John Godino 6/9/24 John Godino 6/9/24

What’s a “series” anchor?

Traditional anchor building teaches always try to “equalize” the load. However, with solid bolts or ice screws, it may be faster and more convenient to build what’s called a series anchor, where all the load goes to one component and the other is a backup.

Peer review on this article comes 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!

Series anchor onto vertical bolts. Edelrid Aramid sling on left, rope on the right. (Belay connection to second omitted for clarity.)

On your first day of Climbing 101 class, you probably got the concept of equalization drilled into your head - always try to distribute the load (more or less equally) among all components of the anchor. This is still about the only technique taught in most every how-to book I’ve ever seen. Overall, this is still a valid approach, especially with trad anchors, made with stoppers, cams and maybe pitons.

However, it’s not an absolute rule when it comes to using two reliably solid pieces, such as bolts or ice screws.

There’s a whole other genre of anchors, known as a “series” anchor, where all of the primary load goes to ONE anchor component. The second component of the anchor is used only for redundancy, as a backup in the extremely unlikely event that the first bolt were to fail. There’s no attempt at equalization/load distribution. Redundancy, yes. Equalization, no.

So, how can we get away with ignoring equalization, one of the cardinal rules of anchor building? Because modern bolts and hardware are so ridiculously strong (well over 20 kN for each one when properly placed in good rock) that there’s no requirement to try to equalize forces. In many cases with good bolts, it can be faster and more convenient to build a series anchor.

Series anchor overview

As a general guideline: if you have two unquestionably strong bolts, consider a series anchor. Anything other than that, consider a distributed anchor.
Series anchors are best made with two components; three or more is tricky.
Series anchors work on horizontal, vertical or diagonal bolts or ice screws. The vertical or diagonal are preferred. These can be hard to find in North America.
Series anchors are more common in Europe. They are endorsed by the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”). Here's a detailed article covering series, and other interesting anchor flavors.
If you have vertical bolts, make the master point on the bottom bolt. If the bolts are horizontal, make the master point on the bolt where your second will approach the anchor.
A series anchor does not provide a shelf, so all of your clip in points get kind of scrunched together.
You can make a series anchor with a sling tied with a double loop bowline on a bight, a double loop figure eight, or with the rope.
An advantage to using a sling is that you can easily transition to a fixed point lead belay on the next pitch. (That is a whole other topic, which I cover extensively in this article.)

How strong a ring loaded bowline in Dyneema?

Double loop bowline in Dyneema sling being ring loaded, breaks around 20 kN. From HowNot2 (about 6:30 in the video). A belay loop usually breaks around 15 kN, so think about that for a moment . . .

The series anchor is definitely not a new concept! Check out this classic photo from the early days of Yosemite climbing, which I caption as” “I’m so happy to still be alive after jugging this rope connected to a few RURPs strung together by clove hitches . . . (Photo by Dave Diegelman, climber, Dale Bard, Sea of Dreams, El Capitan, 1978)

Dale Bard series clove hitch anchor El Cap — *Photo credit:* *Dave Diegelman*

When considering how strong an anchor needs to be, it’s good to keep in mind the realistic forces it might be required to hold. Petzl did some very nice studies on this, showing what real world realistic forces are when you measure actual climbers instead of static weights in a drop tower. I have a whole article in that that, read it here.

Below is a great diagram from Petzl. If your French is a little rusty:

gray dot = force on the top piece of gear
blue dot = force on the climber
black dot = force on the belayer

The three different columns indicate different fall factors: 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0.

Even when catching a significant fall factor 1, the force on the bottom anchor is only about 2 kN, quite low! That’s good!

If you are belaying up your second and keeping the rope reasonably tight, the force should never get above 1 or 2 kN. Given this, trying to equalize that load between two bolts that can hold 40 kN combined may seem unnecessary.

FALL FORCES IN CLIMBING. IMAGE: **HTTPS://WWW.PETZL.COM/US/EN/SPORT/FORCES-AT-WORK-IN-A-REAL-FALL**

Let’s look at a few ways to make a series anchor.

Method 1: Series anchor with sling and double loop bight knot.

Typically made with a a 120 cm sling, with a double strand bowline on a bight, shown here. (A double loop bunny ears figure 8 works too.) Don’t worry about ring loading the bowline, it’s fine and it’s been tested. See the video below to learn how to tie the bowline on a bight. It’s a new knot for most folks. Can be on horizontal (photo 1) or vertical (photo 2). Vertical is better, but you gotta use what you have.

Using a sling:

makes block leading easier
simplifies self rescue
allows you to do a fixed point lead belay

Method 2: Series anchor with the climbing rope

You get some minimalist style points. You already have a nice strong dynamic rope, so use it if you like.

Downsides are the opposite of the 120 cm sling:

block leading is harder
self-rescue is more difficult
fixed point lead belay is trickier

Can be on horizontal (photo 1) or vertical (photo 2) bolts.

Here's a another version of the example just above. This one might work well for the very top of a route where there is a walk off, or a large secure ledge, because there's not much place for the second to easily attach when they arrive.

The set up as shown in the photo is not very ergonomic because the masterpoint is low. But you could extend the clove hitch from the harness, and the butterfly knot, if you want to conveniently stand at most any distance from the bolts that you want.

Credit: Dale Remsberg, from his Instagram post.)

Method 3: Fixe vertical chain anchor

These anchors are ideal for multi pitch climbs, not so great for single pitch sport climbs. Feel free to use that huge ring at the bottom as your master point, it’s rated somewhere north of 30 kN. Learn more on this style of anchor at this article.

And yes, it's fine to clip the top bolt hanger like this over the top of the chain. It's just your bodyweight of less than 1 kN.

The “Chamonix” alpine anchor

Here’s a flavor of vertical series alpine anchor that apparently is quite popular around Chamonix. This was brought to my attention by IFMGA Chamonix based Guide Dave Searle.

Two vertical bolts, connected by a loop of cord. Bottom bolt has a quicklink for rappelling. It's basically the same design as Fixe vertical chain anchor, but with cord connecting the bolts instead of chain.

What do you think?

Sketchy as Donald Trump's tax returns?
Lovely example of elegant anchor minimalism?

Here we’re using 7 mm cord, which is rated about 13 kN tied like this. The hardware is inexpensive and light, and means you don't need to carry chains up an alpine route to establish the anchors. That 8 mm quicklink on the bottom is rated about 40 kN. Each bolt is good for at least 20 kN. If everybody carries a couple of meters of extra 7mm cord, you can easily replace the cord as needed. (Yes, if you add another quicklink that would hang perpendicular to the rock you might have a slightly easier pull of the rappel rope, but that’s a minor quibble.)

What do you want to have this in a high use sport climbing area? Probably not. Use chains that will last longer. But, in more remote alpine setting? Sure thing! I say, #SuperGoodEnough!

Rappelling a multi-pitch, quick series anchor on 2 bolts

Simply clip a quickdraw to connect the bolts, and have each climber clip to one bolt. Again the quick draw is there for redundancy in the wildly unlikely event that one bolt fails under body weight.

Here's a short video showing how to tie the bowline on a bight.

Here's a video showing this technique from the excellent (if awkwardly named) series, “Safety Academy Lab Rock”, produced by Petzl and Ortovox, featuring some top German guides.

John Godino 6/7/24 John Godino 6/7/24

The quad anchor

The quad anchor rig offers fast set up, great strength, good load distribution and complete redundancy, all in a light, compact package. Learn all about it here.

The quad anchor, first mentioned (I think) around 2006 by John Long in his book “Climbing Anchors”, was an attempt to have the Holy Grail in anchors. What’s cool about the quad?

Good load distribution
Minimal extension
Fully redundant
Quick to set up and break down, no knots to untie
Super strong (would you believe 40 kN?!)
Bonus, two independent and load distributed master points, which can be quite handy

Well, it didn’t catch on right away. One reason may have been that the original version suggested using a long and bulky cordelette to rig it.

Traditional quad anchor rigged with 7mm cordelette. Nothing really wrong with it, just big and bulky.

Well, here’s the modern iteration of that idea, in a much lighter and more compact package. Rather than using a huge honker cordelette, instead you use a Dyneema sling; I prefer 180 cm. Double it, tie two a figure 8 or overhand knots (with the stitching in one of the end loops), and then use two strands to make an anchor for both toproping and multipitch.

The knots stay in the sling for at least the entire day. It's good practice to untie the knots every few days or after a weekend of climbing to “rest” your sling.

This system works best with two solid pieces of gear that are fairly close together and ideally in a horizontal plane. Two bolts on a sport route are a perfect application. Two ice screws that are slightly offset would also work too. (If you’re building a 3 piece anchor from trad gear, it may be faster to use a more traditional cordelette.)

What's the best sling length?

For me, the 120 cm is a bit too short. It can work if the bolts are very close together and you use a small diameter sling, like 8 mm.

I think 180 cm is about the sweet spot. Not too short, not too long, works on horizontal bolts and with a little adjusting, vertically offset ice screws.

Some people think this is called the quad anchor because it uses a “quad” length sling, or 240 cm. A 240 cm sling can be handy for many kinds of anchor building, especially for equalizing three points of protection, orslinging around a tree. But for side by side bolts like this, many people find it’s too long, a bit bulky, and hard to rack.

But hey, as you can see below it's only a bit longer than the 180, so many people this is gonna work fine.
Notice the 180 and the 240 are tied with a figure 8 rather than overhands. This uses up a bit more material which raises the master point, and it also makes the knot quite a bit easier to untie after it's been loaded.

Here's another trick with the 240 cm sling quad to make it a little more manageable. Instead of doubling the cord, you can triple it. Then, when you tie your knots, it raises the master point and you clip to three strands rather than two. This makes it the effective same size as the 180 cm sling, nice!

If you look carefully at the photo below, you can see the yellow locking carabiner is clipped to three strands of cord, rather than two.

If you were climbing a route that maybe had a mix of gear anchors and bolt anchors, this might be a good trick to be able to use the 240 for both.

Quad toprope anchor

Lockers on each of the two bolts, opposite and opposed lockers for the rope, good to go.

There's some difference of opinion about whether you should clip the master point lockers onto two separate strands (left), or put both of them onto three strands (right).

Argument against the set up on the left: the sling arms could rub against each other when loaded, and the carabiners might bind against each other a bit, giving you less than ideal equalization.
Argument against the set up on the right: if either bolt where to fail, you're only being held by one additional strand.

I think both of these issues are highly unlikely, and you're gonna be fine no matter how you rig it. Personally I prefer the one on the left.

(Hopefully this is glaringly obvious, but you absolutely should NOT clip all four strands. If you did this and any anchor point failed, the carabiners with slide off and you would die.)

Side note regarding lockers on the bolts . . . For a top rope anchor, when you're not right there next to it to keep an eye on it, and maybe multiple people will be using it over a long period of time, it's good practice to use locking carabiners on the bolts. In some circles this is known as an “unattended” anchor. However, if you’re multi pitch climbing, it's fine to use non-locking carabiners on the bolts. We can call this an “attended” anchor, because there's someone there the whole time watching it.

Notes . . .

For those of you who are extra concerned about tying a knot in Dyneema . . . A full strength Dyneema runner is about 22 kN. Here, we are doubling the sling, which in theory makes it about 44 kN, and then we're tying a knot, which reduces that in about half, which brings it back down to about 22 kN. In other words, it's absolutely not an issue. We cover the “tying a knot in Dyneema” issue more detail here.

A 180 cm sling can be a bit hard to find, But is this type of anchor becomes more popular, hopefully more manufacturers will offer them. (If the links below don't work, just Google around until you find them.)

A skinny Dyneema sling is best for this. (It won’t work nearly so well with a nylon runner because the knots are too big, plus finding a 180 cm nylon runner is difficult.)

A 10 mm or 11 mm Dyneema sling is recommended for anchor building. These are larger than the 8 mm used in many 60cm and 120cm slings. Most of the 180 cm slings I have seen are in this larger diameter, so that's good.

How strong is the quad?

Ridiculously strong. How about a 40kN break test? The great team at HowNot2 tested this several times, and the quad is WAY stronger than anything else you will probably have on your harness. See the video here.

Quad anchor break test 40 kN — image: screen grab from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=she8vH1DCBU

Can I clip the shelf? Yes. HowNot2 did a pull test on the shelf, and the knot started sliding at around 13 kN. SuperGoodEnough! (Same video link, start at 7:00.)

Quad with a cordelette

While I'm generally not a fan of the 7 mm cordelette, you can certainly use one to make a quad anchor. In the photo below, the red cord is Sterling Powercord. While it’s a bit expensive, it's only 6 mm but is rated to 20 kN, almost 3 times stronger than normal 6 mm cord. If I am carrying a cordelette, this is what I grab first.

As the saying goes: “You can have it strong, light, and cheap. Pick two.”

In the photo, both left and right anchors are structurally strong. However, the right photo, showing the knots tied a bit lower, is slightly preferable. In the highly unlikely event of a bolt failing, the lower knots limit the extension of the anchor.

Here's another option: Tie a “figure 9” knot rather than an overhand knot to isolate the strands. This is simply a figure 8 knot with one more turn. This has a few advantages: it brings your master point up a bit higher, because the knot takes up more cord, and because of the extra turns, it's easier to untie at the end of the day.

Quad with two 120 cm slings

If you don't have a 180 cm sling or a cordelette, you can still make a quad out of a pair of 120 cm slings. Here’s an article on that. Note the figure 9 knots in each arm; again, these take up more of the material, and make it easier to untie.

The offset quad

Here's another variation on the quad, the offset. Tying it like this gives two clipping points, one above the other, rather than side-by-side. This can be helpful in certain situations, such as connecting to the bottom strands and belaying off the top two strands. Here's a longer article on the offset quad.

The double top rope quad anchor

Here's another kind of niche used for the quad: rigging one top rope anchor for two adjacent routes. If you have a larger group of friends, you can use one anchor and I have two people climbing on separate routes at the same time. (Safety note, it's not a good idea to have two people climbing on the same route at the same time, because you could have a situation with one rope being loaded over the other, not good.) If it's a sport grout, having the rope redirected through the top bolt on each route can help keep things properly separated.

Here's an article on this technique.

John Godino 5/17/24 John Godino 5/17/24

Rappel pull cords 101

Using a skinny pull cord, in combination with a regular climbing rope, allows full length rappels with reduced gear and pack weight. However, there are some nuances to doing it correctly, efficiently, and with reduced risk. Learn all about it 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 expert alpine climbers Priti and Jeff Wright. Connect with them on Instagram (Priti / Jeff) and their website, alpinevagabonds.com

This article focuses on the how to use a rappel pull cord. It's closely related to:

Learn about using a rope block

(If you’re completely new to this descending method, I suggest starting with this rope block article and then coming back here.)

Using a small diameter pull cord (which some folks call a tagline) can allow you to do a full length single strand rappel, and (typically) use that smaller diameter rope to pull down your primary climbing rope. This can allow full length rappels with less rope, weight and bulk.

The key to making this work is what's called a rope block. This can be done with a knot or a carabiner. A rope block allows the rope to move through the anchor in one direction but not the other. You rappel on the full strength climbing rope, which is fixed to the anchor by the block. When it's time to pull the rope you use the pull cord on the side that’s not fixed to the anchor.

But, like everything in climbing, there are pros and cons, so let's have a closer look.

Conceptually, pull cords are 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 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.

Death in Yosemite from failed pull cord rappel

Here are articles on two closely related techniques that use pull cords:

Before we dive into pull cords, let's look at some other options

Bring a second properly rated double rope that you can actually use for real climbing if necessary. This is a popular option for many people. If you're gonna bring a 6 mm pull cord, why not just bring a slightly larger 7.5 or 8ish mm half rope, which can cost about the same anyway, and offer a few more benefits? Or climb on twin/double ropes to begin with?
A more specialized option for a full length rappels, that does not require a tag line (but does require a bit of courage to use for the first few times) is the Beal Escaper; a very clever bit of gear that you definitely want to practice with first. I'll have an article on that coming up soon.

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 haven’t 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.
If you had the slightest suspicion that the knot might be able to pull through the anchor hardware, it's probably a better choice to use a carabiner block instead.

Potential downsides to using a pull cord / rope block

The big one was already mentioned, but it's worth mentioning 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. Note that the last person can choose to remove the safety carabiner.
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 does not get used regularly. See accident reports at the top of the page.
If you're using a lighter weight pull cord, if you start pulling your rope and it gets snagged after the end of the climbing rope is out of reach, you only have a 6 mm rope in your hands to deal with the problem. Not good.
It can be difficult to toss the pull cord in the normal manner, because it's so light it doesn't want to spool out nicely down the cliff.
If you're doing multiple rappels, and want to always pull the same strand of rope, it takes additional time to do the standard trick of threading the pull cord through the lower anchor. Why? Because you’re usually pulling the skinny cord, but the fat rope needs to be the one through the anchor. This means you have to do some shenanigans like untying your joining knot, putting the proper strand of rope through the anchor, and then re-tying the joining knot 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.
The safety carabiner that's clipping the block onto the rappel strand can add a significant amount of extra friction, making your rope pull more difficult.
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. LINK
When you “close the system” by clipping the blocking knot to the rappel line, 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 protrusion, boulder, shrub, etc, the loop is going to get caught when you pull down your rope, causing your rope to get stuck. Check my article on rope blocks to see a photo example of this.

Skinny rope pull down trick

This can really save your hands! #CraftyRopeTrick!

When to use a pull cord?

A pull cord usually makes the most sense when you have one or maybe two full length rappels and want to go light, or maybe as a sort of emergency back up if you need to retreat unexpectedly. If it’s long or remote route, with many rappels needed, using a proper second rope may be a better choice for most folks.

A pull cord generally works best on relatively smooth, clean, steep ice or rock. The more low angle, cracks, shrubs, boulders, and rope-grabby bits, the higher the chance your block might get caught on the way down (A good general rule on terrain like this: it can be better to make more rappels that are shorter, than fewer rappels that are longer.)

Tangle-free pull cords - in praise of rope bags

Ahh, the dirty little secret about pull cords - those skinny rascals need constant attention to keep them from turning into a hopeless spaghetti pile. This is even more true in high wind, low angle blocky terrain, etc.

There are several options to try to deal with this. Some people opt for the “saddlebag” technique, others butterfly coil the rope over the rappel extension. I’ve tried both. For me they didn’t work very well, and I still got some maddening tangles.

Fortunately there's a simple system to tame your pull cord that works just about perfectly every time: the rope bag.

Rope bags are magical! The first time you use them, it looks like there is no possible way you can just flake the rope into a bag and have a feed out perfectly from the top every time, but that's pretty much what always happens. Rope bags are common in industrial rigging, SAR / rope rescue, canyoneering and whitewater, but rarely used by recreational climbers. I hope that changes, because they can be extremely helpful.

To deploy, you simply clip the rope bag with a sling onto your harness so it hangs below you, and the rope should feed out perfectly as you rappel.
When it's time to pull on the skinny cord to retrieve your rope, good practice is one person pulls and the other one stacks the rope into the bag. If the rope is already down, it's convenient to redirect the rope through some high point on the anchor, and then pull the rope down into the bag, hand over hand.
Once you have a fairly direct line to the bottom of your rappel, you can toss the bag and hopefully the rope will come out of it cleanly. (Yes you DID remember to tie the end of your tagline onto the bag, right?)

The rope bag doesn’t have to be fancy. I’m a fan of the humble reusable plastic shopping bag; large, sturdy, cheap, lightweight, convenient handles for clipping onto an anchor, and the top is stiff enough to stay open so you can easily stuff in the rope.

If you find yourself using pull cords a lot, you're probably gonna want to upgrade your rope bag. A great option is this sweet version made by High Mountain Gear. It's super sturdy, easily holds a 60 meter 6 mm cord like the Petzl PURline, has a grommet in the bottom so you can tie a stopper knot so you don't lose the bag, and has a tab so you can clip the bag to your harness.

Keep control of the cord

Be sure and keep the pull cord attached to you. If you lose control of it and it blows or swings out of reach, you could have a serious problem! Some people like to have the pull cord going through their ATC / rappel device, even though you're not putting any weight on it. This can help take any twists or kinks out of the cord as you descend. Others prefer simply clipping it to a spare carabiner on the gear loop. That's my preference, because if you're using a rope bag, you pretty much don't have any twisting in the cord.

An Instagram reader noted that if you clip the cord to your harness like this, it works fine for a normal rappel when you’re in contact with the rock. But if there's any sort of overhang or free hanging part, and you start to spin, the ropes can easily twist around each other. (This may be also an issue rapping double strand in a normal tube style device.) If you anticipate this happening, it may be better to tie the end of the cord to you rather than clipping it to your harness like this.

Here’s a great diagram from the always awesome Petzl website showing how to do it.

rappelling with a pull cord — image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm

Don’t load both strands when rappelling

If you rappel with both strands through your ATC, it's important to remember it's a single strand rappel, and keep your brake hand and third hand/autoblock on the real climbing rope. If you put your weight on both strands, the difference in friction going through your device can make the knot start to do some weird things at the anchor.

Also, if you're using something other than a stout rated (15 kN!) rope like a Petzl PURline, it's probably better practice to clip the pull cord through a carabiner on your harness gear loop rather than have it go through your ATC.

How to connect to the pull cord to the main climbing rope?

Petzl recommends a “stacked overhand”; basically two flat overhands right next to each other, to connect their slippery PURline pull cord and the larger diameter rope. Some people might consider this a bit overcautious and be fine with a single flat overhand bend, and that's probably gonna be fine as well.

IMAGE CREDIT: HTTPS://WWW.PETZL.COM/INT/EN/SPORT/ROPES/PUR-LINE-6-MM

What cord to use?

Over the years, climbers have used everything from parachute cord, to 5-ish mm accessory cord, to highly specialized expensive cord/rope made specifically for this purpose.

Today, lots of manufacturers offer various flavors of pull cords: The Beal Backup Line, the Black Diamond 6.0 static rope, the Bluewater 8 mm Pull Down cord, and the Imlay Pull Cord 6.0, to name a few.

However, the generally accepted gold standard for pull cords is the Petzl PURline. It's static, it's slippery, it's super strong, lightweight, compact, and works great as a pull cord (or for hauling moderate loads). Unfortunately it’s expensive. Here's a detailed article on the Petzl PURline.

The PURline comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is that, you wonder? When you rap on your 60 meter dynamic rope on the other side of the block, your rap rope will stretch about 5 meters, which takes you conveniently to the end of the 65 meter static PURline. Yes, those Petzl product designers are quite clever!

How should I rig a pull cord?

It's best practice to have the pull cord set up to pull the rope, and should not be part of the blocking knot. Tie the blocking knot in the full strength rope. Why? If the blocking knot were to pull through the anchor, your entire weight is now resting on a 5 or 6 mm pull cord, instead of the full strength of the “real” rope. (If you're using a Petzl PURline rated to 15 kN this should not be a problem, but if you're using 5 mm accessory cord then it very well could be.)

Pro tip for multi pitch rappels: as the butterfly knot and carabiner arrive at the lower station, take a moment and clip the carabiner into some point on the anchor. Doing this instantly secures your rope at the middle point.

Here’s another variation on how to rig the pull cord, from the always awesome Petzl website.

The slight advantage to the bottom system, with the pul cord attached to the carabiner, is that you can start threading the rope at the lower station and setting up the rappel before you pull down the entire rope.

The potential disadvantage to this bottom system is that if you have any twisting in either rope, they are much more likely to twist together, which could be a substantial problem. The solution is to keep the safety carabiner in place for everyone except the last person. If the last person is carefully inspecting the knot and is absolutely sure it cannot pull through the anchor, they can unclip the safety locker from the blue rope, which greatly reduces the chance of rope twist induced problems.

setting up a rope block — image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope?ProductName=PUR-LINE-6-mm

Advanced topic: What about using the fat rope as the pull cord?

Traditionally, the pull cord is the skinny rope, and the fat rope is always the one through the anchor. In the days before modern full strength pull cords, this was probably a fine idea, as pull cords were generally some flavor of 5-ish mm cord, not something that you’d trust for full bodyweight.

However, the typical set up of “pull skinny” comes with a couple of inherent problems.

If you start pulling your rope and it gets snagged after the end of the fat rope is out of reach, you only have a skinny cord to deal with the problem.
Pulling the skinny rope down is hard on your hands, and usually has greatly increased friction.

So, let's look at rigging with the fat rope as the pull strand, with the skinny rope going through the anchor. Doing this neatly address both of the above problems: if something gets stuck you have a real rope in your hand, and it's easy to retrieve the very lightweight pull cord.

Andy Kirkpatrick has a some nice diagrams and discussion of this in his outstanding book on descending mountains called “Down”, (pg 329) highly recommended reading for all climbers.

Andy K. suggests, and I agree with him, that this is an experts-only technique that you absolutely need to practice before ever doing it in the wild and be fully aware of the pros and cons.

Diagram from Andy: the two basic ways to set it up: (top) with the fat rope through the anchors, and “pulling skinny”, versus (bottom) skinny cord through the anchors, and “pulling fat”.

Image: Andy KIRKPATRICK, from “Down” SHARED with PERMISSION

However, like everything in climbing, this technique comes with some cautions and downsides.

You might need to rappel on the skinny strand. Obviously this is an advanced technique and might requires a specialized rappel device such as the Grivel Scream or Edelrid Mago 8, that are designed for very skinny ropes.
If you put both ropes through a standard tube style device, the extra friction from the thick rope can cause the joining knot to start “migrating down”. This can cause the thick rope to move down, the skinny route to move up, and this results in ends of your rope being uneven. Using a figure 8 style device like Mago 8 can help with this.
This migrating rope also cause the skinny rope to move under load through the rappel anchor. Probably not an issue if it's metal, but definitely a concern if it's cord or webbing, which can be common on alpine routes and a V thread made from cord when ice climbing.

Good news: these problems can be easily mitigated.

You can fix the fat rope at the top which prevents the knot from migrating (photo below).
The first person down can tie off the skinny rope at the bottom (assuming the anchor can take an upward pull) and then the top person can remove the fixed fat rope, which also prevents the knot from migrating.

Expert American alpine climbing team Priti and Jeff Wright shared this story with me, about their first ascent of K6 in Pakistan. This shows the effectiveness of pull cords in extreme alpine terrain, when performed by experts with full understanding of the system. (And yes, “pulling fat” is not a problem.)

“We had 19 V-thread rappels to descend the mountain and we would alternate Pull-Fat/Pull-Skinny (Half Rope+Pur Line) as the fastest method of descent where we were not concerned with stuck ropes. We made the 19 rappels in very quick time (half a day), rappelling on both strands for every rappel, never retying the joining knot, and the leader pre-threading the next V-thread while the follower rappels.”

See these solutions in action in the diagram below, especially the one on the right. The diagram on the right shows a great application of the Stone hitch. This cleve knot effectively fixes both strands of rope. Another solution is to tie the end of the skinny rope to the lower anchor, as we see below on the right.

I’m not giving any advice or recommendation on this. I’m providing information to hopefully allow you to make an informed choice, and to be aware that using the fat rope as a pull cord is an option for VERY experienced climbers, who fully understand the risks and benefits.

I’ll close with this wise observation from American alpine climber Colin Haley:

“It can be quite tricky to rappel with ropes of very different diameters, and these are expert techniques. I could write a lot on this subject alone, but it isn’t the scope of this article. If you’ve never rappelled before with ropes of very different diameters, do some research beforehand and practice the techniques in a low-stress setting before trying it on top of a mountain!”

John Godino 5/15/24 John Godino 5/15/24

How to best connect a tether to your harness?

“What's the best way to connect a tether to my harness?” Turns out there’s not one best answer. While some people feel strongly you should always use your tie in points, the truth is that the “best” method depends on a few different factors. Let's take a closer look.

Have you ever heard some version of this?

“You should NEVER connect your tether/PAS to your belay loop. Todd Skinner did that, his belay loop broke, and he died. So, you shouldn't do it either.”

or maybe:

“You should ALWAYS run soft goods, like rope and slings, through the tie in points, and clip hard goods, like carabiners, to the belay loop.”

I’ll start off with my opinion on this, right up front: I think, in most cases, it’s fine to attach a tether to your belay loop.

There are a lot of people who feel differently, and if you prefer your tie in points for a tether, that’s great. But know that in most cases, your belay loop is going to work fine as well. There are very few black and white, “Should”, “Always” and “Never”, “Gotta do it this way or else” rules in climbing. This is not one of them.

When ascending a route, it's usually best practice to use the rope and clove hitch yourself to the anchor. But when it's time to rappel, you're probably going to want a tether. Whether you use a designated tether like a PAS or a Petzl Connect, or make one DIY with a double length sling, or you’re an aid climber and have a pair of daisy chains, you need to choose where to connect it to your harness - belay loop or tie in points?

The truth is . . . it depends! There are some cases when attaching your tether directly to your belay loop is not only acceptable, but the recommended practice. There are some other situations where it's probably not such a great idea.

What kind of climbing (rappelling, big walls, via ferrata) are you doing?
What does the manufacturer say?
What’s your tether made of?
What kind of knot or hitch connects the tether to your harness?

These are all nuances in technique that need to be considered, rather than a binary “always” or “never.”

Alpinesavvy tries to offer ideas and information, not advice. So, read on and make up your own mind.

Here are some general guidelines and considerations:

First, and perhaps most important, check your harness regularly and retire it without hesitation if it shows significant wear for any reason.
If you do connect a tether to your belay loop, don’t leave it tied there permanently. Doing this can prevent the loop from rotating and may concentrate wear in a single spot. Remove the tether when you're done for the day, or after your rappel.
If you're girth hitching a designated PAS type tether, the usual manufacturer recommendation is to use both tie in points. (Even then it's a bit of a “soft” recommendation, see below.)
If you're girth hitching a “DIY” tether with a skinny Dyneema sling, it’s probably best to use both tie in points. (Should you use a use a Dyneema sling as a tether at all? See the “expert photo” section below.)
If you're girth hitching a tether (or adjustable daisy for aid climbing) with a wider nylon sling, either the tie in points or the belay loop should be fine.
If you're using a rope style lanyard such as the Petzl Connect Adjust, follow Petzl’s recommendation and girth hitch it to your belay loop.
If you’re doing via ferrata, the standard practice is to girth hitch the lanyards to your belay loop.
If you're big wall / aid climbing, the tie in points are usually better, because that gets your waist a bit closer to the gear you're clipped to. Every inch helps!
And . . . if you're not using a girth hitch and using a double loop bowline tether, it's okay to tie it through your belay loop with any kind of material.

What are some of the pros and cons of attaching a tether to your belay loop?

Pros:

Comfort. Having a weighted tether girth hitched through your tie in points can cause your harness to squish together on some, shall we say, sensitive body parts, ouch! This depends a bit on the design of your harness and ahem, personal anatomy, your mileage may vary. This can be especially true for women with wider hips and a higher waist.
Easier to rig and check. For cold weather climbing with bulky clothing, gloves, etc., it can be easier to properly thread your tether through your belay loop, as well as glance down and be sure it's threaded correctly. (This goes for checking your partner also.) Plus, the comfort factor: with more clothing on, tethering to the belay loop will usually be more comfortable.
More reach. If you have a shorter tether and you’re a taller climber, having it on your belay loop can give you a few extra inches of reach.
Less cluster. This probably applies more to big wall climbing, when the front of your harness can get very busy with two daisies, fifi hook(s), rope tie in, etc. Using your belay loop can spread out these connections a bit. Also for big wall climbing, you’re probably sleeping in your harness as well, so a belay loop connection will typically be more comfortable.

Cons:

Not redundant. You're connected to one point of your harness while you could be connected to two. (This introduces a whole other conversation of all of the other non-redundant components in the climbing system you rely on the time, but let's save that for another discussion.)
Puts extra wear and tear on your belay loop. (This argument may be countered by pointing out that the wear and tear is not eliminated, but instead transferred to your tie in points.)

Let's look at some more specific cases of where to attach your tether.

First, let's check out recommendations from Black Diamond. Their website tells you that girth hitching a daisy chain through both tie in points gives you the “green check” of approval. End of discussion, right?

image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-bdel/default/dw8f27ba12/instructions/F20/MM5825_C_Daisy-Etrier_IS-WEB.pdf

Well maybe not. Using the bottom tie in point is clearly a no-no, because it might flip you upside down. But the belay loop or the top tie in merits only the orange “caution” notification, not the red skull and crossbones, “Yer Gonna Die”.

What else gets the Black Diamond orange caution? Getting your tether wet, icy, or dirty! Sheesh, we all know that happens to your gear all the time and it's hardly the end of the world. So, attaching a tether to your belay loop is in the same category of “it's best to avoid doing this a lot, but if you do, it's not going to be catastrophic.”

Let’s consider the following . . .

1 - No warnings from harness manufacturers

The Alpinesavvy web gnomes looked carefully at the technical documentation for harnesses from Black Diamond, Petzl, and Edelrid. None of these manufacturers give a warning against attaching a tether to the belay loop. If doing so is “wrong”, do you think the top harness manufacturers might warn against it in their technical documentation?

2 - Petzl Connect Adjust, Beal Dynaconnexion, CAMP Swing, and Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop

In 2015 Petzl introduced their “Connect”series of lanyards. These are made from dynamic climbing rope, and have a stitched, fixed loop at one end. It's a pretty sweet piece of gear.

Petzl recommends girth hitching it to your belay loop, as shown in this illustration from their website.

Let's check out another nice diagram from Petzl.

1. Where do I attach my lanyard?

“From a safety and strength perspective, the lanyard can be attached to the belay loop or to the two tie-in points. But as a matter of comfort, it is preferable to attach your lanyard to the belay loop.”

So, sounds like the final recommendation from Petzl is the belay loop.

Petzl - attach tether to belay loop — image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Belay-loop-and-tie-in-points--where-do-I-attach-my-lanyard--my-belay-device-and-my-rope-?ActivityName=Multi-pitch-climbing

Beal Dynaconnexion: use the belay loop.

Beal Dynaconnexion belay loop — image: https://www.beal-planet.com/en/index.php?controller=attachment&id_attachment=8219

CAMP Swing: use the belay loop.

CAMP swiNG https://www.camp.it/d/us/us/outdoor/product/2166

Edelrid Switch: use the belay loop.

Edelrid Switch - https://avs.edelrid.com/images/attribut/54625_GAL_SWITCH_SPORT_ANSICHT_DINA4_Homepage.pdf

3 - Via Ferrata: use the belay loop

Standard practice in via ferrata is to girth hitch your tether carabiners to your belay loop. Keep in mind that a via ferrata fall can can generate tremendous force on your anchor system, harness and your body, greater than a factor 2.

Here's a diagram from Edelrid. The text accompanying this diagram reads: “Via Ferrata sets or systems with tie-in loops are fastened to the tie-in ring (belay loop) with a choke hitch (girth hitch).”

image: edelrid.de/en/sports/harnesses.htm

Here’s a similar diagram from Petzl. Clearly, Petzl recommends that via ferrata tethers go onto the belay loop.

imae: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Harnesses/CORAX - technical notice PDF download

4 - Many expert climbers prefer attaching a tether to the belay loop.

Dave Searle, IFMGA Guide, via Instagram:

IFMGA Certified Guide Rob Coppolillo, co author of The Mountain Guide Manual:

“I hate girth-hitching through my harness tie-ins . . . And the material saws on itself when weighting/unweighting (that worries me with Dyneema; nylon not as much), whereas a girth to the belay loop tightens once and that's that. Then I remove it at the end of the day.”

Expert British climber Andy Kirkpatrick literally wrote the book on descending/rappelling. (It's called “Down”, highly recommended.) His book has a definite leaning to being extra safety conscious, and he has a clear preference for tethers on the belay loop. Here’s one example from page 230, showing the tether on the belay loop.

Here's a screen grab from a great tutorial video on making an “A thread” ice rappel anchor, from Steve House. Note the Dyneema sling, girth hitched to his belay loop.

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=5RKwAyscHFM

Here's a screen grab from the instructional video series “Safety Academy Lab Rock”, produced by Ortovox in partnership with Petzl and the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (in German, “VDBS”). Once again, a Dyneema sling, girth hitched to the belay loop. Do you think some of the top guides in the world and the largest climbing gear companies would promote a technique they thought was dangerous?

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXK1ekMZO7g

So, there are a few experts who think that putting the tether on your belay loop is fine. I could go on . . .

On the other side, you can find qualified guides who think you should always go through your tie in points, so you can find an opinion to match either side of this question.

Here’s another interesting thing in the above photos - most of the guides are using a skinny dyneema sling as a tether. Some people prefer not to do this, but these experts obviously think it’s fine. I don’t want to get into a long conversation here about knots in Dyneema, but you can learn more in this article.

5 - Black Diamond says . . .

Black Diamond did some pull/drop testing on various flavors of tether.

Using the Black Diamond Link (a series of sewn spectra loops, like a Metolius PAS) they girth hitched it to the belay loop of a harness on a test dummy. With a static pull, the belay loop broke at 21.9 kN. Clearly, attaching to the belay loop is plenty strong enough in any climbing situation.

However . . . even after that test, BD recommends the harness tie-in points, citing the Todd Skinner case: if you keep a sling pretty much permanently on your belay loop, it limits the rotation of the loop, and can concentrate wear in one spot. (To this one could respond, fine, then don't keep a tether permanently on your belay loop, problem solved.)

6 - More Black Diamond: belay loop testing

Black Diamond did some strength testing of belay loops. Here’s the article, it's a good read.

Black Diamond heavily abused belay loops in various ways - cutting them most of the way through with a knife, cutting and abrading the bar tacks with a file, etc. In just about every case, the loop still held multiple thousands of pounds. (Even when cut through 90%, it still held over 700 pounds, see photo below.)

“Belay loops are burly—really burly. To have one fail at body weight loads, or even small shock loads which could happen during rappelling is possible, but the belay loop would have to be SO worn through that it seems very unlikely.”

image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/qc-lab-strength-of-worn-belay-loops.html

7 - Belay loops on harnesses that are extremely well used still test very strong.

Rock and Ice magazine tested lots of heavily used harnesses. Here's a copy/paste from the blog of IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap. (Yes, heavy use lowers the belay loop strength, but not by any significant amount.)

“The number of days and falls a harness had suffered also lowered belay-loop strength. Harnesses with 250 or fewer days of use had an average belay-loop strength of 5,732 pounds, compared to 4,629 pounds for those used 451 days or more.”

8 - How about a bowline instead of a girth hitch?

Who says you have to use a girth hitch? Here's an example of a sling tied through the belay loop with a double loop bowline. This makes an open loop rather than a cinched-down hitch, making it friendlier to your belay loop. Here's the entire article on this clever technique.

A few words on Todd Skinner’s accident . . .

American climber Todd Skinner tragically died while rappelling in Yosemite in 2006. He apparently was rappelling fast on static ropes. The bottom of the rope was tied to the lower anchor (the “J loop”). Todd rapped into the bottom of the loop at speed, and when he hit the bottom of the loop, this large static force caused his belay loop, on his extremely old and worn out harness, to break. (Source: Andy Kirkpatrick, “Higher Education”, page 182, and private Instagram message to me from Will Gadd.)

Many people think Todd’s belay loop broke simply under his body weight while on a standard rappel. Apparently, that's not true.

Todd had tethers pretty much permanently girth hitched to the loop (standard for some big wall climbers), which apparently contributed to the excessive wear and tear on his harness.

He was also doing a lot of jumaring on the tethers, which, because of the bouncing back-and-forth bodyweight, puts thousands of load cycles onto the material. This is much different than the typical use of single load body weight at a rappel anchor, like how most climbers would use a tether. If you’re not big wall climbing or ascending a rope, your harness should never see this type of repetitive wear.

Before this tragic death, many climbers didn't give much thought where they attached their tether. Afterwards, everyone seemed to shift to using tie in points.

But . . . was this sudden change in “best practice” perhaps a bit of an overreaction? This accident, while widely publicized, has happened (to my knowledge) a grand total of once in the entire history of climbing.

Think of the outlier of Todd's accident this way - If you had a friend who chose to drive on ancient, bald tires, had a blowout and got into a car crash, would you stop driving? No. Instead, it would probably be a good reminder to follow standard safety practice - check and maintain your tires regularly and replace as needed.

Your belay loop is burly, rated to a minimum of about 15 kN; most test to about 20 kN. Like all the rest of your equipment, inspect your harness and belay loop regularly. If in good shape, I feel that using it to connect your rappel tether is fine. Manufacturers generally suggest about a 10 year lifespan for any harness, regardless of the amount of use. Many modern harnesses have “wear indicators”, that give a visual clue when it's time to retire your gear. Here's a nice article from Petzl showing you exactly how to inspect your harness.

If you choose to use your tie points for your tether, that's fine. But know that using your belay loop for a tether attachment is also acceptable, and in some cases, actually recommended.

There are only a handful of mandatory rules in climbing, “MUST to do it this way or else”. My opinion, this is not one of them.

John Godino 5/13/24 John Godino 5/13/24

Top tips: longer phone battery life in the backcountry

Here are detailed tips to keep your phone running longer in the backcountry: changing some phone settings, navigation tricks, and cold-weather protection. Yes, your phone can last for many days on one charge!

Except for a few hard-core Luddites, most of us carry phones in the backcountry and are glad we have them. Camera, music, podcasts, journal writing, Kindle book reading, compass, maps, GPS navigation and even flashlight . . . You may only use a couple of these, but even so, prolonging your phone battery charge can be very important. It's less important on a day hike then a multi day outing, but even then it's good to develop good practices.

Here are some tips on how to do that, divided into three main sections:

Settings
Navigation
Cold weather

Some of these may be iPhone specific, because that's what I have. (You Android folks hopefully have something similar.)

If you have a short attention span, here's the takeaway: 1) Bring an auxiliary battery and charging cable, and 2) keep your phone in Airplane mode.

On an iPhone, you can set the few helpful controls in your control center to quickly adjust power savings. I think airplane mode and screen brightness are default. You can also add the low power mode.

Phone settings

If you use almost all the battery saving settings in the section, the baseline battery use (phone is on and asleep, but not being used) is around 3% per day. If you have your phone in normal city settings, with none of the battery savings methods deployed, baseline use can be up to 30%. Yes, that's a huge difference.
Start your trip with a fully charged phone and extra battery. Yes, sounds obvious, but it's easy to overlook this, especially on a short drive to the trailhead.
Bring an auxiliary battery and charging cable(s). There are many options. Go with a name brand battery like Anker. Something around 5,000 mAh (milliamps) can charge your phone at least once. Add a short charging cable and you're looking at around $20 for both. For a longer trip up to a week, consider a 10,000 mAh battery. Charging cables can be delicate and get broken, consider bringing a spare. Get into the habit of bringing these on every trip, even a day hike.
Turn on Airplane Mode. This is probably the #1 habit to develop at the trailhead, and a good one to remind your team members about. Airplane mode stops your phone from trying to connect to the cell tower network. Especially when you’re out of cell phone coverage, these constant attempts to reconnect can really drain the battery. To check for messages or make a call, turn Airplane mode off for a minute or two if you have coverage, then turn it back on again when you’re done.
Turn on Low Power Mode. This reduces background activity, like downloads and mail fetching, and sets Auto Lock to 30 seconds. On iPhone: Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode
Turn down your Screen Brightness. The screen is probably the single biggest battery drain. If you're going to use your phone a lot, consider doing it in the evening when you can use lower brightness setting. If you need to use your phone during the day, try to find some shade. On iPhone: Settings > Display and Brightness > adjust the slider bar.
Tip for iPhone users: you can set up your control screen to adjust these three settings, see photo at top of the page.
Important: The GPS chip in your phone does not need cell coverage or Wi-Fi, and works fine in Airplane mode.
Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, and Personal Hotspot. On iPhone: Settings. Airplane mode might turn all of these off at once, but they can individually be turned on even if airplane mode is activated. If you want to use Bluetooth to listen to music on speakers/earbuds, or use a SEND (Satellite Emergency Notification Device) remember to turn Bluetooth off when you're done.
Deactivate Background App Refresh. On iPhone: Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Apps will no longer refresh in the background. You might be amazed at the number of these that are toggled on, many of them for apps you rarely use.
Set the Auto-Lock to the minimum. Auto-Lock puts your phone to sleep when you're not using it. Sure it's good habit to press the side button and put it to sleep manually, but if you forget to do this and put it in your pocket, a short screen lock time puts it to sleep quickly. On iPhone: Settings > Display and Brightness > Auto-Lock > set to 30 seconds.
Turn off some Siri settings. Siri has a fair amount of toggles turn on that don't really help you at all. Turn them off can save a little battery. On iPhone: Settings > Siri & Search. Turn off ther 8 toggles in the Before Searching, Content from Apple, and Suggestions from Apple category.
Close all open apps. While most apps just sit there and don't do anything, some continue to refresh in the background or even use GPS location data (like Google maps) and suck your battery. Shut down everything you don’t need in the backcountry, which should be pretty much everything.
Set your navigation app to only get your GPS location when you ask for it. Navigation apps need to be on all the time if you’re track recording, but if you only want an occasional position fix, it doesn’t need a constant GPS signal. On iPhone: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Gaia GPS > Ask Next Time. Now, when you tap the “show current location” icon in your GPS app, you should get a pop-up box requesting access. Tap “Allow Once” to show your location just for one time. Every additional time you open the app you should get this access request.
Turn off Location Services for your camera. Even if you shut down all unnecessary apps, you're still probably going to take some pictures. If you have Location Services on for your camera, every time you shoot a photo that's going to take a little extra power to “geotag” your photo with latitude longitude coordinates. On iPhone: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Camera > Never or Ask Next Time.
Turn off Data Sharing. As a default, Apple collects a LOT of data on how to use your phone! Your phone shares this on the regular, and the files can be as large as 10 MB. Sending these data packages can put a hit on your battery. If you're already in airplane mode this should not be an issue, but why not turn it off? And protect a bit of your privacy at the same time? On iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > Toggle everything off. (If you're curious what Apple is seeing on your phone, while you're there tap Analytics Data > then tap any one of the analytics files. It probably won't make any sense to you, but it's an impressive amount of snooping.
Turn on Auto-Brightness. This automatically adjust the screen brightness according to the light conditions, and can save a bit of battery. On iPhone: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size turn auto-brightness on.
Use Dark Mode. A study at Purdue University showed that for higher levels of screen brightness, which you will probably have if you're outside during the day, dark mode can offer a significant improvement in battery life. On iPhone: Settings > Display and Brightness > tap “Dark”. (Or, ask Siri to “turn on / turn off dark mode”.
Turn on grayscale mode. On newer phones, showing only grayscale instead of color can increase battery life. This setting is pretty buried. On iPhone: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size (under the “Vision” header) > Color Filters, toggle Color Filters. (Or, much easier, ask Siri to “turn on / turn off grayscale”.
GaiaGPS settings - GaiaGPS is a popular backcountry GPS phone app. If you tap through to Settings > Power Saving, there are a few adjustments there that can help preserve battery. 1. Keep screen on - toggle off for maximum battery life. 2. Disable altitude lookup - toggle on for maximum battery life.
3. Sync photos on cellular - toggle off for maximum battery life. 4. Better location accuracy when plugged in - toggle off maximum battery life. Note: #2 and #3 are irrelevant if the phone is in airplane mode, since the app won't be able to do those functions without a data connection. #4 will only use more power when plugged in, as the setting says. But possibly someone could have their phone plugged in to a portable charger, so better to leave it off.
Power down your phone, if you're really sure you don't need it. If you're confident in the route, have a paper map and decent map reading skills, and don't plan on taking photos with your phone, consider powering it down completely. Note: powering your phone completely off and then on again more than once or twice every 10 hours or so actually uses more battery than keeping the phone on all the time and waking it up from sleep mode. So, for most people, it's probably better practice to keep your phone on and sleep.
Consider powering down your phone at night. Test this at home to see if it makes a difference, see previous Tip. With some phones it does, others not so much. If it's cold, cuddle your phone in your sleeping bag.
Power down your phone, but have your partner(s) keep theirs on. No reason why both phones need to be on if they're not getting much use.
Turn Battery Percentage on. On an iPhone, you can show the percent battery you have left rather than just an icon. Knowing this number is helpful. On an iPhone: Settings > Battery > Toggle Battery Percentage on.
When charging your battery, only charge it when it's below 10% and try to avoid charging it past 70%. It takes more energy to push a battery past 70%, so stopping there helps preserve your auxiliary battery.
Check your battery health. On an iPhone: Settings > Battery > Battery Health. This compares as a percentage your battery with a new one. A lower percentage means a full charge doesn’t last as long. If capacity is less than 80%, consider replacing your battery; Apple consider this “worn”.
Text when you can. Voice calls need a strong signal, and use a lot of battery. A text message can often transmit on a very poor signal, and uses minimal battery.
Test your overall battery use on a long day hike, before relying on it for a long trip.

Navigation

For your navigation app, download maps before you go. Gaia GPS allows you to download a huge area (like all of Utah) to your phone taking up minimal memory. If you use Gaia GPS do this once and be assured the maps you need are on your phone's memory. (Same goes for music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc., if that's your thing; they can all be nice on a longer trip.)
Use a paper map as your primary navigation tool. Relates to the previous tip of keeping your phone powered off. Keep your phone’s GPS app in reserve, and pull it out only if your map, compass, and general observation of the terrain around you are not working.
Don't record a track. Yes, it's harder to brag on social media how many vertical feet you hiked, but track recording uses more battery. Many people do it out of habit, but do you really have to? A general rule for navigation apps: continuously recording a track or using the “Guide Me” function uses more battery power than using your phone to get a quick location fix. As of autumn 2021, apparently the current version of GaiaGPS on newer iPhones only uses about 2% battery per hour, which is pretty amazing. That’s the word from Gaia; your mileage may vary. I’ve heard 5% per hour from other sources.
If you need to record a track . . . If you're with a partner, have one person record a track and the other save their phone battery. If your hike is out and back, maybe stop recording for the return leg. If you have a SEND (Satellite Emergency Notification Device) that can record a track, maybe use that.
Instead of following a track, add waypoints on your route and use a “GPS bearing” to travel between waypoints. Trying to walk directly on a track that's on your phone uses more battery because the screen is on, and requires you to walk “heads down”, with decreased awareness of the terrain. Instead, use the “Guide Me” function on your phone to get a distance and bearing from your location to a waypoint, put your phone back in your pocket, and use a compass to follow the bearing.
Consider a smart watch. Yes, they’re expensive, but you can use it for basic GPS functionality and navigation, keeping your phone as a backup. Record a track on your watch instead of your phone.

Cold weather tips

Keep your phone warm. Best choice is usually an inside pocket close to your skin. If your base layers don't have a phone pocket, considering having one custom sewn.
Keep your auxiliary battery warm as well as your phone.
Phones are kind of like people - they do best around 65, and don't much like below 30 and above 90 degrees fahrenheit. Cold weather not only decreases battery life and messes with phone sensors, it can cause your phone to completely shut down; the phone is programmed to do this as a sort of “survival instinct.” This situation is temporary. Once the battery warms back up, it will return to normal performance.
The “battery percentage” may be wrong. Ever had your phone battery say 50% left on a cold day, and then a few minutes later it’s seemingly dead? It's probably not completely dead; the cold is confusing the phone hardware. Rewarm it in an inside pocket (or armpit), and it will probably come back to life.
Important: Don't charge a cold “dead” phone. Doing this can permanently damage your phone battery. Rewarm the phone before you try to charge it. Or, as I heard it once described, “a phone battery isn't dead until it's warm and dead.” =^)
Consider using a heat pack next to your phone case. There are even some heat packs that are apparently meant to work with phones, but I'm guessing they're pretty much the same as the standard hand warmer style heat packs. These have about a four year shelf life, so check the expiration date and replace them if needed. I've never done this, but some friends who live in cold places say it works. There are also phone cases made out of insulating material that might work better with the heat pack. You can buy some heat packs it last for up to 40 hours; believe it or not they’re made for shipping reptiles!

Alpinesavvy 3/14/24 Alpinesavvy 3/14/24

The "Oh Sh*t kit"

If you carry some small and lightweight rescue gear, you can improvise just about any sort of hauling, rope ascending, or mechanical advantage system you might need to rig. Here's what I carry.

Some of the links on this page go to HowNot2.store. If you purchase anything from this schweeeet climbing gear store and use the discount code “ALPINESAVVY”:

You get 10% off your purchase.
I may get a small affiliate commission which allows me to keep providing “no ads, no paywall” content like this to the community.
You support the awesome gear testing YouTube channel HowNOT2.

Having a few basic tools required to ascend a rope, set up a mechanical advantage haul system, or cut a rope / webbing is a great starting point for just about any sort of rescue scenario.

There are many items you could put in a kit like this. A frugal start is a couple of prusik loops and spare carabiners. But, having some dedicated gear offers greater efficiency and more options. Combine this rescue gear with a couple of 60 or 120 cm slings, or a cordelette, and you can do all kinds of rescue trickery!

For alpine climbing, here's what I usually carry:

Petzl Nano Traxion progress capture pulley
Petzl Tibloc rope grab
Sterling friction hitch (Hollowblock, or shown here, 6 mm autoblock cord)
Tiny hardware store cheapo lockblade knife, with tape wrapped around it to prevent it from opening accidentally, and a short clip-in loop attached. If you want a better knife, check out the Trango Piranha or the Petzl Spatha
All conveniently racked on an oval locker

The knife is used to remove sun-bleached ancient crusty webbing from rap anchors (hopefully replaced with new material by you), to cut a cordelette for rap anchor material, and if needed, to cut away something under tension in some sort of awful rescue rescue scenario where it might be your least-worst option. (See the classic Joe Simpson book “Touching the Void” for an epic story about this very thing.)

Here's the kit, all racked up on an oval. Nice, compact, and versatile.

John Godino 3/8/24 John Godino 3/8/24

30+ tips for more efficient aid climbing

A summary of various tricks and tips to aid climb more efficiently, also known as “just about everything I wish I knew when I started aid climbing”. These tips may take years off your learning curve.

Nearing the top of Moonlight buttress in a day, Zion national park Utah. Photo by me

“Speed climbing” on a big wall route gets a lot of press. But in reality, most of us plodders would do better to focus not on speed, but rather efficiency. Efficiency can mean not running out of water when your three day climb turns into four, avoiding strangling your partner (or vice versa), not taking 30+ minutes for a belay changeover, not climbing by headlamp when you could be kicking back in your portaledge . . . you get the idea.

Below is a somewhat random assortment of climbing tips to help you climb with greater efficiency, and thus speed. Why do I mention these particular tips? Because I ignored pretty much every single one of them on my first couple of walls and sometimes went pretty darn slow as a result. Sure wish I knew all these beforehand!

If you’ve been at the big wall game for a while, you probably know most of these already. If you're fairly new to aid climbing, these tips may be more helpful. These are merely my opinion/experience, and are by no means a complete list. In no order of importance, here we go.

Don’t rush

Speed does not mean fast. Speed means smooth, controlled, well-planned, and properly executed. The Navy SEALS have a saying: ”Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.” Do the task you have in front of you at a proper pace, and do it right the first time. “Smooth” comes from practice and having your systems dialed before you get up on a real climb.

What you're really striving for is efficiency, not speed. If you achieve efficiency, you can actually slow down in your movements, be more relaxed, and enjoy your experience more. Another way to think about it: you increase your speed by minimizing the downtime when no one is making upward progress.

Wall ace Mark Hudon: “Most wall climbers today would gain far, far more time by simply understanding and doing the basic big wall tasks faster.” So, what are the basic tasks? Leading, cleaning, hauling, anchor building, belay changeovers, rope / belay management, staying fed/watered and comfy during the day.

Think of everything physical as a “movement sandwich” (rest, move, rest)

Unlike most other aspects of rock climbing, you can rest pretty much whenever you want to on a big wall. Use this to your advantage. From big wall expert Andy Kirkpatrick’s excellent aid climbing book, “Higher Education”:

“You should never find aid climbing hard. If you do, it means you're doing it wrong. If your arms are tired when leading, you're not resting on your fifi hook. If you get pumped ascending a rope, that means your lanyards are not set right or you’re standing in the wrong step of your aider. The same goes for hauling, if you're busting a gut then switch it up to a 2:1 or maybe space hauling. Almost everything physical should be a ‘movement sandwich’, movement placed between two slices of rest. Rest-move-rest. Rest-move-rest.”

Time yourself when practicing

Yes, we’re talking stopwatch. During your training, time yourself and your partner doing different tasks. How long did it take you to do EACH of these tasks - Lead the pitch, build the anchor, fix the rope, set up the haul, do the haul, clean the pitch, re-rack the gear, and have your partner start leading the next pitch? Repeat all these on the same training route different times maybe over different days, and notice your times hopefully start to dramatically improve. Have fun, and make training a little competitive. Time each segment, loser buys beverages.

Don’t “learn” to aid on a real route

People stuck behind you who have the skills to climb it for real will NOT be happy. EVERYTHING you do on a wall should be practiced BEFORE you get to the actual climb. To put it another way, on your actual route, you should never be trying something for the first time.

Do repeat laps on obscure 5.11 cracks until you get your movement and systems dialed. Time yourself.
Haul a 100 pound bag 1:1.
Haul a 200 pound load 2:1.
Experience “riding the pig” by rappelling with your fully loaded haul bag. ( Tip - don’t hang it from your belay loop!)
Practice transitioning from aid climbing to free climbing
Set up your ledge on a real cliff and spend a night in it, not just in a backyard tree.
Poop in a bag, on your ledge
Do “aid bouldering” close to the ground, placing all manner of tiny stoppers, marginal hooks and micro cams until you really know how far you can push them before failure.
Practice passing a knot, both going up with ascenders and going down (rappelling).

Put in your training. Practice the core skills. You, your partner, and everyone behind you on the route will have a much better time. (People who go try Monkey Face at Smith Rock Oregon who have never aid climbed before and take 2 hours to lead and clean a short bolt ladder, I’m looking at YOU!)

Places to aid practice in Yosemite

You can practice just about every big wall skill on a short route

When practicing, make the best use of what you have. This could be a route in a cooperative climbing gym, or a one pitch obscure crack at your local crag. Don't start the pitch standing on the ground. Climb up just a few meters, make a hanging belay, and start from there. Make a few moves, build another belay, haul and bring your partner up and repeat. This gives you extra practice at anchor building, hauling, and transitions, which can be a giant time suck for beginners.

Have all the skills needed for your route

Study the topo, photos and trip reports. Is there a pendulum and a lower out? How far is it? Do you need to hook? Is there a burly off width? Do you know how to clean a traverse? What’s the hardest mandatory free climbing, and can I/we do it?

Do you know how to lead AND clean a roof? The classic “Kor Roof” pitch on the South Face of Washington Column in Yosemite has shut down many an ambitious first time big wall team. Roof climbing is admittedly hard to practice, but read the topo and do your best to train before you go. Try the underside of an outdoor staircase, playground swing set, rope between 2 trees, or roof route in a helpful climbing gym. If you’re in Yosemite, be sure to put in a practice lap or two on the LeConte Boulder.

There’s a bounty of route beta for just about every beginner route you would ever want to try. Study up, know what skills you need to have, and master them before you go.

Talk over each pitch before the climb

Before you leave the ground, go over every pitch in detail with your partner. Talk over who’s going to do what, when will it happen, and how you’re going to handle any anticipated difficulties. Do we have all the gear needed for the route? What’s the farthest we need to lower out the bags, and do we need a separate lower out line? Does a pitch go around a corner so we maybe can’t hear or see each other? (Better have a clear communication plan.) Are we leading in blocks or swapping leads? Who gets what pitches? What’s our anticipated timeline, and what do we do if we’re faster or slower than we planned?

Having an action plan means you don’t need to create one on the fly and make important decisions when you’re tired and stressed. Sure, you can change your plan, but it’s a starting blueprint that guides your actions, instead of pretty much winging it on every pitch.

Route topos

Make several copies of the route topo. One for each person on the team and one extra. I like to laminate mine at the office store, and put in a grommet, and then tie some cord through the grommet as a clip in point.

Save a photo or PDF of the topo (and other relevant beta, like the descent route) onto your phone, which is free and weighs 0.0 grams. This goes for your partner as well.

Always ask yourself when you have downtime: “What could I be doing right now to make this climb faster or safer?”

Especially for beginners, there’s almost always something. Be on a constant lookout for small potential problems, and deal with them before they become larger real problems. “Hmm, looks like that haul rope is hung up on something. I better deal with that right now before the leader starts to pull it up . . . ”

Andy Kirkpatrick: Remember the number one sentence that needs to be avoided on a wall: “Hang on a minute!”

Strive for well-organized anchors

This is probably the single biggest time suck and cluster-generator for newer climbers. Something as simple as which side of the anchor to dock the haul bag can create either an effortless release or an incredible tangle. Decide where the bag is going to go, use rope bags, have multiple full strength clipping points, keep the lead rope and haul rope separated and tangle free and you'll be well on your way.

Maintaining the psyche

Big wall expert Mark Hudon has some self-talk he uses when things get spicy: “I may be scared, but I’m at LEAST as good as the WORST climber who has ever done this route! If they got past this point, dammit, so can I!” Remind yourself of this, and maybe even laugh a little when you’re faced with a tough spot.

Be patient with your partner and do not “blame”, no matter whose fault something might be. Mistakes will happen. Work together to overcome the problem.

Use a day bag

Don’t be diving into the haul bags at each belay to get snacks, water, sunscreen, windbreaker, etc. It's big time suck, waste of energy, and greatly increases the chance of dropping something. In the morning, put all the stuff you need for the day in a smaller “day bag” (aka “piglet”) or wall bucket, tied outside your haul bag (probably on a gear tether) for easy access. (Remind your partner to get their day gear all ready at the morning bivy.) Check out the “RTFN bag” and Wall Bucket at Skot’s Wall Gear.

Second leaves the belay fast

Try to minimize time when both climbers are at a belay and not moving. Especially, strive for fast belay changeovers. Slow belay changeovers can be a huge time suck for beginners.

The leader should call down when they are getting close to the anchor (the 25 foot rule) so the second can start tidying things up. One good thing for the belayer to do at this point is to be sure the haul bags are properly packed away, unencumbered, the haul rope is running freely, and the bags and rope are ready for lift off, because the very first task for the leader is to pull the bags a little bit off of the anchor, so the second can clean everything.

The leader should never be “ready to haul” and have to then wait for the second to sort things out!fdecide

When the leader calls “rope is fixed” the second can clip their ascenders to the lead rope and fully weight it. This frees up most of the anchor, the second can get to work breaking it down, and get ready to release the bags.

Use a docking cord

Releasing the bags should be pretty much effortless if you use a docking cord, which is a tether that’s releasable under load. Forget the old school method of using a daisy chain or some other static sling to connect your bags to the anchor; this can often require brute force to get your bags moving, especially if the pitch above traverses.

If the next pitch traverses to one side (say the right), you probably want the bags docked on the right side of the anchor, so they don't swing across you and smack you when you release them.

There's really no need to haul the bags up snug with the anchor on every pitch, unless you’re spending the night there. Hanging the bags a bit below the anchor can make your belay less clustered.

Generally, the bags should never be undocked by the second until they have fully lifted off from the anchor, and the second can check that nothing is hung up, carabiner is being weighted correctly, etc.

Clean the gear in semi-tidiness

You don’t need to be super type A and organize every piece of gear immaculately when cleaning, but you also don’t want to clip it any which way.

A cleaning system that works well: have two single length / 60 cm runners, one over each shoulder. Use wider nylon slings rather then skinny Dyneema - wider is more comfortable under a load of gear.

Clip free carabiners and slings onto one runner, and gear onto the other. Generally order the gear by size, but don’t be too fussy about it at the expense of upward progress. Avoid racking gear on your waist loops, unless you like the feeling of 30+ pounds of hardware causing your harness to slowly creep down towards your ankles.

When the cleaner gets to the top anchor, these two gear slings get clipped somewhere safe, and quickly added back onto the lead rack by whoever is leading the next pitch.

Doing this allows you to quickly hand off the gear at the next belay, rather than unclipping things one by one from your gear loops. This is much faster, and there’s less chance to drop things.

Lead gear should be easy to place and easy to clean

From big wall ace Kevin DeWeese: “Free climbing is faster than placing gear. Cam hooks are often faster then micro cams in the proper crack. Cams are usually preferable to stoppers.”

If you’re going to place a nut, see if you can place a cam to stand in, and then set a nut next to it with a gentle tug, without loading it with your bodyweight. This makes the nut much easier to clean. (Note: on soft desert sandstone, it can be better practice to use nuts rather than cams. Many popular routes are optimized for nut placements, and doing so helps preserve the rock.)

Don't get carried away with your bounce testing

Classic beginner mistake with bounce testing: they slam their whole body weight on every single piece, even when it's an obviously solid. Doing this wastes time, potentially damages your smaller gear, and can make cleaning gear (especially stoppers) much harder for your partner.

The purpose of bounce testing is to give you confidence that the gear will hold your weight when you fully transfer onto it. The purpose is (usually) not to know if it's going to hold a big fall. (With a moderate bounce, you can apply about double your body weight onto the protection.) So, if you place a good piece, don't bother bounce testing. If you place a marginal piece, ease onto it slowly, give it a small bounce to be sure it's going to hold, and then climb those ladder steps quickly and with confidence.

Build anchors fast

Anchors in many climbing situations rarely see any significant weight at all. Anchors on a big wall see large loads all the time.

You and your partner should agree on a standardized anchor system that you can use at most anchors, and try to stick to it. It should probably be based around two or three roughly horizontal bolts, because that’s probably what you’re going to find. But always read the topo and know what to expect.

Strive for clean, simple, easy-to-understand anchor systems. A spaghetti pile of rope and webbing is confusing and dangerous, because you don’t readily know what can be safely unclipped and what cannot.

Have two different identical “anchor kits”, a pre-packaged collection of whatever carabiners and slings you and your partner agree on to quickly build an anchor. (Avoid the common beginner mistake of building an anchor with whatever bits of slings and scavenged carabiners you have left after a long pitch.) At the bare minimum, your anchor kit should have three large carabiners. Once you are skilled at big wall anchor building, the leader should be hauling in not much more than 10 minutes after reaching the anchor on a trade route.

Here’s one of many approaches to anchor building:

Leader clips three large locking HMS carabiners (or maybe a Grivel Vlad, a combination carabiner and 3 hole rigging plate) from the anchor kit onto each bolt.
Leader cloves themselves to the middle bolt and adds a backside butterfly knot on an outside bolt closest to where the second will arrive (call it the right) at the anchor. BOOM, leader is connected to two bolts, and the lead rope is fixed to two bolts for the second. This should take about two minutes max. Note that the leader and the second are not “equalized” in the standard definition, but each of their connections is on two bolts.
Leader clips a pre-tied mini quad anchor, or maybe a long PAS, or two single runners onto the left and center bolt. Leader starts hauling from this equalized masterpoint. Bag(s) are docked to the loops on the PAS or the top loops of the quad. (The PAS gives you lots of convenient spots to clip stuff to, which as a beginner you will certainly appreciate.)
Regarding hauling from a single bolt: Yes, it’s probably okay to haul off of one bolt, provided you have COMPLETE confidence in it, but if you feel happier distributing that big load onto two pieces of gear, go for it. Do you KNOW that bolt was placed correctly? Common trade route in Yosemite granite (maybe with an ASCA - “American Safe Climbing Association” - hanger), probably yes. More obscure route in most other parts of the world, maybe no. (Don’t go by what’s stamped on the hanger. Could be a lame 5 Kn bolt with a 20 Kn hanger.) The consequences of a single bolt hauling anchor failing may be catastrophic. Think it through and use the system you are comfortable with, even if it takes a bit more gear and another minute to set up.

Complex rigging is generally not needed on trade routes

Equalizing three modern bolts with a cordelette (or even two!) is probably not needed. Many people will want to haul from an anchor that distributes the load to more than one bolt. A pre-equalized system, such as a permanently-tied quad, 2 single length runners or a long PAS can work great. Both of these systems also do not require you to untie any welded knots when you break down the anchor, which is a big plus.

Leader gets safe, fixes the lead rope, and starts to haul before doing anything else

After finishing the pitch, the main task of the leader is to get the haul bags just a meter or so off the lower anchor so the second can start breaking down the anchor and cleaning. The second can’t really do anything until that happens. So the leader has to 1) fix the lead rope, 2) rig the haul system, and 3) start the haul ASAP. The leader can take a break, have a snack/water, take pictures, etc. ONLY after they do these 3 tasks and lift the bags a bit off the lower anchor.

Note: the leader should ALWAYS 1) fix the lead rope, and then 2) set up the hauling system, in this order. This is an important safety consideration that both climbers should follow, especially if you don't have good voice communication. When the second sees the haul bag start to move, they 100% know that the lead rope is fixed, even without any voice communication. (If the leader was still climbing the pitch, it would not be possible for them to haul.)

Also, another safety consideration for the leader when setting up the haul: engage the cam of your progress capture pulley BEFORE you start pulling up the slack rope. Reason: if your second releases the bags prematurely, they will be caught by the engaged cam. If you don't have the cam engaged, the bags will drop, big problem.

Avoid hauling over edges/ledges

If your haul rope runs over any sort of a ledge or rock edge, it's going to add significant friction and require a LOT more effort to raise the pigs. Do whatever you can to minimize this by either raising the master point or extending the master point over the edge. Then, just manhandle the bags up onto it when they arrive if that’s your bivy. If you're not spending the night there, it's probably OK for the bags to hang out below the ledge, usually no real need to bring them up tight to the anchors. If you are hauling over a ledge, might be a good time to haul directly from the single highest bolt, rather than making a master point that will be lower.

Leader preps for the next pitch at the belay

After the leader has hauled, they should be scoping the next pitch, reading the topo, readying needed gear, noting gear that’s not needed, and helping the follower (if swinging leads) to blast off ASAP and properly equipped in any way possible.
The leader can place the first piece of gear for the next pitch for their second. This lets the second move past the actual anchor and clip to this gear. This can spread out the climbers and generally decluster things, especially if the belay is something other than wide and horizontal.
The leader can break down the hauling kit and clip it to the first piece of gear for the next pitch, so the second can easily grab it and not forget it.

Keep your ropes tidy

Not staying on top of your ropes can significantly cluster your anchor, leading to the all too common beginner big wall mistake of somehow having part of your lead rope pinned underneath / around the haul line/bag, or some other random bit of rope weirdiosity that needs your time, mental energy and often brute force to sort out.

It's good practice to not allow rope ends to flap around in the breeze. All unused ropes are in bags or tied up, and all rope ends should be clipped to something.

Probably the simplest way to wrangle your rope: butterfly coil the rope through a single length / 60 cm runner.

Rope bags are very helpful. Using them pretty much guarantees that your rope is not going to get snarled or blow sideways and cause a problem. Skots Wall Gear makes a nice double bag; one side for the lead rope and one side for the hall rope. The frugal climber can try stout, reuseable grocery bags. Trader Joes makes some nice ones. Tip: double bag it: put one bag inside the other and Gorilla tape the handles and the tops together.

An option for the lead rope is for the second to tie back up loops on a large carabiner when cleaning, and then clip this carabiner onto the anchor. If you do it right the rope is in a series of overhand knots with short loops between them.

Use butterfly knots

Just about anytime you’re thinking of tying a figure 8 on a bight, you're probably better off tying a butterfly knot instead. The butterfly serves pretty much the same function, and it's easier to untie after it's been loaded.

Take advantage of favorable temperatures

If it's hot, make a point to climb in the cool of the morning and perhaps at night if it all possible. This might mean a midday siesta in the portaledge, which might not of been part of the original plan. If it’s hot, a spray mister bottle and an umbrella can make life a LOT more pleasant.

Lead with confidence

You’re on a C1 or C2 route, and you’ve got a boatload of modern gear. This is the aid version of climbing a 5.9 sport route with huge jugs!

Don’t test that bomber cam with three bounces. Set it, maybe give it one good bounce, and go. Don’t tiptoe up in your aiders, tentatively pausing at every step. Step up high and quickly. Your goal is to get into your third or even second steps ASAP, so take the “stairs” fast. If that piece does blow, you have another bomber placement at your feet, right? So get on up there! Watch a good aid climber on C1. They are pretty much always in upward motion. This is your goal as well.

Remember to eat

Adrenaline has many strange effects on the human body. One of them is a shutdown, in varying degrees, of the digestive system. When you're pumped and a bit scared all day long, it's likely you won't feel much hunger, but it's imperative you force yourself to eat. Otherwise you could get to a state of what in the bike racing world is known as “bonking” - low blood sugar and a dramatic drop off in performance. Have something to eat, at least after every hour or so, whether you want to go or not. Remember to keep your snacks handy in a day bag or wall bucket, not buried in the main haul bag.

Try the “T-Step” when leading

The “T-Step“ (similar to “Teeing Off, a similar technique generally credited to Utah big wall pioneer Ron Olevsky) is a lesser known but highly effective way to stand tall in your aid ladders, on steep terrain, without using a fifi hook. It works with either foot, here's an example using the right. Stand with your right foot in your aider. Turn your left foot counterclockwise 90 degrees to the left. Then put the arch of your left foot over the toes of your right foot (making a letter “T”, get it?), with the aid ladder between each leg. Sounds weird, but try it. You'll be able to stand in your second or even top step in complete comfort, with no fifi, even if the terrain is up to vertical. Learn more and see a video demo here.

Fifi and daisies

If you’re using a fifi hook, try step up tall and clip it into your designated aider carabiner, not anything lower. One way to remember this is think “metal to metal” - clip the fifi only to something metal, not your ladder step or loop on your daisy.

If you’re climbing with adjustable tethers, avoid the habit of pulling them in tight on every single move. Yes, it may feel secure, but then extending them after each move really adds time. You really only need to inch your way up on them if it’s overhanging. On anything less than vertical, there’s rarely a need to snug up your tether at all. This is why you need a fifi AND your adjustable tether - use the fifi on those less than vertical sections.

Consider getting an Alfifi, which is an adjustable daisy with a stiff fifi hook welded on the end. Sounds weird, works great, and is considered mandatory gear in Yosemite these days.

And, to streamline things even further, consider not using tethers at all on easier routes. When leading, their main purpose is to keep you from dropping your aiders. So, YO, be careful and don't drop ‘em! (Yes, it's OK to bring a spare aid ladder in case you do.) If you learned to aid climb using daisies, this might seem like a drastic step, but try to be objective and do this little test: time yourself leading a pitch both with and without daisies. You’ll probably be faster without them.

Tagging gear

A lead rack is heavy. Don't make it heavier than you have to. By using a small diameter (5-6mm) tagline, you can send up both gear that you might need while leading, and gear that you need after you finish the pitch.

The leader doesn’t need to carry every piece of gear they might need for the entire pitch. Send it up as needed on the tagline. (Give the belayer a heads up as to the needed gear, so they can can get it ready. Such as: “I’m going to need that #4 Camalot in five minutes.”) It's best to keep extra hardware not buried in the haul bag, but in an easily accessible “gear closet.”

Have the second tie a bight loop about 1 meter across in the tagline, and clip the gear into this loop. When the leader pulls this up, they can put the loop over their shoulder or neck to more conveniently unclip the gear.

When lowering the tagline back down, feed it carefully hand over hand so it doesn't get tangled, don't just toss it.

If you’re more than half the distance of your tagline, your belayer can use the haul rope to extend the tagline, send you the gear you need, and then retrieve the tag line back to the belay.

The leader can also use the tagline for everything they're going to need once they arrive at the anchor - haul rope, anchor kit (HMS carabiners, mini quad or PAS), hauling kit (progress capturing pulley, 2-1 hauling kit, if using) and maybe water, snacks and a windbreaker. This can save the leader a LOT of weight, like 20+ pounds!

The leader needs to be extremely careful to not fumble and drop the tagline when they arrive at the anchor. Pull up some slack, tie it off somewhere, and THEN unclip the tagline from your harness.

Cam jugging

Are you climbing a crack that’s consistently 1 inch wide? Keep a 1 inch cam on each of your ladders, and start “cam jugging” by moving them up several moves in a row without clipping the rope. I prefer to not “leapfrog” or move one ladder past the other, but instead keep the top ladder on the top.

Stop every 10 feet or so and put in gear. If the crack varies a bit in width, you could have an Omega Pacific Link Cam (the red and gold are often the most useful sizes) on each aider, which covers a wider size range. Either way, you’re not fiddling with gear on your rack; it’s right there on your aider ready to plug in.

This of course also makes it faster for your second, because there’s less cleaning, and any stoppers you place will usually not have been bounce test loaded with the leader’s full weight, making cleaning easier.

For that matter, you could take the next step of adding a small locking carabiner on the end of your aiders, and clipping in a few of the most commonly used small cams. Maybe add a cam hook, a Talon hook, and a rivet hanger, depending on the gear needs of the pitch.

Trust and use cam hooks

They can be a huge timesavers in small cracks. Use them whenever you can (but not on softer sandstone, as they can damage the rock). It's usually much faster to use a cam hook then it is to fiddle around with a tiny stopper or micro cam. If the tiny crack is consistent, make several cam hook moves in a row, and then place some real protection for peace of mind.

They come in a range of sizes; most folks find the medium to get the most use. You can attach a cam hook directly to your aider (girth hitch or quicklink) if you think you’ll be using them a lot.

Bring a “beak” piton

A beak style piton, such as the Moses Tomahawk or Black Diamond Pecker, can be very handy to have even on a hammerless “clean” rated route (like C1, C2, etc). Rather than hammering in traditional piton style, a beak can often be gently hand-placed in a very thin crack, eliminating the need to fiddle around with micro stoppers. Another placement option is to loop the beak over the top of a copperhead placement where the wire has torn off, a common scenario on many routes which can be quite a challenge if you don't have a way to get past it.

Use designated carabiners for your ladder and tether

“Designated” means just that. These carabiners stay permanently attached to the top of your ladders and tethers, and you never pirate ‘em for anything else. Ideally, these are a matched pair, and a distinct model and color from any other carabiners you have. If you do this, setting up for cleaning or leading can be done in a few seconds, using the same setup every time, with no searching around for a spare carabiner.

Bring a hammer

Even on routes rated “C” for “clean” (aka hammerless) where are you don't plan on whacking any pitons, a hammer can still be helpful. Typically this stays with second. Use it to clean stoppers, booty gear (left behind by others who probably didn't have a hammer) and for tapping on knots, which can encourage them to loosen up. You don't need a big burly $$$ wall hammer for light duty use; a small cheapo one works fine. If it's a standard claw hammer, you might want to use an angle grinder to grind off the claw part so it doesn't gouge you. Drill a hole in the handle and add a short keeper cord. If the leader needs a hammer to place a beak, as mentioned above, the second can put it on the tagline and send it up.

Everyone has a Grigri

Treat it as personal gear that you always have on you. Being able to release a rope that is under tension is what the Grigri is all about, and that makes it an all-purpose big wall problem solver. Have one with you all the time, even the leader. (The leader can use it to adjust their position at the belay, and also to return to their high point if they take a fall, among other things.)

If you can find one, consider using Grigri version 1, the larger gray one. It handles the larger diameter ropes typically used in aid climbing better than the newer style Grigris.

Cheat when you’re free climbing

You're not going for an ethical red point here, so do whatever you can to maintain upward progress. Try some “French free” climbing by pulling on your gear. If you have a consistent crack, place a cam in it and move it up above you every time you make a free move. Place some gear and rest on it when you like. You get the idea. There aren't any rules here.

Lead in blocks

Having one person lead several pitches in a row, known as block leading, can help establish a rhythm and mental focus for each climber, as well as offering appropriate resting times. This is not so common in normal multi pitch climbing, but give it a try when you’re training for a big wall and see if you like it.

Practice traverses and lower outs

Especially for the second, this can be a big problem area for beginners. As mentioned above, include these in your training until it's second nature, and don't try these skills for the first time on a real route. Consider using a designated lower out cord if the ones you have are fairly short.

Short fixing

A next, and more advanced, step in speed is short fixing. Here, when the leader reaches the belay, they pull up the slack, fix the lead rope, add a clove hitch or Grigri self belay, and continue on the next pitch while the second ascends and cleans. Describing this technique adequately is beyond the scope of this beginner-oriented post, but there are plenty of web resources to learn how to do this. (Note that if you’re hauling big loads on a multi day route, this is not normally used; short fixing is mostly used for speed ascents with minimal hauling.)

This is an advanced technique you will probably not use on your first few walls, but it can be the next big step in speed and efficiency.

John Godino 2/9/24 John Godino 2/9/24

Belaying the leader with a “fixed point” belay

Common practice in many parts of Europe, belaying a leader directly from an anchor rather than your harness is a new idea for many Americans. This article covers an overview of the technique, pros and cons, an FAQ, photos of how to set it up, and print / video resources for further study.

Alpinesavvy thanks Angelique Brown for translating the French technical documents mentioned in this article, Richard Goldstone for editorial comments, ACMG Alpine Guide Sean Isaac for some FAQ details, and IFMGA Certified Guide Patrick Ormond for a few extra fixed point belay tips.

Note: All climbing techniques, especially one as important as belaying a leader, are best learned under the guidance of a qualified instructor, ideally a credentialed mountain guide. Please seek out proper instruction if you want to learn this technique. This article is for informational purposes only and does not replace in-person instruction and practice.

If you've been climbing for awhile, you might remember around 2001 when the Petzl Reverso belay device was introduced. For most climbers, it’s most innovative, and to some controversial feature, was the ability to belay your second directly off the anchor and have the device autolock.

Now, the autolock feature was great, but belay your second off of the anchor?! Why would I do that? That's what the belay loop on my harness is for! Those crazy Euros, always inventing stuff we don't need . . .

The general acceptance of climbing “best practices” does evolve, but it tends to do so rather slowly. In the progression of belay technique, we've gone from hip and body belays, to doing everything off of the harness, to the now generally accepted procedure of belaying the second directly from the anchor. What might be next?

Belaying the LEADER directly from the anchor is known as a “fixed point” belay.

The main reasons to use this:

Prevent the belayer from being violently yanked into the air, slammed against the rock, and potentially being injured or even losing control of the belay
Reduces the force on lead protection due to rope slippage
Allows a greater chance of actually holding a factor 2 fall.

The German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein, or DAV) is one of the leading proponents of this technique. Here's what they have to say about it. (pdf article link) (Bold text mine)

“Consequently, you ought to be familiar with the anchor belay method which is the basic method for multi-pitch routes. Generally speaking, the body belay method (from the belay loop) is an option in particular on pitches fully equipped with bolts and with smaller distances between the bolts. The anchor belay method, however, is the more recommendable belay method in routes with a more alpine character, i.e. with only few or questionable intermediate fixing points, traverses, confusing route courses or the possibility of far, uncontrolled falls.“

It's also recommended by the French National Mountain Guide School (École Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme, or ENSA). Here are their conclusions: (The quotations are from this video, see it below.)

3:20 “If you’re tied into an anchor, the (belay) method which generates the lowest forces on the runner holding the fall is when the belay system is placed directly on the anchor. This is also the safer and more comfortable method for the belayer.”

5:27 - “When the belayer does not have the option of belaying dynamically on a large ledge, we recommend you build an anchor with a fixed central point and belay directly on this central point.”

image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZQnCGl24A

There are some compelling reasons and specific situations when might want to use this. There are also some specific requirements of anchor building to do this most effectively, that may well run counter to what you think you know about anchor construction.

It's not the purpose of this article to tell you everything about this technique, nor to suggest you should start using it tomorrow. It's more to provide information and resources so you can consider if and when you may want to implement this in your own climbing.

The following points are from the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) video, linked to at the bottom of this article. Consider a fixed point belay when there is/are:

Two very solid anchor components that can take a hard upward pull, usually 2 bolts or ice screws. (A fixed point belay can be done on a trad gear anchor, but you need a solid upward directional piece. It’s a good idea to initially learn this technique on bolts, then try it with a trad anchor.)
The anchor master point is waist to head height, chest high is ideal. This makes for easier rope feeding. If the anchor is much higher or lower (like on a slab), it can be difficult to feed rope properly.
Large weight difference between climbers (heavier leader and a lighter belayer).
Higher potential for a leader fall.
Potential for a higher impact/high fall factor.
Potential for a long leader fall, such as slab routes or alpine ice routes.
Possible issues in giving a reliable belay, such as an inexperienced belayer, icy ropes, a poor stance, or a belay under a roof of other feature where the belay might get yanked into, or maybe a traversing pitch, where the belayer might be pulled sideways.

What are some of the key features of a fixed point belay?

In the event of a fall, force is transferred directly to the anchor, rather than to the belayer's body.
When building the anchor, you don't try to “equalize” forces the two bolts or screws. That's right, no equalization.
The belayer often belays the leader with a Munter hitch, because it has some slippage and thus lowers forces on the leader. (The Munter belay doesn't really mean the rope slips through your hand. The brake hand is pulled towards the knot, and the increased friction as the rope runs through the knot absorbs some of the energy from the fall.) It's also possible to belay with a belay plate, provided you redirect the brake strand until solid gear is placed by the leader.
Because of more rope possibly slipping through your belay device or Munter hitch, wearing gloves is highly recommended.
The belay carabiner should be attached to the anchor in such a way that there will be minimal upward travel in case of a leader fall. A rule of thumb for this: try to limit upward movement to about 20 cm / 6 inches or less. This means keeping your anchor material fairly tight and the hole you clip to fairly small, examples of that below.
It can be easier to feed rope if the belayer is hanging below the master carabiner, rather than off to the side.
Bolts oriented vertically usually work best, like the vertical Fixe chain and ring anchor shown below, or the diagram at the very top of the page. This style of vertical anchor hardware is optimized for belaying the leader directly from the bottom ring. However, it's also easy to rig a fixed point belay horizontally, see example below.
Note: the belayer has the option of beginning the pitch using a Munter hitch, and then after the climber is further up, has more rope out and a few good pieces in, can transition to a more traditional belay from their harness. This isn’t an “all or nothing” system. You can use a “hybrid” of two different belay methods on the same pitch. To do this, have a look at the pitch. If you think your leader can get in some solid placements about 5 meters away from your anchor, pull up about 7 meters of rope, and add your belay device. Belay directly from the anchor with a munter hitch until they clip a couple of pieces, then have them get into a rest stance for a moment while you transition to a harness belay. (This is one you definitely want to practice in a controlled environment.)

What are some downsides of a fixed point belay?

Can be more difficult to feed out rope quickly
Increases the force of the fall on the leader
Generally, this system should NOT be used when: single pitch climbing with the belayer on the ground, if the belayer needs to be positioned away from the anchor, If the anchor point is low down or on a slab or otherwise in an awkward position, or when there's no option to create an anchor that can take an upward pull.

Fixe chain and ring anchor; a perfect set up for a fixed point belay.

A few common questions, comments and grumbles. . .

Does a fixed point belay increase the force on the top piece of gear? It depends on the particulars of the belay (Munter hitch or ATC, firm grab or let a bit of rope slip out), but generally the answer seems to be “no” to “a little bit.” As mentioned above, tests by the French National Guide School state that the direct belay generated the lowest forces on the top piece of gear. Tests by the DAV (German Alpine Club) show that forces on the top piece of gear are essentially the same as when belaying the leader off your harness. Part of the reason for this is that the belayer’s weight is taken out of the equation, so there is less of a pulley effect on the top piece of gear.

From Mountainproject: “Practical tests by the German DAV, the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and the Italian CAI showed that belaying from the body without the possibility of actively moving into the direction of the falling leader (aka dynamic belay) results in similarly high forces (ca. 5,7 kN) on the last bolt/nut/cam, as belaying from the anchor directly (ca. 5,8 kN).”

“Does a fixed point belay increase the force on the belay anchor?” No. Testing (See the French Mountain Guide School video link below at 2:14) shows the forces on the anchor are actually reduced. From the translated ENSA article, link below: “Paradoxically, the force is generated on the anchor is more significant when the belay is on the harness. The belayer, pulled by the faller, takes on speed, and therefore kinetic energy. Once the belayer can no longer move, the anchor experiences two stopping forces, the faller and the belayer.”

“Isn't it better to clip the anchor is the first piece, to redirect the rope and prevent a factor 2 fall?” Short answer is no. In the worst case of a factor 2, it's better for the force to be held by the completely equalized anchor then the two times multiplication of force that happens with a clipped redirect due to the pulley effect.

“Does a fixed point belay increase force on the falling climber?” Yes. The force on the falling climber is no longer partially being absorbed by the belayer being pulled upward, so more of it goes to the leader.

“Does this create dangerous three-way loading on the carabiner?” No. Even when catching a hard lead fall, the forces in the system are nowhere close to what is required to break a carabiner (which is around 17 kN if it's loaded equally in three directions.) Here's a more detailed article about off-axis carabiner loading.

“Can I use a tube belay device or a Grigri instead of a Munter hitch?” You can use a tube device, but you need to take the extra step of redirecting the brake strand before the leader clips the first piece of gear, which is one more thing to remember and might make it initially a little harder to feed rope. After the leader gets some solid gear in, you can remove the redirect piece and probably have a smooth easy belay. A Grigri is not recommended, because it allows less rope slippage, which can increase the force on the lead climber and the top piece of protection.

“I'm concerned that belaying with a Munter hitch will twist the rope.” Belaying a leader with a Munter generally does not twist the rope, because there’s not a continuous load, such as when rappelling. If belaying with a Munter hitch, using an auto-locking carabiner can minimize any chance of the rope messing with the carabiner gate.

“When I'm bringing up my second, can I do it from the fixed point, or do I have to completely re-rig the anchor?” Yes, you can bring them up off of the fixed point. No need to change anything on the anchor.

“I like to give a ‘soft catch’ dynamic belay so it's less force on the gear and on my partner. This technique doesn’t let me do this.” A well-timed jump for a “soft catch” is great if you're standing on the ground or a big ledge, but it doesn't work at a tiny ledge or hanging belay station. (Plus, the French tests indicate that letting a bit of rope slip through your belay more effective in lowering forces then using a more dynamic style belay.)

What?! Those bolts aren't equalized! That's not a real anchor! That’s right. You're not trying to distribute the force evenly like in a more traditional anchor. All of the load is on one anchor, and the other is there for redundancy/backup. This technique is only to be used when the gear placements are unquestionably strong. This usually means two bolts or two bomber ice screws. Keep in mind, the maximum upward force tested in a lead fall is about 4 kN. Also, the munter hitch will begin to slip at around 2-3 kN, further reducing the peak force.

“Can I do a fixed point belay with a gear anchor?” You can, but there needs to be an upward pull component of the anchor. (This is for sure a more advanced technique, definitely practice it with a qualified instructor, and we're not going to cover this belay style from gear anchors in this article.)

“How do I use double ropes?“ You need to use a tube style belay device, not a Munter hitch. If you do this, the brake strand must be redirected until the leader clips at least two fully reliable protection points, a.k.a. bolts.

“What's up with that double loop bowline on a bight? Isn’t a bowline an unstable knot? Is that redundant with just the one strand around the knot? What if you ring load it, is that a problem?“ The double loop bowline on a bight has been extensively tested by Canadian and European mountaineering associations, who had determined it’s fine for this application. Test result: 20 kN, #SuperGoodEnough!

So, what if you don’t have a nifty Fixe vertical anchor rig like the above photo, but a standard American style two bolt horizontal anchor? No worries - here’s one of several ways to do it. This can be tied with cord or webbing, here were using a sewn sling. (Note, this is pretty much the same system shown in the drawing at the very top of the page, just turned horizontally.)

You need:

one sewn double length / 120 cm runner, nylon preferred (also works with a cord loop)
one regular carabiner
two locking carabiners, with1 of them a pear shaped , HMS belay carabiner, if belaying from a Munter hitch. Canadian Guide Sean Isaac likes the Edelrid HMS Strike Triple FG carabiner, which is a triple action, captive eye carabiner that makes for a more secure belay.

First, prepare your anchor sling. You could tie this with a simple overhand loop. But a bowline on a bight (aka double loop bowline) is better, because the two loops are stronger and its easier to untie if you want to. Now, most folks have never tied a double loop bowline, let alone in webbing. It can be a little tricky to tie correctly. If you tie it wrong, you may get a slipknot. If you tie it correctly, you should have two small loops a couple of inches in diameter. So, take your time and do it right.

Once you're tie it, you probably don't have to untie it for a while. (If you happen to catch some big whippers on it, probably best to untie it and retie the loops in a different spot.)

Tip: Put the sewn bar tacks on the far other end away from where you tie the bowline on a bight.

I know of two ways to tie a double loop bowline. The diagram below is probably the simplest. The video shows another method.

double bowline on a sling for fixed point belay.jpg — image: Georg Sojer, https://www.outdoor-magazin.com/klettern/basiskurs-alpines-klettern/

Here ‘s a short video on how to tie a bowline on a bight.

When you're done, your anchor sling should look like this. Note that the twin loops are small, just a few inches across.

The good news is, you tie this once and leave it. This sling becomes your permanent direct belay anchor rig. Clip the two carabiners together and loop it over your shoulder when you’re climbing.

Look up at the next pitch. Where’s the first bolt? For this example, let's say it's a bit up and to the right, so we’ll belay off of the right hand bolt. If the next pitch headed up to the left, you’d belay off of the left bolt.

Clip the locker to the right bolt.
Clip the nonlocker to the left bolt.
Tie an overhand knot in the sling. Clip the loop to the left bolt. Adjust to remove most of the slack.
Clove hitch yourself to the locker on the right bolt.
Clip a locking HMS carabiner to the double loop bowline. Have the gate facing outward or to the right, so if you catch a lead fall, the brake strand of the Munter ideally goes along the spine of the carabiner, and not on the gate. (Using a triple action locker like this can mitigate this potential problem.)
Tie a Munter hitch in the HMS carabiner. Ready to belay.

Articles (Listed in approximate order of usefulness)

(While the fixed point belay has undergone extensive testing in Europe, part of the reason it may not have caught on is because some of the technical documents are not yet translated to English.)

Here’s a link to a helpful annotated bibliography on this topic compiled by Derek DeBruin (posted here with his permission.)

Comprehensive PDF slide deck on fixed point belay and other ways to mitigate high fall factors, by Derek DeBruin
IFMGA Technical Commission Meeting Report by Piani Resinelli, 2005, in English. “During this meeting of the IFMGA Technical Commission many of us were forced to open up our minds a bit and re-examine our practices for belaying the leader. The following discussion should be of keen interest to the Technical Committee and (I believe) should bring about some change in the how we teach belaying on our courses.”
Good article from the German Alpine Club, translated to English
Comparison of Fall Forces between Fixed-Point and Redirected Belays in Rock and Ice Climbing Systems Derek DeBruin, American Mountain Guides Association 2018. (Discusses methodology and results from very high fall factor testing.)
Concise blog post from Jason Martin (AMGA Certified Rock and Alpine Guide, and Executive Director of the American Alpine Institute, or AAI.)
If you speak French, a VERY detailed article from the French National Guide School
If you speak German, a detailed technical .pdf article about various styles of anchors, including fixed point belay

Videos

A detailed video from the French National Guide School (École Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme, or ENSA). In French, with subtitles. Note the pads on the wall so the belayer doesn’t get slammed around too much.

This video comes around the excellent (if awkwardly titled) “Safety Academy Lab Rock” video tutorial series, produced by the well-regarded German company Ortovox, and backed by Petzl and the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”).

Finally, here’s a longer video from AMGA Guide Patrick Ormond. This presentation was a training session for other guides.

(It might be my favorite, because he gives a shout out to Alpinesavvy at 1:16. =^)

John Godino 1/7/24 John Godino 1/7/24

Vertical anchors 101

While vertically oriented chain anchors are still uncommon in many areas, they offer a few advantages over side-by-side matched horizontal anchors. Learn some of the benefits of vertical anchors, and check out several possible ways to rig them for top rope, multi pitch, and rappel.

This article was written with editing assistance from Silas Rossi, IFMGA Certified Guide. Connect with Silas at Alpine Logic.

Vertically oriented chain anchors tend to be more common in Europe and Canada than in many parts of the United States, but they are catching on. While they can be rigged for one pitch top rope climbs, they really shine on multi pitch routes, where the rappel (descent) is the same as the ascent.

The photo above shows a “all in one” vertical chain anchor made by the Spanish company Fixe. Note that the hangers, chain and ring are all welded together. While these are popular, they have the small drawbacks of a fixed length of chain, and no way to replace individual components.

An alternative is to build your own vertical chain anchor, using quick links to connect components. Doing this allows adjustment of the chain length to better fit any rock bulges or pockets, and allows easy replacement of individual parts as needed. If you do this, try to use CE climbing rated quick links, that test to about 40 kN, not hardware store links with a questionable lineage and no CE rating. Secure the links with Loctite and pliers. Here's an example of a vertical chain anchor made from separate components.

Fixe recently updated this anchor. There’s now a ring at the top bolt hanger, instead of the welded chain link. See photo below. The example shown in the rest of the photos on this page is the older model.

image: fixehardware.com/index.php/fixe-plx-duplex-ss-1-2-traditional-anchor.html

Where to clip?

It's best practice to avoid clipping the horizontal hanger on the bottom. Most of the time this will be OK. But in some cases with certain styles of carabiner, they can get twisted and torqued in some strange ways. I've never heard of one breaking, but it's usually better to clip the ring or the top vertical hanger.

(There is a long-standing climbing myth that Fi\xe actually recommends doing this. However I’ve looked through their technical documentation and can't find any recommendation, so I think this is not true.)

What are the advantages of a vertical chain anchor?

Simplifies clipping to an anchor that’s redundant and very strong. This is especially helpful when rappelling; clip your tether to any component of the anchor and you’re attached to two bolts instead of one.
Efficient use of materials. It can be less expensive (compared to two hangers, four quicklinks and two chains) and the route setter does not have to deal with cutting chain links or carrying unneeded heavy hardware to the crag and up the route.
Gives the route setter more flexibility in where the anchor goes, especially important in rock with pockets, protrusions, erosion, etc. Choosing to use a vertical anchor can depend on the rock structure and geology.
Zero twisting of the rope when lowering or rappelling, because it’s only going through one bit of anchor hardware. Plus, because the ring always hangs perpendicular to the rock, you're probably going to have an easier rope pull with less friction.
Lower visual impact. This is a concern in some areas.

However, using these anchors can be a bit of a head-scratcher for climbers who are used to a pair of horizontal matched bolts and chains. What should I use as a master point? Can I REALLY trust that ring? The doozy for many people, is it really redundant and/or equalized?! And sheesh, can I ignore all of this confusing hardware and just clip a quad or cordelette to the bolts?

Let's address some common concerns about vertical chain anchors.

“It's not redundant.”

Yes, you’re fully relying on the single ring at the bottom. But it's made of 10 mm welded stainless steel rod. Hownot2.com tested two of these rings. One broke at 90 kN and the other broke at 47 kN. You can see the ring results here in their YouTube video. (Steel ring testing starts at 6:00.)

You can hang (4? 5?) Toyotas from it, and it’s WAY stronger than all of the things you normally rely on that are single point and not redundant, such as your belay loop, your rope, your harness, all of your carabiners, probably the bolt that you just took several huge falls on . . .

Plus, both the ring is right there in the open and easy to inspect, as opposed to a bolt in the rock.

“The load isn’t equalized.”

Correct, it's not. When using the ring, all the load is pretty much on the bottom bolt, with the top bolt backing it up. A modern, properly placed ⅜” (10mm) bolt, or better yet ½” (12mm) bolts should hold more than 25 kN. There's really no need to try to equalize the load between bolts this strong.

“Clipping to the ring clogs it up, so another team can't use it to rappel.”

This often can be true in a more traditional anchor that might have a small chain link or quick link at the bottom. However, with this anchor, and the giant ring, it's not a concern. Even if you're clipped to the ring, there's plenty of room to thread the rappel over the top of your carabiner. Plus, there's a simple technique for a “down” team to pass an “up” team - the up team adds their locking carabiner to their anchor, and the down team clips their rope to it for a rappel. See a full article on that here.

“You’re clipping metal to metal. Clipping a carabiner to a rappel ring can damage it.”

Clipping a couple of locking carabiners to each other and an anchor when you're standing right there to monitor them is totally fine. Plus, your soft aluminum carabiner is never going to put any nicks or scratches on the much harder steel ring. (It's like using a plastic ice scraper on a car windshield; the soft plastic is never going to hurt the much harder glass.)

“What's up with that funky horizontal hanger on the bottom?”

The horizontal hanger allows the welded steel ring to sit perpendicular to the rock, which usually gives an easier rope pull after you rappel. If you had a normal vertical hanger at the bottom, the ring would lie flat against the rock which increases friction, not good.

“This causes tri-axial (3 direction) loading on the carabiner, that’s bad.”

Yes, technically the master point carabiner (see below) is being potentially loaded in three different directions. But, under realistic recreational climbing scenarios, any potential load is going to be very small, like 2-3 kN, and well within the capabilities of the carabiner.

I have a whole article on the issue of tri-axial loading, and Black Diamond did some testing on it. You can learn more here.

There are three basic uses for a vertical chain anchor: 1) rappel, 2) top rope, and 3) multi pitch. Let's look at a few possible rigging examples for each of these.

1 - Rappel

There are several ways to rig this. A convenient one is to clip a master point carabiner into the ring, and then have you and your partner clip to the master carabiner. This moves both tethers below the ring, which can make threading the rope through a bit easier.

That's a big benefit to vertical chain anchors. You don't have to build your own anchor with slings or a quad, or have any concern with clipping two tethers to two different non-redundant bolts.

Because of the single ring, you get zero twisting when you pull your rope. =^)

2 - Toprope

While vertical anchors are perhaps better suited for multi pitch and rappelling, you can of course use them for toproping. (While it's usually fine to lower the last person through the ring, typical climbing etiquette is that you don’t set up a top rope that directly weights the ring. Hopefully you know this already.)

Is someone rappelling the route while you're toproping? Consider this solution: be polite, take a break, and let them rappel on your rope. Generally, it's good practice to yield to the team that is coming down.

Top rope method #1: Clip two opposite and opposed carabiners onto the ring, clip the rope to the carabiners, and lower off. (If you're concerned about the whole load on the single ring, you could leave a quick draw on the next lower bolt, and run the rope through that as a backup.) But remember, that ring is rated at 50 kN.

vertical chain Fixe anchor example toprope.jpg

Top rope method #2 (easy-to-clean): Clip the carabiner on the chain above the ring. Rig the rope through the ring and through the carabiner, and lower off. Here's a link to the procedure and videos on how to do this correctly.

All of the load goes to your carabiner, not the fixed hardware. The last person climbing the route cleans the carabiner and lowers off through the ring. This can be a good approach if the last person climbing doesn’t have the required experience to safely re-thread the rope through the ring and lower off. If you're doing this a lot, a steel carabiner can minimize the wear on your gear. Because the rope is already through the ring, the carabiner does not have to be locking.

Yes, the last person is being lowered through the fixed ring. This is generally considered the best practice, at least in most climbing areas in North America. But hey, if you prefer to rappel, you're welcome to do that instead.

Depending on anchor configuration, this could potentially twist your rope when you lower your partner. In the photo below, notice the carabiner is clipped to a chain link that lies flat against the rock. Doing this orients the carabiner 90°, so it's facing out, same as the ring. This minimizes twists when lowering.

With the whole anchor pretty much in a straight vertical line, you're unlikely to get much twisting no matter how you rig this. If the bolts were more offset, like around 45° angle, then twisting may be more likely to happen.

If you do have twists in your rope, here’s a great way to get them out.

3 - Multipitch

Note: In the next three photos, the extra rope between the leader tie in and the belay device is omitted for clarity.

One approach, maybe the simplest: clove hitch the leader to the ring and belay the second off the ring. No slings, no cordelette, no quad required.

“But wait”, I can hear some of you saying, “doesn't this obstruct the ring for anyone else who wants to rappel past you?” Not really. There's still room to thread the rope, and besides, the rappelling team doesn’t have to actually thread the ring. Learn more at this article.

The leader can also connect to one of the chain links.

Another option: clip a master point carabiner into the ring, and then add two additional locking carabiners to that for the leader’s connection and the belay.

If you have a spare HMS carabiner, this is a good way to go. It has a couple of benefits: 1) slightly less cluster and a bit more room to move around at the anchor; and 2) the ring is a bit more accessible for any other parties rappelling who may need to access it.

Finally, if you want to use the fixed point lead belay, this anchor is perfect for that. Here's one way to rig it.

And, after all that, if you’re happier with a quad . . . you can do that too!

Here's an alternative set up for a vertical anchor setup for a single pitch climb. There is a captive eye stainless steel carabiner on the bottom, and an anchor hook above that off to one side. This gives a very easy option for clip and lower. (Don't use galvanized “gym” carabiners outside, they rust way too quickly.)

For top roping, simply add your own locking carabiner to the top quick link. Everyone top ropes through that with zero wear on the fixed gear. When it's time to lower, the last person clips the rope cleans the carabiner, and lowers off.

Extra points for using the cool Edelrid Bulletproof locking carabiners, shown here. They have a steel insert that makes ‘em last much longer, perfect for top roping.

Here’s Bobby Hutton from his video showing a similar configuration only with a ram’s horn on the top rather than a Mussy.