Alpine Tips
Use the "Alpine Handrail" for a better bivy
The alpine bivy - like camping, only different! If you're spending the night on a small-ish ledge, here's a great way to secure both yourself and your gear.
Credit for this tip: blog post from Andy Kirkpatrick, shared with permission.
If you're spending the night at an exposed ledge, you hopefully have some room to move around and also to organize your gear. You want to do both without any concerns of falling off or dropping anything.
One solution: the “alpine handrail”.
Build a second anchor off to one side of your ledge away from the main anchor. It's ideal if these anchors are bolts. If not, be sure the anchor can take a sideways pull.
Tie a B I G figure 8 on a bight with a loop that's big enough to reach both anchors. In the photo I'm using a cordelette. On a larger ledge, use your climbing rope. Or tie two cordelettes together; get creative.
Tie two additional knots, and clip those to each anchor. In the photo on the left we have a clove hitch, which makes it easier to tension in the top strand.
Now you've made a sort of two story handrail. Make the upper rail fairly tight and the bottom one looser.
Use the upper rail to clip yourself with a tether, and the bottom rail to clip all your gear. You can move along the top rail without having to unclip to move past anything (other than your partner).
Because you made a loop, if any anchor fails, everything won't slip off of one end of the rope.
But what about that horizontal rope strand on the top? Doesn't that make sort of an American Death Triangle (ADT) / vector pull, maybe putting a large load on the anchors?
Excellent question! Short answer is yes, it kind of does, but it should not be a concern if you're on a reasonably sized ledge. That top strand is only if you make a careless stumble, or to keep you stable when you're sleeping.
If you are at a full hanging belay, where you’re putting a real load on the anchor all the time, you want to have a more typical anchor with a distributed load, NOT like this.
Besides, the so-called “death triangle” is probably not as bad as you think. Here's a whole article on it.
Extra points for using your climbing glove as a secure spot to hold your well-earned canned beverage. =^)
Double rope rap: clip tether carabiner to the “pull” strand
“Dang it, which rope strand do we need to pull, I forgot!” Here's a simple way to remember. As you start your double rope rappel, clip your tether carabiner to the rope that needs to get pulled.
For a double rope rap, of course it’s super important to pull the side that has the knot!
Nine times out of ten, you’ll be able to remember just fine. But for multipitch rappels, when you’re threading the lower anchor before pulling and swapping the rope that gets pulled every time, it’s dark, you’re tired after a big day, the weather is challenging, adrenaline-induced brain shrinkage, or whatever, this tip gives you one less thing to pay attention to.
After you unclip your tether carabiner from the anchor, clip it onto the rope that needs to get pulled (here, that’s green).
The carabiner politely slides down the rope above your device. At the bottom, there’s no question about which rope needs to get pulled; it’s always the one with your tether carabiner.
This isn't just for the last person. If the first person down does this, they can start threading the correct pull rope through the lower anchor.
Note: in the photo, I decided to not show a rappel extension to more easily see the rigging. Typically I use a rappel extension and third hand back up.
Faster rope flaking - over your back
Here's a simple way to quickly flake your rope. Simply pull it over your back and shoulder and down into your pack, tarp, rope bag, or whatever.
Want to flake your rope in a hurry, like into a backpack, tarp, or rope bag? Here's one good method if you don't have something to clip the rope to.
If you have any sort of high point around, it’s probably going to be faster to clip a carabiner to that, clip the rope through the carabiner, and then pull downward to stack it.
One other benefit: you usually work most of the twists and tangles out of the rope when you do this.
If you have twists in the rope, run the rope through a ATC style belay device on the high point to help remove them.
It's good to have a shirt or jacket with a hood on it, because you might get a little rope burn on your neck if you don't, ouch.
Another technique that's occasionally used: clipping a carabiner to your helmet strap and running the rope through that. It's probably because I'm not very coordinated, but the few times I've tried this, I end up slapping myself in the face with the rope, so that's not my favorite method. :-)
image credit, shared with permission: https://www.instagram.com/climbing.technical
Passing a knot when hauling
Want to lead a few pitches on a big wall, and then do one long haul to bypass an intermediate anchor or two? Here's a crafty way to connect two or more ropes to do this, and easily get that knot through your hauling system.
Credit for this tip goes to Andy Kirkpatrick. It’s from his outstanding book: ”Higher Education: A Big Wall Manual”.
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.
This might be a seldom-used technique in your toolbox of big wall trickery, but it can sure come in handy for one main thing: it lets you do extremely long hauls, with two or more ropes tied together, allowing you to skip intermediate anchors. For example, you could lead several pitches and then do one L O N G haul.
What’s the problem you need to solve? You have two ropes tied together with a knot that can’t pass through your progress capture pulley / Traxion. This means the knot (which is under a lot of tension) needs to be untied somehow without losing your haul bags.
(Note, if you're hauling with a 2:1 “pig rig”, passing a knot is really easy, because you already have about half the system in place. For this example, we’ll assume a 1:1 haul.)
There are several ways to accomplish this. Here's one that's pretty straightforward. Credit for this technique goes to Andy Kirkpatrick and his excellent big wall book “Higher Education”, definitely recommended.
Before we get into the technique, here’s a favorite related quote from Andy K:
“Hauling is potentially one of the most dangerous aspects of big wall climbing. This translates to ultra-caution in all parts of your hauling system and interaction with bags, haul lines, docking cords, and pulleys. If you rush and make a mistake, drop a load or have it shift where it's not wanted, you could easily kill someone or yourself. I try and teach climbers to view their bags as dangerous creatures, like a great white shark, rhino, or raptor that is in their charge. The ability to keep them calm and under your control comes down to paranoia, foresight, and heavy respect for the damage they can do.”
First, you need to join the ropes with a knot that won’t get welded under a heavy load, perhaps multiple haul bags. Try using the reef knot, backed up with a double fisherman’s, and a long tail of about 1 meter, as shown. There are certainly other options. This one is simple, easy to check, and works well.
It's critical here to leave a minimum of 1 meter tail on the ropes, as shown. (You actually only need it on one strand. But, so you don't screw it up, it’s simpler to make a long tail on both strands.) If you're not sure if you have enough tail, make it a bit longer.
We’re hauling on the white rope. Stop when the joining knot gets about 10 cm / 4 inches from your progress capture pulley. Don’t yank the knot into the pulley!
Get out some more gear: two lockers, a 30 cm (or so) sling, and an ascender. (Instead of the ascender, you could also use a friction hitch, but make it a good one.)
Clip the ascender upside down to the loaded rope. Clip the other end of the sling to the anchor. Here we’re using the Grivel Vlad on the master point, a combination locking carabiner and rigging plate, very helpful for this procedure. A quad, or other type of anchor rigging that gives you several different connection points, works too.
Next, pull up a bit on the white rope, release the cam on the Traxion, and slowly transfer the load onto the ascender. Once you do this, re-engage the cam on the Traxion to back up the ascender.
Notice how doing this creates slack on the knot, yay!
Safety step: tie a bight knot in the end of the green rope and clip it to the anchor with a locker. This ensures the ascender is backed up before you do the next step.
Sweet, you have slack on the knot, and the system is backed up. Now you can untie that reef knot that was joining the ropes. (Give yourself a high-five because you picked a knot that was so easy to untie. =^) Remove the white rope from the system; careful, don't drop it!
Carefully remove Traxion from the carabiner, load the green rope into the Traxion, and untie the backup bight knot. If you feel lucky and are comfortable with the ascender holding the entire load for about two seconds, you can keep the Traxion clipped onto the anchor and push the end of the green rope through the device. I'm showing a bit more conservative, less risky method.
Remove the ascender and sling from the system.
Schweeeeetness, Give yourself a high five, you're done!
All the load is now on the green rope with no knot. Now all you have is 60 more meters of hauling, lucky you!
How can rope drag increase your fall factor?
The theoretical definition of fall factor doesn’t account for rope drag, which can reduce the effective length of rope that’s actually absorbing the force of the fall. So, in the real world, even if you have a lot of rope between you and your partner, you still might need to be concerned with a high factor fall.
The idea of fall factor is a fundamental concept in climbing. It’s mentioned in most all the books, and hopefully you learned it on your first day leading.
Short version:
On a multipitch route, if you take a fall close to the belay without much rope to absorb the force, you can take a high fall factor. Bad!
But as you get higher on the route, there's more rope in the system to absorb the force of a fall, so four factor is not an issue anymore.
However, similar to mechanical advantage, there is a “theoretical” version and an “actual” version, and they can be quite different. Let's take a closer look.
image credit: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
First, let’s look at the theoretical definition of fall factor.
Fall factor is a way to look at the the relative impact force of a fall. It's a ratio, calculated by dividing the fall distance by the amount of rope between the belayer and the climber.
In normal climbing scenarios, this will always be a number between 0 and 2. (You can’t have a factor 2 fall on a single pitch climb, because you hit the ground, OUCH!)
The higher the fall factor, the greater impact force on the climber and gear.
Takeaway: a lower fall factor is better!
Let's have a look at the diagram above, from the always awesome Petzl website. In both cases, the lead climber falls a distance of 4 meters.
In the left example, the 4 meter fall is divided by 10 meters of rope, which gives a relatively low fall factor of 0.4. That means low forces all the way around: on the belayer, the climber, and the top piece of gear. That's good!
Compare that to the diagram on the right. The climber takes a fall of the same distance, 4 meters, but in this case it's right off of the belay on a multi pitch climb, without clipping any gear, with only 2 meters of rope between him and the belayer. This results in the highest possible fall factor of 2, which puts very large forces on the entire system. That’s bad!
How rope drag affects the “actual” fall factor
If you’re leading with lots of rope out, you might think that fall factor should not be a concern. “Schweeeeeet, I've got 30 meters of rope between me and my belayer. If I fall, all that dynamic rope will give a nice soft catch, so no worries about a big fall factor, right?”
Well, that would be true according to the theoretical model of fall factor. But what about rope drag? How does that affect the theoretical model?
There are two reasons why rope drag is bad.
One of them is pretty obvious: you need to work a lot harder to pull up the rope.
But there’s another, less appreciated and perhaps more important reason: rope drag can increase the actual fall factor.
How does this work? I can't say it better than the Petzl website:
“The theoretical fall factor does not take into account the rope friction against the rock and in quickdraws. This friction prevents the rope from stretching over its entire length. Thus, only a part of the rope (solid line) will absorb the energy of the fall: this is called effective rope length.”
In the diagram below, the lead climber has a lot of rope drag because of the zigzagging route. Even though the leader has 10 meters of rope out and they take a short fall of only 4 meters, that short fall is effectively being absorbed by only 4 meters of dynamic rope (the solid blue line) , which gives a relatively high fall factor 1, ouch!
That could easily be enough force to rip marginal gear out of the rock, injure the climber, and put a big strain on your rope. This can especially be a concern when aid climbing, where you’re often placing small gear that may not hold much more than body weight.
Petzl did some real live-body testing on this; see the article and results here.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
The “theoretical” fall factor has an equation like this, based on rope length between belayer and climber:
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
The “real” fall factor has an equation like this, using the length of rope that is effectively absorbing the force of a fall.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Fall-factor-and-impact-force---theory?ActivityName=rock-climbing
Here's a similar diagram from the excellent book “Higher Education” from Andy Kirkpatrick.
Andy notes that with lots of rope drag on the left, we have a higher peak force over a shorter time (bad). With minimal rope drag on the right, we have a lower peak force absorbed over a longer time (good).
Also note that in the zigzag example on the left, there's basically no force felt by the belayer when the lead climber falls. Typically upward displacement of the belayer can absorb a significant amount of force in the system, but here it's not happening at all.
image: Andy kirkpatrick, “HIGHER Education” used with permission
How can you avoid rope drag?
A properly bolted sport climb should not zigzag too much, so this generally should not be a big issue when clipping bolts.
For traditional climbing, when you're placing gear, bring a good selection of 60 cm and maybe a few 120 cm sewn slings, and extend your gear as needed to keep the rope running as straight as possible. Doing this will minimize rope drag and allow your rope to do its job properly, absorb the falling force along most of its length.
You can use double ropes. With proper clipping technique, even a zigzag route can be adequately protected and rope drag minimized.
Why bother learning advanced techniques?
A good approach when learning climbing: have a small selection of standard techniques that you know 110%, that you use pretty much all the time. However, when your experience and skill increase, it can be good to have more tools in the toolbox in the rare event you might need them. Here's a great quote from Andy Kirkpatrick on this.
“I already know how to build an anchor, set up a rappel, and belay in the normal way. Why should I learn . . .
Five different ways to set up a top rope anchor?
Rappel with a carabiner brake?
Belay from above with a Munter hitch?
Ascend a rope with a prusik tied with a shoelace?”
British expedition and big wall climbing expert Andy Kirkpatrick has an answer, from his outstanding book, “Down”:
Cons (and pros?) of linking pitches
“Hey, it looks like these next two pitches are pretty short. How about we link them together? After all, we have a 70 meter rope!” It might appear that climbing one L O N G pitch is faster / more efficient than two short ones. However, there some downsides to linking pitches; learn ‘em here.
“The topo says the next pitch is 30 meters, and the one after that is only 25. Let's link both of those together!”
Are you itching to put your new 70 meter rope (or maybe fancy 2 way radios) to full use? Many people think they can save time (and maybe get some style / coolness points?) by linking pitches.
Linking pitches might sound faster, and occasionally it can be.
But it usually comes with some downsides:
Communication (verbal and visual) is more difficult
Increased rope drag
Usually need a larger rack; more gear is heavier
Potential of a longer fall because more stretchy rope is out
Potential of a longer fall because you may be short on gear and need to go farther between good placements
Risk of running out of the gear you need to adequately protect the climb
If you want to increase your climbing efficiency, it might be better to focus on improving your belay transitions rather than linking pitches. If you only spend a minute or so at each belay changeover, you may find that climbing the route as “designed” is actually faster and less hassle than trying to link pitches.
Some ways to increase overall efficiency:
When cleaning, keep the gear reasonably sorted and tidy.
The leader keeps the rope stacked carefully, coiled or knotted on a sling or carabiner, or even in a rope bag.
Swapping belay devices is a good trick for faster belay transitions.
Conversely, if you have challenging conditions, like low visibility or high wind, you may want to make the standard pitches even shorter, so you can maintain visual and verbal contact. Maintaining visual contact is an underappreciated way to increase team efficiency in lots of small ways. For example, the belayer can usually see when the leader has stopped and is starting to build an anchor, and then the belayer can start breaking down their system and getting ready to climb.
Consider using the so-called “silent system” of belay communication to minimize yelling and keep communications clear.
You MIGHT be able to climb more efficiently, by linking pitches if everything is in alignment, but it doesn’t always lead to a faster or less risky climb.
Did you climb a route in five pitches instead of seven? Sorry, that doesn't make you cooler. =^)
“Drop end 3:1” for crevasse rescue
The modern approach to crevasse rescue is to use a separate, unweighted rescue rope strand to pull out your unfortunate partner. Typically, this is done with a 2:1 “drop loop” system. Here's a variation with some improvements: dropping down one END of the rope, and hauling with a 3:1 mechanical advantage.
This article was reviewed by IFMGA Certified Guide Rob Coppolillo, co-author of “The Mountain Guide Manual” and author of “The Ski Guide Manual”. Connect with Rob: @vettamtnguides and his website.
Credit to AMGA Certified Rock Guide Ryan Tilley, who made a video about this method. Kevin Govan @govanathon and Pierre_Gtr @biderchurch also mentioned it to me.
There are two primary systems commonly used for crevasse rescue; the “drop loop C”, and the “Z drag.” While they each have their pros and cons, the drop loop C has become the modern standard. Here's a longer article with pro tips on the drop loop C.
“Drop loop C” - 2:1 mechanical advantage
Pro: Brake knots in the rope don’t interfere with your hauling system.
Pro: You can prepare the crevasse lip to more easily pull out your unfortunate partner.
Pro: Puts the lowest load onto the anchor; (approx 1x your pulling force.)
Con: You usually need to carry at least twice the length of rope that’s between team members to be able to drop a loop. This usually means a two person team needs at least a 60 meter rope.
Con: if the middle person falls in on a 3 person team, this might be a problem, because the end person may not have enough rescue rope to reach them.
“Z drag” - 3:1 mechanical advantage
Pros: You can set up the haul system with a small amount of extra rope. This can allow teams to travel on a shorter rope.
Cons: Pretty much the mirror image of the 2:1 system: Brake knots can cause problems, and the rope often cuts into the lip of the crevasse.
Cons: Puts a larger load on to the anchor, (approx 2x your pulling force.)
However, these aren’t your only options. What if you could combine these systems to get most of the benefits and few of the downsides?
That's what you get with a “drop end 3:1”.
Benefits of the drop end 3:1:
Lets you prepare the lip so the rescue line doesn’t cut into the snow.
Brake knots are not an issue, ignore them.
Gives you more pulling power than a 2:1. (Both systems are easy to convert to a 6:1 if you need too.)
Easily reversible to a lower if needed.
Requires a LOT less rope! No need to have twice the amount of rope between partners, like with a drop loop.
Can be easier to rescue the middle person (that dirty little secret of crevasse rescue that often is not discussed when using a drop loop C.)
Allows a team to use a shorter rope. For a two person team using the drop C method, to maintain adequate spacing, maybe tie 3 or 4 brake knots (which take about 1 meter of rope each) AND for each partner to carry at least twice the length of rope as rescue coils, you pretty much need a 60 meter rope at a minimum. (This is counterintuitive for most people; a two person team needs a 60 meter rope, while a three person team can use a 50 meter rope!)
This also lets a three person team use a shorter rope. For example, you could have a three person team on a 40 meter rope: (11-9-middle-9-11) 9 meters between each climber, and each end person carrying 11 meters of rope.
Allows a greater spacing between climbers with the same length of rope. For example, in an area with large crevasses, a three person team might choose to use a 60 meter rope, and have 14 meters between climbers (16-14-middle-14-16) with this system. With a drop loop C system, you'd need to do at least 20-10-middle-10-20, with 10 meters between each climber, in case of a middle climber fall.
You learn ONE primary system that works in just about every scenario, instead of learning two different systems that may not work in every case and can be confusing to learn and remember, years later, in the heat of battle.
Drop end 3:1 crevasse rescue sequence (team of three):
Unfortunate Climber 1 falls in a crevasse. (The climbers on top remember that Climber 1 has the car keys, so they decide to pull ‘em out.)
Climber 2 (middle) and Climber 3 (end) on top arrest the fall.
Climber 2 builds an anchor and transfers the load by clipping their clip in bight knot to the anchor. Climber 1 is now secure on the anchor.
Climber 3 puts a friction hitch onto the rope to secure themselves, unclips from their clip in knot, and unties their clip in knot.
Climber 3, sliding their friction hitch along the rope to secure themselves, approaches the edge of the crevasse to check on climber 1.
Climber 1 calls up that they want/need to be hauled out.
Climber 3 ties a bight knot in the END of the rope, clips a locking carabiner to it, lowers the carabiner down to climber 1, and tells them to clip the carabiner to their belay loop.
Meanwhile, Climber 2 builds a 3:1 Z drag anywhere that’s convenient, such as on the backside of the bight knot that's clipped to the anchor.
Climber 3 prepares the lip of the crevasse a bit off to one side by carefully knocking off loose snow, and puts their ice axe onto the edge of the crevasse so the rescue rope won’t dig in.
Climber 2 and Climber 3 start hauling, climber 1 gets pulled up.
If this 3:1 for some reason doesn’t give enough pulling power, it's easy to convert it to a (theoretical) 6:1.
Assuming a 3 person team with a 50 meter rope, here’s the process in photos.
The rigging in these photos is compressed into a small area for the demo. In reality this is stretched out over much more rope.
The team is rigged and ready for glacier travel:
The middle person is clipped to the middle of the rope. (Side note: a good rope for glacier travel is a dry treated half rope. One good option is the Sterling Duetto 8.4 mm, which comes in convenient lengths like 30, 40, and 50 meters.)
The lead and end climbers, also clipped to the rope, are about 11 meters away (about 7 full arm spans, for me) either direction from the middle person.
The end climbers carry the extra rope (about 14 meters each) as rescue coils. This gives a rope spacing of 14-11-middle-11-14.
The team has brake knots between each climber to hopefully limit the fall distance. (This is optional for a three person team, but can be a good idea in some situations.)
Whoops, the lead climber (Klimber Kettlebell), falls into a crevasse!
The partners on top arrest the fall. The middle climber builds an anchor and transfers the load by clipping their clip in bight knot to the anchor. The end climber on top secures themselves to the rope with a friction hitch, unties their clip-in knot, and unties any remaining brake knots. This frees up all of the remaining rope (25 meters) to use for a rescue.
On the back side of the connection to the anchor, tie a butterfly knot as a secondary anchor point. This is optional, but has some benefits: it makes an easy-to-clip, uncluttered anchor point, can help keep rope strands from pinching/twisting/crossing, and makes it easy to build a 6:1 mechanical advantage system if you need it later.
Approach the lip of the crevasse carefully, you don't want to knock down a bunch of snow onto your partner. They’re already having a bad day, don't make it worse. Be sure you’re secured to the rope with a friction hitch.
Ask your partner what they need. In this case, let's assume they yell, “Pull me up!”
In the END of the rescue rope, tie a bight knot and clip a locking carabiner to it. Do not lock it.
Lower this locker to your unfortunate partner.
“Drop end”, get it?
Unfortunate partner clips locker to their belay loop and locks it. They are now secure on the “dropped” strand and are ready to be hauled out on this strand.
Prepare the lip of the crevasse.
If you can do this off to the side a bit from your unfortunate partner, that's a good thing.
Knock down loose snow that’s under the rescue strand, and put an ice axe or something similar under the rope so it doesn't cut into the snow. Onto the original strand your partner fell on, secure your axe so it doesn't fall in and get lost. (Securing the axe is not shown in the photo).
Pro tip: if you think you need to rappel into the hole to render assistance, it's easy to add your rappel device with an extension below your friction hitch, which greatly simplifies getting back out of the hole in guide mode. Here's a detailed article on that technique.
Build a 3:1 Z drag haul system with the rescue rope. Use the butterfly knot you tied as the anchor point. You need a progress capture in the system; here I'm using a Petzl Micro Traxion.
Pro tip: dig out a little hole with your hands under the Traxion pulley. This prevents snow/ice from jamming into the toothed cam. =^)
In this example, we assume that the two partners doing the rescue have a Traxion and a pulley to use. Using both of these, you get a calculated mechanical advantage of 2.7 to 1. Not quite a 3:1, but about as good as it gets. Quite a bit better than the calculated mechanical advantage of a drop loop C, which is 1.9 to 1.
Note that in the real world, the friction over the lip of the crevasse will further reduce the actual efficiency any hauling system.
Nice! You’re ready to haul.
Push the “tractor” friction hitch as far as you can toward the edge of the crevasse.
Start pulling on your 3:1. With a 3:1 system, the load on the anchor is two times the force of your pulling. So, keep that pulling force slow and steady by trying to walk slowly and continuously backward, rather than doing a “1,2,3 HEAVE,” type of pull, which can put a higher peak load on the anchor.
As your victim gets close, be sure to check on them often to be sure they don't get pulled up into the crevasse lip.
keep a good eye on them.
Reset the system as needed.
Here's a close-up of the 3:1 Z drag.
If you need more pulling power, it's easy to convert this into a 6:1 system.
There are various ways to do this, here's one that's pretty simple. Add a clove hitch, prusik loop or rope grab onto the pull strand, and clip the backside of the rope coming off of your secondary anchor to this.
You have now have a 2:1 on top of the 3:1, giving you a 6:1 theoretical mechanical advantage. To move the load 1 meter, you need to pull 6 meters of rope through the system.
This puts a load on the anchor of approximately five times the amount of pulling force you’re applying. If you're gonna use a 6:1, be sure your anchor system is as solid as you can make it. If you started with a single buried deadman anchor, you might want to add another one and try to equalize the two pieces.
The calculated mechanical advantage of this is around 4.7 to 1. If you had one additional pulley, you could put it on the purple carabiner, and increase your mechanical advantage to around 5.1 to 1. Friction at every change of direction reduces your efficiency. The more pulleys you can use, the better your efficiency.
Tip to increase pulling efficiency: if you have one pulley, it's best to put it closest to the strand that is getting the initial pulling force. In this case, I moved the pulley from the initial 3:1 friction hitch onto this new rope grab.
Here's a close-up of the 6:1 mechanical advantage rigging, called a “C on a Z”.
We built a 2:1 on top of the 3:1. This is called a compound pulley system. You multiply the two forces together to get a 6:1.
Here, I pretended I was a bit short on gear, so I used a clove hitch on the pull strand. Yes, resetting that means untying and retying, which is a hassle. Any sort of rope grab (prusik, Tibloc, Traxion) works better, but hey, be resourceful and use what you have.
So, that's a look at the drop end 3:1 for crevasse rescue.
It's fast to set up, it's one simple system that you can use in just about any scenario, it requires minimal gear, and you can easily increase it to a 6 to 1 if you need the turbo pull.
Is this “better’ than the drop C? Could the drop end 3:1 become the new standard practice?
Now I get it, there are many different approaches to crevasse rescue and I have no illusions that this is suddenly going to become to go to method. People are very attached to what they’ve learned. But methods evolve, better systems are invented, and it's good to keep an open mind about something that just might work better than the way you're doing it.
Give them both a try and see which one works for you.
Google map for Air Quality Index (AQI)
Are you planning an outdoor adventure during summer fire season in the United States? Check this nice Google map of Air Quality Index (AQI) before you go to hopefully avoid unhealthy smoke levels.
For trip planning during summer fire season in the western United States, it’s good to check if your planned adventure is maybe in an area with unhealthy levels of smoke. Here's a quick way to find out.
Do a Google search for “AQI map”
This should show a link to a Google map with the familiar interface, and a nice legend at the bottom, with specific readings at different locations.
Be sure and zoom in on the map to see more detail for your area.
Example screen grab from August 2023, zoomed out view of the Pacific Northwest.
Zoomed in view of Central Oregon. Notice the increased detail of different areas.
Crevasse rescue: "drop loop C" tips
A popular approach to crevasse rescue is to use a 2:1 “drop C” as the primary mechanical advantage system. Learn some of the advantages of the drop C over the 3:1 Z drag, some easy hacks to make it work even better, and how to overcome a couple of potential problems.
There are many approaches to crevasse rescue. The traditional method of a 3:1 mechanical advantage “Z drag” was the standard, and it’s still worth learning.
(There's actually a more modern approach to the Z drag where you drop one end of the rescue rope to the victim and set up a 3:1. Here's a complete article about the drop end 3:1 method.
A popular (and modern) method is to use a 2:1 “drop loop / drop C” system.
Advantages of the 2:1 drop loop over the traditional 3:1 Z drag:
Can avoid the often significant problem and friction of the loaded rope cutting into the lip of the crevasse.
Puts the lowest possible load on the anchor. The lower the mechanical advantage, the less force goes onto the anchor. This could be a good thing in crevasse rescue.
Victim can assist by pulling on one strand of the dropped loop, more below.
If you have brake knots in the rope, you can bypass them.
It can be easier to set up.
Downsides:
Can require more rope (but with some crafty rope tricks, not always, see below.)
Notes . . .
With a 2:1 system like this, two reasonably strong team members on top should be able to pull out one person who's in the hole, especially if the victim can assist in the process by pulling down on the load strand of the rope. Doing this creates a little slack, and reduces friction on the lip.
In reasonable conditions, ONE fairly strong person on top may be able lift the person in the crevasse. The technique for this is rather than simply pulling with your hands, drape the rope over your neck, bend your knees, and do squats. If you can deadlift 100 pounds or so, you ought to be able to lift your partner. Remember, you have a (theoretical) 2:1 MA. Here's a short Instagram video clip demonstrating this.
Alternatively, you can lower a carabiner or pulley to your victim and have the progress capture on the top. There are pros and cons to both of these methods, we’ll cover those below.
Progress capture on top, or on the victim?
With the drop loop C, you have two options where to put the progress capture pulley: 1) You can lower it down on the rope to your unfortunate partner, or 2) you can have it up on top. There are a few advantages to having it on the top.
If you set it up backwards, you can easily fix it. A progress capture pulley like the Traxion has to be set up correctly, otherwise you will not be able to pull. This might seem simple when you're training on a nice sunny day, but in the pressure of a rescue it can be easy to set it up incorrectly. If you do that on top, it's simple to flip it around and correct your mistake.
It’s easy to reverse the direction of pull. If for any reason you decide you need to lower your victim, you can easily do this on top by disengaging the cam. It’s much more complicated to do this if the Traxion is on your victim. Important: when your victim gets close to the top, have someone monitoring them carefully to be sure they don't get pulled into the lip of the crevasse.
Less chance of snow/ice getting jammed in the cam mechanism. As the Traxion gets pulled up near the lip of the crevasse, there's a chance that snow could get jammed into the cam mechanism, and potentially cause it not to engage properly. Pro tip: If the Traxion is on top, you can dig out a little hole underneath with your hands so the pulley is pretty much hanging in the air, and is not in contact at all with the snow.
The victim can help out
With the drop loop system, half of the rope is being pulled up and half is not moving. If the victim is functional, they can help the process a lot by pulling down on the side that’s not moving. This greatly reduces the pulling force required by the hauling team on top. If you do this, be careful not to get your hand or glove sucked into the pulley.
Another option is that the victim can pull down or even start ascending on the original rope strand they fell in on. Doing this can pretty much completely remove their weight from of the drop loop C, which again makes hauling online easier for the people on top.
A 2:1 drop C creates the lowest forces on the anchor
In crevasse rescue, your anchor might be an ice ax buried in a quickly excavated T-slot. Depending on snow conditions, how deep you’re digging, and whether you stomped down the area in front of the ax, the strength of this anchor can vary a lot.
So, given that you're anchor might be less than ideal, it might be a good idea to have rigging that puts the least possible force on the anchor. That's what you get with a 2:1 - about 1x of your pulling force gets applied to the anchor.
To explain this, I’m going to take a quote directly from the outstanding book, “The Mountain Guide Manual”, by Rob Coppolillo and Marc Chauvin (pg. 216).
“When not moving, the climber is suspended on two strands and the friction on the lip removes forces on the anchor. What's the haul begins, only one side of the loop moves, meaning that only half of the friction needs to be overcome while the other half of the friction continues to aid the anchor.”
A redirect makes a 3X force on the anchor
You might be tempted to put a progress capture pulley on to the anchor, run the pulling strand through that, and then pull toward the victim. This can work. But, this redirect puts a load on the anchor that's about three times your pulling force. Minimizing load on the anchor in a crevasse rescue is usually a good thing, so be mindful of this.
Alternative way to rig it is with the progress capture on the anchor, but then you pull in line with the rope rather than a redirect. This minimizes friction, and put a load on the anchor only (about) one times your pulling force.
Friction hitches work for a progress capture
Check out this nice diagram from Ortovox. A prusik hitch goes on each side of the drop loop. As you pull up, the blue helmet rescuer advances the prusik, capturing the load. (See the video at bottom for a demo of this.)
If you look carefully at the close up diagram in the circle, you can see that this progress capture friction hitch is attached to the same friction hitch that is securing the blue helmet rescuer.
Here's a video that shows this in action. This particular technique starts at about 4:10.
image: https://www.ortovox.com/uk/safety-academy-lab-ice/chapter-3/rescuing-a-companion
Easily convert a 2:1 to a 6:1
If you need additional pulling power, it's easy to convert this drop loop 2:1 into a 6:1 mechanical advantage system. Here's an article about how to do that.
Clip an additional carabiner to the anchor to serve as a redirect. As mentioned above, this does increase force on the anchor, compared to your original 2:1.
Add a friction hitch, carabiner and pulley (if you have one) to the previous pull strand.
Clip the tail to the pulley. You created a 3:1 on top of a 2:1. Multiply these values together to get a 6:1 compound system. (If you have only one pulley, it should go on the part of the system that's closest to your hand that's doing the pulling. This creates the greatest efficiency in your haul system. This system also works if you only have carabiners and no pulleys, but it's less efficient.)
Here's a pro tip for rigging a drop C more easily, from IFMGA Guide Ben Markhart.
Add a locking carabiner to the pulley, clip a sling to this, and then clip another locker to the end of the sling. Instruct your crevasse rescue victim to clip the bottom locker onto their harness. This can be helpful in a couple of ways:
Provides a nice hand hold for the victim, which can help keep them more upright.
Can help “extend” the dropped loop rope if the rope is too short. (More on that below.)
(The downside to doing this is that the victim is not able to pull down on the half of the loop that’s fixed, which can make hauling for your buddies on top quite a bit easier. Like most things in climbing, there's a trade off.)
Check out Ben’s short Instagram video here.
Ben explains:
“Your instinct is to want to hold onto something, and it makes it lot more comfortable on your core muscles. So this makes people want to grab about 8-12 inches above the pulley if there is no extension, now the rope has to slide though your hand to haul and is easy to get sucked into the pulley if your not careful. This way you hold onto the sling, much more comfortable.”
screen grab from Ben markhart, https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd_OOQJJeHh/?hl=en
What if you don't have enough rope to reach the victim with a drop loop?
Solution #1: Extend the pulley
This is one of the most common concerns and potential downsides of using a drop loop system. Here are several solutions.
In the last photo above, I extended the drop loop with a 60 cm sling and a locker. How about extending it with something longer? Like maybe a cordelette, either in a tied loop or a single strand with a bight knot at both ends? Doing this extends the clipping point so it reaches your victim. Nothing in the rulebook says that the lowered pulley has to be clipped directly to the harness of your victim. Lower the pulley as far as you can, and extend it with whatever slings/cordelette you have the rest of the way if needed.
A possible downside to doing this is that the pulley might get wedged into the snow at the lip of the crevasse. If you knock down a lot of the loose snow and prepare the lip properly, this hopefully is not an issue.
Also, the anchor needs to be back from the edge at least the distance of your cordelette. If you don't do this, you will run out of rope to pull while your victim is still below the lip.
Solution #2: Your progress capture doesn’t need to be on the actual anchor
When you drop a loop of rope to your partner, one side of the “C” is fixed to the anchor, and the other side is what you pull on. If you don't have twice the length of rope between you and your victim, you can tie a bight knot anywhere on the fixed side of the “C” and clip your progress capture to this knot. This might let you stand in more convenient position, to maybe more easily monitor your victim. This can also mean that you don’t need twice the length of rope between you and your victim. Maybe only 1.5 times, as shown in the photo below.
What if the victim is unconscious, and can’t attach the pulley to themselves?
First off, if your partner is in really bad shape, your first step in rescue might be to rappel into the crevasse and try to do some first aid, at least be sure they’re breathing. If you do this, you might be able to attach a hauling system to their harness.
If you have a Petzl Tibloc, and can lean over the edge of the crevasse to reach free hanging rope, here’s an option. (If these two things are not possible, you might be better off doing a traditional 3:1 Z drag from the top, or maybe having a rescuer rappel down to the victim and attach the pulley.)
Put the drop loop through a Traxion (or a pulley) and engage the cam.
Clip the Traxion with a locker to a Tibloc installed upside down on the rope strand going down to your victim.
The Tibloc will (hopefully) slide down the rope toward the victim and stop when you run out of rope, or it rests on their tie in knot . Then you can 2:1 haul with a progress capture, without the pulley actually being attached to the victim. See photo below.
screen grab from: https://youtu.be/lsTihq92IlQ
Here's a nice video from some expert German guides showing how to do this, along with some other great techniques. This particular “lower the Tibloc trick starts about 5:30.
Tip for loading the rope correctly into the Traxion: “teeth to tail”
It's very easy to load the rope into the progress capture pulley the wrong way, especially if it's in a strange angle or you're stressed from a rescue.
A good mnemonic to remember the right way: “teeth to tail”. That means the toothed part of the spring-loaded cam goes to the tail of the rope, or the part that you need to pull. Here's a photo.
Does it matter which way carabiner gates face on an anchor?
Does it makes any difference which way carabiner gates face when you're building an anchor on two bolts? The short answer is no, it doesn't. Clip them in any direction that is convenient. The concept of “opposite and opposed” applies to carabiners on the master point, not when they’re clipped to bolts.
This might be the shortest article on my website. The answer is no.
Carabiner gates can face:
both to the left
both to the right
toward each other
away from each other
It makes no significant difference in the strength or security of your anchor for recreational climbing. The load in every case is along the spine of the carabiner which is the strongest configuration.
There are lots of things to pay attention to when climbing. This is not one of them!
The only time you need to be concerned about the direction of carabiner gates is when you put two of them together, which is called “opposite and opposed”. In that case you want to see an “X” made by the gates when they’re closed, and you want the spines on opposite sides. Just like the diagram below.
IMAGE CREDIT: HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/P/CCXMVXDB58S/ / RICHARD DELANEY, ROPELAB, USED WITH PERMISSION
Don't trap the rope ends under a strand
On a double rope rappel, It's good practice to keep the knot tails from getting underneath either of the rope strands. If they do, it can add extra weight and friction and make it quite a bit harder to pull your rope. Simply have the knot tails hanging free and you should be fine.
If you have a rappel that starts on a lower angle slab instead of more free hanging, it's good to be mindful of where the rope tails are laying.
On the left, the rope tails are underneath a strand. The extra weight on the tails from blue can make it harder to pull green.
A better way to do it is on the right. Simply have the rope tails laying away from the two ropes and you should be fine.
This can become more of a factor if:
you’re on high friction rock like sandstone
if your rope is wet, which is common in canyoneering.
CalTopo pro tip - Custom terrain shading
CalTopo, the best desktop mapping tool for backcountry users, has a very cool feature - custom terrain shading. Once you get the hang of this, you can make custom map overlays showing slope angles, aspect, elevation, and more. It's fun and easy! Learn how from this tutorial.
CalTopo, the BEST desktop mapping tool for backcountry travelers, has a very cool, seldom used feature: custom overlays of various combinations of slope angle, aspect, elevation and canopy cover. The interface can take some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy and powerful.
(This is based on what cartographers call a “Digital Elevation Model”, or DEM. In simple terms, it’s a three dimensional model of the world used in digital mapping.)
If you'd like to follow along and try this yourself, create a free CalTopo account, which lets you access a majority of the mapping tools. If after trying DEM shading you think this software is terrific, please consider an annual subscription (starting at $20) to support the small team of developers making this great tool available, hint hint.
Here's how to use CalTopo DEM shading.
Are you doing some off-trail travel want to avoid areas that are excessively steep? Check out the example in the photo above: all slopes between 35 and 90° get a color.
Backcountry skiers can really get some benefit from this tool, so that's the example we’ll use from now on; the Wallowa mountains in northeastern Oregon, a popular place for ski touring. There are several yurts and huts that can be reserved for winter adventures. (I’ve never been, but I’ve heard great things about it.)
If you want to follow along and use the same area I am, here are the coordinates of the ski hut. Copy paste these into the CalTopo search box.
45.2037, -117.0938
First, let’s add shaded relief to the default base layer of MapBuilder Topo. It already has a little, but let's add a bit more so we can more easily see ridges, gullies, aspect, and terrain features.
From the “Map Layers” menu in the top right, click “Stack Base Layer”.
From that drop-down menu, click “Shaded Relief”.
Play with the slider bar to adjust the opacity between zero to 100% . As you slide the bar to the right, you should see increased shading added on to your base map. I like something in between about 30 and 40%. Use what looks good to you.
Shaded relief is extremely cool, and it's a nice thing to add almost all of your maps!
Excellent, we have our base map with extra shaded relief. Let's add some custom DEM shading.
Say we’re headed in to the hut for a few days of skiing, and we’re interested in slopes that are north facing. Here’s how to show that in a custom DEM overlay.
Zoom in to your area of interest. Choose the “Add” button from the top left corner.
From the drop-down menu, select “DEM shading”
Here's where the magic happens: “Add a New Rule” to generate your overlay.
Check the box next to “Aspect”, and select “NW 315” to “NE 45” from the dropdown menu.
Click the Color box and set the color to red for both NW 315 and NE 45.
Add a descriptive name in the top left corner, here, “N aspect”.
In the “Overlay?” box, select, “No, Base Layer” from the drop down menu.
Click “Add Rule” to generate the code CalTopo needs to make your map.
Click “Save to Account”.
Finally, click “Save”.
Voilà! You should now see an overlay on your map showing all north-ish slopes colored red.
Notice that because we chose “Base Layer” in the previous step, our named overlay has been added as an overlay, sort of like tracing paper, over the top of the base map. You can see this at the top of the menu on the right side.
Ouch, that red is hard on the eyes! In the top right corner, use the slider bar to set the opacity to a lower level. I like something between about 30 and 40%. That's easier to look at, and lets you see underlying map features.
Because you clicked “Save to Account”, this custom overlay is saved. This is slick, because you can use this overlay on any future map without recreating the rule. Here's how to find it.
Click the orange “Your Data” button in the top right corner.
Then, click the “Your Layers” tab. You should see the layer called “N Aspect”.
To use any saved custom DEM shading in the future, open a map, select “Stack Base Layer” from the top right side, and click the drop down menu. You should see your saved layers under “Your Layers”.
Okay, are you getting the hang of this? Nice!
Let's make another overlay, this time for slopes between 20 and 40°.
As before, click the ”Add” button in the top left corner, select “DEM Shading”, and put the following into the “Add a New Rule” box.
That should generate a map looking something like this: all slopes between 20 and 40 degrees.
Maybe you're looking for flat places to camp?
No problem. Make a custom layer showing all areas with slopes between 0° and 5°.
Here’s the resulting map, showing flat areas with 50% opacity.
Let's make an overlay that shows a specific aspect AND slope.
Say you want to ski in the following terrain:
north facing slope
slope angle between 20 and 40°
Here’s the rule that generates an overlay for that.
That rule generates this map: north facing aspect with slope angles between 20 and 40°.
Schweeeet, looks like there's some great terrain very close to the hut.
Create an elevation gradient DEM overlay
You can also use a pair of colors to create a gradient between a single condition, here elevation.
Let's make a gradient DEM shading with these elevations and colors:
Terrain between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, light green to green
Terrain between 7000 and 10,000 feet, green to purple
First, we make a rule for elevation 5K to 7K, and use the color picker to select light green to green. Click “Add Rule”, and the code is generated.
Next, create a second rule: change elevations from 7K to 10 K, change the colors from green to purple, and click “Add Rule”. Notice a second rule is added as a new line in the “Rules” box.
You can do this for as many different categories as you want. For example, if you wanted to show slope angle between 25 to 30, 30 to 33, 33-36, etc, keep adding rules and changing the colors.
The elevation gradient overlay looks like this. Nice! It looks even better on a big screen, give it a try!
So, that's a pretty detailed tutorial of custom DEM shading in CalTopo. Play with it, save your overviews, and, as suggested before, please consider a modest subscription (starts at $20 annually) to support the development team making this great tool available.
If you made it this far, here's a small bonus. Yes there's international coverage!
Here's a portion of the classic Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt, with that 20% to 35% slope shading added.
Snapgate or locking carabiners on anchors?
When and where is the best use of locking carabiners on an anchor? On the gear or bolts? On the masterpoint? Is it a multi pitch anchor, or a toprope? Can I use lockers on “half” of the anchor? It's a contentious and important discussion, so let's take a look.
This article was written with collaboration from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Max Lurie. Connect with Max on Instagram, @alpinetothemax and his website.
A common question for climbing anchors: should I use locking carabiners on the bolts/gear?
It's an important topic, and there are some strongly held opinions on this, so let's have a closer look.
Short version:
For multi pitch climbing, using snapgate carabiners on the bolts or gear is acceptable.
For top rope climbing, it's a generally accepted standard in the guiding and teaching world to use locking carabiners on the anchor and master point.
We all get to choose an acceptable level of risk. Try to understand the realistic, and not imagined, risks of your methods.
Before we get into the details, let’s look at some bigger-picture concepts:
If you have a single life-critical connection, then a locking carabiner is good practice. (For example, the rope and your belay device, and your rope or tether connection to the anchor.)
If your anchor is “unattended”, like for a toprope, then locking carabiners can be more important.
If your anchor is “attended”, like a multipitch climb with someone next to it the whole time, with hands and/or eyes on the anchor, locking carabiners are generally not required.
It's helpful to understand the difference between perceived risk reduction and actual risk reduction.
The argument of, “I want to reduce my risk as much as possible, so I use lockers everywhere on my anchor”, is a bit simplistic. How far do you take that? Do you use lockers on the first couple of quickdraws when you’re sport leading? Steel carabiners are much stronger than aluminum ones, so do you use steel carabiners? I'm guessing the answer to both of these is no for just about everybody.
It's good to have a solid understanding of the capabilities and limitations of your gear, and let those guide your decision rather than emotion, hearsay, and “that's-the-way-I-learned-it”.
Be aware of generally accepted best practices among guides and industry professionals. Also be aware that what might be standard practice in one industry, such as using triple action lockers for say tree/arborist work, does not necessarily mean it's also good practice to use that same gear for recreational climbing.
Here are some thoughts from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Max Lurie:
“We perceive a locking carabiner to be “safer” in the context of connecting an anchor leg to a bolt / cam / stopper / whatever. Can you articulate what specifically makes a locker safer? How do carabiners commonly fail, are lockers and non-lockers really that different in those scenarios? I am trying to get folks to think critically and articulate what exactly they think they are achieving with a locker vs. a non-locker.
From a physics perspective… non lockers can come unclipped if backclipped, that isn’t a concern here so we can dismiss it. Strength along the major and minor axis is pretty similar between lockers and non-lockers. So we can dismiss that as well. Being loaded over an edge and potentially snapped is a serious concern for any carabiner, but lockers tend to be a little beefier so they may be more resilient, but this is just a guess. I don’t have any data to back that statement up. The gate rubbing against the rock and opening could be a concern. With properly orienting the spine of a non locker against the rock it becomes equivalent to a locker. In conclusion, I don’t think a locking carabiner is physically any more resilient than an non-locker (with the context of our discussion).
Us, the human factor is where I think the locker makes more sense than the non-locker. All of the above makes one very strong assumption, and that is that we’ve done everything “right” with our anchor setup. There are too many times to count that I have stumbled upon a top rope anchor that was worse than dog shit. One leg of the anchor is attached to a dead poorly rooted shrub, with just a non-locker on the other side. Two strands of material but they are completely unequalized. Unfortunately endless examples exist.
The fact is that we are our own worst enemies, and we use lockers because we are Neanderthals who cannot be trusted with our own lives.”
The snapgate crowd says:
Totally fine to use them on the anchors.
The failure of any single non-locker would not cause catastrophe.
What's the realistic mechanism of failure for a snapgate carabiner? Any mechanism that could cause them to both fail at one time is so incredibly unlikely that using them is acceptable; each carabiner is connected to a separate independent strand of the anchor.
On a multi pitch anchor that is “attended”, any potential problem can be hopefully noticed and fixed right away.
Think of it this way: if you were building a trad anchor with, say, 3 cams, most people would be fine with using the snapgate racking carabiners on the cams. (If you wanted lockers everywhere, and built a three piece anchor, you probably have to carry about six extra lockers, which is a little ridiculous.) So, if you’re cool with using snapgates on your cams when building a gear anchor, logic says you should also be comfortable with them when building a bolt anchor.
On a related note, it makes no difference whatsoever which direction the carabiners face when clipped to the anchor points. They can both face right, face left, face each other or face opposite, it makes no difference. The concept of “opposite and opposed” carabiners applies at a masterpoint, not when clipped onto the the bolts.
The locker crowd says:
It’s a system that you rely on 100%. Even if the chance of failure is very tiny, why not use lockers and make it pretty much zero?
Modern locking carabiners are so lightweight and inexpensive that there's no reason not to use them. With the carabiners I'm using in the photo, the difference is about 10 grams in weight and $3 in cost more for each locker. You won’t notice either.
Having lockers everywhere gives some people a warm fuzzy feeling of confidence, which can be important.
You need to carry a few spare carabiners for your anchor, so why not make them locking?
What about lockers on the bolts for a top rope anchor?
For a top rope, using lockers on the bolts is something many people prefer. This is what I’d call an “unattended” anchor, because you build it, you lower off, and there's usually not anyone right there to keep an eye on things. Especially if you're using it for climbing multiple laps, or maybe having kids climb on it (who can be notorious for fiddling with anchor hardware), lockers can add a small extra level of security. Personally, I typically use lockers on bolts with a quad/sling for a top rope, but there are many very experienced climbers who do not.
Something to consider: many rock gyms simply have two opposite and opposed snapgate quickdraws at the top of their lead routes. If it's good enough for them, the liability attorneys and the insurance company, it's probably good enough for you too.
And let's remember there's a happy easy compromise in the middle: use one standard quickdraw and one locker draw as shown below. Pretty much no extra equipment and maybe a lot of extra peace of mind.
Remember the law of diminishing returns
A fundamental principle of economics (and many other aspects of life, including anchors) is the law of diminishing returns, which, in econ-speak, means that adding additional factors of production eventually results in smaller increases in output. Say that it takes one builder one year to build a house. So, if you have 365 builders, can you build a house in one day? Of course not, because after a certain point, the extra production (builders) result in lower output (less work getting done because they are tripping over each other).
This can apply to building anchors. Continuing to add “production” (backups, locking carabiners everywhere, etc.) at some point does not significantly increase your “output” (safety margin), so it's probably not so smart to keep doing it. Of course, the question becomes, where do you cross that point? There's no firm answer, but here's one way to think about it mathematically.
Say that the odds of a snap gate carabiner somehow becoming unclipped from an anchor are one in 1,000. The odds of the second leg of the anchor also becoming unclipped is also say one in 1,000. So, the theoretical odds of total anchor failure become 1,000 x 1,000, or one in 1 million. If you're feeling pretty good with these theoretical odds, then you probably don't need lockers on everything.
Closing thoughts . . .
Of course, it's good to know the realistic chances of potential problems and avoid unrealistic “gear fear”. However, if there's no penalty in weight, cost, or performance, there's not much downside in adding a small bit of extra security. Is your toprope anchor “overbuilt” with lockers on the bolts? Yeah, maybe. But who cares?
But if someone wants to slam you for making your anchor “overly safe”, then that’s a criticism you can probably live with. Don't let anyone else dictate your level of acceptable risk, regardless of their experience or credentials.
Would you make fun of your grandpa if he wants to wear a belt and suspenders? Picking just one would probably work fine, but if he wants to wear both, so what?
Alpinesavvy strives to offer information and ideas, not advice. I can share my personal preferences, but that in no way implies it's what someone else should do. Choose wisely, amigos!
Backside clove hitch: transition to "self-thread" lower
The “backside clove hitch” offers several options for efficient transitions from climbing to descending. Here's one way to use this tool: the second is lowered with an ATC on the anchor and the rope through the anchor hardware. This sets up the rope perfectly for the leader to rappel.
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.
Transitioning from climbing up to rappelling down is often a complicated and time-sucking part of your climbing day.
The traditional method of each climber using a leash to connect in close to the anchor, each person untying from their respective ends of the rope, threading the anchor and then each person rigging for a rappel separately can be awkward at tight stances and often takes a lot longer than necessary, especially with less experienced folks.
There are several different techniques to increase efficiency. Here’s one of them: lowering the second climber to set up the rope for the first climber to rappel.
The leader arrives at the top anchor, builds an equalized anchor with a master point (say a quad).
The leader clips their climbing rope with a clove hitch to the master point.
When the second arrives at the anchor, instead of clipping to the anchor hardware with a tether, instead they clip to another clove hitch on the backside of the leader’s clove hitch connection.
This frees up the second’s end of the rope.
The second unties, threads the rope end through the anchor hardware, and re-ties into the rope.
Next, you rig a lowering system for the second, typically with an ATC on the anchor.
Now , when the second is lowered, half of the rope moves through the anchor hardware, which perfectly sets up the next person to rappel. Hence the name, “self thread lower”, schweeeeet!
(This is closely related to the backside clove hitch transition to rappel, which we cover at this article.)
Like many things in climbing, this is a much better show than a tell. Watch the two video clips below to see how it's done.
Why lower instead of rappel?
Low angle, blocky, rope grabbing terrain that makes throwing a rope problematic.
High winds, which could cause some big problems if you throw your rope.
You may not know exactly the distance to the next anchors. Lowering can ensure the first person gets there and does not find themself dangling in space at the end of the rappel. (Then you probably need to do the #CraftyRopeTrick of an extended rappel, which we cover in this article.)
Maybe a beginner climber who’s not comfortable with rappelling.
Many climbers are hesitant about being lowered from above. Interesting that these same climbers have no concerns with top rope climbing, when you are lowered from below, so what's the real difference? Yes the rigging is a bit different, and you need to practice that for sure, but in the end it's functionally about the same.
For this to work:
You need to know your descent and be SURE you're able to make it to the lower anchors or ground with at least half of the rope left. (If you just climbed the pitch and the belayer did not pass the middle mark, you should be fine).
On a multi pitch rappel, you need to be sure that the first person down can safely secure themselves to the anchor, which might be a concern with a beginning climber.
You need to have a good middle mark on your rope.
Assuming these requirements are meant, you can see from the videos below what an efficient technique this can be.
It might appear that this technique puts extra wear and tear on the anchor hardware, because it seems you're lowering directly through it, which is generally not best practice. Turns out, this is not the case. Almost all of the friction from the lowering is happening on your belay device, and the rope is simply redirected through the anchor hardware that's higher up.
From AMGA Rock Guide Cody Bradford.
Sadly Cody is no longer with us, but his excellent Instagram account is still up, highly recommended for many other climbing tips like this. Rest in peace, my friend.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbqClsZhOXc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Nice YouTube short from Summit Seekers Experience showing this technique:
The "extended" rappel
You and your partner have a 60 meter rope, but you need to make a rappel that was bolted for a 70 meter rope. Yikes, your rope is too short, whaddya do? One answer: the extended rappel. Learn how it works, along with some cautionary notes.
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.
This article was written with collaboration from Sean Isaac. Sean is an ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides) Certified Guide, a former professional climber, and author of the “Ice Leader Field Handbook” and “How to Ice Climb” (2nd ed.) Follow @seanisaacguiding for tech tips. Thanks, Sean!
Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use rope blocks:
Your rope is too short, what do you do?!
You’re rappelling from a multi-pitch rock climb with a single 60 meter rope. All pitches on the way up were less than 30 meters except one that was 35 meters long. (You know this because your attentive belayer noticed the middle mark going through the device before the leader arrived at the next anchor. Another great reason to have a middle mark!)
Whoops, should've read the guidebook and brought the 70 m instead of the 60 m, but here you are.
How do you rappel and still pull your rope? (This is an unexpected situation, so you don’t have a pull cord/tag line, nor a clever tool like the Beal Escaper.)
Answer: the extended rappel.
Hopefully you don't find yourself doing this very often, but if it occasionally happens, this #CraftyRopeTrick could save the day. There are several variations on how to set this up. Here’s one.
Short version:
Instead of doing a standard rappel on both strands of the rope, you secure one strand to the anchor and make sure it’s absolutely long enough (here, 35 meters) to reach to the next anchor or to the ground.
Tie a rope block (knot or carabiner) on the short strand.
The long strand of the rope, which is 35 meters, reaches the lower anchor. The short strand of the rope (the pull side) is 25 meters long, and is hanging 10 meters above the lower anchor. Can you visualize this? Good!
The first person rappels single strand on the long side to the lower anchor.
The last person rappels single strand on the long strand, ideally on a Grigri so they can go hands free. They keep control of the short strand by clipping it to a quick draw on their harness.
When the last person reaches the end of the short strand, they start adding material (cordelettes, slings, etc.) to extend it. (“Extended” rappel, get it?)
Last person continues rappelling to the anchor. Retrieve by pulling the short side with your “extension” tied to it.
It's a tricky to take a decent photo of the rigging, so hopefully this diagram can help.
Conceptually this may sound pretty easy. In practice there are a lot of considerations to doing this efficiently and with the least risk.
The primary safety concern is making a block in the rope that absolutely positively cannot pull through the anchor hardware. The best anchor hardware for doing a rope block is small chain links, or small to medium sized quick links. With this type of hardware it is pretty much impossible for the blocking knot to pull through. Keep reading for more discussion of rope blocks, and here's a longer article about them.
Here's a more detailed explanation of each important step.
When might you need to do an extended rappel?
The route was bolted for a 70 meter rope, and you brought a 60.
It's a climb you've never rappelled before and have no beta.
Maybe the beta is wrong.
Maybe the beta is correct if you use THAT anchor.
Maybe the anchor that people used to rap from is gone or was moved.
More extreme situation: Your rope got damaged near the end, you had to cut off some of it and now your rope is too short to make the standard rappel stations.
What's a big potential problem with the extended rappel?
If you begin to pull your rope, the end of the “real” rope goes up out of reach, and then the rope gets stuck. You’re now holding onto your “extension” as the only way to fix the problem. If you're on the ground, you can walk away and hopefully go get another rope and deal with it. If you are way off the deck on a multi pitch rappel, you could be in a serious situation.
What’s another option to descend?
The simplest and maybe least risky way to descend, if you have access to another rope and you're within one rope length of the ground: Tie off one end of the rope, toss it and be sure it reaches the ground, rappel, and come back and get it later with another rope. Plus, if you don't have enough extra slings/cord to extend the short side of the rope, then this approach is pretty much mandatory. Yes, it's a hassle and would kind of suck, but certainly better than the alternative.
What if you don't notice your rope is too short at the top, but only after you find yourself dangling on both strands, short of the anchor?
Yikes, scary! That definitely complicates things. There's no simple universal solution to this that I know about. You're probably gonna have to get resourceful - put some pro in a crack and build a temporary anchor, or clip into a bolt. Good reason for the first person down to carry some gear to do this.
What's the ideal terrain to try an extended rappel?
Best if the rock face is smooth, clean, and vertical with minimal chances of your rope hanging up.
Setting the correct rope length
There are a couple of ways to do this. 1) Lower the first climber 35 meters to the next anchor, or 2) Fix one strand from the end, have them rap on this, tie off the bottom end of the rope and then pull up the rope from above to set the correct length.
If you don't know the distance of the next rappel, you can lower your partner and keep an eye on the middle mark of the rope. If the middle mark passes through your anchor before your partner reaches the lower station, then your rope is too short.
If you’re lowering your partner, follow standard safety procedures such as closing the system by tying a knot in the end of the rope (assuming it's not tied to you) and use a third hand / autoblock backup.
If you lowered the first person down, they can stay tied in to the end of the rope to be sure that the last person does not rap off the end, and that one end of the rope is for sure at the lower anchor.
Extending the pull side
Before the first person heads down, they hand off all of their extra slings, cordelettes, etc. to the last climber. If both climbers have one cordelette of about 5 meters, there’s your 10 meter extension. This strand of the rope is not load bearing, you're only using it to pull down the long strand.
To connect slings to one another, girth hitch them together, no carabiner required. To connect a cordelette to the end of the short strand of rope, you can use a flat overhand bend. (This is another good reason to carry an “open” or untied cordelette, rather than one that's tied into a loop with a permanently welded double fisherman's knot.)
Rather than monkey around with extending multiple slings while you’re hanging in space, it's probably less risky and easier to connect all the slings you plan on using up at the top anchor before you start rappelling.
The extended rappel relies on a rope block. While conceptually simple, there are lots of factors to consider.
Detailed look at one way to set up a rope block.
The rope block
This extended rappel technique requires the skill and knowledge to use what's called a rope block. This goes by various names: knot block, carabiner block, static block, Reepschnur. This creates an obstruction on one strand of your rappel rope, that cannot be pulled through the anchor master point. The rope can slide freely in ONE direction, but not in the other.
The golden rule of the rope block is that the block absolutely cannot pull through the master point on the anchor. If it does, the person rappelling will probably die or your rope will get hopelessly stuck.
Typically a knot block is tied with butterfly or a figure eight on a bight. If you need a larger block, you can tie a well-dressed clove hitch around the spine of a locking carabiner, that works also.
This is an advanced technique, popular in the canyoneering world. Like many other things in climbing, if you screw it up you can die, so pay attention and absolutely practice on safe flat ground before you ever do this in the real world!!
Anchor hardware concerns
This usually requires that the anchor master point is quite small, such as a chain link, quicklink, or a small bight knot tied in cord or webbing.
If you're rappelling through a carabiner or a large ring, the opening may be so large that a block may not work.
This is an excellent time to use a quick link on the master point, if you happen to have one.
Below: knot block on large diameter anchor hardware, don’t do this!
Rope blocks 101
A rope block (aka Reepschnur), is a technique where you block one strand of your rappel rope to prevent it from running through the anchor. This lets you do a single strand rappel on the other side. Conceptually it's pretty simple. In reality there are some nuances, and definitely some ways to lethally screw it up. Learn them here.
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.
This article was written with collaboration from Ben Wu, AMGA Certified Rock Guide. Connect with Ben at www.benwu.photography.
Rope block. Knot block. Carabiner block. Static block. Reepschnur.
They all mean pretty much the same thing: creating an obstruction on one strand of your rappel rope, that cannot be pulled through the anchor master point.
The rope can slide freely in ONE direction, but not in the other.
Doing this lets you rappel a single strand on the “fixed” strand of rope.
Main climbing application: it allows a retrievable single rope rappel; you carry less rope and weight.
To retrieve your rope, typically you use a lighter line such as a 6 mm pull cord (like the Petzl PURline) on the free running strand of rope.
Like everything in climbing, there are some definite pros and cons to this technique. If you’re considering using it, it's good to be aware of all of them. So let's get into it!
Conceptually, it's pretty simple. In practice:
There are some subtleties to doing it correctly.
There are some downsides to it even when you do it correctly.
If you screw it up, you could die or get your rope hopelessly stuck.
For these reasons, I personally consider it an advanced technique that you absolutely should practice with a qualified instructor. And, even when you’re confident with it, I feel it should generally not be part of your regular practice. It can definitely get you out of a jam in certain situations, but there are enough moving parts that I feel it's not a routine technique for most recreational climbing situations.
Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use rope blocks:
Not to dwell on the potential problems, but here are two reports of fatal accidents from rope blocks gone wrong:
First off, let's be clear on the Golden Rule of a rope block: it absolutely, positively cannot pull through the rappel hardware.
If you have not closed the system by attaching the pull side of the rope to the rappel side of the rope and the block pulls through the hardware, you will probably die.
If you have closed the system and the rope pulls through, your rope will probably be hopelessly stuck.
Take a close look at the anchor hardware and the diameter of your rope. If there is the slightest chance that you think the blocking knot could pull through the anchor hardware, then don’t use a knot block! (Consider a carabiner block instead, more on that below.)
There are really only a few times in recreational climbing when you might want to use a rope block.
You’re using a pull cord to do full length rappels. In this case, a rope block is pretty much mandatory. (Yes, there are some advanced ninja rope tricks like using a Stone hitch and a Fiddlestick to use a pull cord a different way, but we're not gonna get into that here.)
Your rope is too short to make the rappel. Lower your partner to the next station, make a rope block, and then extend” the “pull” side of the rope with whatever extra cordelette, slings, etc. until your DIY extension reaches the next anchor station.
There are two other situations where people often think they need a rope block, but there are other techniques you can use instead.
You damaged your rope and need to rappel. You rappel on the good half of the rope and use the damaged half of the rope with a knot block as a pull cord. To avoid doing this, you can do a counterbalanced rappel, read about it here.
If both partners have a Grigri, and you both need to rappel. It's pretty unlikely that both partners will have Grigris and not a tube device, but I suppose it could happen. You could use the counterbalanced rappel technique described just above. If one person has a Grigri and the other person has a tube style device, there are lots of other options for getting both people down without using a knot block, see some of them here and a photo example below.
Potential problems of a rope block (and pull cords)
The big one was already mentioned, but it's worth saying again: if the knot pulls through the hardware, the entire system fails and you die, or your rope gets stuck.
You’re adding an extra knot and carabiner to your system, which are two more things that can potentially get snagged when you're pulling your rope.
There are increased steps and complexity, which can increase the chances of making a mistake. This is especially true because for most people, this is a non-standard system that doesn’t get used regularly. See accident reports at the top of the page.
If you're using a lighter weight pull cord, if you pull your rope and it gets snagged after the end of the climbing rope is out of reach, you only have a pull cord in your hands to deal with the problem. Not good.
Maybe you forget what side to pull, whoops. It can be good practice to establish which side you block and which side you lower off of and do this pretty much all the time. For example. “L”=Left=Lower, and “R”=Right=Retrieve.
If you're doing multiple rappels, you can’t do the standard trick of feeding the pull strand through the bottom anchor and then pulling the rope. Why? Because you’re pulling the skinny cord, but the thick rope needs to be the one through the anchor. This means you have to re-rig the entire system at each rappel station, which takes additional time.
Yarding on a 6 mm rope can be rough on your hands. Consider adding a Tibloc or Micro Traxion on the pull cord to make the pulling easier. Gloves are recommended.
Pulling the rope can be significantly harder, because you do not have a counterbalanced weight on the pulling strand to assist your pull.
You’re rapping on a single strand of rope, which might be uncomfortably fast. Be sure you know some ways to add friction to your rappel.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, it can add a significant amount of extra friction, making your rope pull more difficult. This can be especially true on a low angle slab.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, sometimes the ropes can more easily twist together, which can cause your ropes to get stuck.
If you keep the safety carabiner clipped when you pull, you've essentially created a closed loop that you then need to pull down. If the two sides of the rope making this loop happen to go on either side of some rock spike, boulder, shrub, ice blob, etc., the loop is going to get caught when you pull down your rope, causing your rope to get stuck. This is probably difficult to visualize, so check out the photo below. (Yes, it’s a flower pot, but I think you get the idea . . . =^)
Rope block backups, pros and cons
It's good practice to backup a rope block by clipping the blocking knot onto the rappel strand with a locking carabiner. In the unlikely event of the block pulling through the hardware, this will save your life.
The backup stays in place for everyone except maybe the last person.
If the block is closely inspected after being fully loaded, and you are 150% sure that it cannot pull through the hardware, then the last person has the option of removing it. In many cases, this is a good idea.
Removing the block for the last person eliminates several of the problems mentioned above.
This is a call that the last person gets to make. (Like most everything in climbing, this is a subjective choice, and not a black and white rule.)
What’s the best anchor hardware for a rope block?
Small-medium size quick links, chains or small rappel rings are the most secure hardware for knot blocks. The openings are small and it's pretty much impossible for a blocking knot to be pulled through them.
Lots of people like to hate on carrying quick links, but this can be an outstanding time to use one. Keep in mind that a 5 mm, stainless steel, CE approved, 25 kN rated quicklink from CAMP costs about $6 and weighs just 22 grams. So weight, cost, and strength are not issues with carrying quick links, provided you get the right ones.
Some not-so-great hardware for a knot block would be a carabiner or Mussy hook. These have larger openings and greatly increase the chance of the knot pulling through. Remember, the knot will shrink as it’s loaded.
Nice diagram from the superb Petzl website. Small quicklink on the left, probably good. Large ring on the right, bad, the knot could pull through.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm
What about a carabiner block?
Another option is to put a clove hitch onto a large HMS locking carabiner to serve as a block. This can work if the anchor hardware is something larger, like carabiners or maybe a Mussy hook. This is definitely an advanced technique that I recommend practicing with a qualified instructor.
Take extra attention to tie the clove hitch properly and dress it well. Test it when you're done by holding the carabiner with one hand and pulling hard on each strand of rope with the other. If the rope moves, you might have tied a Munter instead, and that is a Big Problem (photo below). If your rope is larger diameter (10+mm) or has an old crusty sheath, the clove hitch may not hold very well. This technique works best with newer ropes that are of standard climbing diameter around 9-ish mm.
A carabiner block looks something like this. Note that the block is backed up by a bight knot clipped with a locker onto the anchor, with a bit of slack in it. The slack shows that the carabiner block is properly behaving. The last person can remove the blue carabiner and untie the bight knot. Or, if they are feeling extra cautious, they could clip the blue carabiner onto the left strand of rope as a back up. Again, this adds more hardware that can get hung up when you pull your rope, so it's a trade-off.
Is it OK to load a carabiner like this? Yes, it’s fine. You are not putting any two or three way loading on the carabiner. It’s holding body weight only, and there's no way the carabiner will be damaged rigged like this.
With a carabiner block, be SURE you tie a clove hitch and not a Munter hitch!
What knot should I use for the block?
An overhand on a bight, figure 8 on a bight or a butterfly can all work as a knot block. In these examples I’m using a butterfly. Be aware that all knots will tighten under load and become smaller. Remember the Golden Rule: if you think there’s the slightest chance of the knot pulling through the hardware, then don't do it!
A flat overhand bend (formally known as the “EDK”) can work, depending on the diameter of your rope, and if you're using small anchor hardware, like chain links.
An overhand on a bight is slightly smaller profile than the figurine or butterfly. This could be a good thing as it's less likely to snag one pulling down your rope, or it could be not so great if there's a slight chance of getting pulled into your hardware. Pros and cons to everything . . .
Will the blocking carabiner get damaged when I pull the rope?
Probably not.
Some people seem to be concerned that the carabiner clipped to the blocking knot is somehow going to fall and maybe be damaged when you pull the rope. Why does this not happen?
With any rappel much less than the full length of the rope, the carabiner will be pulled to the lower anchor and be in your hand before the other half of the rope even starts to fall down.
However, it may bounce around a bit on the rock and get dinged up on the way down. If this concerns you, you can use an older carabiner or a steel quick link. Or, if you have complete confidence in the knot and the anchor hardware, you can remove the backup carabiner for the last person.
What about rapping with a Grigri, don't I have to use a block to do that?
Nope. There are lots of different ways to rappel with a Grigri that don’t require a block. I have a whole article about this, read it here. Below is a photo that shows one of several simple methods.
If one person on your team has an ATC, you can simply tie off one strand of the rope for everybody with a Grigri, have them go down on one strand and then the last person unties that knot and rappels normally on two strands.
There you have it: my thoughts on the pros and cons of rope blocks.
Under ideal circumstances with proper anchor hardware, they can work pretty well. But as you can see there are a lot of subtleties to doing it correctly. Once again: I consider this an advanced technique that I highly recommend you practice in a controlled environment with a qualified instructor before you ever try it in the wild. Choose wisely, my friends.
The "hybrid quickdraw"
Did you intend to go trad climbing but changed your mind to clip bolts? Here's a way to change those floppy alpine draws into easy-to-clip “hybrid” quickdraws”.
This #CraftyRopeTrick comes from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Adam Fleming. Connect with Adam on Instagram: adam.fleming.climbs
Here's how to turn that 60 cm or even 120 cm sling into a sport draw.
Did you intend to go trad climbing, but changed your mind to try some sport routes?
Are you on a long multi pitch route that has a mix of bolts and trad gear?
If the sport climbing is at your limit, it can be pretty annoying to try to clip that bottom carabiner that always seems to be flipping around and facing the wrong direction. And you probably don't want to take a whole separate rack of sport draws just for the bolted part.
Here's a simple trick to help solve this.
Take a 60 cm sling, double it, then make a girth hitch onto the bottom carabiner. This locks the sling in place, similar to a sport quickdraw, and makes it much easier to clip. Adam call this the'“hybrid quickdraw”.
Check out a short video Adam made about this on his Instagram.
Hair /clothing caught in rappel device - whaddya do?!
Did you catch your clothing or even your hair in your rappel device? Ouch! This is fairly common, but it's also easy to fix if you know how. One more reason to carry a friction hitch or two and an extra sling.
You're midway down your rappel and whoops, your clothing / hair / packstrap / whatever gets caught in your rappel device. (This is actually a fairly common problem, and it’s happened to some of the best climbers.)
What do you do?
Fortunately the solution is pretty easy. Here's one approach.
Stop your rappel. You are using a third hand back up under your device, right? So push this up the rope as far as you can, and let it take your weight. If you don’ t have a third hand, you can use the classic method of wrapping the brake strand of the rope several times around one leg.
Tie a Klemheist hitch (as a foot loop) on the rope above your device. This is a great place for a cordelette if you have one. Use what you have. A short friction hitch loop with a girth hitched 120 cm sling works fine as well. Get resourceful. A klemheist will probably be better than a prusik because a) you can use any material you have to tie it, b) you can tie faster (maybe even without looking) and c) it can be a little bit sloppy and still hold.
Put 1 foot into your new foot loop and stand up. Now, your weight should be on the friction hitch / footloop and off of your device. Remove hair or clothing, and be sure the rope is properly installed in your rappel device.
Remove the foot loop hitch and continue rappelling.
Notes . . .
You may be tempted to get out your knife and try to cut away the problem. Yo, be careful! Sharp knives and ropes under tension can be a very bad combination, so it's probably better to try the method above before you use an open blade. If you have a small knife with scissors, that could be a slightly less risky option.
You can practice this with an old T-shirt, wig, Barbie doll, shoelace whatever, in a controlled environment, very close to the ground.
Of course, it's great to try to prevent this problem before it ever happens. Tuck away loose clothing and hair before you start rappelling, use a hair tie, and take extra caution if it's a windy day.
In the photo below on the left, I have a Dyneema sling girth hitched onto a Sterling Hollow Block. It's worth pointing out that Sterling recommends that you not do this. Personally, because this is only holding your body weight for a couple of seconds, I’m comfortable with it. But, if you want to follow manufacturer recommendations, connect the two with the carabiner to get full strength.
Two ways to make a friction hitch foot loop. Short friction hitch and 120 cm sling on the left, cordelette on the right.
All so you don't turn out like this person!
(image: @caiocomix
Anchor forces from lowering
Say you’re lowering your partner from a top rope anchor, with the rope running through one carabiner. As your partner descends, what's the load on the anchor? Is it your partner’s bodyweight, 2x their bodyweight, or something else?
The illustrations in this article (shared with permission) come from the excellent website RopeLab, run by Australian rigging expert Richard Delaney. RopeLab has a ton of great material for anyone who wants to dive into ropes, rigging, and mechanical advantage, check it out! There's a fair amount of quality free information, but getting an annual subscription unlocks the entire website. You can also connect with Richard on Instagram and his YouTube channel, where he has loads of concise, informative videos.
These diagrams come from a RopeLab online mechanical advantage quiz, which you can find here.
You’re top rope climbing with your partner. They’re climbing, and you’re on the ground belaying. The rope goes from your harness, up to the anchor master point, and then back down to your partner.
In this common configuration, the load on the anchor can change depending on:
who is holding the rope
if the climber is resting and not being lowered
if the climber is being lowered, through typically a carabiner or two
For example:
Your partner finishes the climb, and calls for take and lower. You lock off your belay device, they lean back, weighting the rope, and you lower them to the ground.
What’s the force on the anchor when you're lowering them? Many people think it has to be twice the weight of the climber. Say the climber weighs 100 kg. You, the belayer, need to counterbalance that force with 100 kg of your own. So that means a 200 kg load on the anchor, right?
Well, turns out it's not quite that simple. Let's look at a few examples to see how this works!
Question 1 - A person (weight 1 kN) is holding their own weight, on a rope that goes through a 90% efficient pulley on an overhead anchor. What is the theoretical force on Anchor A?
IMAGE: ROPELAB.COM.AU
Answer: 1.0 kN
If you’re statically holding your own weight like the diagram, the anchor sees the force of your body weight. It doesn't matter if it goes through a 10% efficient pulley or 50% efficient carabiner, the force on the anchor is going to be the same.
(To add another interesting variable to this, if there's any sort of ledge or friction between you and the anchor, that will further reduce load on the anchor. But for now let's assume the climber is free hanging.)
Question 2 - A climber (weight 1 kN) is LOWERED with the rope running through a 90% efficient pulley. What’s the theoretical (including friction) force on Anchor B?
IMAGE: ROPELAB.COM.AU
Answer: 1.9 kN
The anchor sees the force of the climber, plus the force of the belayer to hold the rope, minus the 10% friction at the pulley. So, the force on the anchor is not two times the weight of the climber. (Yes, top roping through a pulley doesn’t happen in climbing very often, and it can actually be a bad idea if your belayer weighs much less than you do, but we’re using it here as an example.)
Question 3 - A climber (weight 1 kN) is LOWERED with the rope running through a 50% efficient carabiner. What’s the theoretical (including friction) force on Anchor C?
IMAGE: ROPELAB.COM.AU
Answer: 1.5 kN
When lowering, the anchor sees the force of the climber, plus the force of the belayer to hold the rope, MINUS the 50% friction at the carabiner. The friction from the carabiner significantly reduces the load on the anchor. This is why a belayer who’s a lot lighter than their partner (usually) doesn’t get lifted off the ground when they lower their partner from a toprope.
Here's another way to think about it:
When you’re raising something, friction can be your enemy.
When you're lowering something, friction can be your friend.
Here, friction at the anchor reduces the load on the anchor AND transfers less weight to the belayer for them to manage. That’s a good thing!
What are some practical uses for this in the real climbing world?
Rappelling, and lowering yourself, put the same load onto the anchor. If you top out on a 1 pitch climb and find yourself at an anchor you think is sketchy, rappelling might be less risky than being lowered.
Being lowered by your partner will always put more force on the anchor then rappelling or lowering yourself.
Any additional friction in the system, such as the rope running over rocks or ledges, will further decrease force on the anchor.
It's easy to test systems like this yourself. Just get a barbell plate of a standard amount (a round number like 10 lbs/kg helps) and an inexpensive digital scale like the one below. This scale is about $10.
