SplashClimber

Thank-you for posting the question. A hip replacement is looming in my future. So keep the replies coming -- good to get a consensus of sorts.

Heading to Squamish in a few hours. I am thinking of bouldering on my own, but wondering how it would be to go to one of the bouldering areas on my own. I have never bouldered outside before, have a pad though ( Level indoors comfortable V1, V2's can do, but not as well). But, are people there friendly and I could get a spot if needed and so forth? I only have one pad, and not sure if that is enough anyway.

Original poster here.... Hey thank-you everyone for all of the great suggestions. My bordeom is mainly when I go to the gym on my own, and this is why I am bouldering. I rarely boulder with a partner, but when I boulder with a partner it is a tad more fun than bouldering alone. With a boulder partner, you have someone to generally just chat with, and also someone to talk over challenges etc. I wish I could be a bit better a initiating conversations with fellow boulderers (sp?) tha show up at gym alone... that would help too . I just feel a bit out of the typical boulder's league, so I have to overcome that and just try not to compare myself to the others! Ok, I just exposed lots of vulnerability... so go easy on me I might try to get more partners to just do some bouldering sessions. I think the more bouldering I do, the better I will get with easily coming up with some stuff to do, while using the great suggestions above.

So I get easily bored in the gym when bouldering. I am at a very beginner level. I can do V0's, an occasional V1. So my questions: How can I make bouldering a bit more exciting. Any recommendations on drills, or books that might have drills you can do on your own/bouldering? Maybe if I can get beyond V0's it will be more exciting, but it might take some drills to get there?

re: above genepires comment...Good point about what the "A-B-C"/Anchor-Belayer-Climber is really all about. Thank-you for your observation! In my described question the belayer is not even a part of the system. So I used "A-B-C" incorrectly! But the diagram in orig. post does sort of describe the situation as far as location of the pieces of the puzzle.. the anchor, the belayer, and the climber, and their alignment to each other for direct belay with a munter. re: genepires comment above... your comment makes perfect sense. ...pull towards the direction of the climber/load strand! With my diagram/situation it would have been a challange.

The diagram and instructions with the Kong GI-GI are very unclear, pertaining to usage while belaying one person (your second climber) while using a single rope less than 10mm. My comments are in brackets, the instructions say "If using one only rope [yes, really does say ... using one only rope] of diameter less than 10mm, the connector [meaning the extra biner you need to secure the belay] shall be positioned aroundthe GI-GI and with the two ropes passing through. Disregarding why I want to use a GI-GI , does anyone have a picture or better instructions of how to use the GI-GI with a single rope that is less than 10mm?

Does this knot have an official name??; regardless looks interesting! Thank-you for the picture!

RE.... Thank-you for the Long reference (2nd edition pg 167 - left biner) --- really sheds more light on the "tail" issue (non-issue?!) RE... What do you mean by a triple fig 8 (joke?, joking about putting in in 3 separate fig-8's?)

Ah, that seems like the easiest, and thank-you so much for the picture too, it really helped clarify the solution. It is a bit much for me to chew/bite though ... Ha (re: bight vs bite. Just an homophone oversight on my part.)

Would this work just as well with a friction device (aka auto-block device, examples: BD ATC-Guide, Petzl Reverso line etc.)? My guess is not too well, because with friction device you would need to have the master point alot higher to be able to milk the rope through the device? And so the Grigri works well in this situation because angles & height do not matter (a question?!)

Close enough, but don't you really want something that is a bit more fixed/un-movable? If you have the biner on a fig-8 then the biner will not be sliding all over the place thus, changing the location of your master point? So maybe fig-8 is "better", and just clipping into main loop around the couch is "acceptable"?

Glad I abandoned my plan of using the munter out on my climb! It seemed wrong. I should go out and practice it sometime, but for now, will stick with being below the anchor when I use the munter off the anchor.

Thank-you for your response... I suppose I should have mentioned that when you double up the cordalette around the boulder/couch it ends up being way too short to enable putting in a fig-8 or an overhand. I also want the master point to be closer to the couch, not way out as shown in the first diagram. (scnerio setup --- want masterpoint closer to couch because I do not want to be close to a ledge). Great idea about tying a few overhand knots along the master point.

When using the munter, do you need to have the typical A-B-C setup? (Where A=anchor, B=Belayer, C=Climber). The idea being A-B-C should all be in line? On the left is a setup I have used a lot with the munter. But what about using the munter as shown on the right? To provide some reality to this. I was at a anchor (A) as shown by the setup show on the right part of the diagram. The anchor was way down low, and I was on a ledge, meaning I could not align myself towards the climber side of the anchor. I thought about setting up a munter, because I knew the 2nd would be moving very fast, but I was not sure it would work well, so instead I opted to belay off my harness instead (and probably should have set up a re-direct, but I did not). Even if the anchor was up high would the munter have worked in this situation... do you need to have the A-B-C in-line concept going? I hope this makes sense, let me know if I can clarify anything!

So what would be the best (fast but safe) way to shorten up the master tie-in point on a cordalette already slung around a boulder/tree etc? (Some givens, want to deal with fact that boulder is already slung, and you need to be much closer into the tie-in because you are on a small ledge for instance, or do not want to be pulled very far). So I just want to specifically know how to shorten up the tie-in point distance. (Below) Here is the before picture, and some suggested after pictures follow. Note - the couch is a boulder . So I want to shorten up the tie-in point. (Below) Is this a good way... tie a fig-8 on a bite, and then really should tie-back up where the arrow is pointing. (Below) Another way that seems to be fast (hard to tell from picture but take the bite of rope and wrap lots of times around the standing rope, then loop it back through ( sort of like a klemheist)

Wow... really? I did not know that about the slings. Good luck (poster) with the sling use, hard to tell from picture if sling is damaged.

For some reason I had someone also advise to camp/bivy which is on the left afer passing Lone Tree Campground (assuming you are traveling from Seattle?). I am not sure how far this is from Blue Lake TH (maybe 10 minutes?). I am wondering if it would be a problem to park and sleep in car at Blue Lake TH? Would rangers not give you a problem because you are parked vs bivying/tent outside the car?

yes .. Thank-you for the suggestions on what should have done, very thorough, and we should have gone over the rope tug(s) to be used. Although rope tugs would have been a bit hard to differentiate from the extreme rope drag, but still probably able to distinguish anyway (especially if done the way you described so well!)

...I do not know if AA forgot to say off belay, or if BB did not hear it. .... good point, maybe an assumption was made by AA that they were automatically taken off belay.

To answer quoted question above... BB was not sure what to yell that would be concise, clear and not so wordy. So I am sort of wondering what BB SHOULD have said either by yelling or on the radio. re: line-of-sight.... BB and AA could not quite see each other. AA was just out of view, so BB could not see what AA was doing. rope tugs -- probably should have worked out with partner prior to the climb rope tugs just in case there is failure of voice and radio methods.

We shall see how the Gigi goes. I have the BD ATC-Guide and still working on its use in autolock mode (ironing out the kinks, but still trying). I do not like how slow the BD ATC-Guide is for me when I am rappelling (even in low-friction mode), but that is tolerable. So I thought maybe I would try the gigi for rappelling, and see how it goes for the autoblock mode. I also have the Petzl Reverso3, but have not been able to try it out yet.

Just wondering how many people use the Kong Gigi. I just ordered one, as I thought it might function in autolock mode better than other devices.

Ok, sure seems like a simple question, but the setup is long, and might well be the longest post in cascadeclimber history for such a simple question. Here is a very lengthy setup of the situation: Climber AA is the leader, Climber BB is the follower. So here is an actual situation that happened to me, and I am wondering how the situation could have worked out better or could have been improved. Follower BB could see visually that the leader AA, had likely reached the belay station, plus there was not any rope left to proceed anyway. (BB indeed did yell how much rope was left, and eventually BB yelled "that's me"). It seemed like a real long time passed, but BB waited patiently for the expected command from AA "Off Belay". BB never heard "Off Belay", and more time passed, and so BB thought climber AA was just having a difficult time establishing an safe anchor. So BB waited some more (5 minutes). At this point BB was not sure what was going on. Another fact is, voice communication/yelling seemed fine, in addition both climbers have radios. At this point, AA yelled "Belay On". So communication had somehow definitely broken down... and who knows where, but it did break down. (So normally this is how we communicate: AA - Off Belay, BB - Belay Off, BB - That's Me, AA - Belay On, BB - Climbing, AA - Climb On). So what happened as a result it a bit of a slow-down in getting moving once again for the team. Normally BB could have been taking AA off belay, and disasembling part of the anchor setup while AA was working on shoring up the anchor setup, or possibly hauling up more rope. So the question... what should BB have done during the long 5 minute waiting period. Should BB had yelled "On Belay?" when BB realized it seemed like a really long time. BB has no way of know what AA is up to, all BB knows is that he needs to keep AA on belay. But.... a really long time has passed! So should BB yell "On Belay?" What possible commands would AA yell back at this point? Possible answers from AA are 1)AA could either still be in need of a belay -- so AA yells "NO" or "On Belay?" or says nothing, or 2) AA might be safely anchored but still working on the total anchor setup - so AA yells "NO", or 3) AA might be ready to belay BB on up - so AA yells "Belay On". Wheww...!!!

My boulder picture illustration was not the best to have used either [let's assume it is a very wide shot of a boulder the size of a house ] I try to use huge boulders (SUV size?), or wedged well and so on, and ones that are NOT on sloping ledges. But you submit a good real-life warning for all about using boulders! It must have been very hard on you to be a part of this tragedy.

I am curious about how to use the rope instead of the web-o-lette, but suppose I should make this a separate post (?).