Solo belay device question.

[cycling_mike]

I've done a fair amount of soloing over the years and always come back to the clove hitch. It costs nothing, weights nothing and is IMHO as bomber as it gets. I've found it's best to clip the clove into my harness with the biggest belay biner I have and use either an inch thick cross-section of old bike tube (imagine a super wide & tough rubber band) or several wraps of tape to pinch the belay loop tightly around the biner and avoid cross loading. Soloing with a clove involves a good bit of reading the rock and sequence planning, as I generally feed out enough slack for me to reach a ledge or good hold/jam and then go for it. With this method I usually solo routes well below my limit and focus on technique while enjoying the solitude & self-reliance.

[G-spotter]

that's pretty dumb. with the ushba and similar devices you never have to feed slack.

[DavidHiers]

I like my silent partner well enough, but I've never tried the others.

[jshamster]

I love my Silent Partner, but it is really not made for solo top roping. Works great for leading!

 

For solo TR, I would go with minitrax or ushba.

[spotly]

Mfr recommends using an 11mm rope, and a chest harness.

Singing Rock Locker device

 

I've been using the Yates Rocker (same as the Singing Rock) for 4 years now and never used a chest harness. I wonder if that's a new caution because I don't recall reading that in my docs for the Yates.

[Sherri]

Mfr recommends using an 11mm rope, and a chest harness.

Singing Rock Locker device

 

I've been using the Yates Rocker (same as the Singing Rock) for 4 years now and never used a chest harness. I wonder if that's a new caution because I don't recall reading that in my docs for the Yates.

 

Not sure if it's a recommendation that was added by Singing Rock as a change to the Yates manual, but now that you mention it, I've seen a quite a few folks using the Yates and none of them with a chest harness.

 

I decided to go w/using it with mine; keeps the device oriented properly, and with it positioned higher up, the catch feel more like a that of a like toprope fall. The folks at Patroller Supply(where I bought it) explained that the harness was especially important if you were doing overhanging or roofy type routes, where you could flip over if you fell. Catching at your chest may help prevent that?

 

Even with the chest harness, I love the way the device runs and catches. It also lets you downclimb, a feature which I really liked. You can also keep it on the rope while you rappell by attaching your gri gri above it and holding it in the "unlocked" position as you rap. Makes it easy to burn lap after lap because you don't have to go through setting it up each time.

 

[Sherri]

Are you folks using the Silent Partner with the rope in a backpack, or with the long loops of rope clipped to your harness as shown in the manual?

 

I can see where there'd be pros and cons to each method. Mainly, I was curious as to what you do for "backup" if you're using the backpack feed. Seems like that method precludes any sort of backup system?

[JosephH]

Regardless of which device, when using a backpack you can still use backup knots. In my case I rarely do, though. I may throw one in for an particularly awkward move, but that's about it. For my reasons why see the posts in the link I posted earlier. Also, be sure to tie a couple of overhand knots in the end of the rope before stacking it in the backpack if you use one - you don't want the end somehow coming out of the bag near the end and zipping on through your device.

[spotly]

I'm still learning to use the Silent Partner and appreciate the pointer on tying the knots at the end while in the pack. I've been tying in, which works, but not having two trands of rope hanging out of the pack is a better idea - thanks.

 

I've tried the backups and found it to be a pain in the arse. If I get to a point that's at or above my comfort level (currently 5.6ish when soloing) I'll pull up some slack and tie one on through that section.

 

Finding a long and well-protected 5.4 to 5.6ish route worth hauling in all the weight is my major stumbling point with soloing (literally - and it still hurts)

[jshamster]

When leading with the SP, I pretty much always use a rope bag at the belay to stack the rope.

I do use backup knots most of the time. Probably not necessary, but gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling. I have never heard of an SP failing, but there are documented cases of GriGri failure with backup knot saving climbers ass.

 

On another note, while I have heard that after 1/2 to 3/4 rope length of climbing the rope weight can cause slippage through both SP and GriGri, I have yet to have this happen to me.

There are numerous discussions on variuos rebelay techniques to combat this problem on Supertopo and rocknoob.com.

I'm too lazy to search and link right now.

 

Cheers.

Jimbo

[Sherri]

I tried the SP for the first time this week...suprisingly, it's bulky profile went completely unnoticed while I was climbing. I thought it would feel "clunky" and in the way, but it didn't. The feed was so smooth that it was easy to focus on the climbing, never felt like I was playing tug of war with the rope; I used the backpack technique(thanks JosephH), which probably had a lot to do with the smooth feed. So far, I give it a

 

You want to have your ducks in a row with your anchor-building skills with these things. Even though I consider myself safe and solid with anchors in general, I realized building a multi-directional anchor I'd trust to hold a solo lead fall put some different stakes on the game.

[danhelmstadter]

my grigi works pretty good, although I only use it with double 8mm ice floss, which is not at all what it was meant for, regaurdless it works well. you could borrow it for a month or so if we happen to be in the same area.

 

I've also just tied knots in rope going through standard atc.

Edited June 7, 2008 by danhelmstadter