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Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Author
Lowering off with a short rope

ajfclark
21-Jun-2016
1:32:24 PM
I was reading about a ground fall in Squamish: http://squamishclimbingmagazine.ca/local-news-two-ground-falls-one-week/ and it got me thinking: "If I do tie a knot in the end of the rope and it's short, how do I get the climber down?"

eg.



Sport climbing, so usually no one has any extra gear - maybe a couple of spare quick draws if you're lucky.

My initial thought was to start climbing the route until the climber is on the ground, get to a bolt and clip in the belayer there, get the leader to untie, pull the rope and then get lowered or abseil or something.

I also remember seeing in China a guy climbing the bottom of the route until the leader was "close enough" to the ground then letting the rope pop through and down climbing.

Thoughts and ideas?
gfdonc
21-Jun-2016
3:02:33 PM
1. Put a prussik on your end of the rope, above the belay device.
2. Clip a sling to it.
3. Stand in the sling and get your partner to bounce a bit to get some slack back. Lock off the belay device above the knot.
4. Untie the knot.
5. Now, get everyone else to assemble their bouldering pads below your mate.
6. Let go the belay device, shouting BELOW!!

E. Wells
21-Jun-2016
3:09:40 PM
Once I had a belayer climb to 2nd bolt so i could get to ground. Go in hard , pull and thread (rb) then i have lowered them. Only because i was already out from the wall. Otherwise i would obviously rethread.

Eduardo Slabofvic
21-Jun-2016
3:46:43 PM
Drop them, then go buy a longer rope
Dave_S
21-Jun-2016
4:06:19 PM
On 21/06/2016 gfdonc wrote:
>1. Put a prussik on your end of the rope, above the belay device.
>2. Clip a sling to it.
>3. Stand in the sling and get your partner to bounce a bit to get some
>slack back. Lock off the belay device above the knot.
>4. Untie the knot.

5. Attach a locking carabiner to the end of the rope, with a clove hitch, overhand loop or lig-8 loop.
6. Clip a cordelette to the carabiner and lock it.
7. Munter hitch the cordelette to your harness.
8. Lock off the munter and undo the belay device and the prusik.
9. Lower climber on the cordelette.

That'll give you an extra 6m if you have an open-ended cordelette, or 3m if tied in a loop.
Sandym
21-Jun-2016
5:53:58 PM
First climber either abseils on single strand or gets lowered on single strand. Second climber uses techniques the canyoners use for single strand rappels: http://dyeclan.com/outdoors101/canyoneering101/?page=rappelling-single-strand

Your initial and second thoughts both sound like recipes for disaster. In a pinch, you can extend the rope with a cordellette but you should be careful, very, very careful.
kieranl
21-Jun-2016
9:03:27 PM
On 21/06/2016 Sandym wrote:
>First climber either abseils on single strand or gets lowered on single
>strand. Second climber uses techniques the canyoners use for single strand
>rappels: http://dyeclan.com/outdoors101/canyoneering101/?page=rappelling-single-strand
>
>Your initial and second thoughts both sound like recipes for disaster.
> In a pinch, you can extend the rope with a cordellette but you should
>be careful, very, very careful.

I think you've missed the point. In this scenario the lead climber is already on the way down when the knot at the end of the rope jams in the belay device. If the route is beyond vertical the leader will be hanging in space and single-strand abseils aren't an option.
martym
21-Jun-2016
10:03:26 PM
If the climber is able to get to the wall - couldn't they clip into a bolt or piece of gear (or 3) untie & pull the rope to their level, lower off on the gear they have just placed - then figure out how to retrieve said gear?

If in space, and assuming you have slings, prussik, cordelette at hand - you could lock the rope off; extend it with as much stuff as possible, munter hitch or even body belay the last few meters? Sounds dodgy - but so does climb/belaying to the second bolt... Which is more risky? In the first instance climber falls, second instance the belayer...

I once had to use cordelette to extend an abseil on 60m double ropes - used a prussik to rethread the belay. Then I had the issue the knot was going to jam if I pulled the rope, so ended up hand over hand up to untie the cord anyway.. Lucky it wasn't in space.
Jayford4321
22-Jun-2016
9:38:01 AM
Topout or 4ll off earlier.

IronCheff
22-Jun-2016
10:45:03 AM
I've been wondering about this myself. Assuming this is a sports climb where lowering off is common and over hanging so climber cannot reach to the climb. Seems there is no one easy solution that always fits.

Extending the rope with a cordellette (which a sports climber is unlikely to have) or 2nd rope (own or borrowed from another climbing party) is only going to gain a few metres as the joining knot will stop when it gets to the first draw.

Having the belayer climb part way up seems to be the most practical solution. Hopefully they can reach their climbing shoes and capable of doing the climb, they will have assistance from the counter weight, can pull on draws and boink to get past sections they can't do.

Climber prussiking up is possible, slow, tiring and a sports climber is not likely to be carrying prussiks.

Climber boinking all the way back up, most people probably not capable of doing it for more than 10 metres.

With assistance from another climbing party if someone can reach the anchor by climbing same or neighbouring climb or walking around the back they could lower another rope. Climber could rap or be lowered off it.
daave
26-Jun-2016
7:46:06 AM
This happened to me the other day on Returnity at Porters. Had forgotten I'd chopped my rope a few times as I was lowering off from the anchors. It's slightly overhanging so I was hanging in space. About 2/3 down, well away from the wall, I realised I wasn't going to make it to the ground.

I tried to swing in so I could grab the rope, get to a draw, go in hard, pull rope and rethread, but I couldn't make it far enough.

I had to boink up the rope back up to the anchors so I could lower down again, keeping in contact with the rope. When I got to about half way, I rethreaded from a single bolt and I then made it down easily.

This worked well, but would be a pain if there was a heap of rope drag.

miguel75
26-Jun-2016
11:13:58 AM
I guess my suggestion will depend on how short the rope may be, and how close to the deck the climber ends up though wouldn't it be easier/safer for the belayer to lock the climber off (mule overhand(?)) climber to then boink/prussick/ascend back to anchors, clip in hard, pull and thread rope and rap down?

IdratherbeclimbingM9
26-Jun-2016
3:39:05 PM
I mostly climb on doubles so it's never been a problem for me...

It surprises me in this day and age that the technosavvy bolt climbers don't know what route length they are on.
Given that I've seen some using dual chalk bags, I reckon they'd be better off carrying prusiks instead!
Heh, heh, heh.
martym
27-Jun-2016
5:46:47 PM
On 26/06/2016 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>Given that I've seen some using dual chalk bags,
>Heh, heh, heh.

Really? More than once?

JamesMc
27-Jun-2016
6:54:42 PM
Belayer climbs until leader is on the ground. Belayer clips into a bolt. Belayer pulls the rope and sets up an abseil from the bolt. Repeat the route with more rope.

There are 15 messages in this topic.

 

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