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Forget it! Just realized you told us at the beginning what it was. Thanks!

That's a good question @lennmusicman. This technique is used when the object you are rappelling from has considerable friction that may hinder your ability to retrieve your rope, or when there is a constriction in or near the rappel anchor that might trap a rope when you pull it. In the example shown, a large boulder with a rough, uneven surface is used as a rap anchor. In this situation when you reach the bottom of the cliff it is often exceedingly difficult or impossible to pull your rope back around the boulder and down to you. Additionally, because you must pull half the length of your rope around the boulder (instead of only a few feet of a bite as with the technique shown) it greatly increases the chance that your rope becomes stuck in the constriction between the boulder and the surface it is resting on or between the boulder and an adjacent piece of terrain. In some cases, such as when you need the rope for another rappel and the cliff you have rapped is not featured enough for you to climb back up, getting your rope stuck above you can be very serious. Another time this technique is commonly used is when moving through complex alpine terrain, where there might be many short rappels along a descent and time is of greater importance due to the amount of terrain that must be covered. In these situations the Macrame/equivocation hitch provides a fast method to set-up a rappel without the need for either climber to untie from the rope or thread from the end. In situations where there is a clean rappel surface, such as a smooth barked tree, constrictions are not present, and time is not of great importance, then threading the rope around the object or using this technique will both work. It is good to be mindful of the ethics of the climbing area, since when using a standard rappel method around a bare tree the retrieval of the rope can damage the tree over time (30 or 35 meters of nylon dragging). Not much of an issue for one or two rappels, but if it is done frequently by many parties it might have a more significant impact.

Thanks for the positive feedback!

There are several ways to get the rope up, but most common is to choose cliffs that have walking access to the top. The second most common is to climb an adjacent route that is easier, and then walk or traverse to the anchors of the route you'd like to top-rope solo.

Thanks so much for the positive words!

Hi there @jasonbennett2194. The technique I am showing here is top-rope soloing, so the rope is secured to an anchor at the top of the climb so that the rope cannot move (I usually use a clove hitch or a bowline because they are easy to undo after they have been under load). Unlike top-rope climbing with a partner, the rope does not go up through an anchor and back down to the ground. Also, unlike lead rope soloing, the anchor is at the top of the climb and not at the base of the pitch. I hope this helps!

@@skillsforclimbing DUH! That was a quick google on my end apologies but you explain it very well! Thank you! :)

I'm also a fan of a bomber hex (Rockcentrics), and love my Tricams too. Those who don't like them, don't understand them. lol

Hi @umedina98! Unfortunately I'm not offering the course this year. I'll be guiding on Cholatse through November and will need to head home shortly thereafter. Thanks so much for checking!

Thanks for your reply! Amazing channel 🙌🏻

Great question @ssaw3008. Cross loading refers to a force being applied to a carabiner in two opposite directions, on opposite sides of the carabiner, in the narrow profile. For example if you are belaying and your belay carabiner turns side-ways while you are lowering your climber, then there will be a load on the gate pulling in one direction (from the belay loop), and a load on the spine of the carabiner in the other direction (from the belay device pulling on the spine). In this system there is only a force in one direction, which is on the spine side of the carabiner as the rope pulls the spine of the carabiner into the rings. Additionally, this force is remarkably small, since in a rappel it would be unusual to generate 2 kN of force due to the low load and the stretch of the rope. A note on cross-loading carabiners- the most common cases of cross-loading carabiners I see is when ascending a rope in aid climbing or rescue (the carabiner attached to the ascender or prusik rotates) or when rappelling and the carabiner that captures the rope rotates. In both of these cases the load on the carabiner is small- generally less than 2kN. Carabiners rated for rock climbing are rated in a cross loaded position to at least 7kN. That may not sound like much, but 7 to 8kN is generally considered lethal when applied to the human body (it can start to tear you in half). In other words, if you have forces in a rock climbing system that might cause a cross-loaded carabiner to fail, then you have got much more to worry about than the carabiner. If you are a professional rigger, and you are working with static ropes, steel cable, and loads that are much heavier than one or two human bodies, then cross loading is a very real concern. Often cross-loading is confused with pinching, levering, or nose-clipping of a carabiner in an immobile portion of a system (such as a carabiner getting levered inside a climbing bolt occupied with a fat quick link or a broad locking carabiner). This can be and has been the cause of carabiner failures, and should certainly be avoided.

This is an excellent observation! Thanks for the question! Ok, so let's assume the pitch is straight up-and-down (no traversing), and the rappel line will be no straighter than the climbing line. Let's also assume that the fall happened on a piece of gear that was more than 45m off the ground. Finally, let's assume that the base of the route is flat, without terrain to either side that is higher than other terrain (no hills, boulders, higher ledge systems, etc). In this scenario then you will need to use one of the solutions you mentioned (build a secondary anchor, use a make-shift pull-cord, fix the rope and rap, down lead, etc). 45m would be the magic number because this means you would have 15 meters of rope left over at the base of the pitch to lower the injured climber. At this point the injured climber would be exactly 30m off the deck when the rope comes tight to your harness, and you would counter-balance-climb 30 meters to get them on the ground. After constructing an anchor you would be able to rappel down with a 60m rope (just barely). If the pitch has traverses, the gear in the pitch causes the rope to weave a bit, if the base of the route is uneven and the injured climber can rest on higher ground, or if you can rappel and land on higher ground yourself then you may be able to save yourself construction of a second anchor, use of a pull-cord, or down climbing, but not always. Thankfully such a specific scenario is rare, and solutions are usually relatively simple. Thanks for watching and providing your thoughts!

Nope! You can just adjust the clove a bit as needed.

Nope. You need a guide-style plaquette device for this one.

Thanks @nikcezar2445!

Amazing to have a piece of history in your family!

Great question. First, this technique is dangerous as it is. There is a chance of injuring your ankles, elbows, etc. It is designed to be used in order to keep you from the even greater danger of sliding uncontrollably down a steep slope. If the snow is soft then microspikes will probably not increase your chance of injury while using this technique. If you are wearing microspikes because the snow is hard, and you use this technique, then there is a reasonable chance you will be injured. However, if you don't stop yourself in some way such as this, then there is an even greater chance that you will be injured to a greater extent in the subsequent slide. So for practice I would seek-out soft snow slopes with no avalanche danger, no overhead hazard, no hazards along the run-out, and would practice without microspikes. In real application I would do whatever I had to to stop a slip from becoming an uncontrollable fall. I hope this helps!

Hi @mjh42777! That's a great question. Personal anchors and other leash systems have some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to attaching to anchors. An advantage of leashes is that it is very clear who is attached to the anchor and who is not (the rope is all the same color with multiple legs coming off the clove hitches, so it takes some getting used to). Also, leashes don't require you to tie a clove hitch, so it is one less knot that you can mess-up (munter hitches/Italian hitches often result when a clove hitch is tied incorrectly, which can have large consequences if it is not recognized before the follower is taken off belay). Because of these significant safety drawbacks, I often recommend that those who are newer to multipitch climbing stick with using Personal Anchor Systems and other leashes until they have their multipitch systems dialed. Then they can focus on mastering the technique of using the rope for anchoring while on the ground before taking it up on the cliff. The advantages of using the rope to attach to anchors is in the comfort that it offers. This really adds-up over the course of a long multipitch, or if you have three people at a belay anchor as when climbing as a party of three. The reason it offers so much more comfort is because a clove-hitch allows you to introduce or take-up just about as much slack as you want. So if there is a good ledge six feet below the anchor, you can have one or both of your followers hang-out on that ledge while still anchored on the bolts/trad anchor above (you might be able to do something similar with a Personal Anchor, but it would require adding long slings to the anchor to provide the extension, which you may not have available if you need the slings for the next pitch or next anchor). If the lead climber anchors at the belay using the rope with a clove, they can have a seat beneath the anchor while belaying in order to rest their legs, even if the best seated position is well below the anchor. Once the leader leaves the belay to lead the next pitch, one of the followers can step into the stance the leader was using, and with a quick adjustment of the clove hitch they are comfortably anchored in the new position- even if that new position is ten feet away from where they were standing previously. Use of tethers (such as personal anchors) and the rope for anchoring both can result in rope management snafus. Mitigating these requires developing an understanding of how the followers will enter the belay station (from the left or right), how the lead rope(s) need to overlap the tethers/rope attachments of followers, and how the leader will depart the belay station while leading the next pitch (going left or right). For those who are still learning multipitch belay station management, and for experienced multipitch climbers who make the occasional mistake, a tether can be a useful tool for anchoring all team members while you work-out such a problem, which might be easiest to solve by untying team members after they have been anchored by their PAs (a common occurrence in big wall climbing). Additionally, tethers are almost always used on technical descents such as rappels, where it is efficient to rappel to the next rap anchor and clip directly into a pre-constructed quad that you have clipped to both bolts/rings. In other words, I think both PAs and the rope are great tools for multipitch anchoring, and I use them both in my personal climbing and when guiding. Mastering the use of both of these tools offers the advantages of comfort and security combined. Let me know if that answered your question!

@@skillsforclimbing thanks for the thorough response!

Thanks so much for the supportive comment!

This is a great question @jacqueslamintagne6890! In some countries a "slippery half-hitch" is used as the initial block that prevents the munter hitch from lowering. The slippery-half-hitch (or slippery-hitch for short) is similar to a mule-hitch, in that it can be pulled out and released under load. Like you mention, it is much easier to tie than a mule-hitch. The slippery hitch is then followed by a series of half-hitches to prevent the hitch from being accidentally pulled-out. In most cases this system works perfectly well- especially in the context of recreational climbing where the loads on anchors tend to be small (just the weight of one climber). However, there are a few specific scenarios when a slippery half-hitch might become difficult to release. If there is very little friction of the load strand running over rock, and you have a constant large force pulling on the locked-off munter, then the loop that the slippery-hitch is passed through can become very, very snug. This makes it exceptionally difficult to release the hitch while under load. This is sometimes the case when docking heavy haul-bags at anchors on multi-day big-walls, and it can also happen in rescue scenarios when you have a climber hanging in space after falling off a traverse above a roof for example. I have used both techniques for locking-off crevasse rescue systems (where a climber was lowered into a crevasse on a munter initially) and I found both lock-offs worked fine. The use of multiple half-hitches instead of a single overhand-on-a-bite to lock-off the remaining tail/loop is largely one of preference I think. Both work great. Perhaps the half-hitch series requires more rope and is a greater tripping hazard, but I can't think of any strong argument for or against either method.

Works for double-rope rappels too!

Thanks for the high praise @ellavateify! So happy the video helped you out!

At some point I would love to. Depending on the complexity of the scenario that would likely need to be a video series, as there are many sub-skills needed to enact a rescue. Having a good background in aid climbing is a big plus. But I can talk you through a simple scenario right here! In the simplest scenario you are on the first or second pitch of a climb, and your lead climber falls on a piece that is less than one full rope length from the ground. For example you are on the second pitch of a route, which is traversing to the right, and your lead climber falls. You check the topo and see that you are about 40 meters above the ground and you have a 60 meter rope. In this case you would counter-balance climb toward your climber and clean as you go, as demonstrated in the video, until your climber is on the ground (there's a good chance it will be an uncomfortable landing down there- could be bushes or even cactuses- so to keep the scenario at its simplest we will say whatever discomfort they experience upon reaching the ground is acceptable). Once the climber is on the ground they can then belay you. Continue to climb until you can construct an anchor. Attach the the anchor. Now have your partner untie from the rope, making sure there is no knot in the end. Now pull the free-end of the rope up to you. It's important there is no knot, because it will jam in gear that will remain on the pitch. Once you have the end of the rope then secure it to your anchor and do a single-strand rappel to the ground (40m on the 60m rope) or if time is not of the essence, or getting your gear is important for getting the rest of the way off of a feature, then set-up a rappel on your constructed anchor as normal. Do a rap that is at least 10 meters long, and then build another anchor with the gear you cleaned in order to reach the ground with a 30m rap. Retrieve your rope and get help.

Thanks for the positive feedback @AndrewDale1986!

Thanks much @zeldathwelder!

That's a great question @vickjou4544! Whether to use an equalized v-anchor or a quad is really a personal preference when it comes to good bolts. Both a quad and a V-anchor are plenty strong for the application. In trad climbing and alpine climbing there are times when you reach a ledge and your best anchor option is just two cams (either because you used gear in the pitch below, because there aren't many placement options, or because you are trying to move quickly and the terrain does not demand a three or four point anchor). If I were using two cams for my anchor instead of bolts, and the cams were not both unquestionably strong and in unquestionably strong rock, then I would prefer to use an equalized V-anchor rather than a quad. This is because if one of the placements failed it will take more of a shock-load with a quad than with a V-anchor. In the case of good bolts, it is highly unlikely that one leg of the anchor would fail (if it did it could be because you nose-clipped a carabiner, broke a carabiner by clipping through a point on the anchor that resulted in levering, or the bolt was not placed or tightened appropriately). The next bolt should then still be more than strong enough to handle a small shock-load with the dynamic rope. The two biggest reasons I like to use quads on bolts is 1) If you use a 240cm dyneema quad, and tripple-it before tying the knots (not just doubled), then it is extremely easy to untie- even after it has been under load for an entire day of top roping. No need to pass a carabiner into the knot to help it stay loose. I've used this for setting-up slack lines- which are under quite a bit of tension- and still had minimal difficulty untying the knot at the end of the day. The other reason is because I can pre-tie the quad, and when I reach a bolted anchor I can usually quickly clip it in without the need to make any adjustments. It is self-equalizing. On a multipitch route this is very handy, since I might be trying to stay out of another party's way, and this saves a bit of time. The large separate shelves also are nice when attaching multipitch climbers, since the movement of one climber on the anchor doesn't pull other climber around nearly as much as if they were attached to a V-anchor. But these are personal preferences, and are not more technical system and comfort related than safety.