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why did you remove the rubber stopper on the rope side?

I really like Scarpa because my feet are wide and La Sportiva always tend to be on the narrow side but it looks like Scarpa's manufacturer processes are very slow and they have a lot of issues to restock. Therefore, for my first 8000m mountain Manaslu I chose La Sportiva Olympus Mons and I didn't regret my decision, they were very comfy and warm all the way up to the top! Never felt any cold how excellent their isolation is. As my Scarpa Zodiac Plus already wore out I was also looking for the new approach shoe and I picked up La Sportiva Aequilibrium ST GTX and they are awesome too , not only as an approach shoe but for long distance hiking too and in European Alps you can use them for the mid-level climbing as well. So from Scarpa I was left with Ribelle Tech 3.0 HD only with which I climbed Mont Blanc but when using them in Bolivian Andes , they already didn't perform well and my feet were cold so I will now be more La Sportiva guy.

Hello! How should I get into mountaineering around here in the PNW?

What are your thoughts on the radicals being the only touring boot in someone's boot quiver? If you didn't have the carbon blacklights, would you feel comfortable with the radical pros driving your helios and your other skis as your one dedicated touring boot? Do you find it to be too stiff and heavy for longer, bigger days, and you need the blacklights in your boot quiver? Thanks!

A locker left intentionally unlocked may lock itself due to vibrations ;)

Doesn’t Totems somewhat replace the need for offset cams?

I like the Ocun Weebee Bigwall. Good for organization of gear trad climbing. Not too big and heavy.

Looks super fun!

Really great video. Thx! I have a buddy who just automatically uses 2x quickdraws, simply because that is what he was learned once and it is easy (he likes easy, while I am definitely more on the paranoid side 😅). Now I have a bit more understanding about when it is a bomber anchor and when something else might be the better choice, we can talk about it and both learn.

@7:05 You say "this isn't opposite and opposed" but, based on your later description of what opposite and opposed is, those two carabiners *are* opposite and opposed, right? (Notice that if you keep the rope clipped in to the two lower carabiners, and swap the two top carabiners between the two anchor bolts, you'll be in the correct "gates out" configuration.) I guess we could say that, under tension, the dogbones move the carabiners out of the "opposite and opposed" orientation --- with "gates in" rotating them out of orientation in a less safe way, and "gates out" rotating them out of orientation in a safer way. Maybe there's a better way to describe how to orient carabiners than "opposite and opposed" --- like, "gates down and out" or something. Or maybe it's not a big enough problem to worry about.

The fact about buying 2nd hand boots of the higher level is that people go to the mountains on holiday.. buy a decent pair of higher level boots, use them on holiday then go home and put them in a cupboard.. years later list on ebay and you buy a pair of heavy boots for a 1/6th of the price! There's deals out there! Definitely worth looking for!

another UK chime in here: taught @ UK indoor walls: re-traced fig8 with a half double fisherman's as a "stopper" & a 4 finger / 100mm tail. {tied! well! please!} ------- an awfully loosely tied figure of 8 (that the belayer has not called out) with a badly tied stopper, will have enough tail that, the atrocious knot will have more time to cinch down & 'lock' at the point of loading preventing calamity. (this is no justification for a shoddy tie-in) ------- there is an excellent vid by a UK Mountain Guide who outlines a scenario where a Half Double Fisherman's is truly a _"stopper"_ (and subsequently i stopped calling it a "tail tidy") not sure if i can link a Uchoob URL here? ----- ignoring my personal preferences for a consistently well dressed fig8 with a half double fisherman's as a stopper... Bowlines, Yosemite Finish, Competition Knot etc all valid! please make em neat & cinched + buddy check before leaving the ground. :-j p.s. & yup, have personally vocalised the 'not happy' buddy check a few times indoors.

So the one question I have in this configuration of two twin/half ropes is, how do you configure the rappel? I assume you just tie the two ropes together with two flat overhands and rappel off the joined ends of the two ropes near the knot. Is that correct? And how is that safe if neither of the ropes are rated as single and you are rappelling on a single strand?

Scarpa 👌 for ever even if they are more expensive

Thanks, Great content and as usual a great video🧗

Keep the videos coming!

Hi, I did the same modification. It was so easy and is such an upgrade to the boot. is this the Intuition Tour Tongue Dual Density liner you have in the boost? Which thickness did you choose?

Here is some useful beta to elevate your multipitch game. Toss a micro trax on one bolt and link your two bolts together with a draw or two cloves. If someone gives me a TR belay when I'm following them that's the last pitch I will ever follow them on, lol

Quads are gimmicks. You don't need locking carabiners in TR settups. Ever. Anyone who tells you differently is a gumbie. Two quickdraws are fine unless you want to extend it over an edge or something.

Thank you so much Ryan. Awesome video ❤

I recently changed my TR quad anchor to have one bulletproof screwgate (just the smaller D shaped) and one bulletproof non-locker. Mitigates the issue with a 2nd leader, and makes it much more visibly obvious which to try to clip. I also have bulletproof quickdraws, and I put a locker on the rope end of one and a slider locker on the bolt end of the same one, and I'll pair that with a non-locking bulletproof quickdraw for a basic 2-quickdraw anchor. Both options are more secure than 2 non lockers and I feel better about putting either up for groups to TR, especially if the route wanders at all.

Happened to climb a single pitch route at a busy crag this season where another party left a fat quad on the anchor. I've climbed the route before and the clipping stance isn't the comfiest so I was not about to deal with the faff of messing around with it. I simply grabbed a draw and clipped where there was space on the anchor.

Our climbing gym in the UK does have lockers at the top but generally you only lock them if someone is going to second your lead after you've lowered down

Keep them coming Ryan I enjoy your videos a lot. I'm always thinking about safety . I bought some gate bumpers to keep from cross loading screw gates witch I thought was a great idea.

Hey Ryan, what about the pretty common option like just locker plus quickdraw?

I always interpreted it as opposite meaning the gates face different ways, opposed meaning they face outward, i.e. gates away from each other. I would say the main reason is not so much that something (like the rock) is accidentally going to open the gates allowing the rope to 'fall out', but rather that a flick of the rope causing a bight or a climber going slightly above the anchor can result in the rope unclipping itself, in a similar way as back-clipping the quickdraw can. If that happens with the gates opposite but not opposed, it very likely unclips both.

Good video! Merry Christmas and happy New Year Ryan!

One situation where locking carabiners could be critical at the anchor: the route wanders and lower quickdraws are left in as directionals to mitigate pendulum potential for a top rope follower. If the follower gets into a rhythm of unclipping from directionals on their way up, they might proceed to unclip form an anchor consisting of the same quickdraws. People I know have firsthand experience with this.

You're using magnetrons for top roping??? ToT

I've been climbing for 6 years, just finished taking my SPI and this is the first time I've seen someone define what "opposite and opposed" actually means... Thanks for taking the time to raise climbing safety awareness.

Cheers Ryan. I remember my very first time heading out sport climbing with a mate and we were planning out anchors out on some practice bolts near the car park. I had the quick draws incorrectly opposed (facing together) and a climber that was just packing up nearby noticed, came over, and demonstrated the correct opposite and opposed orientation, easy mistake to make and even though it probably would have been fine it was great that he took it upon himself to teach us.

I learned the ATC belay method first during my MP course (Netherlands). Double ropes are part of the curriculum so it just makes sense. GriGri was an add-on at the end as a "if you want to use it, this is how".

you could also try Zamberlan or Aku or Gronell

the oldtimey car in the background was cool

That would have been easier than doing the custom install of Booster straps that I did...

Thanks for great video and tips 👍

Why do you have to choose (for teaching)? I’m an indoor climbing instructor and was trained in a German 2,5 day trad & multi pitch course (for normal students with outdoor experience) how to use ATC guide mode, Grigri and Munter hitch to bring up the second. It was fun, didn’t took a lot of time and no student had difficulties. 😊 Is this only possible, if the instructor and students are better than average?

Ease and safety of lowering is probably the biggest difference. Could you list pros and cons on a pinned comment?

I teach for a major guide certification organization, and have found over the past few years my students are coming out of the gym environment, having a better understanding of the working of a GriGri. Personally, started using the EDELRID GigaJul Belay Device. I really like having a second brake assisted device, that you can rappel a double rope with. I normally do not teach ATC guide mode because of the extreme danger in lowering a person, a lot more complicated than a GriGri.

Frankly, unless you’re also teaching people knot block/tag line rappels, you should teach the ATC guide first, because getting down safely is more important than going up, and you don’t always have a walk off. I prefer to use a grigri most of the time, but I have a separate ATC guide and locker that lives with each harness I own full time because they are cheap and able to do everything well with minimum equipment. I almost exclusively use sterling 9.8mm ropes and use a bd ATC guide. Having used a reverso, I’m pretty sure I would want a skinnier rope or a different device if I had a 9.8 and a reverso, so I definitely agree with the comments about matching the rope to the device.

Nice

I came up before the Grigio. Just getting back to climbing the last year and took a lot of time to get comfortable with Grigri. Feel like the act first is a good thing having that dependence on the brake hand really built in.

I learned multi-pitch at the end of a trad course with an SPI guide in Ontario. We used the gri-gri off the anchor. I think the reason for this was that lowering was easier, our rope was thicker, and it fed naturally into hauling and rescue systems. Interestingly, we were taught to use ATCs for trad lead belaying, with the understanding that it reduced forces on the crappy limestone. I switched to a gri-gri for belaying in general after the course --- it felt safer to reduce the chance of dropping someone and I wasn't climbing such sketchy routes that I thought the marginal force differences would change whether a piece held or not. I live in BC now, and use a gri-gri for top and bottom belays. I still use thicker (9.4) ropes so it just feeds better. Folks are more familiar with a gri-gri too.

I learned on an ATC, but my friends and I all use grigris for 2 man teams.

ATCg first to establish base line knowledge then gri-gri. It's like learning to shoot wit iron sights before optics or using a map and compass before jumping to GPS and apps.

Overlapping audio at 8:40 threw me for a loop lol but great vid and thoughts!

You can fix the looseness with any double boots using J-Bars.

As a working SPI I focus on teaching clients how to top belay with whatever compatible device they own, which is almost always a Grigri. It's nice that you can lower someone with the Grigri without jumping through the hoops required to lower with an ATCg, and you can teach them the 3:1 or 3:1+1 haul as a neat self rescue tool. I also make a point to inform my students that when getting into bigger multipitch climbs an ATCg becomes a much more useful, if not requisite, tool for the day. I work in Kentucky and Ontario, Canada so Ryan is absolutely right that I have different preferences than I would if I were working on the west side of the USA. Only thing I really disagree with is the idea that learning how to belay with an ATC first is somehow safer or "builds better habits". It's like saying learning how to climb without a rope first is better, because it makes you fall less. Removing a margin of safety doesn't automatically force people to perform better. Devices don't make good belayers, good instructors do.

Very broadly speaking, from an engineering standpoint, the elegance, simplicity, and versatility of the atc is hard to overstate. The grigri, while a wonderful and welcome invention, is essentially a niche device. And once you get into the realms of multipitch, multiple ropes and ice the grigri is simply not needed.

fear a guy who practice 1000 times the same kick rather of the guy who knows 1000 differents kicks