Climbing Tips: Do This, Not That (Part 4)

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In this article:

1. Backup that single strand rappel anchor

2. Use modern hardware when maintaining or establishing a route

3. Use color coded “rack pack” carabiners for your cams

4. Klemheist ver 2.0: stitching IN the knot

5. Rack your Connect Adjust with a slipknot

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1 - Backup that single strand rappel anchor

At some point in your climbing adventures, you’ll probably come across a rappel anchor like what's in the photo below on the right.

Do you want to rely ONLY on a single strand of skinny cord in any part of your climbing system? I didn't think so. So don't settle for that in a rappel anchor.

If you find an anchor like this, you can back it up by simply tying another piece through the existing ring / quicklink.

This is one more good reason to carry some spare 6 mm cord. It's useful for all kinds of things. For a stout tree like this, you need about 2 meters of cord for each strand.

(For the redundancy police, who may be concerned about that single point, non redundant rappel ring, don't worry about it. It's rated to 30+ kN and it’s never gonna break.)

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2 - Use modern hardware when maintaining or establishing a route

I volunteer for the High Desert Climber’s Alliance, my Local Climbing Organization (LCO) in central Oregon, and assist with their bolt replacement projects at Smith Rock State Park.

The photo below shows some side-by-side hardware from a recent project: we pulled the old crusty expansion bolt and hanger on the right, and replaced it one of these beautiful stainless steel glue ins on the left.

Use stainless steel in just about every outdoor environment. (The exception might be titanium in a coastal area.) Stainless steel corrodes much more slowly. This applies to the “internal” hardware that’s in the rock, as well as the “external” hardware, like hangers, quicklinks, rings, and chains.

The old argument of “galvanized (non-stainless) is cheaper and/or easier to buy” doesn’t apply anymore. Online stores such as HowNOT2 offer a huge variety of top quality bolting supplies, and they buy in such quantity that the stainless steel hardware is about the same price as galvanized. (HowNOT2 basically sells it at their wholesale cost.)

HowNOT2 also has a great selection and prices on the best epoxies for glue in bolts, which are insanely strong and will usually last much longer than expansion bolts. In many cases, glue ins are preferable.

Finally, if you want a deep dive into anything to do with installing bolts, check out the latest edition of the Bolting Bible, also by HowNOT2. It's the most comprehensive resource available on the topic, and it's completely free.

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3 - Use color coded “rack pack” carabiners for your cams

For decades, I racked my cams on whatever small wire gate carabiners I could scrounge up. There's certainly nothing wrong with this, and it works fine.

However, now that most cam manufacturers (generally) make similar colors in similar sizes, it satisfies some strange OCD compulsion of mine to match the racking carabiners with the color of the sling.

My gear rack feels more grown up! =^)

This also has a more practical application: you can glance down and more quickly grab the correct size off of your harness.

The cost is pretty much the same, so why not get the color-matched carabiners?

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• How can you tie a Klemheist hitch to easily ascend a rope?

• How about a trick to easily shorten your Connect Adjust?

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Hauling systems - Clove hitch can replace a prusik

When you're setting up a more involved mechanical advantage hauling system, such as a 5:1 or 6:1, those often require two rope grabs / friction hitches.

What if you only have one?

Depending on the rigging, you might be able to substitute an actual knot, like a clove hitch, instead of a friction hitch.

Yes, you will have to re-tie the knot every time you reset your system, but if that's what it takes to get your partner out of the crevasse, then that's what you do.

Bigger picture: if you think you might need to set up a 6:1 for any reason, such as two person crevasse rescue, do yourself a favor and bring the right tools, such as a high-efficiency progress capture pulley like a Petzl Micro Traxion, and two short friction hitches.

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Below is a 6:1 hauling system.

The system starts with a 3:1 “Z” drag, made with the white rope. then a 2:1 “C” is added on top, with the orange cord.

Typically that orange cord would be clipped to a second friction hitch . . . but it doesn't have to be.

Because this strand of the white rope isn’t under tension when you're not pulling, this connection can be a clove hitch.

When the carabiner on the orange cord arrives at the anchor, you need to reset the system. Untie the clove, slide the carabiner and prusik down the rope toward the load, re-tie the clove on the white rope, and continue pulling.

To learn more about 6:1 systems like this, check out this article.

Stirrups for rope ascending

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Back in the day, I saw a superb slideshow by big wall legend Hans Florine, holder of multiple speed records on El Capitan, about his vertical adventures. One was a video clip of him jumaring up a fixed rope at a ridiculous speed. It looked like he was jogging up a flight of stairs!

What was he standing in? Nothing more than a DIY stirrup of 1 inch webbing, with an overhand knot tied in each end. Clip one end to your ascender, make a sort of girth hitch out of the other end and cinch it down on your foot. Cheap, simple, efficient!

I may cover that DIY hack in a future article, but today, let’s look at a more refined tool that’s a lot more comfortable and adjustable - stirrups.

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The ones I like: these sweet custom stirrups from Skot's Wall Gear. 

Skot Richards is a big wall expert and one-man operation who sews everything himself from his shop in California. I like supporting his small business, innovative gear, and commitment to “Made in USA”, and I hope you do too.

(Skot was kind enough to send me these stirrups for review. In the rare cases I’m offered gear for a review like this, I’ll always tell you about it upfront. I only tell you about gear that I think is great, and never because I might get it for free.)

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Almost ready to jug this rope.

(Not shown for clarity: two tethers connecting my harness and each ascender, see photo below. Those are important!)

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Big wall ascending overview . . .

In big wall climbing, the rope is typically fixed by the leader and then ascended by the second, who cleans the gear. 

There are three main components to a standard ascending system for big walls:

• Two handled ascenders on the rope

• Two tethers of some flavor, each attached an ascender with a locking carabiner

• Two of something for you to stand in, which traditionally is your aid ladders

Here's a photo of the typical set up.

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However, using your “leading” ladders for rope ascending has a few problems.

• Main problem, your foot wants to wriggle out of the ladder every time you step up. Some ladders have a bit of elastic sewn underneath one of the bottom steps to try to deal with this, but that’s a bit of a bother. (Yes, once you get skilled at ascending, it’s easier to keep your foot in the ladder step, but it still is a bit of a balancing act.)

• Especially on skinnier ladders with narrow steps, it's not so comfortable for your foot.

• You can't fine-tune the height of the step for optimum efficiency. 

• The unused steps are flapping around below you, occasionally snagging on things and generally in the way.

• The ladders are often heavier than necessary. This is especially true with some of the more robust, older style ladders. It may not seem like a lot of weight, but every time you slide that ascender up, you’re lifting the weight of the ladder. Multiplied by 3,000 times to get to the top of El Capitan, and that's a lot of weight.

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A more modern way to ascend a rope: replace your aid ladders with a pair of dedicated foot loops, a.k.a. stirrup.

Stirrups solve all of the above issues:

• They have a strap to lock your foot in place

• The bottom of the stirrup has wider webbing, so it's more comfortable

• They are easily adjustable, so you can fine tune the length

• Nothing dangles down below your foot

• They are lighter than your ladders

• Bonus: relatively inexpensive, about $30 each.

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• Why does one stirrup need to be longer than the other?

• What do you do with your lead ladders when you’re cleaning?

• How do you dial in the all-important distance of the tether to your ascender?

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Tied webbing on a tree - skip the overhand knot

If you're tying webbing around a tree to make a rappel anchor as shown below, keep it simple: tie a single loop to make the anchor.

For some reason, lots of people want to tie an overhand knot near the masterpoint, as shown on the right.

This does nothing to increase the security, strength, or redundancy of the anchor. It uses up more material, and makes your anchor slightly weaker, so there's no reason to do it at all.

Is a small anchor angle better? Maybe not!

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In Anchor Building 101, you probably learned the importance of the angles between the “legs” of an anchor. 

The general concept: The smaller / narrower the angle, the better load sharing between the legs. 

For example . . .

• With an anchor leg angle of around 30° or less, each leg gets approximately 50% of the load.

• About the maximum angle you ever want between the anchor legs is 90°. In that case, the force going on each leg is about 70% of the load, not so good.

• So (as the theory goes) keep your angles as small as possible in order to best distribute the load to each leg.

While that’s generally a good principle to follow, it turns out for ideal load sharing, it may not be that simple.

In fact, a smaller angle can at times actually increase the load on the anchor legs!

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A recent web article and video (links below) by Grant Prattley, a New Zealand rigging expert with Over the Edge Rescue, shared an interesting theory and load cell testing that puts a new spin on this idea.

Short version: the "ideal" angle of 30 or so degrees works mostly in theory only, and not so well in the real world.

In real world applications, the load may shift a bit from side to side, or your original rigging is not perfectly balanced between the left and right anchor legs. Let's call this an “error.”

When even a small “error” of about 5% happens with a 30° anchor leg angle, it quickly shifts a majority of the load onto one leg of the anchor.

However, when this same 5% error happens with a 50° anchor leg angle, you maintain much better load distribution between each leg.

Grant presents a pretty compelling argument that the optimum angle for a two point anchor is between 45° and 60°. 

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Does anchor angle really matter for most recreational climbers?

My short answer: not really. Bigger picture, it's usually more important to pay attention to the quality of your placements rather than the rigging you use to connect them.

If you have two good bolts, then the angle between them really doesn't matter.

If you follow the general anchor rule of “narrow angles are good, anything over 90°, not good”, and you'll be fine.

However, in some cases when load sharing might be important, like when, try as you might, your placements may be lousy, or you have a giant load like pulling your truck out of the ditch, paying attention to small rigging details like this might be important.

Sometimes I dive into more esoteric parts of anchor building on my website, and this is one of those times. =^)

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I’ll leave you with that as the takeaway. 

If you're interested in a deeper dive, including the math, check out Grant's entire video and article on his website.

(To be honest, given the number of clever engineer people who are attracted to climbing, I’m a bit surprised that it took this long for this to be recognized. But hey, credit to Grant, he took a close look at this and explains it thoroughly in the video and article.)

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• Want direct links to the detailed article and video?

• How about a trick to use your fingers to estimate the angle of your anchor when you're actually climbing?

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How to roll a cam strap

Not an alpine climbing tip, but I bet you sometimes strap things on the top of your car or in a truck bed using cam straps. Here’s a slick way to keep ‘em tidy and tangled free.

• If you think this is too much fiddling around, doing a daisy chain for extra long straps is another good option.

• Pro tip, if you use a lot of cam straps (like I do when I’m whitewater rafting) get different colored straps for the standard lengths, typically 4’, 6’, and 8’.

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Here's a nice video showing the method.

Rappel tips for tricky terrain

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

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The standard rappel practice of “toss-rope-with-a-knot-on-each-end-and-hope-for-the-best” usually works fine in friendly conditions.

But, if you have any one or combination of these potential rappel problems:

• high winds

• traversing and/or overhanging rappel

• low angle

• vegetation, deep cracks, or other rope eating features

then the typical rope toss might cause some issues.

Here are some alternative rappel methods for these difficult conditions. (Listed in my rough personal order of preference. )

1. Rope bomb

2. Lower your partner

3. Rope bag

4. Saddlebag

5. Tie both ends to your harness

6. Lower down both rope ends with a weight 

Let's take a closer look at each one.

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1 - The “rope bomb”

I wrote a detailed article about the benefits of “casting” your rope, like casting a fishing lure; a sort of weight on the end that spools off the rest of the line.

That's the idea here. Flake each half of the rope into two piles, then make a small butterfly coil with roughly 1/3 of the rope. This is the “weight”. Now, you can toss this with some force down the route, and with any luck this will carry down the remaining rope.

In my opinion, this is preferable almost all of the time! Instead of chucking off half of your rope in one big coil and hoping it's going to feed out smoothly, which it hardly ever does.

Image credit: Andy Kirkpatrick, from his great book “Down”, shared with permission

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2 - Lower your partner

Everyone is fine with being lowered by their partner when top roping from the ground or in the gym. But for some reason, the technique is rarely used by recreational climbers when it comes to being lowered from above. (It's more common in a guided situation, especially with a partner who may not be comfortable rappelling on their own.)

However, with a little practice, it's perfectly safe to do, and can easily get the first person down along with both ends of the rope, no problem.

Attach the ends of both ropes to your belay loop, with either a tie in knot or locking carabiner, your choice. Your partner lowers you on one strand directly from the anchor.

To lower your partner, you can use one of several different methods: a redirected tube style belay device, a Grigri, or a Munter hitch. 

Pros - pretty much guaranteed to get the rope down smoothly. 

Cons - Potential communication issues if you can't see or hear each other. (Radios could be helpful.) Lowering someone past the anchor could cause some problems. Lowering from above is an unfamiliar technique for most folks and requires practice to do safely.

Here is a more detailed article I have on lowering your partner.

Here is one of several ways you can be lowered; with a Grigri. Note the redirected brake strand, this is important.

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3 - Rope bag

Yes, my partner laughed at me, but I did bring a plastic grocery shopping bag on one climb where I knew we're gonna have some low angle rappels and it was pretty awesome. Trader Joe's shopping bags cost one dollar, are surprisingly sturdy, rolls up about the size of a burrito, weighs about 40 grams, and easily holds a 60 meter rope.

I never noticed it in my pack, but it made life a lot easier when we had to do multiple low angle raps. We flaked the rope into the bag (which took about two minutes) and then I hung it from my harness with a sling. The rope fed out beautifully.

Just because people don't do it very often doesn't mean it's a bad technique! (Personally, I found it easier than saddlebagging, which we’ll discuss next.)

Below, Trader Joe's ”improv rope bag”, easily holding a 60 meter rope.

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Since I've been yapping about the book “Down” throughout this article, I thought I'd give it a more formal plug here. Andy Kirkpatrick's book is an outstanding deep dive into the topic that I think is helpful for most everybody who plays in the mountains.

Support your local independent bookstore and buy it there. Here's a photo of my well thumbed and bookmarked copy.

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• How can you rig a snag-free saddlebag?

• Have you tried the technique of tying both ends to your harness?

• What conditions might be helpful to lower down both ends of the rope tied to something heavy?

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Use a slipknot to sling rock horns

A horn or spike of rock (aka “chicken head”), can sometimes be used as protection. The problem: if you just loop the sling over the top, it's probably gonna lift off as you continue climbing.

Solution: make a slipknot and snug it down on the spike.

• Tighten it well.

• Practice tying slip knots one handed.

• Consider a 120 cm sling.

• If you think the sling may lift off, maybe clip some heavy gear to it.

• A clove or girth hitch can work too. Try a few knot flavors and see what work for you.

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The nice diagram below is from Jürgen Reinmüller. Jurgen is a guide in Austria, and he’s publishing a book (both German and English versions) in autumn 2025 of alpine climbing tips with lots of additional cool illustrations like the one below. To see more of his nice drawings, and get on the waiting list for his book, give him a follow on Instagram - @alpinstil.at

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Image credit: Jürgen Reinmüller, @alpinstil.at

Climbing Tips: Do This, Not That (Part 3)

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In this article:

1. Cast, don’t throw, your rappel rope

2. Block leading - don’t “trap” the leader

3. Caution with girth hitched rappel rings

4. Flat overhand bend - tail about 30 cm

5. Cordelette on a tree: the “shelf” is different

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1 - Cast, don’t throw, your rappel rope

Try to avoid tossing one big coil of a rappel rope and hoping it's going to pay out smoothly down the cliff face. Most of the time it won't.

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 snarls. 

“Casting” rappel ropes uses the same concept. Create a weight with one end of the rope, and flake the rest of the rope carefully. Toss only the weighted end, which should carry down the rest of the rope. Only toss one strand of rope at a time.

Doing this might take a little more time initially, but it is usually a good investment because it saves you from declustering the ropes later on.

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2 - Block leading - don’t “trap” the leader

Block leading refers to the practice of one leader leading several pitches in a row. If you do, this, be sure that the leader attaches to the anchor in a way that allows them to easily get out of it.

In the left photo, the leader clove hitched themselves to the master point carabiner, and then added the Grigri between the clove and the gate. This “traps” the clove hitch, making it pretty much impossible for them to get out of the anchor to lead the next pitch!

A better choice is shown on the right. Here the leader is connected to the master point carabiner with a carabiner and a clove hitch. Now the leader can easily unclip and continue with the next pitch.

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3 - Caution with girth hitched rappel rings

If you come across a girth hitched rappel ring, be very careful how you clip it.

• If you clip it on the BOTTOM of the ring, it's safe.

• If you clip on the TOP of the ring, when you weight the ring it's gonna completely detach from the cord/sling and Yer Gonna Die (YGD)!!!

There was a recent serious accident in the North Cascades related to this exact issue. (Link in my article) \

Please do not set up anchors like this. If you find one in the wild, be careful.

I recommend avoiding any sort of girth hitching a ring around a sling like this. The more standard methods shown in the photo below are more secure and easier to check.

When rigged like this, you can clip a tether to any point on the metal connection and you're gonna be safe.

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• Why is about 30 cm the ideal length of tail for a flat overhand bend?

• When you put a cordelette around a tree and you want to use the shelf, how is that different than a two point anchor?

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DIY - Ice tool tethers

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Ice tool tethers are pretty standard on longer alpine routes for good reason - a dropped tool from on a long, high route can be a serious problem.

Most major gear companies offer some version of a tool tether. They cost around $50. Here’s a DIY alternative; make your own for about 30 minutes of time and $10 in materials.

One simple way to make tethers is simply with 5 or 6 mm cord. The problem with that is that the cord wants to droop down below your waist, which is a potential tripping hazard. With the bungee cord, when there's slack on the tether, it shortens up.

I'll show you how to do it (as long as you don't make fun of my vintage Petzl Aztars, okay?)

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Tools and materials to make an ice tool tether:

• 12 feet / 4 meters of 1/2 inch tubular webbing

• 12 feet / 4 meters of 1/8 inch elastic cord

• Coat hanger

• Athletic tape

• Two small carabiners (be sure they fit into the holes at the bottom of your ice tools)

• Patience!

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1. Straighten out a wire coat hanger. Tape the elastic cord thoroughly to one end of the coat hanger. Use the coat hanger to wriggle the bungee cord all the way through the webbing. Be patient, this can take some fiddling.

2. Tie an overhand on a bight in one end with a small loop, and clip it to a carabiner. Don't worry about an exact fit; you can trim off a bit of the extra when you're done if needed.

3. Adjust the length one “arm” by sliding the webbing along the bungee, scrunching it up as you go. My arms are about 24 inches, with no stretch.

4. Create a harness attachment loop by tying a loose overhand on a bight in the webbing. This loop can be fairly small because it only needs to fit a carabiner. Do not snug this knot very tight, you're probably gonna need to adjust it later.

5. From the attachment loop, repeat step three, scrunching up webbing along the second arm until it’s the same length as the first. Tie another overhand on a bight in the second arm.

6. Give it a test drive. Adjust the length of the arms and the position of the attachment loop as needed until it feels comfortable. You don't want to have your tether impede your normal swing. It might appear to be short, but because it's clipped to your belay loop and attached to your tools with carabiners, you get a bit more length.

7. When it all feels happy, snug down the knots and trim off any extra webbing and elastic cord.

8. Give yourself a high five for saving $40. =^)

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• Do I need a swivel?

• What about girth hitching directly to your belay loop?

• Can I rest on this tether with my full body weight?

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What are the forces on the anchor when rappelling?

I recently came across a nice video from the meticulous gear testers at Edelrid. (Have a look at their “Edelrid Knowledge Base” on YouTube, they have lots of goodies there.)

Check out the screen grab below from one of their videos.

Short version:

• If you bounce around on the rope like some special forces cowboy, you can generate between 2 and 3 kN as a temporary peak load.

• When you rappel smoothly, the load to the anchor is pretty much your body weight.

Takeaway: rappel smoothly without bouncing to minimize force on the anchor.

Need a stronger anchor? Try a basket hitch

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A basket hitch (and no, I don't know why it's called that) is pretty simple. It’s a loop of loop of webbing, cord, or rope, doubled into a “U” shape.

Takeaway: a basket hitch more or less doubles the breaking strength of whatever material you’re using, because the load is shared over four strands instead of two.

For most climbing situations, this doesn't really apply much, because the maximum possible forces in any recreational climbing situation are never going to be more than about 9 kN. If you're using a sewn sling that has a Minimum Breaking Strength (MBS) of 22 kN, no worries.

And, even clipped in the regular end to end method shown below, the 28 kN where it broke is probably stronger than your carabiner!

But in a few cases that I can think of, knowing a trick to increase the strength of your rigging might be helpful:

• You need to use some skinny 5 mm cord for some kind of anchor building or application that it's not really designed for, and you want to squeeze some extra strength from your material.

• If you want to do something involving possible LARGE forces, such as pulling your car out of the ditch, dropping a big tree limb, or detaching a wrapped whitewater raft off a rock.

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My friend Ryan Jenks, the mad scientist gear-breaking genius behind the great YouTube channel HowNOT2, did some break testing on this.

Here are Youtube screenshots of the results of three different break tests. He’s using a standard sewn 8 mm Dyneema sling, rated with an MBS of 22 kN.

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Photo 1: The sling gets a “normal” end-to-end pull. It broke well above the 22kN MBS, which is a good thing.

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Photo 2: The same 22 kN sling, this time doubled with a basket hitch. With this rigging, it more than doubled the MBS.

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Want to see the ACTUAL break test results for the basket hitch?

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Cold hands? Do the “Penguin”

Yes, this looks weird! But it really works to get warmer “core” blood flowing down to your hands.

Rotate your shoulders to face your palms forward, and then start shrugging your shoulders up and down quickly between 20 and 30 times.

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Check out the video below for a quick demo.

Climbing Tips: Do This, Not That (Part 2)

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In this article:

1. Quad anchor - keep the knots low

2. Pre-thread the haul pulley

3. The (mostly) twist-free Munter hitch rappel

4. Cut webbing at a 45 degree angle

5. Don't put rubber bands or tape on an “open" sling

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1 - Quad anchor - keep the knots low

With a quad anchor, if you’re using a cordelette or longer sewn sling like a 180 cm or 240 cm, it's good practice to tie the knots low down as shown. This will give perfect equalization, but minimizes extension if one arm of the anchor fails.

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2 -The (mostly) twist-free Munter hitch rappel

Rappelling on a Munter hitch usually makes evil pigtails/twists in your rope. This can be a serious problem when you pull your rope, because the twists can get caught at the anchor.

However, if you flip your rope back over the carabiner like the photo below, this greatly reduces the rope twists.

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3-Don't put rubber bands or tape on an “open" sling

Almost all quickdraws have some sort of a little rubber band thing on the bottom carabiner. This makes it easier to clip.

Some people think that doing the same thing on a “open” sling or alpine quickdraw might also be a good idea. Don’t do this!

If you clip that bottom carabiner back onto the sling, it can configure itself so the entire load is resting only on the rubber band and not on the sling! Yes, there have been two accidents that I know about caused by this.

It's a little hard to describe, but if you play around with it, you can figure it out.

The same applies to a personal tether. Do not put tape or a rubber band on a sling that you use for your tether. If you want to make it a bit easier to clip, use a girth hitch, or maybe better a clove hitch, to hold the carabiner in place.

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• How can you set up your haul system faster, and never drop the rope or your progress capture pulley?

• Why can it be helpful to cut tubular webbing at a 45° angle instead of a 90° angle?

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What are the “Screaming Barfies”?

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This recently landed in the Alpinesavvy Inbox . . .

Hi John, 

I’m enjoying your regular climbing tips, as always. I have a topic suggestion for your first aid section: the dreaded screaming barfies. 

Experienced climbers might get through the throbbing pain and frequent nausea with a mixture of cursing and laughter, but for beginners or anyone who hasn’t experienced this before, it can be a pretty scary experience. 

When you consider the chance of this unexpected pain, nausea, and fear leading to a mid-climb mistake or lapse in judgment, the stakes get a little higher. For beginners in steep terrain, who might already be at the edge of their comfort zone, pain, fear, and nausea can spiral downhill pretty quickly. 

I haven’t seen this topic mentioned very often in wilderness medicine and climbing education contexts, so I think it’s worth raising some more awareness. Being able to anticipate this can help climbers recognize the need for earlier rewarming, and also be ready to provide the support and psychological first aid their partners or students might need.

David P.

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David, excellent suggestion! Let's have a look.

If you like cold weather sports, you’re probably familiar with a not very fun (unless it's happening to your partner and not you) medical condition with a spectacular name, aptly called the “screaming barfies.”

“Screaming”, because that may be your reaction to the few minutes of pain, and “barfies”, because sometimes you throw up!

What causes the screaming barfies?

• The condition happens when blood flow to the extremities is restricted due to cold temperatures and physical exertion, such as gripping ice tools tightly or holding hands above the heart for extended periods.

• When your circulation improves and warm blood returns, the nerves react sharply, causing a tingling or burning sensation that can be so overwhelming it triggers nausea or even vomiting in some cases. The nausea is believed to be caused by the nervous system's response to extreme pain, which stimulates the brain's emetic center responsible for inducing vomiting.

• The good news is the pain doesn't last long (1-5 minutes) and goes away on its own.

How to prevent the screaming barfies?

• Do what you can to maintain blood flow and warmth in the hands.

• Use a multi-glove system, keeping thicker gloves for belaying and thinner ones for climbing to avoid over-gripping. Regularly shaking out hands below the heart, loosening grip on tools, staying hydrated, and keeping the body core warm can help.

• Check out my recent series of posts from Canadian ice climbing expert Wild Gadd on how to keep your hands and feet warm, lots of good general tips in there.

• Bad news: it sucks for a few minutes, and it can be distracting to your focus and performance.

• Good news: it doesn’t put you in long-term danger, and may provide a few minutes of amusement and possibly entertaining video footage for your climbing partner. =^)

• Hopefully, you can laugh about it later. Remember, it doesn't have to be fun, to be fun.

“Schadenfreude” (German) - feeling pleasure in response to another's misfortune. “Schaden” (damage) and “Freude” (joy).

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Close-to-the-ground rope ascending practice

Are you training to climb a big wall? Your ascending gear, fitness and technique needs to be perfect.

Tip: You don’t need a huge cliff or a 60 meter fixed rope!

Here's how to practice it on a short wall (or even a tree).

Run the rope to a top rope anchor, and then down to your partner, who has you on belay. As you start climbing up the rope, your partner slowly feeds rope through their belay device.

You may be only a few meters off the ground, but with this method, you can practice ascending the entire length of the rope. Have a stopper knot in the end so you can’t be dropped.

For handled ascender practice, you need a bit of rope weight under you, so your ascenders can slide up the rope. This means you probably need to be about 5-6 meters up the rope before your ascenders will slide easily.

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Here’s a great illustration of this from the superbly talented Mike Clelland, from his book “The Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel, and Crevasse Rescue”, highly recommended.

image credit: Mike Clelland

Happy camp feet with double boots

This tip is from Denali climbing veterans Steve House and Mark Postle, who have more than 30 Denali summits between them. I have an article in the “What's in my Pack” category with a detailed video from Mark and Steve about Denali gear, check it out here.

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Are you on a cold weather climb (Denali) that requires double boots? At camp, remove your liner boots, put on your down booties, and then step back in your outer boot to wear around camp.

If the liners are damp, dry them inside your sleeping bag so you can wear ‘em the next day.

Ice climbing - environmental “red flags”

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This post (shared with permission) is an Instagram post from Kel Rossiter, an IFMGA guide and owner of Adventure Spirit Guides. Connect with Kel on his website and Instagram, @adventurespiritguides

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Photo: Capt. John Crowley/Duchesne County Sheriff's office

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Kel Rossiter writes:

“We're moving into transition season here for ice climbing. Recently, I was asked to name the environmental factors to get my attention relating to hazards. These are the five I came up with.

The field of avalanche science has a lot to teach the climbing community in terms of risk analysis. One tool they use are the “red flags” - things like wind, heavy snowfall, etc. that should serve to get skiers attention when deciding when and where to go.

There are similar red flags in ice climbing. I came up with five, there are likely more.

1. Nighttime temperature above freezing

2. Daytime temperatures above about 40F/4C

3. Rain

4. See Premium Member article

5. See Premium Member article

The first three red flags have to do with warming, obviously not good for ice, which substantially increase overhead hazards.

Red flag number four . . .

Red flag number five . . .

None of these red flags are showstoppers for me. But if several of these are stacking up, it's a sign to me that I might need to change venues to shady places, a place with less overhead hazards, etc. And although I did throw out the number of 40°F/4 C, this is of course not an exact science.

There are other hazards in ice climbing, such as avalanches, cold temperatures leading to frostbite and hypothermia, and high consequence of falling. These are different than an environmental red flag, meaning hazards that have a direct effect on the ice I intend to climb.”

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Alpine retreat anchors - Part 2

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This article was written with assistance from Max Lurie, an AMGA Certified Rock and Alpine Guide. Connect with Max at his website and Instagram.

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See “Alpine retreat anchors - Part 1” here.

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

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The techniques shown below are NOT standard anchor building practice. For normal anchors, clip a carabiner to your gear placements before you clip the sling/cord. These examples are retreat anchors for bodyweight rappelling only, when you want to conserve your gear.

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Be it challenging weather, poor conditions, route finding errors, or general loss of mojo (a.k.a. “ambition exceeding ability”), there can be lots of valid reasons to turn around on an alpine route. It may not be something you actively planned for, but it needs to be handled with the same level of focus and detail as any other part of your climb.

When you retreat / bail (and yes, it’s “when, and not “if”), be it a one pitch sport climb or a major alpine adventure, the objectives should be similar:

• Get to the ground in one piece

• Have each rappel anchor simple to build and easily strong enough to rappel on

• Leave a minimum of gear behind

Let's be clear on one thing: this is no time to be a cheapskate. Yes, we hate to leave gear behind, but if you HAVE to leave your beloved #3 Camalot for a rappel anchor, then do it without hesitation. The simple question is, what's your life worth? At the same time, you don't want to over build your anchors, and leave behind gear that you might need lower down if multiple rappels are required.

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What are the forces on the anchor when rappelling?

I recently came across a nice video from the meticulous gear testers at Edelrid. (Have a look at their “Edelrid Knowledge Base” on YouTube, they have lots of goodies there.)

Check out the screen grab below from one of their videos.

Short version:

• If you bounce around on the rope like some special forces cowboy, you can generate between 2 and 3 kN as a temporary peak load.

• When you rappel smoothly, the load to the anchor is pretty much your body weight.

Takeaway: rappel smoothly without bouncing to minimize force on the anchor.

Image: screen grab from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7rKGDxrdTA

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There are lots of ways you can rig a retreat anchor. Here's a good one.

• Simple (easy to check)

• Fast to rig

• Plenty strong enough for rappelling

• Requires minimal gear

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Place two pieces of solid gear fairly close to each other (here a stopper and a piton). Starting with about 2-3 meters of cord (here, 6 mm), pass the cord through both anchor points as shown.

Tie a flat overhand bend to make a loop.

Tighten the knot, leaving tails of at least 3 inches / 8 cm.

Pull down the cord, making a “U” shape.

Girth hitch masterpoint on a taped gate carabiner. (Lots of other options here. If you have enough cord, you can tie an overhand knot. If you want to use a quicklink or rappel ring, that works. I'm showing my favorite method to keep things consistent.)

This approach is fast, requires minimal fiddling with knots, and uses a small amount of cord. Efficient use of materials is the main benefit to the girth hitch master point.

Potential downside, you need to leave behind some hardware to make the girth hitch. (If you had another foot or so of cord, you could tie an overhand on a bight and rappel from that rather than the girth hitch.)

If you're new to the girth hitch master point, yes, it's legit and yes, it’s redundant. Read a more on the girth hitch anchor here.

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• What if the anchors are farther apart?

• What if you want to use a sling instead of cord?

• Tying a cord directly to a stopper wire? How strong is that?!

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Tying off a piton

Sometimes a piton may stick out too far from the rock. If you clip the eye, you might leverage the piton and weaken the placement.

Or maybe the eye is rusted or broken and can't be used.

Solution:

1. Girth hitch a sling around the piton closer to the rock, which reduces leverage. This works better with some piton shapes than others.

2. Another option: put the wire of a stopper around the piton shaft. #CraftyRopeTrick for sure!