Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author

toprope solo system


Miguel75

25-May-2012
7:24:07 AM

On 25/05/2012 pmonks wrote:
>Only just started playing this game myself, but that's not what I've been
>doing. Instead I set it up so the rope is fixed to the top anchors (it's
>tied off to the anchor, not running through carabiners). I also halve
>the rope so I effectively have two ropes hanging down the climb (so far
>I've only been top rope soloing climbs under 25m high - there's almost
>nothing taller than that around here anyway). I then stick one device
>(mini traxions) on each rope, tie the ropes to something heavy (e.g. my
>backpack), and up I go.
>
>I originally tried with a grigri on one rope and a mini-traxion on the
>other, but found the grigri a pain in the ar5e compared to the traxions,
>
>so now I just use two of those (yes, yes, I know I'm a hypocrit). I still
>have to take up a grigri though, in case I need to abseil off from halfway
>up (can't easily do that with a non-autolocking device like an ATC or whatever).
>
>I should also mention that I'm still getting used to the system so may
>refine it a bit, but so far I've been surprised how well it works - the
>mini traxions feed beautifully, provided there's a bit of weight on the
>bottom of the rope.

I use much the same 2 line system on shorter climbs, say sub 25 meters, and just a single line for longer climbs. I've found if I use too much weight on the end of the rope the grigri doesn't feed too well, though if I coil the excess rope and then hang one of my hiking boots off it I have the perfect amount of weight. The grigri usually glides freely up the rope, though there are times when it needs a bit of prompting. I back up the grigri with a ropeman Mk2 when on a single line and a minitraxion if using a second line...


Eduardo Slabofvic

25-May-2012
10:25:20 AM

On 25/05/2012 pmonks wrote:
>I set it up so the rope is fixed to the top anchors (it's
>tied off to the anchor, not running through carabiners). I also halve
>the rope so I effectively have two ropes hanging down the climb

This is what I do as well, except I put two separate anchors in for each "half". I do this mostly due to an over active imagination.

ademmert

25-May-2012
10:37:20 AM

I use a petzel micro ascender.
It works great and feeds easily, plus there are no teeth to shred the sheath!
Just every so often i stop and put a not in the rope. not usually an issue as i only do it on routes i'm working, so usually stopping a lot.


Nayda

25-May-2012
10:37:38 AM

lovely jubly, thanks chaps.


nmonteith

25-May-2012
12:25:23 PM

On 24/05/2012 Superstu wrote:
>Some hardcore dude suggested to me in yosemite to save time on walls (when
>there is no pig to haul) to tie the lead line off at belays, let the seconder
>start jugging, and start off leading the next pitch by self belaying using
>a grigri. Never got around to experimenting with it myself but it seemed
>way too simple! Not exactly sure how to get the rest of the rack up once
>the seconder arrives at the belay unless a second rope was in tow. But
>as long as the pitches are 5.9 or C1 i could see it shaving lots of time
>(assuming when your seconder gets jack of jugging everything and wants
>a lead they dont slow the boat!)

I've done this quite a few times - and found I could self belay aid almost an entire pitch (if it was easyish) before my second got to the belay on jumars! I did this on a one day ascent of Ozy where I led all the pitches and a 24 hr ascent of Lurking Fear at Yosemite. I just trailed a skinny tag line that I could use to haul up the extra rack. Obv this requires having a pretty hefty rack or running it out (walking two cams up parallel cracks is a good technique). It certainly massively sped us the process.

There are 25 messages in this topic.