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Crag & Route Beta

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Author

Tiptoe ridge


Groveller

1-Oct-2012
6:51:16 AM

Going to Arapiles tomorrow with my 3 kids, leaving the wife at home to have coffee with friends, work, study and generally spend money. Hopefully will return home sane with no injuries. Threatened them all to put them on the train home if they fight.Only have one rope and plan to climb Tiptoe ridge as main adventure. Could I get away with throwing the rope down every time someone gets to the next belay point? Eg. No overhangs?

widewetandslippery

1-Oct-2012
7:28:44 AM

Certainly. The world is an over populated place

egosan

1-Oct-2012
7:49:19 AM

Terrible idea. Not only would tossing the rope around be funny after it has knotted itself around a few chickenheads, with a little wind you won't be able to enjoy the jokes because you won't be able to hear your kids tell them.


Superstu

1-Oct-2012
8:07:18 AM

Donations to the Arapiles Rescue Group gratefully accepted.

simey

1-Oct-2012
8:10:35 AM

I think it would be a nightmare. How old are your kids and how well do they climb? I would stick to single pitch routes, or if you really want to multi-pitch then check out some of the easier two pitch routes at Mitre Rock.

patto

1-Oct-2012
9:28:08 AM

Oh dear!

The best way to bring up a party of 4 is normally with three ropes.

You can hook all three up in a chain and belay all three at the same time IF you know what you are doing. Loops in the main line can keep the kiddies above from being pulled off when the bottom ones falls. But by your comment it does seem like you DON'T know what you are doing.

Not only is trying to throw down a line to your party below not going to work. But leaving kids (or any novice) to tie themselves in halfway up a multipitch is irresponsible.

Stick to single pitching, multiple ropes, or one kid at a time.


Sabu

1-Oct-2012
10:26:15 AM

On 1/10/2012 Groveller wrote:
>Could I get away with throwing the rope down every
>time someone gets to the next belay point? Eg. No overhangs?

No. As others have suggested not only would the rope get tangled on the way down every single time but leaving beginner climbers to untie and retie in on a multipitch route without supervision is a bad idea.

You've said recently that you're fairly new to climbing so also ask yourself how confident are you with placing gear, equalising anchors, and doing so while guiding beginners up long routes? Do you know what to do if something goes wrong? All this needs to be considered if you'e taking people less experienced than yourself.

There are heaps of great single pitch routes that you could climb or even setup a toprope on so there is no need to complicate things just yet!


Eduardo Slabofvic

1-Oct-2012
10:39:38 AM

Tie all of them into the rope at once, leave about 3 or 4 metres between each one, and climb roped together. Put the most competent one last. That should be good for a laugh

Wendy

1-Oct-2012
1:02:27 PM

I don't know that it needs to be said again, but it's absolutely not going to work! Have a look at the topo for tiptoeridge and contemplate it for a moment. Quite aside from leaving your kids stuck on a belay mid cliff, transfering from belays to ropes and maintaining their own safety.

With only one rope and 4 people, you are stuck toproping. Even the 2 pitch routes on Mitre, a single rope is only long enough for two followers. Fortuneatly, the sunny side of bushrangers bluff is in a great location high up on the crag, with good views and an abundence of fun easy routes. Do you have a set up rope? I'm not sure you're going to get far without that either. Unless you want to do a lot of traipsing up and down the descent route to check the kids then up again to belay.

rolsen1

1-Oct-2012
2:28:25 PM

Second Wendy's suggestion of the back wall of Bushranger's, although the guides have brought large groups when I've been there before. Climbing up to the cave at the front is also good and very easy (grade 1?). Sunny Gully? (at the front) at Dec crag is a nice grade 3 if they are little, there are also some good ones at Mitre.

When I top rope with the kids, I often set the top rope half way up the climb if the climb has an easy finish slabby finish. That way they get the satisfaction of reaching the "top" while still being able to lower them safely and easily.

Have fun.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

1-Oct-2012
4:11:32 PM

On 1/10/2012 widewetandslippery wrote:
>Certainly. The world is an over populated place

My sense of humour must be bent, as I laughed out aloud at that.

On 1/10/2012 rolsen1 wrote:
>When I top rope with the kids, I often set the top rope half way up the climb if the climb has an easy finish slabby finish. That way they get the satisfaction of reaching the "top" while still being able to lower them safely and easily.

You leave them to top-out by themselves then downclimb to re-attach and be lowered?

patto

1-Oct-2012
4:36:18 PM

It is times like this that I hate that you can't take life insurance out against unrelated parties.

PDRM

1-Oct-2012
4:43:02 PM

On 1/10/2012 patto wrote:
>It is times like this that I hate that you can't take life insurance out
>against unrelated parties.

and that's exactly how Goldman Sachs made money out of the US mortgage collapse, while their clients lost


Groveller

1-Oct-2012
7:19:01 PM

Hi .everyone, at least I sought advice. One of my kids can lead climb grade 18, next one can climb well and the other is a beginner. I'm surprised the department of health isn't on my doorstep for child abuse according to some of you guys. Anyway will probably avoid tiptoe ridge and do some really easy stuff. Off to Araps in the morning!


shortman

1-Oct-2012
7:22:22 PM

Wendy

2-Oct-2012
7:09:29 AM

I think you guys should go shopping at Phil's as soon as you get here! It sounds like the lack of equipment is going to be your most limiting factor. Throwing ropes down doesn't work on lots of routes because they wander around, belay aren't directly above each other, are broken by ledges or even are too steep! There are safe and efficient ways of trailing a large group up a multipitch and you'd probably benefit from learning them if you want to enjoy days out on a big cliff with the family. Have fun.

patto

2-Oct-2012
7:21:11 AM

On 1/10/2012 Groveller wrote:
>Hi .everyone, at least I sought advice. One of my kids can lead climb grade
>18, next one can climb well and the other is a beginner. I'm surprised
>the department of health isn't on my doorstep for child abuse according
>to some of you guys. Anyway will probably avoid tiptoe ridge and do some
>really easy stuff. Off to Araps in the morning!

How hard somebody climbs has little bearing on safety out on the cliff. Strong sport climbers always seem to find ingenious ways to deck. ;-)

The ignorance and lack of thought displayed in your first post was a concern for many. Surely you can understand people's reactions given you were taking 3 kids out? We all make mistakes and ask silly questions at times. Climbers just have less tolerance for it though has the consequences of mistakes are severe.

Enjoy your weekend.


shortman

2-Oct-2012
8:03:25 AM

He just asked if he could get away with throwing a rope down.

rolsen1

2-Oct-2012
8:23:43 AM

On 1/10/2012 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>On 1/10/2012 rolsen1 wrote:
>>When I top rope with the kids, I often set the top rope half way up the
>climb if the climb has an easy finish slabby finish. That way they get
>the satisfaction of reaching the "top" while still being able to lower
>them safely and easily.
>
>You leave them to top-out by themselves then downclimb to re-attach and
>be lowered?

No sorry, by "top" I mean they can touch the belay point from which they are then lowered. They don't climb the whole climb and they don't climb past the anchor.

anthonycuskelly

2-Oct-2012
9:25:51 AM

It wasn't a stupid initial question, but TTR's not a great climb for that.

Cliff's option's a good one. It doesn't matter how long the guidebook pitches are, TTR's varied enough that you could just set a belay where you ran out of rope.

There are 57 messages in this topic.