Cleaning roofs and traverses

[salbrecher]

What do you find are some good systems or tricks for cleaning roofs and traverses on solo aid? When rapping down after leading a roof pitch to clean it, how do you get back under the roof? Cliping a quickdraw from my harness to the lead rope seems most logical. And traverses?

[willstrickland]

You're rapping all the way to the previous anchor anyway.

Leave your tag line or haul line fixed to the previous anchor and rap that line. You may have to rap, then use your jumars to pull yourself back to the anchor if there is a big roof or traverse.

 

When you jug to clean, you'll be jugging the lead line, so getting back under the roof is a non-issue. Cleaning the roof or portions of the roof on rap are not the best idea for many reasons.

 

Place plenty of gear in a roof, and don't back-clean any of your gear. This way, when you're cleaning, you can clip your way across the roof in your aiders just like you were leading it, pulling the previous piece once you are on the next one. If for whatever reason you can't clip-clean, you'll have to either lower out off a fixed piece using the duecey method (aka 4:1) for shorter lower outs or a separate rap line for longer ones. Another method, that is not recommended, is to jug to the piece, clean it, take the swing, jug up to the next piece, repeat. This is workable if the pro is pins that you can hammer out, or there are holds you can use to unweight the piece so you can pull it. Again, this is not a bright thing to do, and it's probably scary enough that you won't try it more than once.

 

Traverses are very similar. Leave plenty of gear and clip clean or if there is a fixed piece to lower out from (or you're willing to fix a piece) and the gear is good, backclean the whole traverse while leading it. That way you can lower out one time and be done with the whole traverse. Same deal with the lower-outs, shorter ones (or slightly longer near the end of the pitch) you can duecey, otherwise rap off the fixed piece with another line.

 

"Freedom of the Hills", Long/Middendorf "Big Walls", both have decent write ups on this topic. There's also plenty of stuff on rc.com in Pete's collection of drivel. Be warned, there is good info there (for the most part) but his writing style aka self-aggrandizing chest beating central, is not for everyone. Look for the "Dr. Piton index" over there (rc.com).

[boatskiclimbsail]

Pull out your aiders and climb the roof/traverse backward. All the gear is placed already (unless you're doing some crazy sh*t in which case you probably shouldn't be on this board) and you just clip and swing, clip and swing.

 

The quickdraw thing will work, but will be a pain in the butt on anything other than slight overhangs. Your ascenders will help a great deal if you are intent on following your rope all the way down.

 

Depending on where the roof/traverse lies in the pitch, it is often easier to just lower past it and swing in/over to the rope below the feature. Watch sharp edges on the roofs if you're swinging...

[fern]

 

watch sharp edges on roofs if you are jugging too!

 

Will's 'not bright idea' is also sometimes workable with cams, you pull yourself in towards the cam and at the apex of your swing you pop the trigger and pull the cam and swing away.

[willstrickland]

Two more things, when you're jugging roofs/traverses, clip the bottom of the jug handle to the rope to keep it from torquing off the rope, and tie in short. And, there is another way to lower out off a piece without using a separate rap line. You can clip yourself to the lower out point, tie in short above it, untie yourself from the end of the rope, and lower out that way. (Your rope below the tied in short point will run from your harness through the piece and back to your hand where you just untied.

 

[Lambone]

I tend to follow Will's school of thought. I usually solo with two ropes. Definately rap the tag/haul line on roof or traverse pitches...don't rap the lead line...and make sure your haul line is fixed at the bottom anchor. when you get down to it just real yourself in, using a jug if you need to.

 

I'v experimented with re-climbing through a pitch, but generaly I find that method more strenous than jugging the rope and doing lower-outs. It may be faster sometimes, but not much. Sometimes it is better to re-aid the pieces, like if jugging the rope will put too much sideways force on the piece and pull it or tweak the cables.

 

I use a gri-gri as a back up to my jugs. On short lower-outs I just pass a bight (from the end of the rope tie in on my harness) through the fixed peice and lower out with my hands, you have plenty of friction. If it is bigger I'll rig an ATC to let the slack out slower/easier.

 

Like will said, if there is no fixed gear, don't back clean your pieces, if there is a good fixed piece, backclean as far as you can after it and do one big lower-out.

 

If I am soloing and not using the tag line to haiul, I will often rig myself a seperate back up with it as I jug the pitch. Mostly for piece of mind,cause jugging scares me.

[willstrickland]

Lambone brings up a good point. If you clean with one jug and a gri-gri instead of two jugs, and the pieces are close enough together, you won't have clip clean or use a bight-lower-out. You can just clip the jug past the piece, let rope through the gri-gri at the bottom, and then reach back over and unclip the rope and clean the piece. This might sound weird, but it works really well and is not complicated when you see it. I really like cleaning pitches this way.

[bobbyperu]

i'll usually try and find some sort of way up thru the house first, like out a window and mantel over on to the roof, i'll usually leave my cleaning supplies either back at the window, or get my dangle on.

 

if theres no feasible way thru the house, i'll look for natural features to possibly "traverse" or transfer on over to the roof...now i'm not really suggesting this approach for the faint hearted. the various branch bending, gap sending, tightrope walking, schenanigans are best left to the pros

 

then the obvious...just send. ground-up. and leave the sex-mats in the kitchen, where they belong.

 

if you just suck, then grab a ladder, get up to the top, and just work youre way down... i dunno, hose, uhh...pressure washer...fuggin heavy duty brush. i guess just clean it based on what youre lookin at at that time. hope this helps

[ken4ord]

Anchor your fixed line at the start so when you rap you can haul yourself to the start of the pitch. Then aid the pitch again back cleaning as you go. As you are ascending up you can use fixed line as your anchor.

[salbrecher]

On a related topic, do most of you use static lines for your haul and tag line? If so how thick?

[willstrickland]

Static, Yes.

 

Size depends. When soloing shorter stuff (like one night on the wall), I use a 8mm x 60m static haul.

 

Longer stuff (like a 2 person, 3-5 day wall), it's about 10-11mm x 60m static(static line is often sold in imperial measurements..10mm-11mm is about 3/8"-7/16").

 

For a tag line I either use the aforementioned 8mm static, or I might use an extra lead line which can come in handy if you get a core shot on your lead line, or you want to fix a pitch at the end of a day.

 

An 8mm static is light, and packs tiny, but you don't want to be in a situation where you have to jug it. The strength rating on a static 8 is WAY lower than beefier ones...around 1000-2000lbf (4-8kn) from memory.

[tomtom]

Hey, doesn't this thread belong in THE NEW AID CLIMBING FORUM?