The better hanging belay: improvised foot stirrups
Are you multi pitch climbing a steep route without much of a ledge at the belay? That hanging belay is probably gonna hurt a bit. Here's an easy way to make it suck a little less.
On one of my first multipitch climbs, I quickly learned how much hanging belays can suck.
Without any sort of a ledge to stand on, all my weight was on my harness. My kidneys slowly merged into one, and my feet went numb.
After that uncomfortable day, I came up with this little trick. It's been a help ever since.
Here's a tip for a better hanging belay: foot stirrups.
On the backside of your rope connection to the anchor, tie a friction hitch.
Take a sling, ideally a wider nylon one, and tie an overhand knot in the middle.
Clip a carabiner “into” this overhand knot.
Clip the carabiner and sling to the friction hitch.
Now put your feet into each loop of the sling! =^)
Done! Give yourself a high five. Now your weight should be a lot more balanced between your harness and your feet. It's not like lounging in a portaledge, but it's a lot better than hanging completely off of your harness!
The friction hitch makes it easy to adjust the height of the foot loops up and down; occasionally changing your foot position makes it more comfortable.
Here's a close-up of the sling, carabiner, and friction hitch. Note how the carabiner is clipped “inside” the overhand knot. This keeps the two arms of the sling from sliding around.
Block or swing: What's your leading strategy?
Learn some of the pros and cons to both block and swing leading.
One of the more famous examples of block leading. Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell, and John Long, after the first one day ascent of The Nose on El Capitan, 1975.
Photo credit, Mike White
Photo credit, Mike White
When multipitch climbing, you and your partner have a choice to make:
Will one person lead multiple pitches at a time and then the other person takes a few pitches, known as block leading?
Will you alternate leads every pitch, also known as swing leading?
They both have their pros and cons depending on a few variables, so let's have a look.
Block leading
Block leading can be good for bigger days of harder climbing, as one person can get into the “leader-head” mentality. When the second arrives at the belay all tired, they get a rest.
If you're swinging leads, one person is standing still for two consecutive pitches as you move up the cliff. On a cold day, this sucks. When you lead in blocks, you only stand till for one pitch, so both partners stay warmer.
If you’re onsighting or on a climb where the route finding is tricky, block leading allows the person on top to scope out where to go, and maybe what gear is needed for the first few placements of the upcoming pitch.
If you're climbing in a team of three, block leading usually minimizes flubbering around at the belay.
It can be good for more experienced teams who are good at efficient belay changeovers and gear swapping.
For more advanced techniques, such as “fix and follow” or short fixing when aid climbing, block leading is strongly preferred.
(On a related note, when you have a long multi pitch rappel, it's often good practice to have one person be the “leader” and go first on all the raps.)
One early and well-known example of applying block leading strategy was the first one day ascent of the nose on El Capitan in 1975 by Jim Bridwell, Billy Westbay, and John Long. They divided the 30+ pitches between each of the three climbers, depending on their specialty, whether it was free climbing, mixed free and aiding, or mostly all aid.
Here’s a firsthand account of that famous climb, by (the late) Jim Bridwell.
You could use the same strategy on a longer multi pitch. Is one partner better with smaller size cracks because they have smaller hands? Is one partner better with thin face climbing? If you've got several pitches of a certain climb flavor, it may be best to have the person lead it who’s most suited.
Swinging leads
Swinging leads is more common for most people.
It can be better in warmer weather, because the leader can stand around more without getting cold.
Is it better for easy climbs or hard climbs? Opinions differ. When you lead every other pitch, you get sort of a built-in mental rest. On harder climbing, the follower can have a break, instead of climbing back-to-back hard pitches. So, there's some mental / psychological benefits as well as physical ones.
Swapping leads can feel a bit more fair and egalitarian.
Rope management and gear management is also slightly easier because the second has been cleaning the gear on the previous pitch. They have most of it already, plus their end of the rope is on top of the stack or coil.
That's a pretty good summary of the two methods, as I see it.
Just because most people probably learned swinging leads as the standard when they started climbing, doesn't mean you have to use that same strategy on every route. On your next multi pitch, talk it over with your partner and maybe try something new. You might like it!
Crevasse rescue - remove snow under your pulley
How can you keep snow from getting jammed in your Traxion pulley? Here’s a simple solution.
When rigging for crevasse rescue with a progress capture pulley (like the handy Petzl Micro Traxion) on the anchor, sometimes snow or ice can jam into the camming mechanism on the pulley, preventing it from fully grabbing the rope.
Here's a caution from Petzl about it.
There's a simple solution. Dig out a concave “bowl” under the pulley, so it's hanging in space, rather than in direct contact with the snow.
“Top to bottom” rappel safety check
Do long, complicated “safety check” acronyms have you scratching your head, when you should be paying attention to your climbing systems? Yeah, me too. Here’s a rappel safety check method that might make a lot more sense.
For some people, long acronyms of important climbing procedures, such as SERENE for anchors, or BRAKES for rappelling, work great.
However, my brain doesn't do well with long acronyms, and many of my climbing friends seem to struggle with them too.
At a skills clinic I helped teach with (the late and great) IFMGA guide Rob Coppolillo, Rob shared a rappel safety check system that makes much more sense to me. He called it the “top to bottom” check.
If you’re pre-rigged with your partner, you check them and they check you before the first person goes down.
It's about what it sounds like: You start at the top of the rappel system, and check every component, all the way down to the bottom.
In most cases, the “top to bottom” rappel check looks like this.
Are all the anchor components solid?
For a single rope rappeI, is the middle of the rope at the anchor master point? Does the rope have a middle mark? If it doesn’t, did you flake both strands of the rope so you KNOW the middle is at the anchor? (Yo! mark your middle!)
If it's a double rope rappel, is the knot joining the ropes properly tied, dressed, and has an adequate tail?
Are both strands of the rope properly threaded through your (and your partner’s) rappel device?
Is the device properly clipped to your (and your partner’s) belay/rappel loop (or extension) with a locked carabiner?
If you're using a rappel extension, is the sling properly attached to your (and your partner’s) harness?
Does the first person down have a third hand back up properly installed? (It's optional for the second person, because they can get a firefighter belay from below.)
Do the rope ends have stopper knots in them?
Did you make a clean toss of the rope and it's hanging nicely below you, or is it hung up on something and needs attention on the way down?
Are there any cracks near the rappel anchor where the joining knot might get hung up, if you're doing a double rope rappel? (If yes, the second person down might want to deal with this before they descend.)
Do the rope ends reach either the ground or the next rappel station?
To my brain, the “top to bottom” check is a more logical and comprehensive system than any acronym I've tried, and one I'm much more likely to remember.
Autoblock tip: make a twist to fine-tune friction
Sometimes your auto block / rappel backup is either too tight on the rope, or too loose and doesn't grab. Here's a quick trick to fine-tune that adjustment so you get a nice smooth rappel.
When you tie an autoblock / thirdhand rappel back up, sometimes you may find that your hitch has either too much or not enough friction. Here's a trick that can help with that.
Remove one of the wraps, and then twist one strand of your friction hitch several times. This makes the remaining wraps constrict a bit around the rope. You can think of this is the equivalent of a half of a wrap, which can give you just the right amount of friction.
Here's a short video from IFMGA guide Ian Nicholson showing how it's done. Check out Ian's books, highly recommended!
Why is a Petzl PURline 65 meters?
Most climbing ropes come in lengths that are a multiple of 10, typically 60 or 70 meters. The Petzl PURline comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is this? I asked Petzl; here's the answer.
The Petzl PURline, made for light hauling and as a rappel pull cord, comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is that, you might wonder?
I was curious about this, so I asked Petzl directly.
When you rappel on your 60 meter climbing rope on the other side of a rope block, you’re using the PURline as a pull cord.
Your dynamic rappel rope will stretch about 5 meters, which takes you conveniently to the end of the 65 meter static PURline. Yes, those Petzl product designers are quite clever!
In case you're wondering, the Alpinesavvy graphic design department is hiring. I obviously need some help. =^)
What’s the “Low Impact Style” of ice climbing?
While ice climbing might feel more secure when you bury your pick halfway with every swing, doing this has a lot of drawbacks. Edelrid introduces what they call the “Low Impact Style”, a more refined technique. Their real world testing shows that delicate pick placements are stronger than you might think.
Check out this great video (link at bottom of page) from the always useful “Edelrid Knowledge Base” series on YouTube (a very underrated place to learn tech tips, in my opinion.)
While most beginners might think otherwise, ice climbing doesn’t have to be a battle of big swings and exploding ice.
This video from the (always useful!) Edelrid Knowledge Base introduces what they call the low-impact style of ice climbing, a technique that lets you climb harder routes with reduced risk, more refined movements, and with much less energy.
Beginners often hack away with full-body tool swings from hip, shoulder, elbow, and wrist. (I know I sure did when I started, because I was kinda scared!) Instead, the low impact style calls for reading the ice more like rock.
The core ideas are simple:
Look for natural features that accept the pick with minimal force.
If you don't have a natural feature, repeatedly tap lightly and precisely to make a pick placement instead of strenuous bashing.
Place the pick only 2–4 cm into good ice.
Primarily swing / tap with your wrist, rather than the whole body.
This reduces shattered ice, falling debris on you and your belayer, and preserves delicate features.
It wouldn’t be an Edelrid video without some creative experiments, would it?
They ran a series of tests on different pick placements in real ice, using a load cell and pulley system to measure how much force different placements can hold.
A “standard” deep, half-pick placement in good ice easily withstands forces above 3 kN, far more than the ~0.7 kN typically generated when the climber loads a tool with body weight during normal movement.
Shallower placements of around 3 cm still hold roughly 1.7 kN.
Even a seemingly sketchy 1 cm placement in good ice can sustain 0.5–0.7 kN—enough for controlled climbing when you’re not shock-loading the tool.
The same mindset applies to footwork. Look for precise front-pointing on features instead of hacking deep steps, which preserves ice integrity and gives more options as the route steepens.
This is more of an intermediate to advanced technique, because if your pick is just barely in the ice, and you shift the pick angle as you move up on it (a common beginner mistake) it's likely to pop out. However, if you're practicing this on top rope, which you should be, it can certainly reinforce good technique.
The takeaway:
Be a woodpecker, not a wood chopper.
Refined tapping can give you shallow but solid placements.
These shallow placements are usually strong enough and significantly more efficient.
The “low impact style” saves a lot of energy, preserves delicate features, and reduces dangerous falling ice for you and your partner.
Check out the whole video below.
Tame that long tether with a slipknot
Good rule in climbing: avoid having anything hanging below your knees, because it'll trip you up. Here's a simple way to shorten up your personal tether, such as a Petzl Connect Adjust - tie a slipknot.
A good climbing guideline: avoid having anything on your harness dangling below your knees. If you do, it's probably gonna trip you.
That can be a problem with some of the longer tethers, like the Petzl Connect Adjust.
Here’s a solution: tie a slipknot in the tether.
That takes up enough of the slack so it stays out of your way. When you want to deploy, it comes undone with a quick tug.
If you want to shorten it up even more, clip the slipknot loop to the tether carabiner.
3:1 haul with no friction hitches
Standard 3:1 hauling rigging calls for some sort of a rope grab (like a friction hitch) on the load strand. Guess what: you actually don't need one! Here's how to rig it.
Here’s the typical method for rigging a 3:1 “Z pull”:
Put a friction hitch or rope grab of some kind (like a Petzl Tibloc) onto the load strand.
Clip your pulling strand to that to make the “Z”.
Start hauling.
Okay, pretty standard stuff.
But, what if you need to rig a 3:1 and you don't have a friction hitch or a rope grab?
Guess what? You can clip that hauling strand directly to the load.
Exact same mechanical advantage, but without any friction hitches or rope grabs. Pretty cool!
Some of you might be thinking, “Well duh, of course that's how it works.” But when I recently saw this demonstrated it was kind of an eye-opener, so I thought it might be something new for you as well.
Finally, to be sure this is a 3:1, let's do a quick run through with the “T method” (or counting tensions) to check the mechanical advantage. Check out my detailed article on the T method.
Here's how this can be useful in crevasse rescue.
You can drop a loop of rope with a carabiner or pulley on it to your victim, and have them clip it to their harness.
Then you can set up a 3:1 haul from the top.
This is the basic principle behind the drop loop 3:1 method; I have a detailed article about that here.
image: UIAA Alpine Summer Skills Handbook
What's the max load you can put on a rappel anchor?
How strong does a rappel anchor really need to be? Good news, not very strong! Here are some real world testing numbers with climbers of different weights, static and dynamic ropes, and various degrees of jumping around.
Do you ever wonder how strong your rappel anchor needs to be?
Answer, not very strong. Even if you bounce around like a special forces cowboy and weigh almost 100 kg / 200 pounds, turns out that anchor is not gonna see more than about 3 kN, tops.
If you rappel fairly normally on a dynamic rope, the anchor shouldn’t see much more than your body weight.
The chart below comes from a nice article from Black Diamond with a collaboration from IFMGA Guide Mark Smiley. It's a good read, here's a link.
Also, in the article is an interesting test of different sorts of buried deadman snow anchors. (Hint, you want to bring a 2 x 4.)
Revive the waterproofing on your shell layers
Is your shell jacket starting to wet through? Might be time to give it a special wash with some Nikwax (or similar) products. Here's how to do that, step-by-step.
Is it soggy season? Maintain your shell layers so they (hopefully) bead water like a new Ferrari.
There may be other products that do the same thing, but I'm gonna tell you ones that I'm familiar with: Nikwax Tech Wash and TX Direct.
First off, manage your expectations. Products like these are never going to get you back to “brand new” water beading, but they can usually stretch a few more years out of your favorite shell.
Don't go cheap and try to use just one; the Tech Wash and the TX Direct really do work better together. (These are packaged as a pair, that's a hint.) You can wash a lot of clothes with a couple of these bottles.
Frequency of using them mostly depends on how often you're out. If you're skiing 50+ days a year, you might want to do a wash cycle with this every two or three weeks during the season. If you're not out so much, maybe twice a winter should be fine.
Nikwax says the TX Direct is more for hard shell clothing. However, I've used it fairly successfully on soft shell pants and jackets. Your mileage may vary.
If you have other outerwear that you want to protect from the weather, like down jackets, gloves, fleece, etc., NikWax has a product for it. I haven't used these other ones so I won't comment on them, but they have a waterproofing product for just about everything you could imagine.
If you're wondering about nasty chemicals, Nikwax is water based and PFC-free.
This procedure is gonna last longer on newer garments rather than older ones, but it's still a good one to do at the start of every soggy season with most of your outer layers.
How to use NikWax on your shells, step-by-step . . .
Clean the detergent tray on your washing machine. Take it (carefully) completely out of the machine if you can, remove any excess regular laundry soap that might be in there. Put it carefully back in.
Empty out all pockets and close all zippers. Wash two garments at a time.
Start with the Nikwax cleaning solution. Give the bottle a good shake, and pour about 150 mL (for two garments) into the detergent tray.
Run the wash cycle. Nikwax suggests warm or cold water, slow spin, and extra rinse if possible.
Leave your clothes in the washing machine, and then run another cycle with the TX Direct. For this, use about 200 mL. Give that bottle a good shake as well.
If your washer has a lame spin cycle, let your clothes drip dry for a bit outside or over the tub, but don't let them get completely dry.
Put clothes in a dryer on low heat.
A more secure anchor with no locking carabiners
Need to build an anchor on cam placements, want the security of locking carabiners, but you don't have any? Not a problem if you know this anchor trick.
You’re alpine climbing. You finish your pitch, and see a nice crack which perfectly takes a couple of cams for your anchor.
(Yes, a three-piece anchor is a general standard, but in many alpine situations, two good pieces are acceptable, and you need to use what you’ve got at the end of a pitch.)
You could clip both of the racking carabiners with a 120 cm sling, tie off a figure 8 master point, and call it good. Standard textbook anchor, no problem with that.
But . . . what if you want to add a little extra security to this anchor, so you're positive the sling won't unclip?
Maybe one of the carabiners is being loaded in a funky way over an edge, and you're not happy with it. Or maybe you're a little sketched out on your two-piece anchor, and having a little extra security gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.
The main problem: you don't have any extra locking carabiners. What can you do?
Here’s one solution.
Evaluate your cam placements. In this case we’ll say the purple cam on the right is a better placement.
Step 1 - Take the racking carabiner from the better placement, and clip it opposite and opposed on the other (yellow) cam. Now you have the functional equivalent of a locker.
Step 2 - Clip your 120 cm sling to these two opposite and opposed carabiners.
Take the other end of the sling and pass it through the sewn loop on the other cam, making a basket hitch. (Don't worry about the basket hitch damaging the cam loop, it's plenty strong.)
Step 3 - Make a girth hitch master point on a large HMS carabiner. Done!
Schweeeeet! Now there's zero chance that sling will ever come undone from the cam placements. Take a deep breath and enjoy your well-earned warm fuzzy feeling. =^)
Because there are four strands going to the cam on the right, assuming ideal load distribution, that cam will see slightly more force than the one on the left. That's why we checked the placement quality when we started.
If both cams are pretty much equal quality/strength, then it doesn't really matter which cam gets the basket hitch.