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General Climbing Discussion

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Descending off Multipitch? 5-Oct-2010 At 8:39:03 PM vwills

Message

On 18/09/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>In Australia there is very very little multi-pitch climbing that requires
>you to descend via abseil down the same face you climbed up. Almost all
>of our cliffs have an easy walking track descent down the back side. If
>you have to descend the cliff via abseil there is usually a set of absiel
>anchors that are shared with many climbs on the same cliff. Its bad form
>to absield down the same route you went up -
>
>Climbing with double ropes is very common for multi-pitch climbing and
>are not an advanced skill in my opinion. Both ropes are usually a smaller
>diameter (ie 8mm intsead of 11mm) so it isn't as heavy as you might imagine.
>The double ropes can be used to absiel a full 50m pitch. They also have
>other advantages. For example if one rope gets cut or damaged then you
>have a backup rope. Another option is to use one rope to haul up the daypack
>full of water/food/shoes and one rope to lead on.
>
>I strongly advise getting some in person tuition from a guide or experienced
>climber before putting any of this in to practice!

Does this sound familiar Neil: )....set off in rain, neglect to look at descent in guide, have only one rope, abseil in the dark, end up stuck 5m above belay tree, create potentially dodgy anchor, sacrifice bolt plate and biner, and stumble down path in dark.
Great times. Multipitching is easy on a wet day in the Wolgan. For booty hunters gear left around arete from Cactus