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
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
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
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