Hi All, not having a go, was interested in Dru's reference & dug in. hard!
"A Soldier of the Great War" Mark Helperin.
summary
Self Belay Method: protection is a single piton* with a hemp hawser rope and a twice taped steel Karabiner to allow either a caught fall or rope recovery from above. (surgical tape invented 1845)
Lifted from page 524 from the copy @ Archive.Org:
"Long before the war, Alessandro and Rafi had devised a system of self-belay for solo climbing. (txt del) The climber would climb unprotected until he felt in need of a belay.
He would then drive a pin into the rock and attach to it a specially rigged carabiner with two loops of tape stretching perpendicularly from the center of the gate to the closure, and to the shaft of the carabiner directly opposite. The rope would run between the loop of tape where it fastened to the shaft, and the point where the gate rested against the shaft.
Were the climber to fall, the rope would break the lower tape, set the carabiner in the proper position, and allow the gate to close. In the absence of a fall a sharp pull from above would break the same tape, move the rope past the gate, and position the second loop of tape on the eye of the piton so that one more pull would break it and free the carabiner.
The second tape would always be properly aligned because the climber's knapsack and ropes, hanging from the carabiner on a short runner, would provide resistance and righting force.
With the breaking of the second tape the gate would close and the climber could retrieve everything but the piton left in the rock. He was limited solely by the number of pitons he could carry, but he could climb only five meters from each belay, because a fall of more than ten meters would either pull out the piton, snap the rope, or break the climber's back."
* I deduce a single piton area of protection as a second area would redirect the fall onto the anchor in an upwards pull & put the proposed system into a 'release and recover rope' mode.
This Bit of the Story ~1914 to ~1918, so the bleeding edge of Climbing Technology and Innovation! fortunately; we have come along way.
whilst searching this out, I read some other climbing extracts from the book (1991) and thoroughly enjoyed them;
currently missing pulling on real rock & placing gear, looking forwards to slightly warmer weather.
Cheers!
jon
:-j
