Rope Solo Rock and Ice Climbing

Red Rock - The Wild - 8-11-2011

2011-09-10T16:28:00.001-06:00

Didn't get this up when I did it - a whole month has gone by. Alas ...

Took the boys up Rock Canyon to "The Wild" to meet Ryan for an evening of climbing. Loading a new harness into his new backpack, there was a glitch and Ryan ended up at the cliff with no harness. Since the boys had put a lot of effort into the hike in, I decided to Lead Solo the 5.6, so I set up a couple cams at the bottom and equalized them.

I started up, and tied off the first draw, partially to keep the anchors pointing upward. I had forgotten to put in a third piece to hold the anchor up, and had to hold them up as I climbed the first few feet, and have Ryan untangle me.

Below: note the Grigri at the junction of my legs. This isn't optimal, and it had some drag, and fed like crap later in the climb, but it's what I had with me in the pack at the time. Not sure if the Eddy would have been better or not. One of these days I'm going to opt for a Soloist or whatever it is now.

Below I'm having trouble getting the Grigri to feed, so I'm going to go ahead and clip off on the bolt. I'm using a rappel rig that Dawn Glanc taught me in Ouray last winter. I like it pretty good, and have started leaving it rigged for just such an occasion.

As I came down I cleaned, and then set it as a toprope for the boys, and let them climb for a bit. When they were done I reset the cams, added a third anchor point above the locker the rope was tied to so it wouldn't droop while I climbed, then set up a Petzl Microcender and used that without a backup. I had read recently on the Petzl website how they want us to do it now (which is quite nice of them) but haven't gotten around to testing it yet, and didn't want to do anything new this time. My son took the pics above, and didn't take any of my toprope solo, but you've seen it all before.

I'm probably going to do some more routes in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for a test of the new Petzl system.

July 17, Swan Mountain Road Toprope

2011-07-17T16:56:00.002-06:00

It's been a very long time since I have done any ropesolo, and I keep trying to get out in Utah to climb, but every time I plan it there's either thunderstorms or like Saturday morning, the crag looked like flies on poop, the climbers were that thick.

I got up early this morning and decided to try to get in a lap at the toprope cliff near the Swan Mountain Road Traverse Wall near Frisco, CO. This was actually one of my first toprope solo adventures a couple years back, when there used to be bolts, but they've either been chopped or in the case of the loose block at the top with bolts, the block is gone. There is a very strong local group of Highball Boulderers, and it's possible they're reclaiming it, though it's like a V-minus-4 and I didn't see any chalk today on any microflakes or microcrimpers to give me any clue they're doing a hidden V1 route on it. On the hike in I surprised a fox, about 50' away on the trail, but my camera was in my backpack, so I didn't capture it for you.

I was up here a few weeks ago with the kids, and discovered that it might be possible to run a very long rope down from two trees, as shown in the pic below.

I made two figure-8-on-bights with a loop between them (thanks Dawn Glanc for showing me that). I wiggled the knots around to equalize it, and guessed about how much stretch there would be once I weighted it for the rappel so it would sit over the edge. I managed to not have two extra lockers (used one on one of the trees), so I used a couple opposed biners with the one locker. Good enough. Anchor rope brown, climbing rope pink. Note knot in climbing rope.

This is post-climb. Note my Microcender. I've grown to like it. At the bottom I make a coil of rope and use a quickdraw to clip it into an overhand-on-a-bight just below the level that rappelling down would put me if I were doing laps. This weights the rope a bit and helps the Microcender feed better. A few feet up I did a sit test and it locked just fine.

And this is my smiling face after the climb. Did it a lot easier this time than last, from what I remember. Must be all those "impossible" 8's and 9's I've been working in Rock Canyon in Utah. Not enough time this morning to do laps, but it might be on the agenda this week. Talus below feet is bottom of route. There's another route about 10' to my left that I haven't done. That could be interesting too.

Thursday August 12, Draper Red Rock 5.10a

2010-08-12T21:27:00.001-06:00

Yes, I worked a 10a. Awesome. I was planning on trying the 5.9 that starts over the boulder, but ended up on the 10a in the cave. I drove up at 7:00 AM this morning, and hiked up, then set my rope up on the anchor that covers a couple of 10's and the 9.

I rapped down, and looking up, this is what I saw - into the 10a cave. I've done this 10a before on toprope, and while I was working the 9, decided to step over to the 10 and work it for a bit.

I'm using a Petzl Microcender now, having used it Tuesday Night on a new 5.8, one I've never done before. I gained a lot of confidence in it, and trusted it enough to let go and drop on it, important for working a route.

Notice in the photo above that I have the rope flaked in a stuff sack, which is what I toss down after anchoring at the top. For a top anchor I'm using three lockers on a sliding-x in a nylon sling. It works, and hopefully will never take a real fall. It's what I usually use for most toproping. I tie a butterfly about 5' up and clip the stuff sack to the butterfly knot, so the rest of the rope is in the bag out of trouble, but hanging to weight the rope to help it feed smoothly.

When I was done hanging around and falling in the cave (ran out of time, since I also had to run 5+ miles and drop by the house for a shower before work) I discovered one minor problem with the Microcender. It only goes up.

Luckily I have a basic knowledge of ropecraft and rescue, so I rigged my Reverso, put on a prussic and footloop and scooched up on the rope to unweight the Microcender, de-rigged that, then lowered myself onto the Reverso and undid the prussic. Was pretty fun doing it on the fly hanging in a cave. Last time I did it was on relatively low angle granite in Alaska during a guide course. I also keep a Petzl Tibloc handy, in case I need to rig a waist loop like I'm in totally deep doo.

When I was on the ground I decided I didn't feel like hiking around to the top in my Acopa Aztec, totally the best trad shoe I have ever used, so I free soloed a 5.6 I've done a handful of times. My DW was a bit "surprised" when I called later to tell her. ;)

Two climbs ago I experimented with a butterfly backup, with butterfly knots about 4 meters apart. It was so totally annoying I just skipped it these past two times. I don't know how I feel about it. I think if I were spending more time working an inverted route, like the bottom of this one, I might consider it again. Not sure yet.

Friday August 6 2010 - Flatirons, Boulder Colorado

2010-08-07T08:10:00.000-06:00

Well, it's not rope solo, but it was a ton of fun. My wife and I met up with a friend at Flatiron parking area. In between the typical late afternoon thunder/rain we booked it up the trail to the Second Flatiron and we solo climbed the first pitch then ducked off to the ravine and hiked down. It was my wife's first solo that couldn't be considered a "highball". It was slab climbing, which is very different from the quartzite/sandstone or limestone that I've been climbing. Tons of fun.

Saturday July 31 - Draper Red Rock

2010-08-01T18:11:00.003-06:00

My wife is on vacation this summer, and I've been going out there off and on, so haven't climbed here in months. Decided to get my butt up early on Saturday before anyone else and get on Draper Red Rock.

I wanted to experiment with a new system, so I set a toprope on the 5.7 that I've done a dozen or so times before.

I put a figure-8 in the middle of a 30 meter rope and then butterfly knots on one side of it about every 4 meters. Then I slid the figure-8 down to recenter it.

I put a couple short nylon slings on the anchors, one with biners, the other with lockers, and connected the 8 to them. I rapped down the unknotted side, swapped my Petzl Reverso3 for a Petzl Grigri. Then I girth-hitched a single and double sling on my belay loop and clipped them with lockers to my harness out of the way.

I climbed up about 15' and clipped the double sling to the first butterfly, then downclimbed to test it. All the way to the ground! So much stretch. I went back up and tested the single sling, and that was a lot better, but by this time I was feeling a bit sketched, so I shook out at the bottom and got it together. I'd done this a dozen times, it should be easy, I just need to trust the system, and work it.

I climbed back up to the butterfly, then dropped onto the Grigri and it locked and held, so now I felt much better. I had a short coil of rope at the bottom for resistance on the trailing (hand) side of the Grigri, but it wasn't quite enough so I still had to feed the rope.

In this pic, you can see the tied-off coil of both sides of the rope, the Grigri threaded, and the slings girth hitched to my harness. The biner on my leg loop was there as I took this during one of my fall tests, and I had it there to help control my lower. I didn't use it during climbing

While I was climbing an older gentleman with a large walking stick came by, saw me, and got out of there quickly. There's a local joke about the Red Rock - if you get there and see someone about to die you leave so you don't have to feel any guilt later.

While climbing I made the following few discoveries:

1) 4 meters seems to be a bit far for a single sling - you clip and drag the butterfly up to the next butterfly, drop that and clip the next one - a bit of weight between clips - don't know - I'll mess with that some more
2) I had tied the ends of the rope together, and dragging both the rope and the coil up while clipping the backup knots was annoying until I hooked a stump, then it was impossible
3) I think the Grigri needs about 5 lb or so of weight at the bottom, and the small coil at the end of the 30 meter rope wasn't enough, and when I got to dragging the coil up between backup knot clips, it took all the tension out of the system, so manual feeding was just the icing on the cake, until I hooked the stump, then it fed great ;)

Anyway, I topped out just as the sun hit the face of the crag fully. I had left my shoes at the top in my pack, so I dropped the rope, changed out of my Acopa Aztec, my favorite shoe ever for outside climbing. I feel really good standing on small stuff and cracks alike. I am using a pair of TNF Hedgehog BOA that I've been using for my speed hiking training in Colorado. The BOA is awesome as it allows me to pop them on and off in a few seconds and I can crank the knob without stopping if I need it tighter in a gnarly section.

Anyway, I made it, had a great time, and the plan at the moment is to combine it with some running training a few times a week. We'll see how that goes. Also, I think I'm going to experiment with the Petzl Microcender next time. That might be pretty wild.

Monday April 19 Lead Rope Solo Draper Red Rock

2010-04-20T11:16:00.004-06:00

Took the kids out to the Draper Red Rock for a bit of family fun. DW wasn't with, so I decided to lead rope solo the 5.6 at the far left side. I haven't done it in a year, so felt a little rusty and figured "what could possibly go wrong?"

First of all, I only had a minimal set of trad gear, and unlike some of the low level climbs at American Fork Canyon, there are no bottom bolts (I should take gear up and fix that if I knew no one would chop it). So with only a 3" crack to work with, and a max 2" SLCD, I decided to just tie into the first hanger.

I climbed up solo to the first bolt, set a Screamer on two lockers tied to figure 8 with a tail that reached to the ground. I had a GriGri pre-rigged on the rope, and I did a tension test and was reasonably satisfied.

I worked my way up to the 2nd hanger, and had a little trouble with the GriGri locking up, so I pulled a bunch of slack up and let it fall over the rope so it wouldn't snag on me again. I clipped into the 2nd hanger, and up to the 3rd. Where I suddenly discovered I was a moron and had the rope fed backwards into the GriGri. I clipped my daisy chain to the quickdraw and settled back to hang while I straightened my mess out.

After getting it set right, it was even worse at hanging up and locking, so I pretty much soloed the rest. If I fell I would probably go about 15' or so, and this part of the rock is probably about 85 degrees - a little less than vertical. It would hurt a bit. From not climbing outside in a year, and not climbing in the gym in about 5 months (training for mountaineering ate up all my time) I was pretty wasted when I finally set my top anchor.

I switched to a Petzl Reverso 3 (I like the green one) for rappelling off the free side of the rope. I didn't have much friction, so I put a biner on my leg loop. I probably could have wrapped it a couple times too.

I cleaned my way down to the first hanger, where I discovered one of the sources of my snagging - the free loops I'd pulled up had gotten behind the Screamer, and were wedged in tight. I upclimbed a bit to free them, and then continued to the bottom to rest for a second. Awesome. I still had rope tied up at the Screamer, so I climbed up solo to it (it's only about 12' but in a crappy place to stand), clipped in, undid the rope, set up a full rappel (both sides of the rope in the Reverso), stowed the Screamer, then rapped down feeling much better with the friction of both ropes.

I then sent up my 6 and 9 year old boys on toprope for the next two hours while the 3 year old begged for a turn. I didn't bring her harness, so no go (she'd fall out of the boys harness as she's smaller than it is).

Oh, well, first time out and all, it was great practice in rope and gear management, and I think I won't be repeating these mistakes again.

Goal0 Adventure Video Contest Finalist

2009-12-16T20:22:00.001-07:00

Angie is a finalist with Goal0's video contest "What Powers Me?" with her "Extra-Ordinary Mom" video.

Take a look:

Click to see What Powers Me Video Contest.

Please vote by adding it to your Favorites (click the favorites button) and rating it (click the 5th star please).

Enjoy the video, and please help. Thanks.

Support Ovarian Cancer Research - Climb in Wasatch

2009-09-11T10:23:00.003-06:00

Sept 18 and 19, HERA Climb4Life fundraiser. Ovarian Cancer is an orphan cancer, with almost no money being poured into research, since unlike breast cancer, there is no profitable cut and dried series of treatments.

Angie will be climbing, Please support her in reaching her fundraising goal for this year.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Thanks.

Above is Angie on Problem 7 at the Citizen's Comp at Teva Mountain Games, 2009 in Vail Colorado

Top Rope Solo Thoughts - Part 1

2009-07-03T10:37:00.002-06:00

Weather in Utah has been crappy with daily rain in the eve, so I can barely mow the lawn, let alone go out climbing.

I had a great epic survival story on Liberty Ridge on Rainier last week, so I'm still in catchup mode - eating like a pig and not gaining weight (for a while anyway) and suffering as I get back into working out. Went to the chiropractor yesterday and getting a massage today - yay!

So I'm sitting around thinking about my techniques for toprope solos in the past. I normally tie off the top at the middle of the rope, with two strands hanging, and use one strand as my belay strand, and the other as my backup strand.

Experimenting in Alaska during my training program with Alaska Mountaineering School, I got to wondering if maybe I should just loop the rope through the anchor rig and tie off on my harness, so I am essentially belaying myself normally.

PRO: tied in, more rope in the system for more dynamic fall catching

CON: rope management, 2:1 disadvantage in pulling rope through the belay device, rope management

Additionally, I got to thinking about experimenting with a weight on the end of the belay side of the rope to keep it semi-tight for better BRD feeding - maybe I'll try that soon to see how I feel about that - of course, that would only work with the top tied off.

Well, more later. Maybe I'll get out sometime this week.

Tinker Toys Trad Rope Solo

2009-06-15T16:16:00.004-06:00

A break in the rain inspired me to hike Rock Canyon as a break from work, and try a trad lead rope solo.

The pack weighed a ton with all the trad gear. Well, actually only about 45 lb. I had issues before with my Edilrid Eddy being a bit "grabby" on the rope, and I ended up accidentally fixing it twice - more in a second.

I got to Tinker Toys in a record 15 minutes and had it all to myself. I quick set up an anchor at the bottom of "Tinker Toys" 5.6 trad crack on the far right side of the crag. Only about 35', it would be a good first trad solo lead.

Above shows the whole mess, from a 3" cam at the top (finally set a top anchor to hold all the gear pointing upright), to a .25 tricam at the bottom.

Top part - in the middle is a #6 nut slotted in really good (bottom) and a .5 tricam used as a chock (top).

And that's the .25 tricam at the bottom. The first time I pulled it multi-directional it popped, so I really yanked on it to set it. With the top SLCD it shouldn't pull.

I took all of 10 minutes to unpack, flake the rope and set the bomber anchor. Good timing. One of the main differences between pro and anchor is that pro only needs to hold a fall, normally in only one primary direction. An anchor must survive through a potential of multiple angles of force, and in addition, could (in a normal belay situation) be the one main point of failure that two or more lives depend on. In a rope solo situation, the bottom anchor must hold an upward pull during a fall, but must resist downward (gravity) and outward (climbing past initially) forces as well. So it's really important to be totally bomber, as your life probably depends on it holding just about anything that happens.

I tied into the locker near the SLCD and threaded my GriGri (fix number one) with my blue rope. It's a short (30 Meter) thin (9.8MM) rope I got off GearExpress. I climbed up about 5' and drop tested myself. It held. Good. BUT when I wiggled at all, it fed rope. Wild. I repeated it. And it did the same thing. I downclimbed and tried it a bunch of different ways on the ground. Same thing.

Two fixes to one problem, that caused another problem. GriGri's are not rated for rope under 10MM. 9.8MM is too small. It catches, but releases itself with any change in tension. I could be hanging and just bump the wall to unweight just a little bit, and it would feed rope. Drat.

So I packed up and headed for the car. Ran into two guys coming up looking for Tinker Toys, so I gave them beta, and they asked about setting a top rope, so I gave them some "advice" and continued down.

SO: future concepts - when I take the GriGri I take a 10.2MM rope (like the yellow or pink) and when I take the Eddy take the 9.8MM rope (blue). That should fix the problems. And get me climbing.

(P.S. - it wasn't worth risking a fall that may not catch - rope solo is about safely belaying yourself, not being macho)

Raining in Utah

2009-06-10T12:33:00.002-06:00

sucks!

Was going to go outside tonight to get my climb on.

Oh, well.

Swan Mountain Road - Toprope Crag

2009-06-09T13:11:00.002-06:00

Got into Keystone about 5PM and decided to head out quick to toprope solo the crag at Swan Mountain Road. Tossed on the backback at the trailhead and peeled out. Got to the Traverse Wall in 4 minutes (far out) and top of the little cliff at 12 minutes (with a small delay as someone with a lot of cheap beer was camping in the middle of the trail and I did a little scouting to make sure I wasn't crashing someone's hot tent session before I went down the trail. At the top I saw that the bolted anchors were in fact all gone but one. I tested the one remaining and it spun. I found a pulled-out hole from an old anchor right next to it (looked at my beta photos on Mountainproject.com to see what they used to look like).

I didn't see any suitable trustworthy anchoring options on top (that didn't require like 30' of rope to tie into and drape over the edge - for the most part it's loose microwave-size blocks up there). I went down to the bottom to check out the existing stuff and found some interesting future-worthy trad leads, but ran out of time so headed back to the condo by going down to the main campground road (closed for logging).

Wonder if I should call this blog "Thinking about rope solo while hiking" instead?

lol

Rock Canyon Hiking Scouting

2009-06-03T10:16:00.002-06:00

Tuesday afternoon I went up Rock Canyon to scout out some possible areas to solo on.

I went up to Tinker Toys but it was swarming with people (guess school's out now) and I didn't even get close to the wall.

I crossed the raging river (guess the snow's melting now) on the logs (which were dang slippery in running shoes) and checked out The Appendage (couple people loafing around on the bottom of the South Face - bouldering?) and got some great beta on a few I'll try this season.

Then I headed up toward The Wild. The sky got darker and darker. I got there and heard some loud obnoxious annoying screaming coming from The Zoo/Project areas (dang college kids - probably still in the subarus borrowed from their parents) but started looking for the bottom anchor placements on "Call of the Wild" when it started pouring.

I booked it down the trail, running with a 35lb pack - which wasn't so bad now that I'm down to 192 lb. (from my all-time high of 235 lb in 2006).

Oh, well, drat the weather and all. Maybe later...

Colorado Keystone Montezuma Swan Mountain

2009-06-01T16:05:00.002-06:00

whew! that's a mouthful. About the way Mountain Project lists it.

Anyway, was going to work on a toprope solo on the crag East of the Swan Mountain Traverse Wall, and found that the top anchors are all messed up - like someone chopped them or the block they were on took a dive heading for Lake Dillon.

Since I had the family with, we ended up going to the Traverse Wall and I set up some topropes and we played around. I did do a nice V0- problem topping out in a crack, and Dallin (8) followed right on my heels, and then Brennan (5) did with a bit of spotting and beta from Mom. Then finally Mom came up. Was pretty nice, and a ton of fun. More later if all goes well.

Rock Canyon - The WIld - Gazelle 5.5

2009-05-25T13:25:00.004-06:00

Mountain Project Route Description

Thunderstorms last night made the trail a bit damp, but it wasn't too bad on the rock. Got there about 11:00 and checked out the route for a good bottom pro placement. One of the keys of a safe Lead Rope Solo route is a bomber multi-directional bottom anchor.

When I was in Alaska with the Alaska Mountaineering School Advanced Mountaineering Course (a civilian version of the Guide Course) one of the instructors shared my love of Tri-Cams and helped me work on using them as part of a bomber anchor. So of course, I did use one.

I tested it and it held multi-directionally, though a tri-cam usually looks sketchy to the uninitiated. I also used a couple of SLCD's - a 1.5 and a 2.0, and used some webbing to equalize them. In the pic it looks sloppy because it's hanging down. I rarely use a directional piece above it to hold it "up" until I climb - dunno if that's style or technique.

I tied the rope off and piled the rest of it in my backpack at the base. I hooked in my Eddy (suitable with reservations), got a couple of draws, a couple of single-length extended draws, and headed for the top. I got to the first hanger, clipped it, then downclimbed to lock the Eddy and bounce-test the anchor. Great - held nicely. So up I went.

It's only about 25' and three draws before the chains, and as you hit the top you can go around the left side of the pillar and do the anchor there. I clipped in a daisy, but didn't really need to - it's pretty solid up there. Then I threaded the anchors, hooked in my Reverso3, and dropped the rope. I rapped down, and cleaned, then brought the rope down, piled it into my pack, reorganized my stuff (getting better at that) and made my "I survived" phone call to DW. I then talked a bit with the family working "Call of the Wild" 5.6 around the arete. A mom, dad, and handful of kids. Was really fun talking to them.

When they had arrived (just before I built my bottom anchor) they first asked "what do you use to belay yourself" I said "I could tell you but then I'd have to shoot you." Later when I talked to them, their 10 yr-old asked me to explain it again. I said "I could tell you in about 3 minutes, but it's something that takes a long time to learn. And if you don't do it right and go die, I'd feel really bad" and the dad said "Hence 'shoot you' - but only indirectly."

Pretty good day overall. My first lead solo of the year.

Summer is in the Air

2009-05-19T12:13:00.002-06:00

Rope Solo time of year is here.

Just got back from Alaska, which has been dominating my mind for the past two months. Getting ready, getting in shape, all that good stuff.

I had a ton of fun, took the Alaska Mountaineering School 12 day Advanced Mountaineering Course, which because all 6 of us averaged more on the "rock jock" side of things, ended up focused on Rock Climbing, rescue, self-rescue, anchor building in an Alpine environment, etc. In addition to a great ascent of North Troll via the South Fork of the North Couloir. Steep snow, up to 75 degrees crappy, mixed with rock. Slush pits in the late morning/afternoon. Tons of fun. While they were doing rock rescue I experimented with some self-belay and self-lowering scenarios, which the one instructor totally dug.

Anyway, I get home and the first thing I want to do is go outside and climb rock but first I have to get all my stuff together. Getting ready for Alaska I did the whole "two pile" thing - one pile for Alaska, the other one huge leaver pile. So now I have to put the Alaska stuff away, and sort the horrible mess of the leaver pile. So I found my car in the garage to make room for the in-law's car while I was gone, which is cool, no biggie, but it made the perfect "shelf" to sort my gear on the hood. So I had biners and draws and slings and pro all over on it, then nice and neat into boxes and almost into the pack.

Heading to the gym tonight for a bit of a workout, but I'll try to get outside in Utah sometime this week. I'll probably be in Colorado for the big holiday weekend, so I may get to do some toprope solo at the Swan Mountain crag like last time. There are a few routes there, but I think they're all toprope, which is cool enough solo - just simple rope management.

I'll see which one I get done first and get back to this blog with some pics and news. TTYL

Momentum Climbing - Rope Solo Discussion

2009-03-31T13:04:00.002-06:00

The other night I was at Momentum Climbing in Sandy Utah and ran into one of Angie's friends, D who got to talking about climbing at the Draper Red Rock, and how he had free soloed some of the routes there. I mentioned to him that I had rope soloed some of the routes there, and he was very interested.

He mentioned a few different tools and techniques, and I replied back intelligently, since he had proven that he had enough basic familiarity with the whole program. We decided to go out together sometime when enough snow has melted (in Utah along the Wasatch Front we've gotten a ton of snow in the past couple weeks, and the cliffs are buried to some extent - enough to make it unpleasant).

Normally when someone inquires:

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

lol, no seriously:

"It requires a level of rope management and technique that I'd be really nervous about sharing with anyone who hasn't demonstrated the commitment level to really make it work for themself. I'm not dissing you, I just don't want to be responsible for your death."

That's the standard response, I think.

Anyway, I'll see about posting old images and posts from my other blog, and when the weather clears up some, I'll see about going and doing a few warmup climbs, and see about getting D up. More later....