage the rope sheath.

There are lots of ways to do this. Some are some fairly DIY / spontaneous with gear you already have, such as shoving a backpack under the rope, or tying a Klemheist knot with some webbing and putting that on the loaded edge.

Another DIY rope protector that works well uses a bit of car heater hose or retired garden hose, described in this post.

You can also go with a premade product designed for this, such as the Petzl Protec (below) or something similar. This works well, and if you find yourself regularly fixing ropes, investing in specialized gear like this (about $23) is probably a good idea.


Here's another method that’s inexpensive and quick to deploy.

You probably have a section of forlorn 1 inch webbing floating around the bottom of a gearbox; now’s the time to break that out. Cut about a 2 foot section.

Slide the end of your rope inside the webbing, adjust the webbing so the middle of it is more or less over the loaded edge, and add a little athletic tape to hold it in place. That's it. (The one slight downside to this method is that you need to run the rope through the webbing before you tie any knots in the rope, so it does require a little foresight.)

 

Rope end is fixed around the tree with a “tensionless anchor”, and then run over the edge. A couple of feet of green 1 inch webbing protects the rope. Webbing is taped in place.

1 inch webbing rope protector 1 .JPG
 
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CalTopo pro tip: elevation profiles

An “elevation profile” is a sort of sideways look at your route, showing distance and elevation gain on a graph. It's a very handy tool to study your route, and making one with the great mapping software Caltopo takes just a couple of clicks.

 

If you're new to CalTopo mapping software and want to learn the basics, start with this video

CalTopo elevation profile example


Knowing the distance and elevation gain on a hike, bike ride or climb is really helpful. This is known as an “elevation profile” because it shows your route in sort of a side view graph, typically with vertical gain on the left axis and distance on the bottom axis.

In the pre-computer days, this was a very tedious task, involving counting contour lines through a magnifying glass, and measuring distance with a ruler. It was such a hassle that no one except true map geeks ever bothered to do it! However, in these modern times, making an elevation profile with with great mapping software like CalTopo is easy, if you know where to click.

For this example, let’s use a hike / climb of Broken Top, a popular climb in central Oregon. (Or, if you like, you can use any hike you already know.)

Go to caltopo.com and zoom into your area of interest. The default map layer, called “MapBuilder Topo”, is a good place to start.


First, you need a line on your map of your route.

If you know where the trail(s) or route goes, you can draw the line yourself. Right click, choose “New” > “Line”. Click on your starting point, usually the trailhead. You can draw line segments in three ways.

  1. Draw short line segments with a series of clicks.

  2. Draw a freehand line by tapping the control, shift or command key and click / drag.

  3. Snap to an existing trail, shown in yellow highlights. (Sometimes the snap to function is handy, sometimes it's a hassle. You can turn this snap function on / off by selecting “Snap To > None” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner.)

Play around with these for a while to see how they work. Double click to finish your line. To delete a line you don’t like, mouse over it, right click, and select “Delete”.


Note: Don't be too concerned if the line you draw is not EXACTLY on your trail or route. You're not a professional surveyor here, you're just trying to get a general idea of the distance and elevation, so being super accurate is not usually so important.

Also, keep in mind that any estimated distance and/or elevation derived from a computer is always going to be a little different than the real world. The guidebook says that a hike is 10 miles and 3,000 vertical feet, But when you drawn an elevation profile in CalTopo it says it's 10.5 miles and 3400 vertical feet. And, when you hike it with your GPS recording a track, the track show something different. Which one is right? Dunno. How can you tell? You can’t. Does it matter? Probably not. Don't get too hung up on the exact numbers, this is for general estimation and planning purposes.


If you made a line with a series of short line segments, you can move the line a bit to make it more accurate. Mouse over the line, right click, and choose edit. The line should redraw with a series of small white dots. You can click and drag these dots to move that portion of the line. Play around with us to get a feel for it.

caltopo line editing example.jpg
 

You can also make an elevation profile with an imported GPX track file. If you don’t know where your route goes, this is a good approach. On AlpineSavvy you can find tracks for more than 70 of the most popular climbing routes in the Pacific Northwest. For other mountaineering objectives, you can try Peakbagger.com, or some other local website with hiking tracks, such as oregonhikers.org. Sometimes a Google search for “Hikename GPX track” can get you what you need.

 

For our Broken Top example, when you’ve drawn your route, it should look something like this. (A solid red line is the default.)

caltopo elevation profile example 1.jpg
 


After you’ve drawn your route, look on the left side of your screen. Under “Lines and Polygons”, you should see a red line with an “N/A”: after it. This is the line you just drew.

To the right of this, you should see three small icons. The first one looks like a little graph, the second one is a little pencil, the third one is a red X. Give each of these a click and see what happens.

The red “X” is delete.

The “pencil” icon is edit. Here you can add a name for your line, change the color, line style, or line weight. (In the photo below, I changed my line color to purple and increased the line weight a little bit. This is also a good time to add a descriptive name to the trail, such as “Broken Top climb”.)

caltopo elevation profile example 2.jpg
 

Finally, clicking the “graph” icon should give you an elevation profile of your route.

If you move your cursor over the elevation profile on the bottom, you should see a corresponding red dot on the map in the upper part of your screen, showing your map location. Pretty cool!

caltopo elevation profile example 3.jpg
 

Here’s an extra feature of elevation profile. On the top right of the elevation profile, you should see a small button that’s labeled “expand”. If you click this, you’ll get even a more detailed elevation profile. This shows a few extra whistles and bells like amount of forest cover, slope and aspect of the route, and more.

Looking at the slope coloration along the bottom edge of the line graph, we can see that it's a fairly flat approach up until about the last mile or so. That's about what you’d expect from a climbing route.

caltopo elevation profile example 4.jpg

This is a lot of words to explain a pretty simple process. Try it a few times and you’ll pick it up quickly.


And yes, CalTopo is terrific. Please consider a modest annual subscription (starting at $20) to support continued use of this great tool.

Click the “Upgrade” menu along the top of the CalTopo screen to see various subscription options.

caltopo upgrade arrow.jpg
 
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How to find public lands with map software/apps

Being able to see in real time on your phone if you’re on public lands or not is helpful for all kinds of things, especially finding free dispersed camping spots. Here’s how to use some modern mapping tools like Caltopo and Gaia GPS to do this.

 

There are lots of reasons why are you may want to see a public lands overlay on a map, along with your position. Here are a few. (Personally, I use public lands overlays mostly to find free camping, so that's going to be the main focus of this article. Car camping can be great. Secluded car camping for FREE on public lands that allow it is even better.)

  • You’re headed out for a dawn start for a hike or climb, and want to find a spot near the trailhead to sleep for the night. How do you find a good place? 

  • You want to visit a popular national park in the summer, but of course all the campsites in the park are booked. Where could you camp for free just outside the park and visit for day use? 

  • You’ve embraced some version of “van life”, and never want to pay if it all possible when you're sleeping in your rig.

  • You're heading out for a hunting or fishing trip and want to be sure you don't trespass.

 

On main roads, you might see a nice welcome sign like this. But on many smaller roads, you won't.

 

For the most part, land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the US Forest Service, (USFS), allow free camping pretty much anywhere unless posted otherwise, provided you don't need amenities like a gravel parking pad, running water, picnic table and a toilet. (The government-speak term for this is “dispersed camping”. RV folks might call it “boondocking”. )

This policy also mostly applies to state owned forest land in Oregon, owned by the Oregon Department of Forestry, or ODF, and in Washington, on land owned by Washington Department of Natural Resources, or DNR. Your state may have a similar system.


Here's a great map showing public and private lands in Oregon. Anything marked Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, or State Lands (usually Oregon Department of Forestry in the Coast Range) is generally open for camping. (Note that National Wildlife Refuges, while federally owned, are typically closed to dispersed camping.) Check out the original map and zoom around here.

But, sometimes it’s hard to know whether you’re actually on public land that allows free camping, or not.

Good news is, there’s some good desktop mapping software and phone apps that can answer the question, hopefully leading you to a secluded, free overnight spot with no hassles. 


Disclaimer #1: As cartographers like to say, ”the map is not the territory.” Meaning, what’s really on the ground is the truth, not the printed map or phone app in your hand. If the map says you’re on public land, but the sign on the tree says no trespassing, or there are some grumpy locals who are giving you bad vibes, use your common sense and move on. 

Disclaimer/observation #2: The federal lands map layers in general seem to be more correct and consistent in these map tools / apps than the state land maps, at least for where I am in Oregon. In Oregon, it’s pretty easy to tell in the Coast Range whether it’s public or private. Privately owned lands almost always have a locked gate at the access road, and public lands do not. 

Observation #3: Rural gas station attendants are often great sources for good free campsites. A small tip offered for your gas before asking can work wonders.  =^)

Observation #4: I’d like to think I hardly need to mention this, but Leave No Trace principles of course apply. Don’t camp in meadows, near waterways or other fragile areas, leave zero garbage, toilet paper or fire rings behind, be VERY careful with campfires (if you even choose to have one) and observe all rules regarding fire closures, common in the summer. Have a walk around and pick up somebody else's trash before you leave.


Desktop: Caltopo

For this example, let's look for possible camping spots near the Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon.

Go to CalTopo.com, my favorite backcountry mapping software, and zoom into your area of interest; here’s Crater Lake NP. Choose a map layer. I like “Mapbuilder Topo”, the default.

Then, mouse over the map layer menu in the top right corner, and check the box next to “Land Management”, under the “Map Overlays” section.

crater lake camping 1.jpg
 

Now, your map should look something like this. Note the clear boundary between the National Park land around the lake, and the green tinted National Forest lands around the park.

crater lake camping 2.jpg
 

Now we’re talking! Look at all those logging roads (in the red box) just outside the main road that leads into the park from the west, all on National Forest land. Most of these should offer some decent, free dispersed camping options, just a few minutes away from the park boundary.

crater lake camping 3.jpg
 

Here’s one more. This is just outside the main entrance station at the southwest corner of Mt. Rainier National Park. Check out those roads on the green Forest Service land; looks like a good place to camp for free and then go into the park the next day.

USFS camping near Mt Rainier.jpg

Phone apps - Gaia GPS “Public Lands” overlay

Phone based apps of course have the big advantage of showing your real time location AND the land ownership around you. Here are two that I like. 

On the “professional version” of the app, which is $40 a year, Gaia GPS has a map overlay option called “Public Land US”. With the “pro” version, Gaia has an advantage of being able to adjust the opacity of the map layers with a slider bar, which can be a big help in seeing smaller roads and pull outs.

Below is a map legend for Gaia GPS that shows the different public lands layers.

Screen Shot 2020-06-17 at 9.52.00 AM.jpg

Here we have the map layers “USFS 2016” and “Public Land (US)”. We see a brownish tint for the National Park, and a green tint for the surrounding Forest Service land.

crater lake Gaia 1.jpg
 

Zooming into the same area where the main western access road enters the park, we see all of the forest service roads, many of which should offer some good camping options.

crater lake Gaia 2.jpg

Phone apps - Gaia GPS “Gaia Topo” free map layer

Recently, a GaiaGPS made some significant upgrades to their primary map layer, called “Gaia Topo”. (One great thing about this layer, it's free, both on the desktop and on your phone.) One of these improvements is showing public lands right on the map. Here's an example around Mt Rainier. (Please ignore the waypoints and climbing routes on the map.)

The subtle shading on this map shows different types of public lands. Along the main road Hwy 706 coming into the park, you pass through State Forest lands shown and light purple. South of the park is light green, which is National Forest. Slightly darker green is a designated wilderness area. And finally the light brownish orange is the National Park itself. Note, there is no dispersed camping allowed in national parks, but the State Forest and US Forest land should be fair game. Note there are lots of roads in both these areas you just need to zoom in more on the map to see them.

Gaia GPS Public lands example using Gaia GPS topo

Gaia GPS Public lands example using Gaia GPS topo


Phone apps - FreeRoam 

I'm sure there are several other apps that do this, here's a plug for one that I'm familiar with.

FreeRoam is a phone app designed to show camp options and public lands. It’s free. It shows BLM and USFS land, some but not all roads, existing public campsites, and occasionally user added “dispersed camping“ sites. The app does not have all the whistles and bells of Gaia GPS, but as far as showing your location and whether you are or are not on federal land, it does a decent job.

As a side note, in my brief time using it, it shows some state owned lands, but not all. It seems to be geared more toward federal land ownership.

 

Back again at Crater Lake NP. (Note the bounty of official $$$ campsites around Diamond Lake in the National Forest land north of the park, if that's your thing.)

free roam 1.jpg
 

And again, zooming in just outside the park to the west near Highway 62. Note the app shows just the primary forest service road leading south of the main highway, and not all the smaller secondary roads.

free roam 2.jpg
 

Well, that ought to be enough to get you started. Of course, you can mix and match some of these sources as well if you really want to get creative.

For example, you could use your nice big desktop screen at home and Calopo to scope possible campsites, maybe even using a satellite view, mark some way points, and then transfer those over to Gaia GPS on your phone to use when you're actually driving.

Hey, you pay your taxes. Get maximum use out of your public lands, and if you don't need a picnic table, go camp for free whenever you can.

 
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Rock Climbing John Godino Rock Climbing John Godino

Run out of runners? Use your gear

If you’re out of slings on a long pitch, get creative - stoppers and other trad gear can be used as runners in a pinch.

 

Getting low on runners on a long trad or big wall pitch? Might be time to get resourceful with your remaining gear. Stoppers/nuts, hexes and tricams can all be used as “runners” if needed.

stopper as runner.JPG
hex as runner.JPG
tricam as runner.JPG
 
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El Capitan "Gigapixel Climbing Routes"

This amazing photo project stitches together more than 2,000 images into one single, super high resolution photo of El Capitan. Add onto this redlining of routes and over 2,000 more photos of a climbing team going up the nose, and you have some serious rock climber eye candy.

 

This made the rounds in Yosemite circles a few months back, but it’s such an amazing photo project that it deserves a wider audience. 

The photography wizards Eric Hanson of Blueplanet VR and Greg Downing of HyperAcuity created an extremely high resolution, zoomable image of El Capitan, complete with red lining of routes and a climbing team in action on the Nose. You just need to see this, click the button below, zoom in, and be amazed. 

The technical details of how this photo was created go something like this: a high definition camera took about 2,000 images of El Capitan, and then the images were stitched together to make one single super high res image.

Then, all the climbing routes were drawn on the photo. 

And to top it off, another 2,000 or so photos were taken of two climbers on a one day climb of the Nose route, and these were added to the photo. 

You don’t have to have ambitions of El Capitan to appreciate the technical expertise, creativity, and beauty of this project. 

And, if you do want to climb El Cap, this could be a terrific planning and route finding resource.

(For example, you can see in this photo exactly how far down you need to lower down of the Boot Flake to properly execute the famous King Swing on the Nose :-)


 
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Gearhead's Delight John Godino Gearhead's Delight John Godino

Meet prusik 2.0 - the "VT" prusik

The “VT prusik”, invented by canyoneering expert Rich Carlson, is increasingly popular with SAR teams and riggers. It has a some big advantages over the traditional perlon cord prusik loop. Learn the two key knots, some applications, and see a video on all the ways to use it.

 
VT prusik by Bluewater

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.


“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.)


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.


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.)


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.


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.


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


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


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


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.

vt prusik as progress capture.JPG

Sweet! Where do I get one?


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.


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

 
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Petzl - Accessing an exposed rappel station

Need to move your team from a safe spot out to an exposed rappel station? From the crafty rope trick experts at Petzl, here’s one way to do it.

 
 

Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.


The 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.


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.)

canyon-relais-expo_07.png
 

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.

Screen Shot 2019-08-09 at 8.40.09 AM.jpg
 

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.

canyon-relais-expo_19.png
 

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.)

canyon-relais-expo_22.png

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.

 
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Weather forecasts made beautiful - Windy.com

Weather forecasts don't have to be boring. Windy.com shows you worldwide weather patterns at a glance, and also gives pinpoint local forecasts that are easy on the eyes. (Works on mobile devices and shows webcams, too, take that, mountain-forecast!)

 

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

Windy.com example.jpg
 

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


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.

windy 1.jpg
 

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.

windy 1x.jpg
 

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

windy settings.jpg
 

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.

windy 2.jpg
 

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.

Screen Shot 2019-05-12 at 12.50.37 PM.jpg
 

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

windy compare forecasts
 

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.

windy compare forecasts

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.

 
windy 5.jpg
 
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General Mountaineering 2 John Godino General Mountaineering 2 John Godino

National Park Service technical rescue manual - free PDF

The search and rescue (SAR) experts in the National Park Service, with techniques developed over decades of experience, have a technical rescue manual. It's available online as a free PDF download. If you have more than a passing interest in self rescue, this is a good place to take a deep dive.

 
image: Department of interior National Park Service

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

image: Department of interior National Park Service

 
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Make a stopper knot semi-permanent

There may be a few rare times when you need to make a stopper knot semi permanent, but still have a way to easily untie it when needed. Answer: zip tie.

 
zip tier and stopper knot.JPG

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?

 
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Use the rope to extend your anchor to a cliff edge

You top out on a pitch, and see a perfect tree anchor 10 feet back from the edge. Here's how to quickly rig a stout anchor that will position you in the perfect spot with a ready-made masterpoint to belay or haul.

 

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.


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.)

cliff top extension 1.JPG
 

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.)

cliff top extension 3x.JPG

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.


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.


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.)

 
 

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

photo: Alex kostadinov


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


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!

 
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The "Voodoo Hitch" - a magic tensioning hitch

Part tensioning hitch, part rope sorcery. Plus, it has a great name. You don't need to learn the “voodoo hitch”, but you should. Tie it 10 times, you still probably won't figure out how it works.

 
voodoo hitch 9.JPG

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.


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.”


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.)


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.


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.

 
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Knots John Godino Knots John Godino

The “Snap Bowline” - a very crafty knot

The bowline can be a helpful knot for climbers to fix a rope around a tree or boulder. But, many people it tricky; the “rabbit coming out of the hole and running around the tree” thing is not as easy as it might sound. Check out the “snap bowline”, where a slip knot and little bit of rope sorcery semi-magically cause a completed bowline to “snap” into place.

 

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.


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.

image001.jpg

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?!”


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

snap bowline 1.JPG
 

2) Make a slipknot.

snap bowline 2.JPG
 

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.)

snap bowline 800.JPG
 

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!


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.

 

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!)


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.)

 
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"Webbing knotcraft" video from canyoneer Rich Carlson

Every climber knows how to tie a water knot in webbing. But, there is a lot more you can do with a length of webbing, and canyoneers know all the tricks. Check out this video by canyoneering expert Rich Carlson to learn a few of them.

 
 

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


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.


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!


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

 
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Rappel John Godino Rappel John Godino

Stuck rappel ropes - use brains, then brawn

One of the happiest moments in climbing is seeing your rappel rope drop freely through the sky down to you. And one of the worst moments is when it doesn’t! Here are a series of steps to consider when you have a stuck rappel rope, and some tips to avoid the problem.

 

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. 


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.


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.

 
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Debrief after your climb

Every trip, summit or not, is an opportunity to reflect, learn and improve. The best way to do this is with an honest talk / debrief session with your partner(s) ASAP 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?


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


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.)


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.

 
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General Mountaineering John Godino General Mountaineering John Godino

Adrenaline induced tunnel vision

A normal response of your body to adrenaline is to narrow your visual focus. Generally, this is NOT helpful when you’re climbing. Read a short cautionary tale, and some simple things you can do to mitigate this.

 

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.


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. =^)

 
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