HELP! - solo roped climbing question

[Rad]

My books are in storage so I thought I'd ask here about solo roped climbing. I've been climbing for many years but have never done this before and would be grateful for tips/corrections.

 

I want to lead a moderate line to TR a harder line and was thinking something like this:

 

1 - Climb moderate to first bolt, clip a bight of rope end to the first bolt using a locking biner. Rope feeds from biner to my Cinch (auto-locking device similar to a gri-gri) which is on my locking biner on my harness. As I climb I pay out rope through the Cinch and clip bolts as I pass them until I get to the chains (shared with harder route).

 

2 - Lower down hard route on Cinch, clipping the rope through Q draws as I go as this route is rather overhanging. Once on the ground, I'd fix the end of the rope to a tree not too far away.

 

3 - Then climb the moderate route again, cleaning the rope and draws from it. The Cinch is now protecting me like a TR.

 

4 - Then I'd lower straight down the steep route, fix THAT end of the rope, and tie myself into the end that I'd tied to the tree previously (which runs through the Qdraws).

 

5 - Finally, climb hard route on TR with Cinch as belay. This requires pulling rope through the device whenever there is a spot to free one arm to do that. Lower or rappel (with

separate device) to get off.

 

That's what I envision, but I am a noob and welcome your suggestions/corrections. If you want to spray that's fine but please post some useful tips too.

[JosephH]

As far as setting up the hard route, that's sounds like a reasonable approach as any. But please use a grigri, an Eddy, or one of the other soloing devices - the Cinch isn't appropriate to the task due to the sissoring action on the rope. Trango and Malcolm have specifically asked folks not to solo on it as well.

 

Here is what I do on the roped soloing front. I'm 'Healyje' over there on rc and my post is most of the way down the page (with the pictures). Be aware this is only what I do and what works for me; every roped soloist needs to figure out what works for themselves and what works for me may or may not work for you or anyone else.

[dmuja]

 

Joseph,

 

Have you fallen on the Edelrid Eddy? It looks intriguing to me and may be worth a try. Looks easy on the rope (relatively).

 

Its funny, but I worry more about falling with a bit of slack on TR solo because of so little rope being out = bigger fall forces = possible severed rope if you have the wrong device. Most people think TR solo is safer but if you got something with teeth and some slack built up and then very little dynamics in the rope compared to leading.. I wonder..

 

sorry for the drift

[AlpineK]

I haven't done this for a while. I've never moved over to another route while rope solo climbing, but I can't see this part being too different.

 

When I did it I never had bolts for my initial anchor. I would try and set 3 pieces of pro to start. Two pieces counting on an upward pull (if I fell) and one piece with a downward fall in mind. If you tie the three together you have one piece to keep the two main anchor points directed up (so they don't fall out from just sitting there).

 

After that I climb using the self belay device. I do tie off some knots every 30' or so of rope if all hell breaks loose and the auto belay device fucks up (tie and reset while climbing).

 

Then it's up to the top of the pitch. From that point you go back to the bottom. Rap and then reclimb the pitch cleaning gear either on rap or on second ascent.

 

In my case I'd then start up pitch 2. Transferring to an adjacent climb shouldn't be too hard.

 

It's a fun way to climb full of its own excitement.

[Rad]

JH, thanks for useful links. Malcolm Daly of Trango says don't use either the Cinch or the Gri-gri for soloing, so I don't understand why people latched onto the former and ignored the latter. Neither is approved or designed for that use.

 

Dmuja, on TR the rope will run from the ground to the anchor and back down to the climber, just as in a regular TR, so I don't see why you think the fall factors would be longer than on lead. In my case, I know I'll be falling on TR and strongly doubt that I'll fall leading the moderate route.

 

Feck, thanks for tips. This is a sport crag so I don't know if there are gear anchor possibilities.

 

I'll have to think hard about what device to use. Recommendations accepted. Thanks so far.

[JosephH]

Rad, Malcolm is only speaking for Trango and about the Cinch, not the grigri which is fine. It (the Cinch) has some of the same issues as the Petzl Shunt relative to the amount of pressure can apply to the rope. Again, this is due to the counter-rotating nature of the design.

 

I sometimes anchor off the first bolt if nothing else is available, but as Feck points out it is less than desirable, better to set up an anchor or use a close tree if either could be had.

 

Dmuja, nothing big so far. My sense of it is you really need to match the diameter of the rope with the Eddy to get the right mix of the rope running through it, yet still catching when necessary - around 10mm seems about right. Need to set up a test spot somewhere and give it some more formal testing one of these days.

 

 

[genepires]

you need one anchor point (in this case a bolt) for every baby you are responsible for. So you need three bolts for your anchor. Or one bolt and two trees. Or maybe one bolt and my fat ass as an anchor.

 

Maybe I need to be your little belay bitch before you actually try to self belay.

[Rad]

Don't worry Gene, you can Cinch my Edelweiss any time.

 

When we last spoke you were off to sit in a tent in the rain on a foggy glacier with a bunch of hyperactive toddlers. How did that go?

[Lithophiliac]

I often use the soloist device (rock exotica) for this type of situation and, using the appropriate knots for back up, its worked well for me every time I've needed it (still alive .

 

For a sport climb, I would appproach your situation similarly to start, clipping a knotted off section of rope to the first bolt of the easy climb with a locker, then climbing the easy route, clipping the second bolt, etc..., but fixing the lead end of the rope periodically as I moved higher up using pro or bolts in as equallized a fashion as possible to keep the accumulated weight of the rope from pulling the free end through your device thereby leaving you a soloist. This is all asuming that the routes are short enough to use one rope between them, otherwise I would tag or fix a second rope to the free end of my lead line to ensure that I have enough rope left to rapell the hard climb.

 

In certian situations where I'm really worried about the rope sliding through the device problem, I will sometimes tie a "safety knott" several feet beyond the estimated total length of the climb to act as a stopper to mitigate this problem.

 

Once I reached the bleay, our set-ups would differ...

 

Asuming a 2 bolt belay, I would first clip straight to my harness with 2 draws, then pull up the second rope if needed, or enough slack on the lead line (with buffer) to tie a figure 8 loop. Then, I would attach 2 more draws to the bolts and clip in the figure 8 loop. Then simply rappel down the hard climb on the free end of the rope, clipping as many directional bolts as needed to keep you in contact with the rock if you fall on your subsequent accent (no tree required).

 

Once on the ground you can then acend either route on TR with ease, either cleaning the draws as you go or leaving them to clip on the way down for multiple repeat accents. Keep in mind that when acending, you must be able to get a free hand periodically to be able to pull slack rope through your device. This can also be quite challenging at times and prevents me from rope soloing some routes. It also sometimes adds much needed spice points to previously boring climbs.

 

Overall, I had a ton of good times rope soloing over the years. Its a great way to get in a ton of pitches and it can save you from the "broken partner syndrome." As others have said, it is really a personal preference thing on as to how you go about doing it, but as long as you keep in mind the risks and stick to terrain below your limit it can be virtually 100% safe. Good luck.