Hokus

Not many people are willing to take a chain off the hanger, go to a hardware store or a vice, then cut the last link off. Lowering through the last link in a chain eventually ends up being a pain in the ass for *someone*. For high traffic areas, I HOPE that you are TRing through you're own quickdraws or biners for the people that are following the route that got put up. Last person raps... it's really not *that* much longer to set up a rap than a lower... maybe 3 minutes? Plus you are saving your rope as well, if you wanted purely selfish reasons for rapping I personally think that quicklinks at the end of a chain make the most sense, since it's way easier to replace them: you can bring a wrench up and a new quicklink and you are good to go, as opposed to getting a bolt cutter and pry-bar to get the worn-through chain link off.

Rapping will save your rope too. Lowering can beat your rope up really quickly. +1 for rappeling.

Bumping for sticky; great page!

Thanks for all the tips, now I just need the weather to hold! Peter

Oh, and ps- if you know of any good websites with info on washington climbs, I'd love to hear about them.

Well, the plan is to head up to Washington to meet up with my Dad and 2 brothers to climb Mt. Olympus this July. I'd love to hear from anyone that has done Olympus... which summits are worth hitting, what approach you used, any particular gear that you thought was good to have, etc. Thanks! Peter

Hehe, thanks for the feedback Gary! That's more along the lines of posts that I was looking for, but as you can see, most people are into autoblocking these days. HOWEVER... ... did you know that you can make a Munter hitch autoblock???!!!! Check this out (it's down about 3 paragraphs under "tricks of the trade")... pretty slick! I've tried it a few times already. It works... the biner can have a tendancy to float around if your stance relative to the munter isn't that ideal and you are pulling it all sorts of directions, but it seems to lock up every time regardless. http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/tech_tips_trad_-_munter_magic/

A few thoughts... Erie was where I grew up climbing... the trad there is less than ideal... usually insipient cracks that are there for a while, then not. A lot more mental there not knowing when you'll get pro or whatever. Vantage is a different story. Basalt lines that are continuous and usually have pro the whole way, and that you can see easily... there's just a lot less guessing involved. I think that the rock at Erie is on the irregular side. I love it, but it isn't the most straight-forward climbing out there. Keep pushing yourself, and when you get some good lines that are great pro and nice, continuous crack systems that are better to protect, push your limit. Heck, if you go back to Vantage where you punched through those 10a's, do yourself a favor and hit some solid 10s and 10+ stuff.

IMO you are saying that it is impossible for someone to be attentive AND autoblock. Is this correct? I don't see any compensating going on when I autoblock, but maybe you're partners do? Isn't "compensating/laziness" a choice? And if you aren't lazy, wouldn't you agree that it does add a layer of safety?

It's a good answer... but... ...I like redundancy when I climb. IMO, an autoblocker gives you an additional back-up to the "STFU and focus". If I had to chose between someone who "stfu and focus" vs someone who "stfu/focus and Autoblocks", I'd pick number 2 every time. Another layer of added safety can't hurt, imo. edit: for clarity

Of course it's a hypothetical scenario, but it's certainly one that is possible. If given A or B, which do you think would be more likely to arrest a fall? Doesn't seem like rocket-science to me... what am I missing?

A person that is autoblocking, and is momentarily unaware, still catches the unexpected fall. A person that is not autoblocking, and is momentarily unaware, drops the fall. Not sure how you see the autblock as more dangerous. Seems to me it's the other way around.

Thanks for all the input, everyone. @JosephH I understand your thoughts on a device that autolocks also reduces the need for the attention of the belayer. It's a good point, and one of the reasons I don't like Grigri/Cinch's as much as a tube style device. However, won't you admit that there is more inherent safety in autoblocking? The rope WILL lock up under tension, and that is a good thing. The way I see it: Autoblocking + attentive belayer > attentive belayer I just don't see how being attentive alone is any stonger than attentiveness + autoblocking. On another note... Have any of you used the B-52? I've heard it does much better on bigger ropes than the Guide (assuming a round barstock biner). I typically use a 70m x 10.1mm lead rope.

Hehe, thanks! Good to know, since I'm sure I'll pick up some sort of autoblocker in the near future. That feedback is very appreciated! Any more like that is appreciated too!

My old reverso finally wore out. I've been in a quandry over what to replace it with, BD guide, Reverso3, B-52... but can't make up my mind. In the mean-time (ie, last several months) I've mostly been using a DMM v-twin (same as ATC XP, basically) for belaying leaders, rapping, and lowering single pitch climbs. However, I really like autoblocking for multipitch bringing up the second. Since I haven't had an autoblocker, I've been resorting to a Munter Hitch... and I've been surprised at how much I like it. Basically, the more that I use it, the more that I find that I like it. I've even belayed leaders with it and found it to work just fine. So I've started contemplating purely using a Munter for all multipitch trad climbing. The biggest deal for this is rappelling. I've used a biner break some, but don't find it super functional (and I'm certainly not going to rap on a Munter because loading it, unlike belaying, does leave lots of twists in the rope... which is also why I don't use it for single pitch climbing). Just wondering out there if anyone else likes the Munter for multipitch climbing, and if anyone has given up their belay device for it. Seems like it would be lighter and have better breaking power than a lot of devices that are currently out there. And assuming that most folks use a Autoblocking Belay Device, which do you use, and why?