Alpine Tips
How to tie the perfect retraced figure 8
The retraced figure 8 is probably the most important knot you'll ever tie, so let’s learn the nuances of tying it correctly, every time. There's more to it than what’s usually taught in books and by many instructors. Learn the tricks to make a perfect figure 8, plus how to do it so it's much easier to untie.
The retraced figure 8 tie in knot is probably the most important knot you’ll ever tie, so it's well worth it to pay attention to the small details so it's perfect every time. No twists, crosses, or other weirdness! (A figure 8 doesn’t need to be tied absolutely perfectly to function. If you have a twist or cross in the strands, it's still going to be fine. However, it is the fundamental knot in climbing, so let's take the time to do it right!)
Lots of instruction on the retraced figure 8 (be at books, video, or in person) fall short in explaining it properly. Simply saying, “Tie an 8 about a meter from the end of the rope, pass the free and through your harness, and then retrace the 8” doesn't tell the whole story. There are quite a few different ways you can do this, and many of them lead to an end product that’s Less Than Ideal.
I’m going to show you the way that works best for me, that I teach, and that people seem to find the easiest to learn. If you have a different way that works for you, and the result is a perfect knot, then keep doing what you're doing!
Let's learn some of the nuances of a perfect retraced figure 8 knot.
First off, avoid talking when you or your partner are tying into the rope. Like packing a parachute, your tie-in knot is worthy of your complete attention, so stop the chitchat for a few seconds when tying in.
It may be tempting to begin the knot like the left photo below, because that's where the large obvious “hole” is. However, this often leads to crossed strands in the final knot. (Yes, there is a way to tie a retraced figure 8 correctly by doing this, but for most people that leads to twists and confusion.)
Instead, begin your knot as shown on the right.
Some instructors call this “start hard, finish easy.” This advice is a little cryptic, but it means start the knot through the hard-to-see, non-obvious “hole”, and finish the knot, with the remaining two passes, through the the easy-to-see, obvious “holes”.
(I put blue tape on the end of the rope to more easily see it.)
This next photo shows a problem that trips up many experienced climbers. (And yes, I’ll admit that I did this step wrong for quite a long time . . . )
In the left photo, if you pass the end OVER the top of the knot, you end up with the strands crossed when you're done. (At least, I always did!) While you can correct it later, why not do it right the first time?
Pass the end of the rope BELOW the top of the knot, as shown in the photo on the right. This gives you a perfect symmetrical knot when you're done, no twists or crosses.
If you make either of the two goofs above, your completed knot will probably look something like the one on the left below. See how the strands are crossed? That's not a catastrophic mistake, but it's not 100% correct either.
Below on the right is a proper retraced figure 8. All strands are nice and tidy, parallel, with no crossing or twisting.
There’s also a proper length tail on both knots, not too long not too short. Ideally the tail is about 6 inches / 15 cm. If your tail is shorter than this, start over. If your tail is longer than this, you can tie an overhand knot to take up the extra. But it’s unnecessary and doesn’t add any extra security to the knot, in spite of what the rules might be at your local rock gym.
There's another subtlety for tying a correct figure 8, and that is keeping an eye on where the load strand goes. (If you tie it like I showed above, the load strand will always be in the correct place.)
Let’s add some tape so we can more easily see what's going on. (Note the skull and crossbones hockey tape, my favorite for marking soft goods like slings! =^)
The load strand on the left comes out on the OUTSIDE of the knot.
The load strand on the right goes through the MIDDLE of the knot.
Most people find the knot on the left to be significantly harder to untie. It can depend a bit on how much load you're putting on it, the type / diameter of rope you are using, etc.
Why?
Load strand on the outside of the knot: When loaded, this cinches down on the entire knot, even to the point of partially deforming it. No loose strands, welded, hard to untie.
Load strand on the inside of the knot: the very top strand goes to the rope tail, and takes minimal load. This gives you a slightly looser strand to start with when you need to untie it.
Both versions are equally strong and secure, the difference is only in the ease of untying.
When I posted this on Instagram, a substantial number of people commented that I was completely wrong, and having the load strand on the outside of the knot makes it easier to untie. Well, maybe that works for you, but it's not my experience, nor what various other rope experts have to say on it. The relative ease or difficulty of untying a knot is a fairly subjective judgment. Try both ways yourself and see what you think.
Check out the nice video below from “Hard is Easy”for a very thorough discussion of every step tying a retraced figure 8. If you’re a new climber you may benefit from watching the whole thing. If you're more experienced, start at 7:08 to see some of the methods discussed above.
How to (almost) never drop your belay device
Your belay device is a crucial piece of gear, and you don't want to drop it. Keep the device clipped to your harness pretty much all the time, and only unclip it for a moment when loading and unloading the rope.
A classic beginner mistake (which I did for, ahem, a rather long time!) is to remove your belay device from your harness, hold it out in front of you when loading or unloading the rope, and then re-clipping it to your belay loop. If you do this, all you need is a moment of fumblefingers and you're going to drop your device, whoops! (Hope you know how to belay / rappel with a Munter hitch or do a carabiner brake rappel . . .)
I'd like to think that most people would learn the correct method on their very first day of climbing, but, based on the embarrassingly long time that I did this wrong myself, and the number of people I still see doing this incorrectly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
(A possible contributing factor to sloppy technique are the many people learning to climb in rock gyms using Grigris that are more or less permanently attached to the rope, which makes them impossible to drop, or steal.)
(More experienced climbers reading this are probably rolling their eyes at this basic tip, but if you already do this as second nature, feel free to click on to something else . . . )
A better approach: Keep your device (pretty much) connected to your harness when loading and unloading the rope. Yes, with the carabiner gate facing left is shown here, you do need to unclip it from the rope for a brief moment. When you do this you can pay full attention and hold your belay device firmly with your left hand.
Doing this makes it just about impossible to drop.
The demo here is with a Grigri, but the same principle applies for a tube style device.
Clip the Grigri to your belay loop.
As a right hander, hold the Grigri firmly in your left hand, unclip it from the carabiner for just a moment, slide the top plate up with your left thumb, and then immediately reclip the bottom half of the Grigri to your belay loop. Let go of the Grigri. The bottom plate is securely clipped and the top plate should be hanging free.
Now you can load the rope, carefully checking that it's loaded correctly.
Once again holding the Grigri firmly in your left hand, unclip it from the carabiner for a moment, slide the top plate down with your left thumb, and then immediately re-clip it to your belay loop.
The rope is now loaded correctly, and both holes of the Grigri are clipped to your harness. Ready to climb.
Reverse this to unload the rope, as shown in the video below.
A couple of questions/comments I've heard about this method . . .
What about using a keeper cord on the Grigri? Some people find them useful, but I find they get in the way and snag on things. By paying attention and using this technique, you should never need the cord.
What about facing the carabiner gate to the right instead of the left; that way you never really have to take to Grigri completely off the carabiner? That might work for people with superb coordination or who are left handed. As right hander, I always have my belay carabiner gate facing to the left so I can open the carabiner more easily, so that's how I set it up. If it works for you facing right, go for it.
Does the same technique work with a tube style device? Yes. Personally, I use the exact same method: carabiner gate facing left, grip the device firmly with my left hand, open the carabiner gate for just a split second, clip the wire from the device and both rope strands, and then re-clip.
There’s a related method that some people prefer that allows you to keep the wire on your device pretty much on the carabiner the entire time. After loading the rope into your device, you can push the two strands off to the left next to the gate, open the gate, clip the strands, and the wire stays on the carabiner all the time. There is a second or two when the gate is open and you could theoretically fumble it and drop it, but it's very unlikely.
See photos below. You can use your right thumb to hold the wire in place when you open the gate.
To me, both these methods offer a comparable level of security, try each one and see which works best for you. Bigger picture, keep in mind the thing we generally want to avoid: removing your device entirely from your harness and holding it out in front of you to load or unload the rope.
Here's a short video that shows how it's done. Again, the same concept applies to just about any flavor of belay device.
“Cast”, don’t throw, your rappel rope
Snarled rappel ropes suck! To avoid them, take the time to stack the rope and toss just a weighted end, rather than a large coil. Think of it as “casting” a fishing line; there's a weight on the end, and the line spools cleanly from the reel. Here are some good ways to do this.
Getting your rope down a cliff face when rappelling may seem very simple. But there are many nuances to doing it efficiently, which can save you huge amounts of time and frustration. Here are some suggestions.
Main idea #1: “Cast”, don't “throw”.
This idea is emphasized by Andy Kirkpatrick in his excellent book on descending mountains, “Down.” Think of casting a fishing line. There's a weight (lure) on the end. The line is carefully spooled on the reel. The weight is cast over the water, and the line smoothly follows it from the reel. No snags, no snares.
“Casting” rappel ropes uses the same concept. Create a weight with one end of the rope, prepare the rest of the rope carefully, and toss the weight to carry down the rope.
Let's start using that verb, “cast”, instead of “throw”, to emphasize the concept. “Throwing” the rope relies on luck. “Casting” relies on technique.
Main idea #2: The terrain dictates your rope toss method.
The method in the diagrams below can work best if you have a ledge to stand on with minimal rocks on it, and no one below you might get klonked by the rope. For other situations, lowering some or all of the rope can be better than throwing.
Completely overhanging or vertical smooth rock? You can probably simply lower one end of the rope at a time without even throwing it.
Reasonably vertical terrain? Try lowering down a bit less than half of one strand (for a 60 meter rope, that’d be 15 meters of one 30 meter side), and then making a simple butterfly loop as shown below, to cast down the remaining 15 meters.
Lower angle terrain, maybe with trees, boulders, obstacles? That's when making a weight and giving it a real cast can be the best approach.
Rappelling at a busy crag, with people below you? Consider lowering the rope as much as you can so you don't nail anyone with the rope, and hopefully so you don't have to scream “ROPE” either.
Main idea #3: Prep your rope before you throw.
You might feel like you're saving time by hucking the rope as quickly as possible from your anchor. Most of the time, you won't be. The time you “save” by making a sloppy rope toss will be likely used up when you stop on rappel to decluster your rope. It's better practice to take a minute or so to prepare your rope first, hopefully with the help of your partner, and make a good, clean cast to start with.
It's almost always better to separate the rope into two strands and lower or throw each one separately.
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick from the book “down”, shared with permission
The classic beginner toss (which yes, I did many times my first year or so of climbing, and paid the price) is making one giant butterfly coil with both strands (photo above on the right). You might rarely get lucky and have a clean toss, but most times it's going to make a guaranteed snarl. Please don't do this.
(Method number two, a slight improvement, is to make one big butterfly coil in each strand and throw those one at a time. You have slightly better odds of getting a clean throw than with both coils together, but it's still highly likely you're going to have a snarl. Still not recommended for the most part.)
There are many approaches to efficiently getting your rope down the cliff. If you have any sort of a ledge, here's one good way.
Check out the diagram above on the left. Each strand is carefully flaked or even serpentine coiled on the ledge. Each half of the rope is separate from the other.
Two cautions: 1) This method can drag down some stones from the ledge you're standing on, so you might want to avoid this if you have rocks around your feet and people below you. 2) Keep your feet away from the rope that will be zinging off the ledge.
If you’re on steeper rock and don't have a convenient ledge to flake the rope, you can feed out about rope out so it drapes down the cliff below you, and then toss the weight. Another option is to butterfly coil over your partner’s outstretched arms, and then cast the end. The same basic concept applies: prepare each strand carefully, toss each one separately, and have some sort of weight that carries the rest of the rope.
After tying a stopper knot in the free end of the rope, you need form a weight of some kind; think of this your “lure”. You “cast the “lure”, and this pulls the rest of the rope down.
(Like all things in climbing, this is situationally dependent. If there's a crowd of people below you, you probably don't want to toss a bundle of rope that might klonk somebody. Likewise if there's a large deep crack below you, and there's a chance the rope could swing into it, you may not want to try this method. But most of the rest of the time it should work pretty well.)
Here are two short videos showing the “rope cast” in action, from @benmarkhartguiding on Instagram. (Click images to see the videos.)
There are several ways to do make the weight. Here's my favorite, known in some circles as the “rope bomb.” This works especially well if you need to get your rope down a slab or other lower-angle terrain. (The carabiner isn’t needed, it’s shown for scale.)
After tying a stopper knot in the end, make a small butterfly coil with short loops. I like to make 10 loops, with five on each side.
Finish it off by simply wrapping the rope a few times around the coils. This does not have to be very tidy.
When this mini-butterfly coil hits the end of the rope, it will usually untie itself. If not, just give it a shake or kick when you rap down to it.
Another way to close your rope system is to rappel while being tied into the end of the rope. If you do that, you could cast your rope as shown below.
Note that in this case, with a double rope rappel, you’re casting the middle of the rope, not the ends.
You get the idea. Take an extra minute or so, properly flake your rope, cast a weight like a “rope bomb” rather than hucking off 30 meters in a huge coil, and your chances of a cluster-free rappel are much better.
Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick from the book “down”, shared with permission
Finally, here's a nice video from IFMGA Guide Jeff Ward showing several different methods. The first one is what we demonstrated above, he calls it a “torpedo”.
Finally, if you read this far, here's a short Instagram video on how NOT to throw your rope.
Below are a couple of screen grabs.
And finally, if you read this far, here's a pretty hilarious short Instagram video about throwing ropes on a windy day.
Try a "D" carabiner with your Grigri
Because the rope never touches your carabiner when you use a Grigri (or any similar assisted braking device), you can pretty much use any kind of carabiner you like. In fact, Petzl suggests that you don’t use an HMS carabiner.
Out of habit, many climbers always reach for a large, pear shaped, “HMS” belay carabiner anytime they are belaying. (In case you’re wondering what “HMS” means, it’s an acronym for the German, “Halbmastwurf sicherung”, which loosely translates as “Munter hitch belay” carabiner.
However, when using a Grigri (or many similar assisted braking devices) the rope never touches the carabiner. This means you can use pretty much any kind of locker you like. In terms of saving weight, having compact gear, and most importantly the carabiner behaving and staying in proper alignment, using a “D” carabiner may actually be a better choice.
In fact, Petzl recommends it. From the always informative Petzl website:
“Beware of pear-shaped carabiners, which in this application have a tendency to rotate and often become poorly positioned.”
Check out the carabiner recommendations below in this graphic from Petzl. Noticeably absent are the two large HMS carabiners from Petzl, the William and the Attache. (Of course, there are loads of other carabiners from other manufacturers that can be used with a Grigri; I'm using this nice diagram as an example.)
Personally, I’m a fan of the Petzl Sm’D (shown in photo at the top of page.)
To be clear, I’m not saying it's dangerous or incorrect to use an HMS carabiner with a Grigri. However, a “D” carabiner might give you slightly better performance, and be more in line with Petzl’s guidelines.
image: https://www.petzl.com/INT/en/Sport/Choice-of-carabiner-for-attaching-a-GRIGRI-to-the-harness
Here are a few more specialized carabiners that can work well with a Grigri.
Flat overhand bend - how long a tail?
A flat overhand bend is a good choice for connecting two ropes for a double strand rappel. Pay attention to the tail length. You want it at about 30 cm, or the length of your forearm; not too short and not too long. Longer is not better, and has been the cause of fatal accidents.
A great knot choice to connect to rappel ropes for a double strand rappel is the flat overhand bend. (It was previously known by some as the “European Death Knot”, or EDK. Let's not call it that anymore, okay?)
Why is this a good rappel knot?
It’s known as an “offset” knot, because the body of the knot is offset from the line of pull. This can help the knot work its way around obstructions such as rock nubbins or ledges to lessen the chance of it getting hung up when you pull your rope.
Works well with ropes of different diameters (up to about 3mm difference). So if you want to connect a skinny 7.7 twin rope with a 9.5 single rope, no worries.
Super easy to tie and visually check.
It's plenty strong for any normal two strand rappel situation. (For a single rope rappels more common in caving and canyoneering, or for extra heavy loads, some recent research recommends a more robust knot. We’ll cover that in a future tip.)
It’s important to have the right amount of tail in the flat overhand bend. A good rule of thumb is about 30 cm / 1 foot.
Think of that as about the length of your forearm, or two hand spans. It's sort of the Goldilocks length, not too short and not too long. This length gives you a margin of error to prevent minor mistakes from becoming catastrophic.
If the tails are too short, the knot could potentially roll once or twice under an extremely heavy load and roll off the ends. A decent sized tail (hopefully) prevent this.
If you tie a sloppy, poorly dressed knot, a proper tail allows the knot to tighten up under load without pulling in the ends.
Not-too-long tails give you use of the full rope, which can be important in reaching the next rappel station if it's a real rope stretcher and you need every possible meter.
Proper length tails keep your nervous partner happy, and gives them room to add another overhand knot (aka stacked flat overhand bend) in the tail if they like, to give them a warm fuzzy feeling before they rappel. =^)
Many people think a longer tail is better. Not so. If the tails are too long, it increases the chance of someone mistakenly clipping their rappel device to the tails rather than the actual rope. While you may think this would never happen to you, this has caused fatal accidents to extremely experienced climbers, usually in darkness and/or from major exhaustion. Eliminate this potential mistake by having tails not too long, but just right.
If for some reason you’re ever fixing a rope (or using someone else's fixed rope) or tying two together like this, and the tails are longer than about 30 cm, at the very least tie a stopper knot in the ends, or tie them together, or do something to prevent someone from ever rapping off the ends.
Here are two accounts of tragic accidents where someone rigged a fixed rope with a long tail, and rappelled off the tail instead of the actual rope.
Fatal accident: Rappelling off the long tail of an anchor in Yosemite
Fatal accident: Rappelling off the long tail of an anchor in Baffin Island
The "easy-to-clean" toprope anchor
Are you top rope climbing with someone who doesn't know how to clean and lower from an anchor? Here's a simple way to rig a top rope to make cleaning and lowering safe and simple for the last person.
Modern “clip & lower” anchor hardware like fixed steel carabiners and Mussy hooks allow faster and simpler transitions from climbing to lowering, and are a great development at many popular climbing areas. However, they are still catching on, and many routes will have a chain anchor without clip & lower hardware. That usually means you need to build your own anchor of some sort, because it’s generally bad practice top rope directly through the anchor hardware. (Hopefully you know that already . . .)
Typically, the most experienced person will lead the route, which means the beginner climbs second and cleans the anchor. Of course, learning to safely clean and lower is an important skill to learn eventually. But if you're climbing with someone who does not have it down, here’s a way to rig your anchor to keep it simple and low risk for the last person up.
Important cautionary note at the bottom of this article, please read all of it!
The first person leading the route, usually the most experienced, can rig the anchor is shown. You can now top rope off this anchor all day, and all the wear-and-tear from the rope goes your bottom carabiner, not on the fixed hardware.
If you’re toproping a lot, you might want to use steel carabiner or maybe the cool Edelrid “Bulletproof” carabiners. These are aluminum and have a steel insert at the bottom where the rope goes, meaning they will last much longer.
Notice how the carabiner is clipped through the quick link which means it's facing out, perpendicular to the rock. This can help minimize rope twists.
For the last person up (typically less experienced) to clean the anchor, it couldn’t be much easier. They simply clean the carabiner and call for a take and lower.
To clarify, lowering directly from the anchor chains is only for the LAST person, not everyone who’s top roping the route. Avoid top roping through fixed gear.
Concerns, grumbles, FAQ . . .
“You should never top rope through fixed gear.” That's generally true. It might seem like that's what's happening here, but it's not. As soon as the rope is weighted, all the force goes onto the carabiner and there's no significant wear on the rings.
“It’s not equalized.” That’s correct, because it doesn’t need to be. You're climbing on two modern bolts, each of which is rated to at least 25 kN. In the extremely unlikely (1 in 100,000?) event that the left bolt were to fail, the rope will be caught on the right bolt. (If equalization is important to you, simply clip a second carabiner into the quick link on the right side hanger.)
“If the bolt fails, it’ll shock load the other one. ” Not a concern. This is a top rope anchor with your stretchy dynamic rope absorbing almost all the force of the very modest fall, if a very unlikely bolt failure ever were to happen. (Again, if this concerns you, just clip a second carabiner to the right bolt.)
“Do I need a locker?” Not really. A standard snap gate carabiner is fine here. If the rope were to detach from the carabiner, it’s still going through the rings. But if it makes you happy to use a locker, go for it.
“Lowering through chains is bad, rappelling is better.” With modern anchor hardware that's inexpensive and easily replaceable, it’s now preferred practice (in most areas) for the last climber to lower, not rappel, from the anchor. This anchor is set up perfectly for that: large long-lasting 50 kN stainless steel rings at the bottom, connected to a quick link for easy replacement. This is per the recommendation of the American Alpine Club.
Caution: Don't do this on “open” anchor hardware (like anchor hooks)
This technique should only be used on “closed” anchor hardware, such as a ring, quick link, or chain, where there is no possibility of the rope coming unclipped. Do NOT use this technique on “open” anchor hardware, such as anchor (aka Mussy) hooks, carabiners, or a ram’s horn / pigtail.
In autumn 2023, there was a fatal accident in Alabama. It involved a beginning climber who was cleaning an anchor hook anchor, that had a locking carabiner added to minimize wear on the hooks. The carabiner was removed, somehow the rope unclipped from the hooks, and she fell.
Short version: for anchor hooks, do NOT add a carabiner on the anchor for the rope. If you do toprope through your own equipment, extend quick draws or slings BELOW the level of the hooks, and put the rope through your own gear that way. This reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of the above accident happening again.
Also, NEVER have someone clean an anchor who is not 110% solid on the correct procedure. The proper learning sequence should be: 1) instruction on the ground, until the person can demonstrate several times in a row the correct sequence. Then, 2) doing it with an instructor off the ground, hanging at the actual anchor, where they can be directly supervised. (This means NOT yelling instructions from the base of the cliff!)
Here’s an analysis of the accident from IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap.
Here's another video from Karsten showing some ways to build your own anchor with your own gear, and then transfer to the anchor hooks when it's time to lower off for the last person.
Bounce test to learn gear placement
Learning how to place rock gear, and want a little assurance that your pro might be able to take some real force? You can learn a lot without getting more than a foot or two off the ground by bounce testing at your local crag.
Starting out learning to place trad gear and build anchors? It looks like a decent placement, but is it really going to hold?
A great way to build confidence in your gear placements (as well as get lots of practice using your nut tool) is take a page from big wall climbing: bounce test your gear.
While a bounce test is probably going to put between 2 and 3 kN on your piece, quite a bit less than the maximum force of about 6 to 7 kN it might see in a big actual fall, it can definitely boost your confidence that you’re placing your gear correctly.
The image below is a screen grab from a video from our friends at HowNot2.com, showing the actual force generated during a static sling bounce test.
image: HowNot2.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq3_DfyHg1A&t=781s
You may hear advice of “go aid climbing” to learn how to place gear. You don't need to.
Not a bad idea, but it does require lots of extra stuff like a rope, a patient belay partner, and aiders, fifi hook, daisychains, and probably ascenders. You actually don't need any of that; you can bounce test and get the same learning pretty much standing on the ground.
What you need: base of a cliff area with lots of various sized cracks to place gear, a few slings, a decent trad rack (can maybe borrow from a good friend), and a cleaning tool. Optional but recommended: a hammer and eye protection/safety glasses.
How to do it: At the crag, make a placement that you can reach from the ground, and clip a sling or two to the gear. Extend slings as needed so when you step in it, it’s about knee level. (You want to keep your feet close to the ground, because if the piece pops out, that means you won't take much of a fall.)
Give it a decent tug.
Did it move? Does the rock on either side look solid? Good.
Now, carefully step into the sling, and give it your bodyweight. (If the placement is near or above your head, you might want to cover the gear with your hand. If the gear pops, it’s going to zing out somewhere in the neighborhood of your eye; remember those safety glasses?) Did the gear move it all? If not, sweet, probably a good placement.
Now, start hopping the sling with increasing enthusiasm. Did the gear shift a little bit and then hold? Might be OK, but probably could be improved. Did it sprout wings, fly out of the rock and almost hit you in the eye when you jumped on it? Definitely needs more work.
Be sure and bring a cleaning tool and perhaps a hammer, or at least a baseball sized rock or big hex, so you can (gently) beat on those welded stoppers to be sure you take everything home. (You might not want to bounce test a Tricam, which are notorious for being hard to clean after they’ve been weighted.)
Avoid hard bouncing very small cams, stoppers and hooks, you can damage these with too much force. To test these, push outward and sideways on the placement rather than bouncing your body weight on it.
If you do use them, accept the fact that some broken gear might be part of the cost of learning.
It’s one thing to put in a piece of gear, look at it, and hope it’s well placed. It’s quite another to jump on it with enthusiasm and know with more certainty. If you have a more knowledgeable friend to work with on this, they can critique your placements.
This also works great for the more specialized placements needed for actual aid climbing. Break out the cam hooks, Talons, micro stoppers, funky cam placements with only two lobes touching the rock, maybe even a piton. Again, be careful with these smaller pieces, bounce gently to avoid damaging your gear.
Note that hooks and especially pitons can damage the rock, so please don't do this on any established climbing routes.
Here's a nice short video that shows the basic technique. Here, it's demonstrated using standard big wall equipment such as aid ladders and daisy chains, but pretty much the same procedure can be done very close to the ground with a few slings.
Finally, here's a video from our friends at HowNOT2.com showing the actual forces generated from bounce testing. (it's a long video, start at 13:00 to see the testing part.)
"Locker draw" - What is it, why carry it?
A locking quickdraw has a lot of uses beyond beefing up a bolted sport anchor. Learn a few of them here.
A “locker draw” is simply a short quick draw style runner, a.k.a. “dogbone”, with locking carabiners on either end. Some people may dismiss a locker draw as something that overly cautious sport climbers may use on a top rope anchor, but they have many more uses.
You don’t buy these premade like a normal quick draw, you need to buy the dogbone and locking carabiners separately. A good combination is to have two sizes of locking carabiners: one D shaped, and a compact pear-shaped HMS style, as shown below. (The CAMP “Nimbus” carabiner on the left, is perfect for this.)
Tip: Put the HMS carabiner in the small constricted end of the dogbone, and put the D shaped carabiner (here, orange) in the top loose end of the dogbone. Use the orange carabiner to clip the gear, the HMS carabiner to clip the rope.
Here are some ways to use a locker draw.
1) Bolted top rope anchor. A normal multi pitch anchor doesn’t require locking carabiners on the bolts. But a top rope anchor, which may be unattended throughout the day and have many people climbing on it, may benefit from having at least one locker draw. We cover toprope locker draws at this post.
Below is a typical set up, with one locker draw and one standard quick draw. Bottom gates are opposite and opposed.
Here are two extra long (25 cm) Petzl Express draws, which can be helpful if the bolts are far apart. Here we have lockers on everything. Some people may consider this overkill, but if you're in an instructional type setting, with many climbers all day using a single top rope, having lockers on all four points may give extra peace of mind. This can be especially true with kids or beginners.
It's debatable if two locker draws offer much more security than one. But if you have them and it makes you feel good to use them, why not? There's really not much downside.
2) Rappel extension. Extending your rappel device so it’s not directly on your belay loop is a good idea for many reasons, which we cover in this tip. There are lots of different ways to rig it, and one quick and easy one is with your locker draw.
3) Extending your tie in / belay point; declustering your anchor. When you a master point at one level, connecting both yourself and belaying your partner from that one point can be awkward. A locker draw can extend the tie in or the belay carabiners. This can make the belay more convenient and less awkward, depending on your stance.
Example: Standard anchor on a mini quad (180 cm runner). Nothing wrong with this set up. But depending on the stance, the leader’s clove hitch tie in point on the left and the belay carabiner on the right might be annoyingly close together.
Here, a locker draw is added for the leader’s tie in. This moves their connection point lower, making the anchor less cluttered at a single point.
4) Using it as a regular quickdraw before a hard move, before a big run out, or right off the belay as the first clip, to pump up the psyche.
If you find yourself doing this on a regular basis, you may want to invest in a pair of Edelrid HMS Strike Slider carabiners. These have a clever locking mechanism that is very easy to open with one hand, and can work better for making fast clips.
6) Rig a toprope with the rope through the chains to make it easy for a beginner to clean, but so the wear‘n’tear happens on your own gear, not the fixed hardware. (A regular carabiner can work fine here as well.)
And here's another way to set up a similar type of anchor, this time with vertically oriented chains and a locker draw. Note, the rope is going through the brown colored ring master point on the bottom, but all of the load from the climber is resting on your own quick draw. This is a great system, because you have complete redundancy from both bolts and also super easy cleaning; the last person just removes the quick draw and lowers off.
Photo: IFMGA Certified Guide Dale Remsburg @daleremsberg
7) Ice thread backup. If you make an ice thread anchor for a rappel, you can place a screw(s) above it and clip a locker draw to the rope as a backup for the first person(s) down. The last person cleans the draw and the screw after the thread has proven it holds. Be sure that all of the weight is on the ice thread, with no force on the locker draw.
photo: Dale Remsberg - https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsx7X6ZhcpA/
8) Winter climbing device attachment. No photo for this one but you can get the idea: Use it to extend your belay device farther away from your harness if you're wearing lots of thick winter clothing. This makes it easier to connect the belay device properly because you can see it more easily.
9) Always gives you two extra locking carabiners for any kind of rescue situation. If you've ever practiced any sort of rock rescue, about 30 seconds into any scenario, you're going to wish you had a few extra lockers. If you carry a locker draw, that gives you two lockers when you need them.
10) As a directional placement for ice or rock toproping. In many toprope setups, especially for ice, having a directional placement as shown below is a good idea. Using a locker draw here gives more security than a standard quick draw.
image credit: Sean isaac
The "open" cordelette
There are many variations on anchor building with a cordelette. How about carrying it with no knots at all? Here's how to build a fast, secure anchor with an “open” cordelette.
While a traditional cordelette is about 16 feet of 7mm cord tied into one big loop, many climbers (if they carry one at all) prefer to leave it untied, known in some circles as an “open” cordelette.
Why use an open cordelette? It’s more versatile.
You can tie the ends together quickly in a big loop if you need it, with a simple flat overhand bend. (That’s right, no double fisherman’s knot required.) It’s fast to tie and easy to untie when you’re done compared to many other knots.
You can tie small loops in either end to make a ”bunny ears” cordelette. This can be handy when the gear is far apart, or you need to sling a big tree or boulder. Just tie a small overhand loop near the ends.
“Bunny ears” used to clip gear that’s far apart.
Ice climbing toprope
If you're setting up an ice climbing top rope anchor, you can make two V thread anchors and connect them both with a single cord, if you keep it untied.
Photo credit, Tim Banfield and Sean Isaac
Thread the open cord through fixed protection
This example comes from a nice PDF file showing some European style anchor techniques, made by the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”). Here, using an open cordelette lets you thread one and through the fixed gear that can’t be clipped. Also, note the girth hitch at the master point.
image: Standplatzlogik VDBS 2019 - Ausbildungsstandard VDBS & Alternativen
Crevasse rescue
After a crevasse fall is held by the team on top, the person closest to the crevasse can tie a prusik hitch with an open cordelette (about 5 meters of 6 mm cord) on the rope, tie an overhand to make a clipping point, and tie the ends through their belay loop.
The key here is that the ends can be passed through the belay loop and tied if needed in a rescue; the rest of the time it stays out of the way on your harness.
Image: https://www.ortovox.com/uk/safety-academy-lab-ice/chapter-3/rescuing-a-companion
Alternative anchor rigging
You can make an multi point anchor by not really tying any knots at all at least until the master point. Here's one way to do it, shown by my pal Ryan Jenks at HowNot2.com. It's a little hard to explain in words, so check out the video below.
Spoiler alert: 28 kN strong anchor made with 6mm cord, impressive!
Start it at 7:00.
Here's another way.
Place three pieces of gear, or in this case, three bolts. At least 1 foot from one end of the cord, tie a clove hitch and clip it to the left bolt. At least 1 foot from the other end of the cord, tie another clove hitch, and clip it to the right bolt. Then, take the approximate middle of the cord and clip it to the middle bolt.
Clip a locking carabiner through the two “U” shaped strands in the middle.
Tie an overhand knot (or figure 8) to make the master point. Done!
Note:
There is no redundant shelf on this anchor. The loop that goes from the masterpoint knot to the middle bolt is probably okay for clipping a backpack, but not for belaying.
This anchor is easily adjustable. If the pieces are far apart, or farther away from you, tie the clove hitch nearer to the end of the cord (while still leaving a foot or so of tail, and snugging down the knot.) If, like in this case, the pieces are very close together, you can tie a clove hitch with longer tails, making a more compact / higher master point.
This anchor can be easily adjusted if the direction of pull changes. If the direction of pull changes to one side, say the left, then the strand of cord going to the left anchor is going to go slack, which means it's not taking any of the load. You can easily adjust this by shortening the clove hitch going to the left bolt, which can regain a nice three point load distribution.
You only have about half rated strength of the cord going to the single arms. A 7 mm cord is rated about 13 kN, so half of that is around 6.5, which should be fine. However, a 6 mm cord is only rated 7.5 kN, so halving that brings it down to 4 kN, which is sort of in the danger range. So, if you're ever going to use this technique, please use a 7 mm cord.
Hey, don't take my word for it. Here's a short (31 seconds!) video by expert climber Hans Florine (multiple speed climb record holder on The Nose on El Capitan, among other things) showing this technique.
Cordelette - Connect the ends with an overhand knot
Yes, every climbing instruction book tells you to use a double fisherman's knot to tie your cordelette into a big loop. Guess what: the overhand knot works fine.
Yes, an overhand knot. Yes, the same one you use to tie two ropes together to rappel. (If you want to get technical it's a “flat overhand bend.” previously known as the Euro Death Knot, of EDK).
Or, to really keep it simple just carry your cordelette completely untied, also known as an “open” cordelette.
Tie a small overhand loop in each and, a.k.a. bunny ears style
Want a traditional big loop? Tie with a flat overhand bend.
Hey, if you're happy keeping your cordelette pretty much permanently tied into a loop with a double fisherman’s knot, feel free to keep doing it that way. But, if you see somebody tying a cordelette as shown below, don't freak out about it, it's fine.
Just like if you were using it to connect two rappel ropes, make sure you've got a nice long tail at least 6-8 inches, and make sure the knot is “dressed and stressed” - properly snugged down
Update: a reader mentioned on a related Instagram post that if you’re using a 5.5 mm HMPE “tech cord”, at least one manufacturer recommends using a triple fisherman's knot to tie a loop, because this material is more slippery than standard cord. So, if your cordelette is made of tech cord, probably best to avoid the flat overhand bend.
Note the striking resemblance to the Flying Spaghetti Monster . . .
Knot close up: Yep, that's your garden-variety flat overhand bend. (And please don't call at the European Death Knot (EDK), we're trying to get away from that, okay?
Hey, don't take my word for it. Here's a photo of an anchor made by IFMGA Guide Dale Remsberg, taken March 2019. Notice the flat overhand bend connecting the cordelette ends.
and, in an email to me from internationally certified guide Rob Coppolillo, and co-author of “The Mountain Guide Manual”:
“I have my cordelettes tied with flat overhands right now....and I'm liking it. Easier to untie, etc. Only time I do not leave it tied as such, is what I'm using the cord as one big loop (as in, not tying it off as a distributed, redundant anchor material).
Indeed, the flat overhand starts rolling at relatively low loads, but in the testing I've seen it rolls once or twice, then quits....unless of course the load stays on it indefinitely.
Does this make sense? So, I guess I'd say, go for it with the flat overhand...but if you're using the cord as one big loop, maybe take the time to tie a double-fisherman's, if you foresee high loads.“
And, one more endorsement, this time from a video made by Ortovox and the German Mountain and Ski Guide Association - some folks who know what they're talking about. In this video about building multi piece gear anchors, he says at about 2:20: “I fix the optimum height of the anchor by tying an overhand knot (in the open cordelette).” Screen grab below of overhand knot; See the video here.
Introduction to MA systems
Do those pictures in the rock rescue book of a 5 :1 rescue system leave you scratching your head? Yeah, me too. These posts, written for the math-challenged, takes a deep dive into the theory and application of mechanical advantage systems for climbers.
First off, thanks to some Very Bright People who helped with these posts. High fives to Barry O’Mahony, Bryan Hall (with Rose City Ropes) Deling Ren, and Derek Castonguay. Thanks, friends!
I'm busy and I have a short attention span. What's the takeaway?
Start with learning 2:1 and a 3:1 until you can build them with your eyes closed. Every other fancy system is really just a combination of these.
Real world mechanical advantage will always be less than theoretical mechanical advantage. Sometimes a lot less - that “3:1” is probably more like at 2:1.
Use pulleys instead of carabiners when possible.
Redirecting the pull adds friction. Don't do it unless you need to.
Redirecting the pull through the anchor increases the load on the anchor.
A pulley on the anchor only serves to change the direction of pull. A pulley on the load or the load strand creates mechanical advantage.
The efficiency of ratchets is worse than you may think.
Mechanical advantage systems can increase forces on the anchor.
Static ropes are more efficient than dynamic ropes.
A pulley with a larger wheel is slightly more efficient than a pulley with a smaller wheel.
Don't use more mechanical advantage than you need to get the job done.
Alpine climbers and big wall climbers have different needs and different systems
These blog posts are mostly arranged with easier topics at the top and more advanced topics closer to the bottom.
Got some time and a longer attention span and really want to learn this stuff?
Good, let's get started.
I'll always remember my first encounter with pulleys. In the rural area where I grew up, we had a neighbor named Ray, who was always messing around with cars. One day my dad said, “Let's go visit Ray tomorrow morning, I think he has something special to show us.”
The next day we walk over to Ray's house. He’s elbow deep in an old Chevy, that’s parked under an oak tree with a stout branch. I see some ropes going back-and-forth between the tree branch and the car, but that doesn't mean anything to me. After a few minutes. Ray hands me a rope end and says, “OK, start pulling.” I pull hand over hand on the rope . . . and watch in absolute amazement as my 8 year old arms lift the entire engine out of the car! The magic of pulleys had me feeling, for a brief moment, like a superhero.
Mechanical advantage (mostly referred to from here on as MA) which rather magically magnifies your pulling power, is one of the wonders of human ingenuity. Something as simple as running a rope back and forth between an anchor point and a load can somehow give you the power to lift a load many times your own body weight.
Mechanical advantage in various forms was a key component of building the Egyptian pyramids. Sliding a block up a ramp is shown below is a form of mechanical advantage, because you’re moving the load several horizontal meters and only one vertical one, which means it requires less force to move.
Systems of pulleys are used on modern cranes to lift amazingly large loads.
Applications of mechanical advantage have been used for many centuries in all kinds of different clever ways!
This series of posts takes a deep dive into MA, how it works, and how it can be applied to climbing situations. The goal here is for anyone reading this, especially non-engineering people, is to start simple, get a bit more esoteric, and by the end have a complete and solid understanding of MA pulley systems and how they apply to climbing. If you make through all these posts, you’ll be an expert!
Knowledge of mechanical advantage systems is not helpful only for climbers. White water rafters and kayakers use similar rescue systems, and this series of posts will be helpful for them as well.
Note that this post is NOT a rehash of the specifics of how to perform alpine rescues or big wall hauling. Those topics are already well described in many other places on the web and in print.
Moving a load to base camp: a way to think about MA
The bush plane dropped you and your team off on the glacier. You've got 100 pounds / 50 kg of gear to carry to your first base camp. How do you do it?
If you’re strong, you could load everything into a big backpack (and maybe a sled) and carry it all in one trip. We could call this a 1:1; moving the entire load one time.
If you don't want to carry much at all, you could divide your gear in 5 loads. You make 5 trips to base camp, carrying only 20 pounds on each trip. We could call this a 5:1. There's hardly any weight in your pack, but you have to make the walk five times.
A more practical approach may be somewhere in the middle. You could divide your gear in half and take it in two trips, with a manageable 50 pounds on each carry. We could call this a 2:1.
In the end, all of the gear gets moved to base camp. You haven’t magically made the 100 pounds of gear any lighter. Moving it still took the same amount of “work”, but you simply changed the time and distance involved to move the load. Is one “easier” than another? No.
The basic question is: would you rather move 100 pounds one time, 20 pounds five times, or 50 pounds two times? There’s not one correct answer.
Let's start with some definitions.
Mechanical advantage, or MA: This is the magnification of your pulling effort. It's expressed as a ratio, such as 2:1, 3:1, and is pronounced “2 to 1” and “3 to 1”. The first number is the force applied to the load, and the second number, which is always one, is the effort that you apply to the rope. For example, in a theoretical 2:1 system, if you pull with 100 pounds, you can lift a 200 pound load. A 3:1 system with a 100 pound pull let’s you lift 300 pounds. Magic!
Theoretical (aka “ideal”) vs Real World (aka “actual”)MA: On paper, in a frictionless world with perfect pulleys and ropes that don't stretch, MA systems work as advertised. But in the real world, not so much. Mostly due to friction, real world, or actual MA will always be less than theoretical, or ideal MA. (Meaning, that theoretical 3:1 may be more like a 1.7:1, ouch!)
Efficiency: Closely related to MA is efficiency. Think of efficiency as: how much of your effort is actually getting through to the load to do some useful work? High efficiency is good, because it means you need to do less work. (And let's face it, most of us are lazy.) In the real world, haul system efficiency is affected by a wide range of things, such as stretch of the rope under load, the quality of your pulleys, rubbing and twisting of the rope, how often you need to reset your hauling system, and a few other quirky variables.
Friction: the main and messy variable that takes nice “theoretical” MA and turns it into “real world” MA. With a 2:1 system, in theory a 100 pound effort can lift a 200 pound load. But in the real world, friction will always mean you will be moving less than 200 pounds. Depending on your choice of gear, it can sadly be a LOT less. In climbing, friction mostly comes from the rope bending to go through a pulley or carabiner, or the rope rubbing on a rock ledge or a crevasse lip. Friction is not our friend, and we want to try to minimize it whenever possible.
Fixed pulley: a pulley/carabiner that’s attached to the anchor. This pulley does not move, and serves only to change the direction of pull. It does not create MA.
Moveable pulley: aka travelling or “tractor” pulley/carabiner. This is attached in some way to the load or the load strand. This pulley moves as you pull the rope. It changes the direction of pull AND creates MA.
Progress capture: aka ratchet. If you pull on a load, a progress capture means the load won’t slip back once you stop pulling. A progress capture in climbing is typically either a simple prusik knot or a pulley that is combined with a rope grabbing mechanism. These pulleys, such as Petzl “Traxion” series, are expensive, but very handy. Progress capturing pulleys are optional for alpine climbing but mandatory for big wall hauling. More on ratchets in a later post.
Below are two examples of a progress capture - the humble prusik and the Petzl Mini Traxion (shown open to illustrate rope grabbing teeth.)
progress capture: Petzl pulley and sterling hollow block tied as 3 wrap prusik.
progress capture: petzl mini traxion
Overview of a simple pulley system
Meet your new climbing partner, Sticky! Let’s start with the basics, a straight 1:1 pull. Then, we’ll add some components that make it into an MA system with progress capture.
Let's start simple.
I don't know about you, but when I start looking at diagrams of complicated pulley systems and 5:1 rescue setups, my eyes get crossed and my brain starts to fog. Good news is, we don’t need to analyze a 5:1. At least not right now. Let’s break this down by starting at the beginning and then working up to a simple MA system, so you can really see how this works.
The basic 1:1 pull
Sticky the climber needs to haul a 100 pound load up to the ledge. Sticky ties a rope onto the load, and starts pulling. To even budge it off the ground, Sticky needs to pull up with 100 pounds of effort. Sticky pulls 1 foot of rope, and the load rises 1 foot. Sticky has no mechanical advantage or progress capturing, so Sticky’s arms get tired pretty fast!
In this case, it's probably not a good system. But in other situations, it might work just fine. Got a crevasse rescue with five people on top ready to pull? Great! Put prusiks on the rope for everybody, have them clip in, and start pulling, ideally with their legs and bodyweight. Probably no need for anything fancier than this.
Bluehat thinks, “Hmm, how about clip a carabiner to that bolt, and clip in the rope? That way, I can pull DOWN with my bodyweight instead of lifting UP with my arms, and I won't get so tired. That should be easier, right?”
The 1:1 pull with a redirect carabiner
Does Bluehat gain any MA with this setup? No. He changed the direction of pull, but because the direction change is on the fixed anchor, he did not gain any MA. He’s still pulling a 1:1, just like before, just with the rope now moving down instead of up. He pulls 1 foot of rope, and the load rises 1 foot. This carabiner on the anchor is called a “redirect”, because it, umm, redirects your direction of pull.
Does he get an easier pull? Maybe. He can now use gravity and pull down using bodyweight rather than lifting up with his muscles. Pulling down is usually easier than pulling up! But the redirect adds a lot of friction. By running the rope through a carabiner, which is only about 50% efficient, he'll have to pull down with 150 pounds of force to move the 100 pound load.
Which is better, 100 pounds lifting straight up, using your arm muscles, or 150 pounds, pulling down, using your bodyweight? There's really no right answer. It depends on how far you need to move the load, your weight, and your strength. (Personally, I'll take 150 pounds with the redirect pulling down, thank you very much.)
Does he need a bomber anchor for the redirect? Yes! When Bluehat is pulling, the force on the anchor is approximately twice the force they’re applying to the rope, or about 300 lbs. Which introduces a good general rule of thumb: a redirect on the anchor increase the load on the anchor.
The 1:1 pull with a redirect carabiner and progress capture prusik
Bluehat thinks, “Well, it is easier pulling down with my bodyweight, but if I ever let go, this load is going to zing all the way to the ground again. How about I put a prusik on the load strand so I can take a rest?”
Excellent idea! This is known as a progress capture (aka “ratchet”). It allows the load to move up, but whenever Bluehat wants to let go and rest, the prusik keeps the load from sliding back down. (If you want to get fancy, you could use a progress capture pulley here, such as Petzl Traxion.)
The 2:1 pull
Bluehat thinks, “OK, time to start working smart instead of working hard!” He clips one end of the rope to the anchor, puts a pulley on the 100 lb. load, runs the rope through the pulley, and starts hauling. Now he’s getting somewhere!
Does Bluehat gain any MA with this setup? YES! He’s now pulling with a 2:1 mechanical advantage. Look how the load is distributed on the rope. 50 pounds goes to the anchor, and 50 pounds goes to him. So, if he pulls with 50 pounds of force, the load will rise! He has to pull 2 feet of rope to move the load 1 foot.
Does he get an easier pull? Well, it depends how you look at it. In theory, he only has to pull with 50 pounds of force to move the load, which is good. But, he needs to pull twice as much rope, which is not so good. In the end, he's doing the same amount of “work”. Would you rather lift 100 pounds 10 times, or 50 pounds 20 times? In the end you’ve still moved 1,000 total pounds, it's all the same.
Here's another way to think about it: work equals force times distance. You're doing the same amount of work in the end, lifting a given load the required distance. But with a mechanical advantage system, you use a lower force to move the load over a longer distance.
How’s he doing for efficiency? Great! By using a quality pulley on the load, he can lift the load with much less effort. Way better than the carabiner with a 1:1 redirect.
The 2:1 pull with redirect and progress capture prusik
Bluehat thinks, “Well, this is definitely easier to pull, but my arms are still getting tired. Let's put a redirect on the anchor, and a prusik on the load strand.”
Now we're getting somewhere. He’s lifting with 2:1 MA, , and added a ratchet prusik so he can take a break whenever he needs to without dropping the load. Nice!
This, right here, is the foundation of mechanical advantage systems. All the fancy stuff in the rock or crevasse rescue books that makes you go cross-eyed? It's all just adding and stacking additional redirects and pulleys in different variations on top of pretty much what we just saw.
Now, the above diagrams might appear to be overly simplistic. But if we break them down, we can learn some important principles that apply to any flavor of simple or compound pulley systems.
Changing the direction of pull at the anchor does NOT add mechanical advantage.
Changing the direction of pull at the load (or the load strand) DOES add mechanical advantage.
Even if a change of direction at the anchor does add friction, it might make your pull easier, depending on your own personal strength, body weight, and the weight of the load you need to move.
A redirect on the anchor increase forces on the anchor. Be sure your anchor can handle this.
Try to minimize friction at every change of direction by using a pulley rather than a carabiner whenever possible.
Adding a progress capture / ratchet means your load will not slide back down if you stop pulling.
In the end, the “work” you do is the same with an MA system. You move the same amount of weight over the same distance. So, in a sense it's not necessarily “easier” to move the load all the way up, you just get to pull less weight on each stroke.
A 3:1 “Z” drag, step by step
Knowing how to set up a 3:1 mechanical advantage Z drag system is fundamental to rope rescue. However, it's a lot easier to remember if you follow a sequence of steps. Here’s a photo walk through of how to set up a Z drag.
The “Z” drag (so named because the rope looks like the letter “Z” if you turn your head sideways) which gives you a theoretical 3:1 mechanical advantage, is one of the fundamental setups of crevasse and rock rescue. After you've done it a few times, most people get the hang of it. But if you haven't rigged it in a while, or if you're doing it under the stress of a real rescue situation, setting it up efficiently and correctly can be a challenge. (I’ve seen some quite experienced climbers have a complete brain fade trying to do this if they’re out of practice . . .)
Here's a step-by-step walk-through. Hopefully this will help if you're new to rope rescue, or to dust off this skill if it’s been awhile. So get a rope, 2 prusiks, a few carabiners and a pulley if you have it, and follow along.
Note 1: This shows the basic mechanics of how a Z drag is set up, not all the possible nuances of gear and technique. Prusik minding and progress capturing pulleys, rope grabs, backup knots and releasable hitches, and other fancy rope tricks can be added after you know this foundation inside and out.
Note 2: Don't pull furniture around inside your house as it's tough on the floor and carpet, ask me how I know this . . .
Step 1 - Construct a bomber anchor. Add a locking carabiner. Clip this carabiner to the rope with the load. You now have a 1:1 system (zero mechanical advantage) with the rope redirected.
Step 2 - Add a “capture” prusik on the load strand of the rope, and clip this prusik to the anchor. (This prusik loop “captures” your pulling progress, holding the load if you let go of the rope.)
Step 2A - The way it's set up now, when you haul on the rope, the prusik will pull through your carabiner. Not good. There are a few ways to prevent this. One is to add a quick link, as shown below, which should block the prusik from sliding through. The effectiveness of this depends on the few variables such as size of your quick link, and diameter and grip-tion of rope and prusik cord. Give it a try and see how it works. (You can get quick links that are actually CE rated for climbing from CAMP, discussed here.)
Another way is to have a second person “mind the prusik”, keeping it loose when you're pulling, but letting it go tight on the rope to hold the load when you stop pulling.
If you have a fancy and somewhat expensive “prusik minding pulley”, this is where you’d put it.
(And yes, clever reader, I know the trick of adding a tube belay device here, we're not covering that today.)
Step 3 - Add a second prusik, called a “travelling” prusik, onto the load strand of the rope. It's called the “travelling” prusik, because it moves when you pull. If your prusik cord is a little long, like the one I have here, tie an overhand knot to shorten it up. Shorter is better.
Step 4 - Put the free end of the rope through a pulley, clip a carabiner to the pulley, and clip that carabiner onto the travelling prusik.
If you don't have a pulley, use a carabiner here. A pulley is better. If you have only one pulley, put it on the travelling prusik to increase your hauling efficiency.
Sweet, you now have a 3:1 and you’re ready to pull! Pull on the rope until your load is where you need it, or until the travelling pulley touches the anchor. If this happens and you need to pull some more, set the capture prusik to be sure it can hold the load, and then reset the travelling prusik by sliding it as far as you can down the rope toward the load. Continue pulling.
What’s a “closed” rope system?
You may have heard rope systems described as either “open” or “closed”. Not very descriptive, is it? If these terms leave you scratching your noggin, this article will help. Hint: closed is good.
You may have heard the term “closed rope system” in various books and websites. However, I’ve rarely seen it clearly defined, so let's talk about it.
A “closed rope system” means that both ends of the rope have a knot of some kind in them. It’s best practice to make this the default system for pretty much every climbing situation.
A closed rope system can take many forms. Here are a few:
A stopper knot in the free end(s) on a rappel or when top rope belaying,
The end of the rope clipped or tied to a pack, rope bag or similar. This is helpful for single pitch top roping. If you start pulling the other end of the rope, you’ll immediately notice the other end is clipped to a pack. This avoids the extremely common problem of pulling the stopper knot up the route out of reach, whoops! Consider using a clove hitch instead of a bight knot. Once you unclip the hitch, the rope is free to pull. See above photo.
Your retraced figure 8 tied directly to your harness,
Both rope ends clipped to the anchor, as you might do with the “J loop” technique on a multi pitch rappel,
This is a simple habit that can prevent the end of the rope from ever going through a belay or rappel device, two common causes of climbing accidents.
Think of closing your rope system with knots the same as wearing a seatbelt when driving. 99.99% of the time you're never going to need it, but that one time you do, you're going to be damn glad you had it.
And, it's worth mentioning again, pretty much always close the system when rappelling. (The exception to this might be a one pitch rappel and you can clearly see the ends of the rope or on the ground.)
Comments . . .
Some people object to tying knots in the rappel strands, saying they “don't want the knot to get stuck”. I’ve never understood this. Unless you have unusually deep rope-eating cracks right below you, the first person down should easily be able to stop, pull the knot out of whatever crack it might be in, and toss it on down the cliff. A key rule of rappelling is to never go below any rope that’s stuck. The first person down should fix any issues and lower the rope properly.
If it's a crazy windy day and you're worried about getting your knotted rope stuck in some far-off rock crevice, you have some options. You can lower your partner with both ends of the rope, or the first person can saddlebag the rope.
Think of it this way: how many people have died from a knotted rope end getting stuck? Compare that to, how many people have died from rappelling off the end of the ropes?
Do you have a rope that's “long enough”? Don't be complacent. Say you’re climbing a 25 meter route and you have a 60 meter rope. No problem, you think, I have an extra 10 meters of rope. But, if your belayer backs up from the wall or walks downhill, or maybe the climber decides to pendulum off to one side and clip a redirect piece of gear, or something strange like that, you might suddenly end up short when lowering off. Having a knot in the end of the rope, or having the belayer tied to it, eliminates this potential accident. Always close the system, even if you're doing single pitch sport climbing and initially appears you have plenty of rope to lower off your partner.
When your rappel ends on the ground, have the first person down untie the stopper knots. You’re on the ground, so obviously they’re no longer needed, and they need to be untied to pull the rope. So, get into the habit of having the first person do this. This helps prevent that all-too-common mistake of starting to pull the rappel rope with a knot still in one end, yikes!
For a rappel, consider tying your stopper knot at least 2 feet from the end of the rope. By doing this, you give yourself enough extra rope to at least tie an overhand. This gives you something to clip your tether to, in case you screw up and reach the knot. If you don't do this, yes, you did prevent the catastrophe of rapping off the end of your rope, but now you might be kind of screwed, because you maybe can't do much else.
Think you’d never make a mistake like this? If it can happen to Alex Honnold, it can darn sure happen to you.
In 2016, Alex was dropped by his belayer because they were using a 60 meter rope on a 70 meter route, there was no knot in the end of the rope, and his belayer was not tied to the end of the rope. Whoops, open rope system!
While the belayer was lowering Alex, the end of the rope zinged through their Grigri and Alex fell onto some “gnarly rocks”. Luckily he only suffered mild injuries. Other climbers in the same situation have died.
Climbing "shades of grey" - Dealing with conflicting advice
Beginning climbers often hear a confusing mish-mash of different advice and rules. Read this Tip to discern what's a definitive rule, and what’s more personal preference.
Short version: A vast majority of climbing techniques are not black or white, right or wrong, but exist along a continuum of subjectivity and best practice. If you receive climbing advice that differs from what you already know, ask "Why do you like to do it this way, and what might happen if I do it differently?"
It’s day one of climbing school. You’re out at the local crag with a handful of instructors and a few other eager students. One instructor, over the course of an hour or so, shows you how to belay and tie a few knots. You take a break, rotate to another instructor, and they then proceed to tell you a different method to belay and a different way to tie the same knots.
Aaaaaarrrgh! Confusion and frustration! Who should you listen to?
Sound familiar?
Just about every climber can think of situations in their climbing education where they received wildly different advice on a particular topic or technique. Your climbing mentor tells you to belay with your palm up, but the "Freedom of the Hills" instruction book suggests belaying palm down. There seems like a dozen different ways to tie a butterfly knot and everyone wants to convince you their way is the best. You get the idea. When you’re learning, it sometimes seems like everything is like this!
(And let's not get started on YouTube, where Reinhold Messner himself could post a climbing instruction video and even then some yahoos would rip his "incorrect technique" apart in the comment section.)
After you have some experience under your belt, you may be better able to interpret conflicting advice like this, but it can be especially confounding for the newer climber.
New folks are doing their best just to get their heads around the foundational skills, while underneath it all, anxiety is amplified because we all know we are doing a sport that can get you killed in an instant if you do something critical the wrong way.
Here are two approaches to hopefully cut through this fog. One is to understand that climbing techniques exist along a sliding scale. Two is to remember a back-and-forth dialogue needs to happen when you hear conflicting advice.
Let’s dive into each of these.
One: sliding scale
It’s part of human nature to want to put things in a binary box. Is it A or B? Am I right or wrong? Are you liberal or conservative? Is this restaurant great or terrible? This worldview takes less mental energy than trying to weigh the nuances of real life.
But, we all know that most things in life exist along a continuum, a sliding scale of ambiguity between one extreme or the other. The same is true in climbing.
There are actually very few climbing techniques that we can call black or white, set-in-stone, always-do-it-this-way-or-you’re-gonna-have-serious-consequences. I’m giving this a very subjective number of about 10%.
What are some of those black and white rules? Try to think of a few right now.
Never glissade with crampons on.
Never take your brake hand off the rope when you're rappelling or belaying.
Always check your partner's harness and knot before they start to climb.
Always double back your harness buckle.
You can probably think of a few more, but there really aren’t a whole lot more than that!
That means the other 90% of climbing techniques exist along a continuum somewhere in the middle. You could divide these into five general categories:
1 - Never do it this way, you're gonna die or get seriously hurt. Example: Glissading with crampons.
2 - Outdated technique that has a few problems, but you’re not gonna die. Example, using 1-inch webbing for everything.
3 - Completely up to you, flip a coin. Example: using loose chalk or a chalk ball.
4 - Generally preferred modern method, best practice: Example: belaying directly off the anchor in fifth class rock, as opposed to off your belay loop.
5 - Pretty much everyone agrees you should do it this way: Example: Tying knot(s) in the end of your rappel rope so you don’t zing off the ends.
So, this means that the vast majority of climbing techniques are fairly subjective and generally up to your personal preference. Good news, if you do it a different way, you’re probably not going to die! Hopefully this is comforting to the beginning climber who's trying to sort out all this well-intended advice that often comes from different directions.
So, that tells us that this climbing game is not as black-and-white as some people might lead you to think. What's the next step of sorting through the advice? How to decide what you want to absorb and what you want to discard?
esteemquotes.com
Bruce, that's terrific advice, but as new climbers, it's hard to decide "what is useful and what is not". How do we do that?
Here's how. Simply ask, “What could happen to me if I do it differently than what you just showed me?”
Two: Reasons and Consequences
For the giver of advice (instructor): when you offer advice or suggestions, try to follow that up with your rationale(s) for doing so, and the potential consequences of doing it another way.
For the receiver of advice (student): if you hear something that's different from what you already think is correct, try to ask two questions (in a respectful way and ideally at a time that doesn’t interrupt the teaching flow.)
The first question is: “Why do you like to do it that way?”
The second question is, “What might happen if I do it another way?”
(Of course, this is much easier to do when you’re face-to-face with someone, as opposed to reading a book, magazine, or web post).
“Why do you like to do it that way?” If the person offering the advice can immediately answer with a few tangible reasons WHY, then you might well think: “Dang, they know their stuff and have clearly thought this through. It’s different than what I’ve learned, but I’m going to consider this alternative method.”
On the other hand, if your instructor person shrugs their shoulders and says “Well, I dunno, I’ve just always done it like that and I think you should too," then that’s not a very compelling argument for their technique.
“What might happen if I do it another way?” If the answer is "Ehhh, not much", then no problemo, you can pretty much choose whatever method suits you. But, the answer is "If you do it differently than what I taught you, there's a good chance of serious consequences, which are X, Y and maybe Z,” then that's something you should probably pay attention to.
I think you get the idea. Subjectivity is an essential part of climbing, and it's not nearly as black-and-white as many instructors make it out to be. Do your best to embrace the “shades of grey” and develop your own techniques and style within the sliding scale of accepted methods.
A learning sequence for any vertical rope skill
When learning any climbing skill where a mistake has potentially lethal consequences, it's good to take a very conservative approach. Here's one step-by-step method.
If you want to learn any rope skill that if you screw it up, there's a high chance you're going to die, here’s a conservative learning sequence you might want to follow. It increases the odds of you learning the skills and getting through the process in one piece.
Yes, that may sound a little dramatic, but learning new vertical rope skills is no joke.
For beginners, this might be rappelling. For more advanced folks, it could cover Crafty Rope Tricks like passing a knot on a single rope rappel, or moving the rappel knot past an obstacle.
Let's use learning to rappel as an example.
Watch any solid instructional videos you can find. (Start on the alpinesavvy Video page)
Recruit a friend who knows what they’re doing with a few tasty beverages or dinner.
Start first on flat ground. It’s easy to do this in a park by throwing a sling around a tree and just walking backwards to get a feel for the basic movement.
Then try doing it on a staircase. Again, work with your partner. This gives you the feel of actually putting your body weight on the rope with minimal consequences if you screw up.
Finally, you’re ready for something vertical yet very close to the ground, where you can practice your moves under the careful eye of your experienced friend. Unfortunately, due to liability issues, most rock gyms do not smile upon people practicing Crafty Rope Tricks. Always ask first. You may have to be resourceful and find something on your own, A short retaining wall of 10 or 20 feet as a possible option. How about a tree? The first few times you rappel for real, having a back up belay of some kind is an excellent idea.
FInally, You can try rappelling from a real life stance, ideally with a skilled climber standing next to you while you do the entire set up, and remaining on a belay of some kind the first few times you try it.
Climbing Gear Strength Ratings
You’ve probably wondered how strong that piece of gear actually is, especially compared to others in the same category. Can you really rappel safely off that micro stopper? How much trust should I put in that single bolt? Most all of that gets answered, right here.
Ever wonder how strong that pro or gear really is? Here’s a list to get you started, and maybe help you win an argument or two. I wanted to see a list like this for a long time, and after scouring the web and not finding any, decided to make my own.
Metric notes: A kilonewton (kN) is a metric unit of force. 1 kN is equal to about 100 kg / 225 lbs. Ratings are rounded to the nearest kN.
Sources: http://www.fishproducts.com, tech pages, “The Mountaineering Handbook”, by Craig Connally, the always awesome Petzl website, various web retailers, checking the gear ratings on some of my own stuff and in the local gear shop.
I made two lists. One is gear ranked in descending order, and the other is gear ranked by category (like seeing small, medium and large stoppers all ranked side by side.)
Takeaways (for me)
Even with a severe factor 1 fall, the force on the belayer is only a tiny 2 kN.
There's a BIG increase in strength from 6mm cord to 7 mm cord. Use 7 mm for cordelettes.
A tiny wiregate carabiner may be stronger than a honker "belay" style carabiner.
A well placed bolt is never going to fail you.
You can almost rappel on your shoelaces; 2 kN is about the most force you can apply to the anchor.
Climbing ropes are not tested for tensile breaking strength like most other gear. Because they are so stretchy, they absorb a huge amount of force before they have a break. But, if you stretch a rope until it breaks, that will probably happen between 14 and 18 kN. Click each link to see the relevant test results. 14 kN was for an old crusty rope, 18 kN was for a new one. Either one is super good enough.
Here's a video for our friends at Hownot2.com, breaking an older rope. Start at 9:45.
Color code your slings
When buying runners, try keep all your single runners one color, and all your double runners another color. This lets you grab the right one with just a quick glance at your harness.
This is an old trick, but a good one:
Make all of the slings of the same length the same color. This lets you glance at your harness and grab the right length of runner that you need.
For example, try to make all of your single (60 cm) slings the same color, like yellow, and all of your double (120 cm) slings a different color, say blue.
Fortunately, manufacturers have gotten on board with this, and now the common color for 60 cm slings seems to be yellow or orange.
(Keep in mind you can shorten a double or connect two singles together to extend them if needed.)
Finally, sport climbing quickdraws aren’t used so much in alpine climbing, so you might want to save those for the bolted routes.
Here's a related tip: the 4:1 ratio
A general rule of thumb for a moderately meandering alpine pitch is to have about a 4 to 1 ratio of single slings to double slings.
So, maybe eight 60 cm slings, and two 120 cm slings. Of course, the length of the pitch and how much it wanders around has a bearing what you carry.
One double 120 cm sling in blue, and four single 60 cm slings in yellow.
Start with this “4:1” short to long sling ratio and you should be good for most routes.
Cordelettes - General Tips
Using a cordelette is standard practice for many climbers when building multi-piece gear anchors. But, there’s a few more tricks than the standard set up that can make your life easier. Learn a few here.
Many climbers consider the cordelette a standard piece of gear, as it lets you quickly connect two or more points of protection into a redundant, non-extending, and fairly well distributed anchor.
What are some advantages?
Fairly inexpensive (especially compared to a 240 cm Dyneema sling, which some climbers prefer over a standard cordelette)
You can cut it up and leave it for rappel anchors
You can rig it “bunny ears” style, to utilize anchors that are very far apart
Cordelette vary in terms of length and diameter, but a textbook cordelette is “7 and 7”: about 7 meters of 7mm cord, tied into one large loop with a well-dressed knot. Traditionally this was a double fisherman’s, but a more modern method is a simple flat overhand. It can be a little shorter or a little longer, and tied with 6 mm or even 5.5 mm high tech cord, but “7 and 7” is good starting point.
There are a LOT of crafty ways to use a cordelette - bunny ears, the “open” cordelette with no knot at all, overhand knot - but we’ll cover those in detail on other tips. For today, let's look at the textbook rigging, tied in one large loop.
A garden variety cordelette.
Note the striking resemblance to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. =^)
Here’s a few Crafty Rope Tricks and general cordelette tips that you probably won’t find in the textbook.
1 - The length and diameter can depend on your climbing preferences
Climb on snow a lot? Consider a 6 mm 14-15 foot cordelette. More a rock person? Maybe a 7 mm 20 foot cord is a better choice. Forces are probably lower on snow, and you can put protection wherever you want it. Forces on rock can be higher, and protection might be farther apart. Read more at this tip.
2 - A trick for close placements
If you’re using two gear placements close together, like a bolted sport anchor, your cordelette in normal configuration will probably be too long, resulting in a master point that hangs too low. (A good rule of thumb in anchor building is that the anchor master point should always be at waist level or higher, ideally around your chest.)
Here’s one of several ways to handle the situation: rather than the standard method of clipping the cordelette into the carabiners, instead pass one or even two loops of the cord through the carabiner, and then back to the master point. This doubles the cord in one or more of the legs and raises your master point, resulting in a more compact and easy-to-manage anchor.
Left: Standard method, too long, belay at your ankles. (There's nothing actually unsafe about this, just awkward and inconvenient.)
Right: double the strands through the carabiner, moves the master point nice and high.
3 - Clove hitch the knot to the highest piece
Murphy’s Law of cordelettes: the darn double fisherman’s knot always ends up in the wrong place! Eliminate this problem by clove hitching the cord next to the knot next to your highest piece of gear. This keeps the joining knot fixed next to the protection and out of the way of your master point.
4 - Shorten it a bit
Most of the time your cordelette is going to feel either too short or too long. If it’s too short, try to add a separate sling to the piece of gear that’s farthest away.
If it’s too long, rather than clipping the cordelette loop to the gear, instead pass the loop through one of the the carabiners. This makes four strands of cord coming off that piece of gear rather then two, which will raise your anchor master point. Remember, you ideally want to master point to be about chest level, and not below your waist if you can avoid it.
Right side strand is passed through the carabiner, not clipped to it.
5 - Try to keep all strands about the same length.
This means that if one piece of gear is much higher than the others, try to add a separate runner to the top piece to bring it more level with the other placements. If you build a cordelette anchor with legs of very different lengths, a majority of force is going to go to the shortest leg, because that’s stretching less than the other two. If you have to do this, try to be sure that the gear you have on that short leg is as solid as possible.
6 - Anticipate the direction of pull and “aim” the cordelette at this point.
When belaying a second, the direction of force will usually be toward the last gear placement you made on lead. Try to equalize the anchor as best as you can by pointing it at this direction.
7 - Tie a figure 8 at the master point if you have enough cord to do it
Many people tie an overhand knot at the master point, but a figure 8 is better, if you have the rope for it. Reason? The figure 8 absorbs more fall force than an overhand, and thus transmits less of that force to the gear. It's also easier to untie.
8 - Clip the belay carabiner into the cord BEFORE you tie the master point knot.
The carabiner gives you a sort of handle and keeps the cord loops tidy when you tie the knot.
9 - For a monolith like a tree or a rock pillar, use both strands on one side for the shelf.
In the photo below, if you clipped the shelf is shown on the left, you have a 50% chance of clipping the same strand twice. Most all the time this is okay, but it's technically not redundant. It's better practice to clip as shown on the right: clipping the carabiner between both strands on ONE side or the left, or the other. This ensures that you are capturing both strands, maintaining redundancy.
Note this is the opposite of what you would do if each side of the cordelette went to a multi-piece anchor, so it might take a minute to get your head around this. =^)
Securing yourself near a cliff top
Setting up a top rope anchor from above can place you dangerously close to the cliff edge. Here’s a simple and fast way to safeguard yourself whenever you’re working close to a drop off.
When setting up a toprope or rappel anchor on a clifftop, a good rule of thumb: secure yourself if you’re within 2 meters of the edge.
This distance may be greater if the terrain slopes toward the void, there’s loose gravel/stones underfoot, the rock is wet, or other factors.
A fatal accident happened at Horsethief Butte Washington in 2009, apparently because climbers were setting top rope anchors in an exposed area without an adequate backup.
Let’s learn from this tragedy and never let it happen again.
There are various ways to secure yourself. One method that uses a minimum of gear is to use your climbing rope.
First, locate or build a secure anchor well back from the cliff edge. This anchor can be a stout boulder or rock spike, tree, or a constructed gear anchor.
Tie one end of your climbing rope to this anchor.
Tie a friction hitch (prusik, klemheist, or autoblock) to the fixed line, and clip the friction hitch to your belay loop with a locking carabiner. (You can use a Grigri for this, but they can slide under a mild load, so I prefer a friction hitch.)
Walk to about 2 meters from the cliff edge, sliding the friction hitch along the rope as you walk. Then, pull up about 3 meters of slack rope, tie a figure eight or overhand on a bight, and clip this with a locking carabiner to your belay loop. The friction knot allows you to walk out to an exposed area under a self belay. The bight knot backup is there in case the friction hitch fails in any way. With this simple rig, you can work at the edge of a cliff fully protected from falling.
If you’re building a toprope anchor, after the anchor is built, simply pass the free end of your fixed safety line through the master point carabiner, and drop it to the ground. Then walk away from the cliff edge (still attached to your safety line) to a secure area, untie the end of the fixed rope, and toss it to the ground. The rope should be through your anchor and both ends should be on the ground, ready to climb.
What about a Grigri?
A Grigri can work, but it can start to creep along the rope if you don't keep constant weight on it. If you have to actually rappel to go over an edge to access the anchors, it can be a good choice. If I'm staying more or less at the top, I prefer a friction hitch, as it’s more reliable. Try both and see what you prefer.
Here's a short video I made showing this method, and why a Grigri sometimes doesn't work so well.
Here's a nice Instagram video from IFMGA Certified Guide Karsten Delap showing the whole process, using the actual climbing rope and a Grigri to access anchors below the edge.
A report of the Horsethief Butte accident is below.
From The Columbian newspaper:
Deaths of rock climbers in Gorge blamed on error
Tuesday, May 26 2009
BY JOHN BRANTON
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
A state investigation of a rock-climbing accident that claimed the life of a Washougal man and his sister-in-law has determined they fell due to errors in placing metal stoppers in cracks and attaching them to their webbing.
The early afternoon fall on April 5 killed Tony “T.C.” Silva of Washougal and Laura Dyal-Silva of Oregon during a family outing at Horsethief Butte, in Columbia Hills State Park in Klickitat County.
Tony Silva was a popular and well-respected detective with the Gresham, Ore., Police Department who was known for his advanced computer skills and helping other officers.
An investigation revealed that the deaths were accidental and not caused by equipment failure, Lt. Julie Myer of the Washington State Patrol, based in Olympia, said Tuesday.
For such a climb, three wedgelike metal stoppers, wider on top and narrower on bottom, typically would be placed in cracks, Myer said. The climbers would fasten their webbing to cables on the stoppers.
Myer said Dyal-Silva had more training than Tony Silva, who was attempting to lodge the three stoppers.
Tony Silva had successfully placed one stopper and attached it to the climbers’ webbing.
The second stopper had been placed in another crack, but wasn’t attached to the webbing.
The fact that the webbing was all one color, gray, may have caused some confusion about whether the second stopper was attached to it, Myer said.
Tony Silva is believed to have been working on placing the third stopper when something happened, perhaps a slip. At least one witness said Tony Silva fell first, then Dyal-Silva, who was attached to the system with him.
Their webbing was attached to only one stopper, Myer said.
“We know he was connected to one stopper that failed when all their weight got onto it,” Myer said.
They fell about 42 feet.
Dyal-Silva’s husband, Bobby Silva, had been on top of the cliff but went down to get the families’ children out of the sun, Myer said.
Rock climbing takes a lot of training said Myer, herself a climber.
“You have to constantly practice to retain that skill level.”