Adjustable tether + Fifi hook for tricky cleaning
Need to clean a steeply traversing aid pitch?
How about a sport route that's severely overhanging and/or traversing?
The challenge you have in both cases is the gear you're trying to clean is being tensioned by the rope under your bodyweight, and that's usually a pretty big problem.
Here’s a simple way to solve it: an adjustable tether with an aid climbing fifi hook attached. I‘ve used this on the infamously traversing bolt ladder on Monkey Face at Smith Rock Oregon, and it works perfecto.
Be sure your fifi has a “release cord” loop tied into the top hole as we see here. This is key to be able to release this under load.
They usually don't come this way from the store, you have to add it yourself. I'm simply using parachute cord.
Notes . . .
It’s pretty much the same procedure for cleaning quickdraws from a steep sport climbing route, but that's a bit easier than this.
Yes, there are several methods you can use to accomplish this, but after you try this you may not wanna do the others. Give different techniques a try and see which works best for you.
What's sweet about this for aid climbing is that it uses gear that you already have on your harness. Typically you would only use a fifi when leading, but in this case, you remove it from your harness and put it on your tether when needed for cleaning.
Here's an example for aid climbing. Let's assume we’re cleaning gear from a traversing bolt ladder.
Slide your top ascender and ladder up to the piece you want to clean. Stop about 6 inches / 15 cm inches away from the gear.
Take your tether+fifi, extend the tether, and clip the fifi into the gear. You can clip this pretty much to whatever is most convenient.
Pull in on your adjustable tether. This transfers your bodyweight ON the gear, and OFF the rope.
Unclip the (now unweighted) rope from the gear.
If you have a tether that can release tension when weighted, like a Yates or Skot’s Wall Gear adjustable tether, lower yourself out a bit so you don't take such a big swing. If you're using something like a Petzl Connect Adjust, which can’t be released easily when weighted, get ready for a swing.
Now the fun part! Reach over, grab the release cord on top of the fifi hook, and give it a yank. The hook should pop out of the gear, you should take a little swing (which may be quite exciting, depending how high up you are!
You can make this previous step a bit easier by getting some momentum by swinging your body toward the gear and releasing the fifi hook at the apex of your swing. (Kinda hard to explain, easy to do, give it a try and you'll figure it out.)
Lean over and clean the (now unweighted) gear.
Continue ascending to the next piece of gear.
Here's a close-up of the business end.
If you aid climb a lot, you may want to get a specialized tool: the AlFifi, made by Skot’s Wall Gear. The Alfifi has a stout hook that's welded to the cam of an adjustable tether, which offers excellent and quickly adjustable positioning and lets you get a little bit closer to the gear that you can with the DIY setup I use above.
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A4 Alfifi, from Skot’s Wall Gear