How to (safely) clean an overhanging route
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When lowering from an overhanging route, you typically clip a quickdraw between your harness and the rope going to your belayer.
This draw slides down the rope as you're being lowered, keeping you fairly close to the rock and letting you more easily clean the gear.
This is known as tramming, because . . . (it looks something like a tram/gondola at a ski resort, hanging from the cable? That's my best guess.)
Below: nice diagram from the always awesome Petzl website showing the “tramming” technique.
The potential problem: when you clean the last draw.
After you clean the bottom draw and let go, you have the potential to take a huge swing out into space, because the roof now wants to hang you directly underneath the top anchor.
If you have a clean swing away from anything dangerous, then go ahead and take it, it can be kind of fun!
But that’s not always the case. I’ve heard about several accidents that have happened from this, most recently in California in 2025. The climber took a big swing into another rock which severely broke their leg and required a helicopter rescue, yikes! Don't let this happen to you!
There are various ways to prevent this problem. Let's have a look.
How to avoid the big swing when cleaning overhanging routes . . .
If you can reach the first bolt from the second bolt, try to reach down and unclip the bottom draw. This will still cause a swing, but hopefully not as far.
Do you have a fancy stick clip that can unclip draws from bolts? Lower to the ground and use that to remove the bottom quickdraw.
Can you climb unprotected to the first bolt, clean the draw, and then safely downclimb? That's an option.
Is there a permanent quickdraw on the bottom bolt? Leave it there; it’s for your safety.
Finally, if you can't remember the lower out trick I'm gonna explain below, then just leave your bottom quickdraw in place. Yes it's an expensive lesson, but it sure beats you swinging into something and getting hurt.
Try these two methods of “lowering out”
A lower out is a standard move in big wall climbing. It’s typically done by the second when following a pendulum, or when releasing the haul bag in a (semi) controlled way from the lower anchor.
In this scenario, there are two ways you could do it.
Option 1: Use the tail of the rope
The belayer tosses up the end of the rope.
Climber catches it, puts the end through the bolt, and pulls through some slack.
Climber pulls themselves in close to the bolt with both rope strands, unclips the draw.
Climber lowers themself out, hand over hand, until they're in the fall line.
Belayer lowers the climber to the ground.
See video below.
Notes . . .
Be sure and check that there are no rough edges inside the hanger that might damage your rope.
Are you worried about rope damage, even if the hanger is in good shape? It's not a problem, as you're not putting full body weight on the rope.
You also need enough remaining rope on the ground to do this. It's gonna be more than double the length of the lower out.
Option 2: Use a lower out cord
You need to pre-plan a bit for this, because it's not a standard piece of gear for sport climbing. But if you know you're gonna be climbing overhanging routes, it might be smart to have one.
Bring a 10 meter-ish long piece of 6 mm cord. (Or, you could take two cordelettes that are untied and then tie them together to make one long bit of cord.)
Similar to the “end of the rope” method, pass one end of the cord through the hanger and pull it to the middle, or to the knot connecting the two cords. Pull yourself in, taking the weight off of the quick draw. Clean the quick draw, then and lower yourself out hand over hand. A 30 foot cord gives you a lower of about 15 feet.
The climber doesn’t have to bring this lower out cord as they climb; the belayer can toss this up to them from the ground.
This can be a good option if you want to avoid any risk of your rope being damaged from running it directly through the hanger, or if the route was a rope stretcher and you don't have enough extra on the ground to use the remainder of the rope as described in option 1.
Want to see a short video about how to lower out with the rope?
How about a video on general tips for tramming and cleaning overhangs?
Want to learn out the gear hack (that I invented) that uses some simple aid climbing gear as a great way to clean overhangs?
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