VitaminGu

spiderman - if simulclimbing is a mandatory no fall situation, why bother roping up? how does getting off route make it okay to fall?

dru's 1) is what I meant by running belay. 3) is interesting, but wouldn't this create hellacious rope drag? [ 04-25-2002, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: VitaminGu ]

you're climbing a long narrow ridge traverse that requires no more than 4th or even 3rd class climbing, but it drops off thousands of feet on either side. one slip and you're toast. the obvious protection strategy would be to set up full-on belays, but the ridge is half a mile long and you just don't have that much time. what's the strategy here, other than climbing unroped and hoping you don't fall? does a running belay work in this sitation? i would think that it is safe only on steepish snow (if the lead climber falls, it's basically a normal lead belay situation; if the second falls, the leader can self-arrest). a running belay on a mostly horizontal rock ridge, though, seems impractical, because the second would not be able to use his body weight to stop a lead fall, and the leader can't arrest a second fall. i'm assuming the strategy of "if I fall off the left side of the ridge, you jump off the right side" is something that only works in movies and not in real life...