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.
You don’t need 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.
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