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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 4 of 6. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 100 | 101 to 113
Author
Solo Aiding a beginners intro
kieranl
13-Jul-2008
9:03:37 PM
On 13/07/2008 sliamese wrote:
>but i think we should try to fall in-line with most of the rest of the
>planet.
>
By which you mean the good old US of A.Yet another unique Australian idea consigned to the dustbin of slavish conformity.
There is such a thing as context. In an Australian context M means mechanical.
Those people who think that we have enough icy rocks to justify a grading system for it have spent too long in the bar waiting for things to freeze.
rod
15-Jul-2008
2:38:07 AM
Out of interest, has anyone living and contributing on chockstone tried the cinch in lieu the death modified grigri for ground up roped soloing? if so, care to offer a critique?

sliamese
15-Jul-2008
10:04:51 AM
"Americans don't climb at the current world standard in any range because they have no clue what that standard is."

this was said about american alpinists by Dr Doom. i think the same can be said about australia.

think of every big wall aid climbing area in the world, make that aid climbing area regardless of size, what grading system do they use?

IdratherbeclimbingM9
15-Jul-2008
11:41:01 AM
On 15/07/2008 sliamese wrote:
>think of every big wall aid climbing area in the world, make that aid
>climbing area regardless of size, what grading system do they use?

... often their own, and it does not take too much searching to find them. Incidentally many of them don't have the need to revise their grades* either, as a result of their becoming bunched up within the top end, as they are open grading systems and therefore don't suffer from that fate.
(*This does not detract from your valid point that grades for climbs change over time due technology, traffic beating them out etc).

Granted Yosemite was the crucible of big wall climbing, but that does not make their grading system the best. It suffers like the old English system, in having outgrown the concepts as far as they were envisioned back in early days; ... ~> witness their 'New Wave Aid Grades' revision. The pity is that they did not allow for the fact that it is likely to be required again in the future!
There have been previous discussions on this topic on Chockstone. When I have more time I shall put up some links to them on this thread.

I am not in favour of rewriting history. Re-interpreting it maybe, but not rewriting it. I also agree with kieranl about not junking a system that works, due to our exposure to being steamrolled by media from other cultures.
Hypothetical: 50 years from now China is at the forefront of climbing technology / cutting edge climbs. The calls will then be made to adopt the Chinese grading system!
Why not? ... they will have saturated our (USA based?), media technology by then anyway!!**
(**said with tongue not so firmly in cheek in the year 2008).
bl@ke
11-Mar-2010
8:27:16 PM
Ok here is a bit of a late question but anyway. When aid soloing there is no rope drag, so is it ok to not use quickdraws and just single krabs? This seems like a good idea as it could reduce weight, but a number 0 RP pops, the rope tightens and because i only have single krabs on my gear the rope tightening rips out some of my gear and a fall further. Likely to happen? should i carry a few quickdraws to extend pieces that could be poped out in the event of a fall?

Thanks
richardo
11-Mar-2010
8:40:00 PM
Dear blake

I hope you are going to the aidclimbing lovefest in March, as it may teach you common sense.

I really hope you survive until then.

Yours Sincerely

Oivand
simey
11-Mar-2010
8:52:48 PM
On 11/03/2010 richardo wrote:
>Dear blake
>
>I hope you are going to the aidclimbing lovefest in March, as it may teach
>you common sense.
>
>I really hope you survive until then.
>
>Yours Sincerely
>
>Oivand

I don't really understand why you are being critical of Blake, as his question is perfectly reasonable given the intricacy of what he is asking. I'm reluctant to give an answer because of the variables involved, but from my experience with solo-aiding I generally use a single karabiner (no quickdraw) on each piece.

bl@ke
11-Mar-2010
9:47:17 PM
Thanks simey

robertsonja
11-Mar-2010
9:59:31 PM
On 11/03/2010 bl@ke wrote:
>Ok here is a bit of a late question but anyway. When aid soloing there
>is no rope drag, so is it ok to not use quickdraws and just single krabs?
>This seems like a good idea as it could reduce weight, but a number 0 RP
>pops, the rope tightens and because i only have single krabs on my gear
>the rope tightening rips out some of my gear and a fall further. Likely
>to happen? should i carry a few quickdraws to extend pieces that could
>be poped out in the event of a fall?
>
>Thanks

Being in the field of consultancy, let me just say..... "well, it all depends".
richardo
11-Mar-2010
10:56:09 PM
Blake

I am perplexed as to why you are thanking simey. He was less helpful to your cause than my good self who suggested you go on an aid climbing weekender.

The internet is for dumb questions.

You asked intelligant questions.

Even simey found intelligent (or intricate)questions too hard to answer.

The answer to intelligant questions will be found through hands on experience and not the internet (as I suggested).

I apologise if I seem obtuse.
kieranl
11-Mar-2010
10:58:37 PM
Blake, you've understood the issues. Rope drag isn't really a problem but rope tension can rip gear during falls.
This is not such a problem on stretches where the placements are in a direct line but watch out for changes in rope direction. Extend before, during and after direction changes to lessen the odds of ripping a lot of gear. Especially be careful at the start of pitches if the anchors are not directly in the line of placements. The principles are no different to what you would apply if you had a belayer except that everything is less forgiving.
Be conservative when you start out and refine as you get more experience.
bl@ke
11-Mar-2010
11:10:26 PM
On 11/03/2010 richardo wrote:
>Blake
>
>I am perplexed as to why you are thanking simey. He was less helpful to
>your cause than my good self who suggested you go on an aid climbing weekender.
>
>
>The internet is for dumb questions.
>
>You asked intelligant questions.
>
>Even simey found intelligent (or intricate)questions too hard to answer.
>
>
>The answer to intelligant questions will be found through hands on experience
>and not the internet (as I suggested).
>
>I apologise if I seem obtuse.
>

Im goin to the aid weekend which should be rockin. i thanked simey because he gave some usfull info (even if it wasnt much) it still told me what he has done previously in the way of aid soloing which even if its not my own hands on experience its still someones hands on experience.

thaks to all contributions

sliamese
18-Mar-2010
8:35:31 AM
Always make sure u have sone extenders to get ropes away from sharp edges tho hey!!

Pat
13-Nov-2010
3:27:30 PM
Just resurrecting this thread to ask a couple of questions rather than continue the hijack I was starting on the destructo thread.

Post edit: does anyone have experience using the 'soloist' and 'solo aid' devices from rock exotica (formerly wren industries) I am trying to decide between gri gri and these two for solo aid.

Any thoughts from users.

ajfclark
13-Nov-2010
3:36:45 PM
On 13/11/2010 Pat wrote:
>Is the wren industries silent partner now the rock exotica silent partner?

I believe so. Everywhere I can find that stocks it says rock exotica:
http://www.backcountrygear.com/catalog/climbdetail.cfm/REX117
http://www.gearexpress.biz/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=0070
Fish Boy
14-Nov-2010
5:48:22 PM
Never used a soloist or solo aid, but if you already have a gri gri, just use that, unmodified. Most of the people in Yosemite use unmodded gri gri's. Unless you are freeing, there is no need. Just let it hang of your harness.

My mrs just gave me a silent partner and I can't wait to try it out...
Brendan
14-Nov-2010
6:44:40 PM
Yeah I wouldn't buy a solo belay device, gri gri works awesome for cleaning the pitch too no need to tie back up knots and works well cleaning gear on steep stuff you can do mini lower outs, save you money and buy offset nuts, offset cams and peckers instead
Fish Boy
14-Nov-2010
10:22:54 PM
Gri gri's suck when you have to pull a free move or three, they are junk on wet ropes and you need to be on top of back up knots/rebelay stuff etc to make them nice and not self feed. All pretty simple once you've got it sorted I suppose. You need to pay attention to the rope going over the brake lever, as a fall can hold it down and make you fall a long way.

If you are going to solo a bit and want something supersafe and redundant, the silent partner is the only device worth having it seems. You can put two biners in it, has silky smooth feeding and will catch falls in any orientation, something a gri gri wont do.

My half a dozen falls on a gri gri have been uneventful though, and they are cheaper than a silent partner by hundreds of dollars.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
15-Nov-2010
9:44:42 AM
On 14/11/2010 Brendan wrote:
>Yeah I wouldn't buy a solo belay device, gri gri works awesome for cleaning
>the pitch too no need to tie back up knots and works well cleaning gear
>on steep stuff you can do mini lower outs, save you money and buy offset
>nuts, offset cams and peckers instead

Re:
>no need to tie backup knots

Technically there is no need for b/u knots with a Silent Partner as well, but since the rope is the ultimate fall back safety device, then it is good practise to tie back up knots, because if all else fails then they limit the length of potential fall...
Certainly Wren Industries advocates in their accompanying safety literature with their devices to always use back up knots.

Pat wrote;
>Just resurrecting this thread to ask a couple of questions rather than continue the hijack I was starting on the destructo thread.

I replied to your question that you asked there.

>Post edit: does anyone have experience using the 'soloist' and 'solo aid' devices from rock exotica (formerly wren industries) I am trying to decide between gri gri and these two for solo aid.

>Any thoughts from users.

The criteria I used in deciding to get a SP after using other solo belay methods for a long while, was not based on the $ factor (offputting!), alone. It largely came down to how much soloing and what type of soloing I intended to do.
If the answer to those questions (for you), is "quite a lot", and "free as well as aid"; then the SP starts coming into its own good justification compared to its competition.

If I was only going to dabble in it and already had a grigri, then that is what I would stick with until I figured I needed more flexibility and had idle money for it...

One advantage I see in the grigri system is that it is much easier to abseil / backclean pitches with, than a SP.
The SP limits you to a very slow abseil (or it locks off), and depending on the climbing (especially overhangs), can be a little tricky to 'unlock' once locked-up, as you need to get enough bodyweight off it to allow it to 'free-up' again.

ajfclark
15-Nov-2010
10:27:35 AM
On 13/02/2007 dougal wrote:
>http://www.mountainz.co.nz/content/article/article.php?article=220406_ropesolo.php&direct=general

Anyone actually used this method?

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There are 113 messages in this topic.

 

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