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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 2 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 36
Author
Quick Q Re: Solo TR
One Day Hero
10-Jun-2016
4:45:41 PM
On 9/06/2016 surfziggy wrote:
>Advantages over a Grigri (as backup) look to be that it moves with you,
>and takes some of the force out of the fall.

Asap doesn't shock absorb, petzl specify using a shock absorber with it (they assume you'll be on static rope). The only point of an asap (rather than any other device) is that it follows you up and down the rope, then locks off when you fall.

>Disadvantages seem to be the price (350$?) and the fact that you still
>need to put something else on the rope to descend?

You always need to put something else on the rope to descend, unless you spend half your climb sucking rope through a grigri (which would be retarded)
One Day Hero
10-Jun-2016
4:52:56 PM
On 9/06/2016 surfziggy wrote:
>I'm not telling anyone how to do it, just explaining the system I use
>and have used for several years.

You kinda did though. There is very little disadvantage to having a second device on the other half of the rope (who topropes stuff longer than 35m anyway?). The main advantage of a second (preferably different) device is that you are less likely to smash yourself via a systematic fuch-up. A common example is forgetting to unlatch the cam on the mini-trax.

>It's also the same system I know has been
>used by a full time climbing friend for 20+ years without incident.

Mini-trax didn't exist in 1996......so this claim is not 100% free of bullshit.
prb
10-Jun-2016
5:15:37 PM
On 10/06/2016 One Day Hero wrote:
>who topropes stuff longer than 35m anyway?

Col Reece toproped Machiavelli (120m) at Moonarie, I've toproped a variant of Orion. Machiavelli would be quite a toprope though.

ChuckNorris
10-Jun-2016
6:04:57 PM
On 10/06/2016 prb wrote:

>Col Reece toproped Machiavelli (120m) at Moonarie

I am reliably informed that it was an old sailing rope that had the incentivising feature that you could see the rope threads break and fizz up the rope under tension when the jumar bit into the rope.

Zarb
10-Jun-2016
6:32:24 PM
I tried the Basic + Micro Trax on a single static today, worked super well. For top roping it was much nicer than a Silent Partner. I get what you mean about crossloading though, the chest harness setup put the biner in a crossloaded position every time I fell. I may get two of those funky BD carabiners to stop it happening.

As for the bag at the bottom making it hard to abseil back down, it was a little bit slow but still manageable. I solved it by hoisting the bag after the climb using the rope, and manouvering it on top of a larger rock to give me more slack.
widewetandslippery
10-Jun-2016
7:12:57 PM
The gibbs ascender and its rip offs work really well. The asap is an expensive pos imoh. 1 or 2 ropes i think really depends tm what and where you are. Without being a rope access wanker like odh, i agree if 2 ropes befuddles you you should get your act together better, even if you choose to use a single rope.

deadbudgy
10-Jun-2016
7:57:53 PM
At this point though, I am saving my cash for a Revo!
kieranl
10-Jun-2016
10:03:18 PM
I like m75s reason for using two ropes or solo TR, something like : "I'm afraid of dying.My wife says she'll kill me if I don't use two ropes."

Eduardo Slabofvic
10-Jun-2016
11:00:06 PM
On 10/06/2016 kieranl wrote:
>I like m75s reason for using two ropes or solo TR, something like : "I'm
>afraid of dying.My wife says she'll kill me if I don't use two ropes."

I use two ropes because I have a vivid imagination. I use two anchors because I'm paranoid. I'm still alive, so clearly it works.

Miguel75
11-Jun-2016
10:22:06 PM
On 9/06/2016 Zarb wrote:
>I have a quick question about solo top roping, it probably has a simple
>answer that I am missing.
>
>How can you descent the line that you just used, if it's weighed from
>the bottom (to allow smooth travel of your solo devices during the ascent)?
>Arent you effectively giving yourself a firemans belay?

I usually just hang one of my shoes off the end of the rope. You don't need too much weight on it, especially with a minitraxion/microcender. I usually use a doubled over rope with a minitrax on one line and a microcender/rope man 2 on the other. When j get to the top I usually chuck a Grigri 2 on and rip off, unless I forgot the Grigri and then i use a munter.

And I still fear my wife more than gravity;)
robbio
13-Jun-2016
11:01:15 PM
Back in the day when i used to top rope solo i used two separate ropes for redundancy.

On my main rope, I used a petzl microscender which works very well in my opinion. The device was attached to donut on my harness via a steel mallion, which had abit of elastaplast tape wrapped round it in order to prevent it from crossloading. This main rope was also my abseil line.

The backup rope, had alpine butterfly knots tied into it every 4m or so. When i climbed to the first knot, i would attach one end of a quickdraw to the knot, and the other end to the donut of my harness. When i reached the second knot, i would do the same with a second quickdraw. When i reached the third knot, i would unclip the first quickdraw from the first knot, and clip it into the 3rd knot, and so on... By doing this, i was always clipped into a knot no further than 4m below me, which was good enough for my piece of mind given it was just the backup rope anyways.

Yes it was tedious, and yes i would get more pumped phaffing about with quickdraws, but the purpose of tope rope soloing for me was to build climbing endurance, which it certainly helped to do.

It was tempting to use just one line, making the whole setup quicker, easier, and the climbing more enjoyable, but for the sake of safety, i opted to phaf about with quickdraws and knots.

- my two cents.
surfziggy
14-Jun-2016
2:59:04 PM
On 9/06/2016 surfziggy wrote:
>I'm not telling anyone how to do it, just explaining the system I use
>and have used for several years.

>You kinda did though. There is very little disadvantage to having a second device on the other half of >the rope (who topropes stuff longer than 35m anyway?). The main advantage of a second (preferably >different) device is that you are less likely to smash yourself via a systematic fuch-up. A common >example is forgetting to unlatch the cam on the mini-trax.

Did I feck. And if you can't remember to engage the cam, you're in the wrong game.

>It's also the same system I know has been
>used by a full time climbing friend for 20+ years without incident.


>Mini-trax didn't exist in 1996......so this claim is not 100% free of bullshit.

With shunt and then mini-t. So stick that in your crack pipe. WHich you are obvs smoking

Regarding pulling slack through the grigri, As you pretty much stated typically most people shunt 15-20m ropes. How long does that take, really?!?!?

Seems like you're just got the hump because somebody ain't doing it the same way as you.
One Day Hero
14-Jun-2016
6:48:59 PM
On 14/06/2016 surfziggy wrote:
>Did I feck.
Also, earlier
>But in the end single static line, mini traxion, and grigri to descend is easiest. Despite what people say it's safer due to simplicity of the system and less tangle of ropes.

Hmmmm

>And if you can't remember to engage the cam, you're in the
>wrong game.

You don't see the cam at all, very easy to miss. This is a serious hazard and a lot of people remove the little tooth which allows the cam to be locked back.

>Seems like you're just got the hump because somebody ain't doing it the
>same way as you.

There's a better way than your way. I used to do it your way, then realised that it was dumb.
surfziggy
21-Jun-2016
2:26:56 PM
>You don't see the cam at all, very easy to miss. This is a serious hazard and a lot of people remove the little tooth which allows the cam to be locked back.

I use an unmodified one - it's dumb to mod climbing gear IMHO. And if you sit on the device before heading off you can check it's engaged. It also takes the slack out of the rope before climbing and stops you breaking ankles if the crux is low down.
capt_planit
5-Aug-2016
11:42:19 AM
I gave up on the chest harness and just use my harness (harder to cross-load?). I also use two large krabs, one for my abseil device one for the camp lift ascender, this makes switching easy. The camp lift definitely prevents ankle injury. I had a hold pop this week (what I do should probably be described as TR-bouldering) and I wound up 35 cm above a very pointy rock. This with the failed hold (I was laybacking) little more than 1.5 m off the deck. I have a prussik on the other line (both dynamic, no static). I mainly use the prussik to unweight the main line to switch to abseil mode but I suppose it is also a backup of last resort. I either use the rope (coiled up) or stuff sack with some webbing/water bottle for weight. Rope protection over the edge is definitely a good idea (that I always seem to fail at). Cheap setup and great fun.
RNM
5-Aug-2016
9:32:45 PM
I use one of these: http://www.grandwallequipment.ca/products/hauling_gear/u_ascend.html

Old one I have was made by Brasovia. No teeth, slides really really well, hasn't failed yet...

Really popular in Squamish.

I don't use a back up device with it, but I will tie a knot in the rope (a few meters off the ground) if I know I will be falling a lot or if the route will have me climbing on weird angles (overhangs etc).

Cheers,

Mike

 Page 2 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 36
There are 36 messages in this topic.

 

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