Innovative Gear - Skot’s Wall Gear

This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear. 

• If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.

• I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.

• Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.

• Listings are alphabetical.

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Skot Richards, in action on El Capitan

image: https://www.instagram.com/skotswallgear/

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Skot Richards is a one person, California-based designer and producer of big wall climbing gear.

• Skot’s Wall Gear website

• Skot’s Wall Gear Instagram, @skotswallgear

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Skot is a multi talented guy! A veteran of many El Capitan climbs, he designs, sews, and does metal and machine work to constantly improve his products.

• His flagship gear is the Alfifi, which is a combination adjustable tether and stout steel hook. This makes many different aspects of aid climbing faster and more efficient, such as top stepping, cleaning traverses, and even leading without connections to your ladders.

• Skot sells some key gear to dial in your 2:1 hauling system, such as the perfect length of low stretch Zed cord, and a zero-stretch wire quickdraw. (Side note: here's my detailed article about the 2:1 haul system.)

• He also offers the service of custom sewn webbing loops onto your hooks, which is something you probably don't realize you need until you try his.

• Skot also offer several flavors of aid ladders, with the nice design feature of a designated clipping point for your tether.

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The Alfifi

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Zed cord

image: https://www.skotswallgear.com/

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Custom sewn loops for your hooks

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Aid ladders

What's in my pack: ski touring gear by Graybird Guiding

This post come from Shane Robinson and Graybird Guiding, a Seattle based guide company that not only leads some sweet ski trips, but also has an Instagram full of solid tips. Connect with them at their website and on Instagram. Check out their hashtag #sknowmore for specific backcountry ski tips.

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In the pack:

• Mountain Hardware 40 liter pack. It’s big enough for a full guide kit or bigger ski mountaineering objectives but can compress down for more average days. Bonus: helmet fits inside most days.

• Traverse Equipment repair kit

• trauma kit (cpr & extreme bleeding) separate from first aid kit and more accessible

• general first aid kit

• Alpine Threadworks rescue sled & bivy

• downhill gloves

• headlamp

• puffy coat for added warmth or as an emergency layer

• Trew Gear Anorak shell

• extra buff

• helmet

• goggles

• extra wool hat

• thermos for hot water/tea

• rescue shovel

• probe (ideally 300cm long)

• Leatherman multi-tool

• sunscreen & lip balm

• snow saw, with teeth that can also cut wood if needed in an emergency (not pictured)

• Garmin InReach (not pictured)

• cordelette, double length sling, and a couple carabiners (not pictured)

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Actually wearing:

• Dissent Socks

• Trew Gear Nuyarn Merino bottoms

• Trew Gear Nuyarn Merino Tee

• NW Alpine Spider Hoody

• Trew Gear Up Jack

• Trew Gear Capow Bibs

• Hestra Ergo active gloves

• hat with visor

• sunglasses

• avalanche transceiver

vRigger - Rope rigging software

Full disclosure: vRigger sent me this software for free. That in no way biases my review; it's a cool product and I want to tell you about it. There are no ads, affiliate marketing or paid product promotions on Alpinesavvy. When I get a free product like this, I’ll always let you know. 

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vRigger offers a 10% discount to Alpinesavvy Premium Members. Learn about Premium Membership here.

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What’s vRigger? Very cool Windows software that lets you design, teach, and test rope rigging.

It may appear that it's a drawing program. But the real power under the hood is the ability to specify load and pulling forces to see how your system actually behaves in the real world.

• They have a nice series of tutorial videos showing how to use every part of the software.

• The “Getting Started” video is a good overview, to see if it's right for you.

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I use vRigger in two main ways:

1. Setting up different mechanical advantage hauling systems to see the efficiency and forces anywhere in the system.

2. General purpose drawing and diagrams relating to rigging.

You can insert carabiners, pulleys, rope grabs, friction hitches, etc. to build just about any kind of rigging or hauling system you can dream of. They have a large “library” of pretty much every sort of rigging device available. (And, if they don't have the exact piece that you need, you can create it yourself.)

Drag one component on top of another, and they auto-magically snap together to build your system.

For example, here's a diagram that I made for an article on the three types of mechanical advantage (illustrating that a theoretical 2:1 will always be less in the real world, because of friction, rope stretch, and other hard to quantify variables.)

This shows the difference in efficiency in a 2:1 haul system, between using a pulley on the left and a carabiner on the right.

After you specify the weight of the load (here 100 kg, you can use ‘Merican freedom units as well) it automatically calculates the forces involved all throughout the system, depending on the rigging and load! Cool!

An interesting take away from this diagram: using a lower friction pulley is more efficient to move the load, but it also puts a higher load on the anchor. It's one thing to read about this in a theoretical way; it's another to see the actual numbers like this.

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Here's something all climbers should know about: how changing the angles of your anchor “arms” can change forces on the anchor. These numbers dynamically update and change as you click and drag the anchor around.

Hint, you should never build a climbing anchor like this! You can see that there's no more load sharing, but in fact load magnification. If you ever make a Tyrolean traverse, be sure the anchors on either side are unquestionably strong, because they're gonna get a big load!

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRxd2NPDpcw

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It’s not all engineering stuff. You can make more general purpose diagrams like this. Click and drag on the points and lines to create bends in the rope.

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

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There is a very convenient section of “sample files”, which are essentially premade diagrams for common rigging. This is a big timesaver. Here's an example, some typical mechanical advantage set ups.

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There are even gear libraries for specialized applications such as industrial, rope access and theatrical.

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So, that's a quick overview of vRigger. While I’m only using a small portion of the capabilities, hopefully you get a sense of how helpful is it for visualizing, drawing, and determining forces of different rigging systems.

If you want it yourself, use the discount code “AlpineSavvy” when ordering for a 10% discount.

Grivel Clepsydra S - the best carabiner for glacier travel?

The Grivel Clepsydra is a very unique carabiner. It has a few features that make it perfect as your clip-in for glacier travel. (It comes in two sizes; here I’m featuring the small (S).)

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Why is the Clepsydra S great for glacier travel?

• No chance of cross loading means you only need one carabiner to clip to the rope 

• Unique Grivel twin gate means it’s always secure, can’t freeze shut, and can’t wiggle open during a day of glacier tromping. (Yes, the twin gate takes a little getting used to, but you'll figure it out.)

• You can use the small end as a prusik-tender in a hauling system (photo below)

• Small, fairly lightweight

• When you’re not glacier climbing, it works perfectly with a Grigri, as the little “horn” prevents the carabiner from being cross loaded

The standard recommendation for clipping to the rope for glacier travel is to have two opposite and opposed carabiners, at least one of them locking. With the Clepsydra, you only need one.

Before I got this carabiner, I used the Black Diamond Gridlock. This works pretty well, but the screwgate can loosen up over a day, plus as an HMS carabiner, it’s larger than necessary.

Here's how to use the Clepsydra as a “prusik minder” in a hauling system. The small end of the Clepsydra keeps the prusik hitch from being pulled through.

My crevasse rescue gear

There are many different approaches to crevasse rescue, and a near infinite combination of gear that you could carry. The basic requirements are 1) being able to climb the rope if you fall in, and 2) rescuing your partner if you’re the lucky one on top, and they can’t climb out. Fortunately, modern tools and techniques lets you do both with a minimum of gear and weight.

The gear requirements can change depending on team size and general skill level, but here’s a pretty good starting point.

This is pretty much the bare minimum. The idea is with a three of four person team, if everyone carries more or less the same basic kit, rescuers can combine gear as needed.

If you're on a two person team (which is generally considered experts only) you might want to carry a few more items, like maybe another locker, or a120 cm sling.

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My crevasse rescue gear

• 6 locking carabiners: Grivel Clepsydra S, Black Diamond oval, large HMS and three “D” - The Clepsydra works great to clip yourself to the rope, because you can never crossload it, and the gate is very secure. Also works as a progress capture with a a prusik, if you don't have any progress capture pulley like a Traxion. The oval locking carabiner is a time-tested workhorse, and plays well with devices like the Traxion and Tibloc. A larger HMS locking carabiner is helpful if you need to clip other things to it. Finally the D lockers covers any other secure connection you might need. (Yes, I probably have one more locker than I need, but Murphy's Law of rescues is you always need one more locking carabiner.)

• 1 small snapgate carabiner - you need to rack your screw on something. You can use a non-locking carabiner for non-critical connections, such as the “tractor” in a 3:1 Z drag.

• Petzl Tibloc - handy and lightweight ascender and rope grab.

• Petzl Nano Traxion (or Micro Traxion) - the modern standard for crevasse rescue gear. Yes, they are expensive, but so helpful in so many situations, they are pretty much becoming everyday carry.

• 17 cm aluminum Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screw - if you can get down to ice, this can be your anchor on the top. If you fall in, you might be able to place the screw and clip yourself to it to take your weight off of the rope, which can make life for your partners on top a LOT easier when they set up the rescue. Don't bring a screw shorter than about 16 cm.

• About 3 meters of Sterling V-TX cord - typically used for equalizing a second anchor, ascending a rope, or securing yourself to the rope system. (Amazing cord; 5.4 mm and rated 15 kN). You don’t need the standard (7 mm 6 meters long) cordelette on a glacier.

• Short friction hitch - for climbing up the rope if you fall in, and for making a “tractor” on your hauling system. Here I’m using a spliced eye 5mm hitch cord, which grips well on 6 mm rope. This is made by a cool company called RopeLite; check ‘em out for custom spliced ropework solutions. (There are many other options, such as a loop of 6mm cord or a Sterling Hollowblock.)

• What about that picket? Pickets can be very helpful in building a snow anchor but they're not required. Pickets are commonly carried in North America, South America and New Zealand, but not so much in Europe. A more minimalist approach involves making a T-slot anchor with your buried ice axe, skis, or backpack. But to me the axe is a crucial piece of gear, and I'm not too excited to bury it in the snow in case I need it for something else.

• When I do carry one, it's the SMC Pro Picket. This is reasonably lightweight, has a pointy end for going into the snow and a reinforced top for bashing on with a hammer. The nicest feature is a permanently attached metal cable on the middle hole, which is how pickets have maximum strength in either vertical or horizontal placements. (That means you need one less 120 cm sling.)

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What I don’t bring: pulley, belay device, several “just in case” extra carabiners, designated waist or leg prusik loops. Need another pulley? Grab the Traxion from your partner. Need to rappel or give someone a belay? Use a Munter hitch on your HMS carabiner. The carabiners above are more than enough. And forget those old-school designated waist and leg prusiks; you can easily ascend a rope with the gear shown above.

Where to carry this gear? You want the gear you need to climb a rope easily accessible on your harness or pack gear loops, not inside your pack. For ascending a rope with the gear shown here, I’d keep the orange cord and the oval carabiner with the Tibloc and the Traxion on my harness at a minimum. The rest can probably go inside your pack. I’d also keep the screw on my harness. If you fall in, you might be able to place it and clip to it, removing your weight from the rope as mentioned above.

Harness: A minimalist mountaineering harness, I like the Petzl Tour. Leave that sport climbing harness with the five gear loops at home. You want lightweight, no padding because you have on lots of clothes and (hopefully) are not gonna be hanging in it, with leg loops that open so you can easily put it on while wearing crampons or skis.

Rope: Varies on team size and skill level. Good options include:

• 30 meter, 6 mm Petzl RADline

• 40 meter, 7.7 mm Sterling Dyad

• 50 meter, 7.1 mm Edelrid Skimmer (which is currently the lightest dynamic rope on the market)

The diameter, length, and static vs. dynamic issue of the “best” rope for glacier travel is a BIG topic. Here's a link to some articles on my website that take a closer look. 1) Petzl 6mm static RADLine, 2) static rope for glacier travel.

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So, that's my kit. Simple, lightweight, everything has a function. With this I can build just about any flavor of mechanical advantage hauling system I might need, like a 2:1, 3:1, and 6:1.

Some examples of 6:1 systems are here.

Minus the picket, this is what everything weighs.

Use the "Alpine Handrail" for a better bivy

Credit for this tip: blog post from Andy Kirkpatrick, shared with permission.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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

Credit for this tip goes to Andy Kirkpatrick. It’s from his outstanding book: ”Higher Education: A Big Wall Manual”.

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

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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.

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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.”

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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 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.

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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!

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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

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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

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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

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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?

“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

“The topo says the next pitch is 30 meters, and the one after that is only 25. Let's link both of those together!”

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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

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.

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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.)

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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”.

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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.

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Drop end 3:1 crevasse rescue sequence (team of three):

1. 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.)

2. Climber 2 (middle) and Climber 3 (end) on top arrest the fall.

3. 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.

4. Climber 3 puts a friction hitch onto the rope to secure themselves, unclips from their clip in knot, and unties their clip in knot.

5. Climber 3, sliding their friction hitch along the rope to secure themselves, approaches the edge of the crevasse to check on climber 1. 

6. Climber 1 calls up that they want/need to be hauled out.

7. 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.

8. 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. 

9. 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.

10. Climber 2 and Climber 3 start hauling, climber 1 gets pulled up.

11.  If this 3:1 for some reason doesn’t give enough pulling power, it's easy to convert it to a (theoretical) 6:1.

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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.

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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)

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.

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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

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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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

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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.

1. 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.

2. Add a friction hitch, carabiner and pulley (if you have one) to the previous pull strand.

3. 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.)

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.)

1. Put the drop loop through a Traxion (or a pulley) and engage the cam.

2. Clip the Traxion with a locker to a Tibloc installed upside down on the rope strand going down to your victim.

3. 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.

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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?

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!

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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

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 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.

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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”.

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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!

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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. 

1. Check the box next to “Aspect”, and select “NW 315” to “NE 45” from the dropdown menu.

2. Click the Color box and set the color to red for both NW 315 and NE 45. 

3. Add a descriptive name in the top left corner, here, “N aspect”.

4. In the “Overlay?” box, select, “No, Base Layer” from the drop down menu.

5. Click “Add Rule” to generate the code CalTopo needs to make your map.

6. Click “Save to Account”.

7. 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.

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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?

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This article was written with collaboration from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Max Lurie. Connect with Max on Instagram, @alpinetothemax and his website.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cody Bradford (@thecodybradford)

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Nice YouTube short from Summit Seekers Experience showing this technique:

pre rigged rappel lower