Lead Rope Solo Free Climbing [PDF]

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Lead rope solo free climbing manual An overview of what is done these days with focus on the GriGri, the Revo, and sport climbing, both single-pitch and multi-pitch Andrea Calligaris, © 2019

Revision: 2022/04/14-b Always up to date version: https://app.box.com/s/xe19rd4mymgu63vqaq1owf1doh2na92g

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Index Disclaimer.............................................................................................................................................5 Sources.................................................................................................................................................5 Contacts and mistakes reporting...........................................................................................................5 Copying license....................................................................................................................................5 Always up to date version....................................................................................................................5 Glossary................................................................................................................................................5 Required knowledge.............................................................................................................................6 Type of devices................................................................................................................................6 Bad belay techniques.......................................................................................................................6 A classic awesome video covering the fundamentals.................................................................7 Grabbing the GriGri with the left hand and pushing down the cam (and variations)................7 Not holding the brake side of the rope, using the GriGri, while the other climber is climbing. 8 Not holding the brake side of the rope, using the GriGri, while the other climber is hangdogging..............................................................................................................................................8 Introduction and general idea...............................................................................................................9 About lead rope soloing...................................................................................................................9 Schematics.......................................................................................................................................9 Systems I personally use, in a nutshell..........................................................................................11 Anchor solutions.................................................................................................................................12 Anchor system 1: Maillon rapide trick..........................................................................................12 Anchor system 2: Improved (quicker) maillon rapide trick..........................................................14 The alpine-butterfly improvement............................................................................................15 Anchor system 3: Series connection..............................................................................................15 Anchor system 4: Postponing........................................................................................................16 Anchor system 5: Tree anchor.......................................................................................................17 Re-belays.......................................................................................................................................17 Belay devices......................................................................................................................................18 GriGri.............................................................................................................................................18 How to install the GriGri..........................................................................................................19 GriGri held upright....................................................................................................................20 Modifying the GriGri (“death mod”)........................................................................................21 Belay loop or tie-in points.........................................................................................................21 GriGri failures...........................................................................................................................21 Ropes and GriGri compatibility................................................................................................22 Revo...............................................................................................................................................23 Cons – Important!.....................................................................................................................23 How to install the Revo.............................................................................................................25 2

How the Revo works.................................................................................................................25 Modification for faster lockup..................................................................................................28 Light mod (“standard”)........................................................................................................30 Heavy mod (for sloped slabs and top rope soloing).............................................................30 What if the Revo locks when you’re climbing up or trying to clip...........................................31 Other belay devices/systems..........................................................................................................31 Cache loop – Weight of the spare rope...............................................................................................34 The purpose of the cache loop(s)...................................................................................................34 Cache loop system 1: Micro Traxion.............................................................................................34 Where to attach the Micro Traxion?.........................................................................................35 My own Micro Traxion positioning – Back of the harness..................................................36 Other belay devices + Micro Traxion + a backup.....................................................................37 Cache loop system 2: Knots clipped to the harness creating loops of rope...................................38 Cache loop system 3: Coiled rope passing over the shoulder........................................................38 No cache loop................................................................................................................................38 GriGri........................................................................................................................................38 Revo..........................................................................................................................................39 Backup belay systems.........................................................................................................................39 Backup belay system 1: Stopper knots..........................................................................................40 Weak belay devices + stopper knots.........................................................................................42 Backup belay system 2: Backup knots clipped to the harness.......................................................42 Backup belay system 3: Combined system #1: Backup knots + stopper knots.............................44 Backup belay system 4: Combined system #2: The running clove hitch backup..........................44 The concept of “full-redundancy” in backup systems...................................................................47 Bad ideas........................................................................................................................................48 Simulating the brake hand.........................................................................................................48 Using more than one belay device............................................................................................48 Using two ropes........................................................................................................................48 Spare rope management.....................................................................................................................48 Additional gear/advices......................................................................................................................49 Climbing.............................................................................................................................................49 Preparation.....................................................................................................................................49 Anchoring......................................................................................................................................50 Back-feeding..................................................................................................................................51 Final considerations..................................................................................................................55 Feeding the GriGri (cutting and giving slack)...............................................................................56 Chalk and bad GriGri feeding...................................................................................................56 Clipping.........................................................................................................................................57 Clipping with the GriGri...........................................................................................................57 Clipping with the Revo.............................................................................................................58 Resting...........................................................................................................................................58 Resting with the GriGri.............................................................................................................58 Resting with the Revo...............................................................................................................59 Pulling yourself up.........................................................................................................................59 Falling............................................................................................................................................59 Falling with the GriGri..............................................................................................................59 3

Falling with the Revo................................................................................................................59 Mentality...................................................................................................................................60 Grabbing the rope while falling................................................................................................60 Rope drag and quickdraws.............................................................................................................61 Lowering........................................................................................................................................61 Lowering with the Revo............................................................................................................62 Closed ring at the crag..............................................................................................................63 Soft catch / dynamic belaying........................................................................................................63 Top rope solo free climbing systems..................................................................................................64 Multi-pitch..........................................................................................................................................67 Intro – Important!...........................................................................................................................67 Anchor...........................................................................................................................................67 Cleaning the pitch..........................................................................................................................68 Re-climbing the pitch.....................................................................................................................69 Final abseil.....................................................................................................................................70 Ropes.............................................................................................................................................71 Spare rope management in multi-pitch..........................................................................................72 In-depth information...........................................................................................................................73 Forces.............................................................................................................................................73 Fall factor..................................................................................................................................73 Pulley effect..............................................................................................................................73 Actual forces in real falls (some numbers)...............................................................................73 Conclusion................................................................................................................................74 Cross-loading and cantilever-loading............................................................................................74 What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load.......................................................75 How to tighten the maillon rapide.............................................................................................77 Considering other gear..............................................................................................................78 Factor 2 falls..................................................................................................................................78 Full factor 2 falls actually never happen...................................................................................78 How many kN can the human body take (and how ropes reflect that)?...................................79 Force rating of dynamic ropes..................................................................................................79 Rope breaking...........................................................................................................................79 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................80 Clove hitches in the context of lead rope solo climbing................................................................80 Anchor: more info..........................................................................................................................80 Other anchor systems: Munter hitch (unsafe)...........................................................................80 Cantilever load on locking nuts and/or the rock.......................................................................80 Rotating hangers.......................................................................................................................81 Changelog...........................................................................................................................................82

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Disclaimer This is a work of an amateur, some information may be completely wrong. If you die or get injured it’s not my fault. There is no “right way” to lead rope solo free climb, it’s a DIY and at-your-own-risk complex activity.

Sources Most of what is written here is not invented by me. If I missed some credits please let me know. Most of the techniques described in this document come from the people of the Facebook group Lead Rope Solo Climbing: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeadRopeSolo/ All pictures are by me unless where stated othwerwise.

Contacts and mistakes reporting •

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Since I currently do not climb anymore, consider asking for technical help in the Facebook group “Lead Rope Solo Climbing”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeadRopeSolo/, where most of the content in this manual comes from. Website: https://andreacalligaris.netsons.org/climbing/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaCalligarisClimbing

Copying license This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Always up to date version https://app.box.com/s/xe19rd4mymgu63vqaq1owf1doh2na92g

Glossary Bombproof locker: steel locking carabiner with a bombproof gate (see What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load). Cache loop: also called “light loop” by some; the loop of rope which purpose is to help you feed the belay device more easily, by eliminating the weight of the spare rope; usually, the loop between the Micro Traxion and the GriGri. Not the live rope, and not the spare rope. CT: Climbing Technologies. Live rope: the strand of rope attached to the anchor. Term used to discern it from the spare rope and the cache loop. Locker: locking carabiner. Maillon rapide: steel quick link (certified for climbing). PAS: personal anchor system, generally a lanyard or a daisy-chain. 5

Re-belay: a knot that functions as a backup anchor. If you fall, this one will act as the anchor, and if it fails, you’ll still have other re-belays and your original anchor. Spare rope: the strand of rope that you leave hanging. Term used to discern it from the live rope and the cache loop. Also called the “dead rope” (not in this document).

Required knowledge You cannot get into any form of rope solo if you don't know everything that's needed to know about the basics of belay devices and about belaying techniques. Sadly there are a lot of misconceptions about these matters, and this results in accidents all the time around the world even in normal styles of climbing. So this is required knowledge for normal climbing, actually. But it’s also what will allow you to have answers to rope solo questions like “if the GriGri is just assisted-locking, why do people use it for rope solo?” More in-depth info about belaying can be found in my other manuals, see https://andreacalligaris.netsons.org/climbing-manuals/

Type of devices • • •

No help in locking Assisted-locking Auto-locking

Tubular devices (ATC, Reverso, etc.) give no help in locking: the force of the fall is dissipated by friction, but only if you hold the brake side of the rope: if you don’t, the climber will fall to the ground. These are the most dangerous devices to use. Their advantage is that they give less strain on anchors and intermediate protections, so they are used in alpine and trad climbing. Camming devices like the GriGri are called assisted-locking. They are NOT auto-locking. This terminology has nothing to do with misuse: you can misuse any device and have accidents with any device; the thing is that devices like the GriGri can slip depending on rope orientation/tension while true auto-locking devices can not; at some point the GriGri will eventually catch, but it can take enough time such that the partner could deck. The same applies to devices that use a different mechanism than a cam, like e.g. the CT Click Up: those devices are also called assisted-locking. Only auto-locking devices in the market specifically made for sport climbing at the date of this document revision (unless I don't know about some devices): • Tubular devices when in guide mode only (basically when you belay the second). • The Wild Country Revo.

Bad belay techniques A lot of pro climbers on YouTube are using bad belaying techniques. Do they know what they are doing? Very likely yes. Should they always show correct/standard/super-safe ways of belaying while making YouTube videos? Probably not, just think about simul-climbing, free soloing, etc.: they wouldn't be able to 6

share their adventures with us. Anyway this is not what we'll discuss here: the point is that you have to pick everything with a grain of salt when watching YouTube or navigating the internet in general. This is is related to the infamous helmet question: pro climbers don't use it because it gets in the way of difficult climbs and because of other reasons, however they are experienced and therefore it's very unlikely that they get the rope behind their leg, fall backwards and hit the head; they know how to manage the rope and how to fall. Should therefore a beginner (or really anyone) do the same and not use an helmet when climbing? Of course not. The important thing that I want to come across is that either you (or someone else) use "standard" belay techniques or not, what matters the most is that you know what you're doing. And knowing what you're doing doesn't mean only having practical experience, but theoretical too: being informed. Let's examine some common scenarios of bad belaying techniques (and that you could find on YouTube). A classic awesome video covering the fundamentals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9hsWjA3SmU (The World's Worst Belayer - Bad belaying techniques, by Petzl Sport, featuring Nina Caprez) Grabbing the GriGri with the left hand and pushing down the cam (and variations)

This is prohibited by Petzl itself.

The case of failure: if the climber falls, the belayer may instinctively grab the whole GriGri with that same hand, effectively keeping down the cam, and the climber will deck. It's the old school method (also for those who are left handed) and if an experienced climber doesn't get overtaken by his instinct, he could release the hands in time and let the GriGri automatically catch; or, those who use this old school method probably have some other ways to grab the break end of the rope (e.g. always keeping the left hand on the brake strand even though the grip is reversed). Should therefore a beginner (or really anyone) use this method? Of course not. Always use the recommended Petzl method where you push down the cam with the right thumb of the right hand while holding the GriGri in the correct way with the index finger:

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Not holding the brake side of the rope, using the GriGri, while the other climber is climbing

This is just bad. While the GriGri should lock, it may slip initially, enough to make the climber deck. Not holding the brake side of the rope, using the GriGri, while the other climber is hangdogging

This is not recommended. Only case of failure: if the climber pulls himself up and immediately lets go, this will release the cam of the GriGri and it will take quite a while before the GriGri catches again, enough to make the climber decking. Pro climbers doing this while belaying probably knows that, will be attentive, and will very quickly grab the brake side of the rope as soon as they see that the climber is starting to pull himself up. And/or they have good communication with their partners, so when the climber is about to pull himself up, he will communicate that to the belayer. Should therefore a beginner (or really anyone) use this method? Of course not: of course be attentive and have good communication with your partners, but always keep the brake hand on the brake side of the rope. You don't need to squash it, you can totally relax the hand, just have the rope in it: the resulting path of the rope (and the consequent friction) and the instinct to grab when the climber falls will be enough to engage the cam of the GriGri. Because of this, there is really no reason why you should ever not hold the brake side of the rope.

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Introduction and general idea About lead rope soloing There is no “right way” to lead rope solo free climb, it’s a DIY and at-your-own-risk complex activity. The main aspect is how you treat it: you can approach it either like free soloing with at least some form of protection, or as an alternative to having a human belayer with no shortcuts to safety. And everything in between. Basing on that, you will choose different devices and systems, and different forms of backup. It also makes sense to use different systems for different routes and situations. Even though there are tons of possible setups, one rule seems to be pretty consistent: the safer you want to be, the more hassle it will be to climb. Therefore the word “compromise” is the theme of lead rope soloing. In this manual I mainly talk about the GriGri and the Revo, which are probably the most used devices for this activity, along with the Silent Partner and the Soloist, which are now out of production.

Schematics

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Systems I personally use, in a nutshell Anchor: • Securing to the first fixed bolt of the route: one end of the rope attached to a bombproof locker, with a figure-eight knot, plus some form of backup in order to have redundancy. • Tree anchor. Main belay system: • Revo for most of the climbs. ◦ Belay device: Modded Wild Country Revo, into a DMM Ceros Locksafe, into the belay loop. Green adhesive tape just to be sure to grab the live rope and to remember which side has the modification. ◦ Cache loop: none if the route is very short, otherwise one single overhand knot clipped to the belay loop (or more if the route is really long). • GriGri when, depending on the route, some cons of the Revo are particularly bad. ◦ Belay device: Unmodified Petzl GriGri (whichever the model), installed upside-down (for better feeding), into a steel maillon rapide (certified for climbing) Ø 7 mm, or into a DMM Ceros Locksafe, into the belay loop. ◦ Cache loop for the GriGri (to make it feed better): Petzl Micro Traxion, installed “backwards” to the spare rope, into any kind of oval carabiner, into a loop on the back of the harness. Backup belay system: • With the Revo: for short routes no backups because I ended up trusting the device; for long routes I need a cache loop anyway, so I have one or more knots (overhand on a bight, loose) on the belay loop below the device. • With the GriGri: no backup because I trust it when used with my method, which is in combination with the Micro Traxion clipped to the back of the harness. Rope: • With the Revo: any Beal rope (because of the elongation) supported by the device; maybe don’t go below 9.4 mm, due to how it pinches the ropes. • With the GriGri: 9.4 Beal rope. See Ropes and GriGri compatibility. Spare rope management: • Leave it hanging. In multi-pitch, left on the anchor inside an IKEA bag.

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Anchor solutions For multi-pitch, see Multi-pitch. If you secure to the first fixed bolt, having a backup is important: you may trust your belay device, you may trust your rope, but you cannot trust a fixed bolt with an unknown history in the same way. In rock climbing, anchors should always be redundant, and in rope solo it should be the same. You have to choose one of the described anchor systems basing on the route that you’re about to climb. You will mostly use the Improved maillon rapide trick.

Anchor system 1: Maillon rapide trick You should use the Improved maillon rapide trick. This is left here for historical interest and because it helps to start from this in order to understand the improved system. First fixed bolt of the route: one end of the rope attached to a Ø 8 mm or thicker maillon rapide with a figure-eight knot.

Second fixed bolt of the route: maillon rapide circa Ø 8 mm in place of the (instead of using a) quickdraw: if the main anchor fails, the knot in the rope will jam into the maillon rapide creating a backup anchor.

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For the backup maillon, more than 8 mm is too large and during the impact the knot may manage to pass through the maillon. Less than 8 mm and the maillon becomes too weak and can potentially bend after a serious fall. Even with an extreme fall, the knot will never compress so much that it will pass through the maillon. Watch some YouTube videos where they pull ropes with different knots: you’ll see how many kN they can take up. I have actually tried falling on it (simulating a first bolt failure), and it works; the maillon was subjected to a negligible damage, either against the bolt or the rock:

Pro: After you’ve secured yourself with the second maillon you are covered against factor > 1 falls. Cons: Risk of factor > 1 falls until you’ve setup the second maillon (i.e. from bolt 1 to bolt 2). • Extension (as meant in S.E.R.E.N.E.): if the first bolt fails, you will fall for more meters and there will be a spike in force on the second bolt (unless you tie a stopper knot – see the Improved maillon rapide trick for more info) – not a big deal since the rope itself is used, not e.g. a sling. • Setting up the second maillon rapide is not the smoothest and quickest thing. Credits: Jonathan Croom on Mountain Project https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/113949935/working-out-the-kinks-in-lead-solosystem#ForumMessage-113950526 13

Anchor system 2: Improved (quicker) maillon rapide trick To have a quicker system you can: • For the first bolt, use a bombproof locker. • For the second bolt, have a maillon rapide connected with a dogbone to a bombproof locker (or directly, without the dogbone). This way you can pass the rope through the maillon while still on the ground, and have the locker clipped to your gear loop ready to be used. Both lockers can cross-load and cantilever-load, so you should use a steel locker with a bombproof gate (see What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load). I personally use the Petzl Oxan Triact-Lock M72A TLA, which conforms to ANSI Z359.12, which means minor axis is 16 kN and the gate can withstand 16 kN from all directions.

Pro: After you’ve secured yourself with the second locker you are covered against factor > 1 falls • Very smooth especially if you use triple action lockers: not much different than just placing quickdraws while climbing with a belayer. Cons: Risk of factor > 1 falls until you’ve setup the second carabiner (from bolt 1 to bolt 2) • Extension (as meant in S.E.R.E.N.E.): if the first bolt fails, you will fall for more meters and there will be a spike in force on the second bolt, unless you tie a stopper knot (see below); not a big deal since the rope itself is used, not e.g. a sling.

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The alpine-butterfly improvement

If you tie a stopper knot on the rope, very close below the second fixed bolt, in case the first bolt fails you will fall a shorter distance and there will be less of a spike in force during the impact of the knot on the second bolt. An alpine butterfly is generally suggested because it won’t change the available rope length that will elongate during a fall. You can tie the knot at the ground, if you are able to eye-ball the right point on the rope. You will have some slack until you clip the second bolt, which is a good thing anyway because in case of falling the fall factor will be lower. Realistically you will never bother doing this, but it may be a good idea on routes with sketchy old bolts.

Anchor system 3: Series connection On the second fixed bolt, use a “blocked” solution, e.g. a clove hitch or a figure-eight clipping the loop, on a bombproof locker. This will create a proper anchor, in particular a series connection. Warning: Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. Pro: You’ll have a good anchor with no extension (as meant in S.E.R.E.N.E.). Cons: Risk of factor > 1 falls until you’ve clipped the first quickdraw on the third fixed bolt, which may be a long way to go depending on the route, therefore: • Only good if the start of the route is easy.

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Reduced fall factor The system can be improved to reduce the fall factor in a similar way of that of a dummy runner, see the second picture. However it’s a bit more complicated to set up, especially if you prepare everything on the ground.

Anchor system 4: Postponing Don’t tie a backup until a certain point in the route. Then setup a re-belay (in this case it must be a “blocked” solution, e.g. an alpine-butterfly or a figure-eight clipping the loop) on a bombproof locker (it must be a bombproof locker), on e.g. the third fixed bolt; give enough slack (above the knot) to reduce the fall factor or just don’t fall until the next bolt is clipped. Pro: Quick, minimal hassle. Cons: Hazardous and only applicable to certain routes, e.g.: • A route where the first part is easy terrain, so you start climbing near the ground with a non reduntant anchor until the third bolt, then you are on a ledge and tie the re-belay knot, then you clip the fourth bolt and only then the route starts to get challenging but at that point you have a re-belay and no factor > 1 fall risk. • A route with a bouldery section right at the start and then easier terrain, so you do the bouldery section near the ground with a non reduntant anchor until you are on a ledge and can clip the third bolt with the re-belay knot. Assuming the first fixed bolt fails: in the first example you have less chances to fall, but if you fall it’s a long fall to the ground; in the second example you have more chances to fall, but you are near the ground. It must be noted that this method is also risky when lowering down after having completed the route, because at some point you will remove the last re-belay and your anchor will become a single bolt when you are still quite far from the ground; on the other hand, you’re stressing the bolt with not much force than just your own weight. 16

Anchor system 5: Tree anchor Of course, if there are trees for anchoring, that’s a better and quicker option. Incidentally, that’s probably the best option on a trad route: alternatives would be a ground anchor on a big boulder or an anchor with mobile protections at the start of the wall. A solid option is a tensionless hitch. Another one is a clove hitch around the tree backed up with a figure-eight. Make sure to tighten the clove hitch otherwise it could slide up the trunk. Also be sure to tie the figure-eight very close to the clove hitch. Make sure that the tree is close enough to the wall, otherwise there will be too much live rope right from the start of the route and you risk falling to the ground due to excessive rope elongation. Or, extend the anchor with static slings and attach the rope to those with a carabiner or a maillon. Pro: Quick, easy, efficient • No risk of factor > 1 falls. Cons: You don’t always have trees to anchor to.

Tree anchor: clove hitch backed up with a figure-eight (actually you should tie the figure-eight closer to the clove hitch).

Re-belays After you’ve setup a two-points anchor, you can still create re-belays up on the route, by e.g. tying a clove hitch on a carabiner. This is especially useful in trad climbing when you don’t trust your anchor: if you find better protections up on the route you can setup a third-point; don’t fall before you’ve clipped the next protection, though. 17

Warning #1: Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. Warning #2: Don’t use re-belays with the Revo, because a full factor 2 fall could damage the rope.

Belay devices

GriGri Let’s talk about the GriGri first, because it’s probably been the most used device for any kind of self-beley operations.

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The GriGri can be easily manually locked by just grabbing the brake side of the rope (in our case the cache loop) and sitting on the harness. This is a great advantage for when you’re having difficulties or are working a route, that many other devices and self-belay methods don’t have. With the GriGri you can immediately lower down when you complete the pitch, which is extremely comfortable in the crag, and even more so in multi-pitch climbing (see Cleaning the pitch for various abseiling techniques). On the minus side, the GriGri: • forces you to manage a short cache loop, therefore giving you additional hassle while climbing. • makes it difficult to clip. • is extremely sensible to chalk: so if you use a lot of chalk you’ll need to wash your rope all the time; an alternative is to use liquid chalk. How to install the GriGri

The climber is the anchor (the live rope); the brake hand is the cache loop (which then goes into the Micro Traxion). Always double check. You will then clip the live rope as you climb. The GriGri can be attached to the belay loop either normal or upside-down.

1) Normal

2) Upside-down

Upside-down has the big advantage that it’s very easy to give slack and to high clip. Why does it feed better? Because everytime you pull, the two strands of rope are coming out parallel like when you belay a partner and you give him slack without using the thumb trick; or like when giving slack with a tubular device. Both when pulling upwards or downwards, having the GriGri installed upside-down allows the two strands of rope to be parallel to each other and so they feed better.

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Instead, with the GriGri oriented normal, when you pull upward, you will push against the "back of the GriGri" (that part that they mod for the GriGri-held-upright method) and this makes it feed worse. However, for exactly the same reasons, when you fall from below the quickdraw, the GriGri will slip, possibly until the whole cache loop runs out, especially with less thick ropes. On the other hand, if you fall from above the quickdraw on overhanging terrain, it will lock very fast because since you’re falling away from the wall, the rope will exit the GriGri in the same orientation of when you try to catch a climbing partner. With the GriGri attached in the normal position, the behaviour is reversed: it will immediately catch if you fall from below the quickdraw, while it may initially slip for quite a while if you fall from above the quickdraw. Therefore the upside-down position is the preferable one. Still, a cons of the upside-down position is that it increases the chance of making the mistake of clipping the spare rope instead of the live rope, so be aware of that and always make sure of which strand you’re grabbing. GriGri held upright

To improve feeding, you may want to additionally use a chest harness/sling to keep the GriGri held upright as demonstrated everywhere on the internet. This is the most used system. Keep in mind though that in this case the GriGri will not work for upside-down falls (because the rope will pull the back of the device so it won’t activate the cam – the effect is even worse if the GriGri is modded), so a backup belay system is mandatory.

3) GriGri-held-upright method, Matt Hunter on YouTube If you create a chest harness manually with slings, use the non-chocking harness:

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karstendelap (Instagram) Even if you go with this method, you don’t necessarily need to climb with the spare rope in a backpack, you can still use the Micro Traxion solution. I don’t like this system because it’s too much of an hassle to setup, it doesn’t cover upside-down falls, I don’t want to mod the device, and I don’t feel comfortable and “free” enough in my “free climbing.” Modifying the GriGri (“death mod”)

Modifying the GriGri (the famous “death mod”) is only needed for the GriGri-held-upright method. Leaving the GriGri hanging free on the belay loop and installing it upside-down and choosing the right rope makes it unnecessary to mod the device, which is even dangerous if you don’t use the GriGri-held-upright method. Belay loop or tie-in points

Clipping into the tie-in points is only for the GriGri-held-upright method, since it helps a bit with keeping the GriGri in place. If the GriGri is left hanging, then it's better to clip it to the belay loop, othwerwise the tie-in points will kind of twist while falling: not a big deal but it’s stressing the harness in an unusual way. If you use a maillon, there’s no choice anyway because it only fits on the belay loop. GriGri failures Petzl doesn’t want you to use it for self-belay (https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Self-belaying-is-prohibited-) because: • The climber does not hold the brake side of the rope; counter-argument: in most situations the GriGri actually works without the help of a human hand. The various GriGri accidents that you hear happened at the crags are because the belayer pressed down the cam while giving slack and never released the thumb or because not holding the brake side of the rope caused an initial slip. For this last case, which compares in lead rope solo to the situation where you are below the last clipped quickdraw and using a thin rope, we have stopper knots. Moreover, we can simulate the brake hand with the Micro Traxion (see below). • The device may jam into the rock and prevent from locking; counter-argument: if it’s stuck onto the rock, you are stuck too, i.e. not falling. If it’s only temporarily stuck, then you will begin to fall again, the cam will free (or the handle will release), and the device will lock. If you are scratching on a slab, at a certain point you will start to fall backward anyway and any jamming will resolve. • The device may be blocked against the positioning system (positioning strap); counter-argument: this is referring to top rope soloing, where they use more than one device and they attach them with a sling or something: in this lead rope solo system we clip the GriGri directly to the belay loop. • The device may be blocked against other things; counter-argument: same thing applies. On multi-pitch, just wear your slings nicely (see the chapter Multi-pitch).

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The main failure is the “high-clip” failure, where you are below the last clipped quickdraw so you are effectively top-roping: witht the GriGri attached upside-down, the GriGri will slip (see How to install the GriGri). The cache loop, while not directly acting as a backup, when it’s very short will get in tension and “awake” the GriGri even if it initially slipped, acting as a brake hand. Even with a long cache loop, as soon as it reduces its length during the fall, at some point it will be so short that it will start to create tension. However this failure is still bad of course because it means that you’ll fall for more meters, risking decking or hitting something. This effect is obviously greater with thin ropes. Moreover, with a very short cache loop, almost zero inches, the GriGri may simply push down the Micro Traxion and you may deck; however, it’s reasonable to assume that the rope will swing and at some point there will be enough tension to activate the cam. Just to be sure though, I install the Micro Traxion on the back of my harness, so when the cache loop is at its minimum, it still can’t meet the GriGri; moreover, I find that the rope gives me less problems in this configuration while climbing. Failure against a stopper knot: Failure: in case of failure, the GriGri 1 breaks itself against a stopper knot at no lower than 17 kN. Belay: testing a fall factor 2 with a mass of 80 kg, the GriGri 1 arrests a fall and is NOT damaged, up to at least a circa 10,4 kN fall. “Hang 'Em High: How Far Can You Trust Your Belay Device?,” Marc Beverly, BS-EMS, M-PAS, Stephen W. Attaway, Ph.D. Another known failure is when you use a very big carabiner: it could rotate and enclose the GriGri preventing the cam from engaging. This happens with the GriGri 1; later versions of the GriGri prevent this problem by design, having a slight bend over the cam that will push away any obtrusion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFPNDgGNBR8&t=415 Yann Camus BlissClimbing video). By using a maillon rapide you won’t have this problem not even with the GriGri 1. Warning if you do aid climbing: if you fall with the foot on a ladder, its carabiner can push down the cam of the GriGri and it may not catch at all. There may be other problems but I never do aid climbing so I can’t give any info about this style. Ropes and GriGri compatibility

The version of your GriGri and different diameters and stiffness of the rope may give different results in how the GriGri catches and how smoothly it feeds. We currently have GriGri 1, GriGri 2, GriGri 3 (2019), and GriGri + (Plus). The first two can only be found second-hand. The GriGri 1 is the one that feeds better. The other GriGri models are pretty much all the same and you can get good feeding on them by using thin ropes. About ropes, the smaller the diameter, the better it feeds, but it may take more time to lock (it slips), or it may not catch at all, especially in a “high-clip” situation (when the last quickdraw is above your waist and so you’re kinda in top rope), until the cache loop runs out and it creates tension, activating the cam. Remember that the actual rope diameter may differ from the rated diameter indicated by the manufacturer by up to ±0.2 mm, which basically makes online shopping a complete blind game. If the rope has a dry cover that of course also plays a role a little bit. Rope stiffness may be another important factor: not its elongation and impact force properties, but its pliability. So you have to try different brands. 22

As for the impact force, in theory, the less kN the better, because we don’t have a dynamic belay (see Soft catch / dynamic belaying). However, if the route is easy and full of ledges, you may actually want to fall the shortest distance, even if you come to a hard stop. So it depends on the terrain that you usually climb. In my experience you shouldn’t go higher than 8,6 kN impact force, because then the falls become harsh in that you are smashing against the wall pretty badly, and it’s especially bad when you have very short live rope in the system. I’ve personally tested GriGri 2 and GriGri 3 and found no significant difference in feeding, even though I use the latter because it’s lighter and the release handle gives more control. As for the ropes, I use a Beal Stinger III 9.4 mm Unicore Dry Cover, which feeds perfectly but sometimes the GriGri only catches when the cache loop runs out, so I generally take big falls. Falls are however very smooth thanks to its elongation property. Another rope I tried is the Edelrid Boa 9.8 mm, and it always catches before the cache loop runs out but it feeds worse (it is very sensible to any friction on the cache loop).

Revo

Warning: seriously consider modding the device, it is safe and it decreases your chances of breaking your heels or decking. Cons – Important!

The Revo feeds almost like when having a human belayer, after all it’s a pulley; it’s the device that gives you the least amount of hassle and problems while climbing up; it’s not surprising that the cons are many (luckily most of these can be managed): • It will shred the rope in factor 2 falls and even cut some core strands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f94rrNcaYBo (Wild Country REVO Rope Soloing Drop Test (Fall Factor 2) | Finding Vertical Limits). Therefore there’s a risk at the start of a pitch or in multi-pitch trad. Moreover, there can be various unexpeced situations where a FF2 can happen, for example the rope getting stuck on some rock feature – for this reason you should be extre careful on certain terrains e.g. easy ones, and especially in multi-pitch mountain terrain. 23

•

•

•

• • •

• •

A climber (Keith Leary from the Facebook group) shredded the rope not expecting a FF2, however a clove hitch he tied to prevent back-feeding traveled away from the quickdraw to the next quickdraw, due to the elongation of the rope, effectively making the last quickdraw a fixed point: from there to the climber, the rope was a blocked rope, so the fall was a FF2 and the Revo shredded the rope. He had a Unicore rope. When it catches, it can pinch the rope rather hard, to the point that it needs some tugs to release it.

Edelrid Boa 9.8 mm (8.8 kN) pinched for good 9.8 mm ropes are harder to release. 9.4/9.2 are easier. Due to the problems with fall factor 2, you cannot have re-belays, which is a pity since rebelays give you more piece of mind; if you are 100% sure that you’re not going to fall at a given point in a route, you may decide to still tie a re-belay there to feel safer later on the pitch. It locks only when the falling speed reaches 4 m/s, so you fall at least one more meter. Combined with bad back-feeding, which is easy to happen with this device, you can take very long falls; solution: mod the device. It may not catch or catch late on less than vertical slabs, because you may never reach the required speed for the mechanism to engage; solution: mod the device. If you grab the rope while falling, that’s no good with any device, but especially with the Revo because of how it works. See Grabbing the rope while falling. When the spare rope is around 20 meters long or more, when falling the Revo may get stuck in a loop of falling-locking-unlocking. For the same reason (the weight of the spare rope), when resting it may unlock automatically. The solution to both these problems is to have an appropriate cache loop, which luckily can be rather long, in contrast to when using the GriGri and similar devices. For the same reason why feeding is great, back-feeding can be rather bad; solution: use a long cache loop when on long pitches. It looks like that after a certain number of falls the device starts to get visible damage; it’s not a lifelong device like the GriGri family. I have not personally confirmed this claim yet.

•

It lowers like a tubular device, so if you have to retrieve the quickdraws it can be a pain: see Lowering with the Revo.

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Using the Revo without a backup belay system is up to you. The device (especially if modded) is actually safer than you may think because it uses the centrifugal force to work, which is probably more reliable than any mechanism that relies on friction/orientation of the rope. In any case, since you don’t have the hassle of managing a short cache loop, having stopper knots every X meters is not a big deal, especially if you untie them with the help of the shoulder (see Stopper knots). How to install the Revo

As you should know, the Revo works in both directions, but of course, once you’ve set it up, you still have to make sure that you’re clipping the live rope and not the spare rope. To attach it to the belay loop, use a carabiner like the DMM Ceros Locksafe (see What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load).

While climbing up, one of the tubers can hit the rock and lock it. To prevent that, you can attach the Revo on the tie-in-points using a D-shape maillon rapide, so it will be oriented differently (rotated by 90 degrees). How the Revo works

https://vimeo.com/168311250 (computer animation showing how the Revo works); in a single picture:

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The video and this picture show just a prototype of the final Revo.

A: Edge on the orange inertial wheel that will hit the shoe B: Edge on the tuber jaw that will hit the orange inertial wheel later, on the next edge C: Spring-loaded shoe that will hit the inertial wheel and will then engage the tuber jaw D: Internal edge (can’t be seen) on the tuber jaw that will get hit by the shoe and will engage the tuber jaw E: arrows showing the centrifugal force moving the shoe, a force generated by the spinning wheel because the rope is feeding too quickly F: the spring that delays the movement of the shoe When the rope feeding through the tubers reaches 4 m/s, the inertia reel locking mechanism catches the fall: the rope rotates the inertia wheel, and the spring-loaded shoe, due to the centrifugal force, engages with the tuber, which itself rotates (the tuber raises up) and its jaw locks into the wheel. Even if the tuber jaw was prevented from moving freely, the Revo would still lock once reached the required speed. To unlock, push the rope down inside the stainless steel groove; if the tuber is not engaged, simply cut slack quickly. Here’s the shoe that is moving thanks to the centrifugal force:

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My tool is just to simulate the movement of the shoe.

The shoe will then also engage the tuber jaw:

Around the orange inertial wheel there are other edges for the jaw to hit:

We then have the tuber spring that keeps the rope in place when the tuber is raised up (engaged – locked):

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The second picture shows what the spring is meant to prevent. Modification for faster lockup

It is important to understand how the Revo works in details before modding it. My video featuring terrible English and camera focus, but that can still be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Ki-HTHFNo Mod discovered by Justice Holloway: https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/116598492/revo-rope-solo-spring-modification-forfaster-lockup First of all, the mod is safe. If you do a bad job, the worst that can happen is that it locks too easily when you give slack. The mod consists in reducing the preload of the spring by simply bending it a bit. It will put less resistance against the shoe, allowing it to engage earlier, before reaching 4 m/s.

The spring of the shoe. Picture from Justice Holloway's thread. Use a small pick tool and hold the spring while you rotate the wheel with the other hand for about half the way around: 28

Picture from Justice Holloway's thread.

End result. Picture from Justice Holloway's thread. A: original spring position. B: spring position after modding. Go slow and multiple times. If you bend too much you can’t go back. The more you “weaken” the spring, the quicker the Revo will catch, but if it’s too much it will lock all the time when you try to climb up or give slack. After the mod you will hear some high pitch clicks while you move the device around. That’s the opposite side of the shoe that is now a bit loose because the spring is “weak,” so it will shake around: 29

This is also a good indicator of how much you’ve “weakened” the spring. Too much of a space between the shoe and the edge of the wheel, and the Revo will lock too easily. If you fail, you can try again with the other side; however, when you cut slack you will use the other spring (the “wrong” one), so it may lock the device when you don’t want it to. Light mod (“standard”)

Heavy mod (for sloped slabs and top rope soloing)

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The heavy mod is when you think you’ve messed up; however, if you didn’t go even further than shown, you’ll have the advantage of an almost instant catch, with the cons that when pointing down, the Revo will lock super fast, which translates to these two practical cons: 1. You can give slack for clipping with a moderate speed, but only horizontally or up. 2. When you climb up you cannot do quick movements or it will lock. This mod is nice for sloped slabs, and for top rope soloing too (including downclimbing), but it sucks for pretty much any other type of climb. I did this on one side and the light mod on the other side, so I can switch between the two depending on what I need; still, when you use the other side you’ll have to cut slack slowly, because it uses the heavy mod side; the best thing, more expensive, is to have two Revo. Anyway: What if the Revo locks when you’re climbing up or trying to clip

It’s actually very easy to unlock it; in fact, if it does lock while you’re giving slack, the force is so low that the tuber won’t engage: therefore you can simply cut slack slightly and the mechanism will immediately release. This makes the heavy mod more manageable and climbing with the Revo in general very comfortable.

Other belay devices/systems Note: my personal lead rope solo experience is with these devices only: GriGri 2, GriGri 3, Revo, Birdie. This is a quick and incomplete overview. I’m especially highlighting the cons of other devices/systems, but keep in mind that climbers are successfully using some of these. In the end it’s a personal choice and you have to find what works best for you. Moreover, there will always be new devices, so it’s your job to stay updated and do your own experiments.

By type: • Petzl GriGri, Edelrid Eddy, Beal Birdie: they rely on the friction of the rope running around a cam to rotate the cam. Safer but feeds worse. • Rock Exotica Soloist, Trango Cinch & Vergo, Mad Rock Lifeguard, Taz LOV3: they rely on rope orientation change to activate; less safe and they won't catch upside-down falls, but feed well, because the path of the rope is straight. • Tubular belay devices (non assisted-locking) like the ATC or the Reverso: since we cannot use our hand to brake the rope, we would have to use some system that have them locked in a default state, and that will make the device not dynamic at all, but most importantly it may even sever the rope (unlikely, but still...). The GriGri and other belay devices are made such that the constriction of the rope is never directly proportional to the applied force (the GriGri doesn’t lock completely but leaves some space so that whatever the blow, the rope doesn’t sever. Moreover, when used in guide mode, they may not catch inverted falls. • Petzl Ascension, Petzl Micro Traxion, and any other toothed device: these devices can be used for top rope solo but not for lead rope solo, because they may damage the rope sheath, and they may even break because they can’t stand the impact forces of a lead solo fall, especially a factor 2 one. • Friction hitches (Prusik knot, Klemheist knot, etc.): too much friction to the point that they can damage the rope sheath. Moreover, an untended Prusik has been shown to be unreliable. • Garda Hitch: it tears the rope sheath, it has been tested on YouTube. • Professional fall arrest devices for construction work, arborists, etc., e.g. Camp Goblin, Taz LOV3: they require 10 mm ropes or above minimum and they’re meant to be used on a static rope that is hanging from the above, so you are not supposed to take lead falls on this type of devices; they also generally are very bulky and heavy. Most of them need to be used in conjunction with a chest harness/sling to make them work, adding to the hassle and the bulkiness both in 31

the setup and while climbing. They generally rely on rope orientation change to activate, so less reliable and they may not catch upside-down falls. By device: • Rock Exotica Silent Partner and Soloist: out of production and they’re not without flaws anyway. • CT Click Up: people on the internet report that it can fail to lock in lead rope solo, while it seems to work fine in top rope solo. • Beal Birdie: with my Beal Stinger III 9.4 mm Unicore Dry Cover most of the time it doesn’t catch, not even when the cache loop runs out. Other people have experienced the opposite, i.e. being very hard to feed. It seems it’s very picky about the ropes it likes. • Edelrid Eddy: it seems it can fail in a lot of situations: “high clip failure,” a short cache loop could prevent it from locking, etc.; very picky on ropes it likes. The device can be modded for more safety. • Ice Rock Gnome: looks interesting. • Petzl Shunt: suicide. • Guide mode: using any tubular belay device in guide mode (belaying-the-second mode) makes the system static (auto-locking) and as explained above it risks to sever the rope in a lead fall. Moreover, it may not catch inverted falls. • Edelrid’s Jul family: they feed very bad and they’re just “assisted locking” anyway, so you still need a backup. • Petzl Microcender didn't lock, dude saved by stopper knot: https://www.climbing.com/people/mortality-salience-how-a-rope-soloing-fall-made-me-rethinkmy-climbing-obsession/ (the fact that it was a Microcender was written on the comment section, not available anymore) Other systems: • Belay device on the anchor: it’s one of those things that sounds good initially and seems to solve a lot of problems in lead rope soloing, until you realize it’s the worst idea ever; bad feeding with anything else than the Revo, no options for a backup, can’t watch over the device, any problem and you have to get back down to fix it, not easy to correctly setup the device and very easy for it to mess up its position/orientation, it’s an hassle to resume climbing and to rappell, etc. • Running clove hitch: works best with thin ropes. Has its place in alpine climbing. With this method: https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/the-improved-clove-hitch-lead-solo it’s easier to give slack. Anyway, it’s slow, feeds well only with thin ropes, you have to give slack in advance, sometimes by pulling the “slack-carabiner” you end up cutting slack by mistake, after a fall it’s very hard to loosen the knot, if you happen to get your fingers between the carabiners while falling… Also: Warning #1: if the “slack carabiner” were to catch onto something while you’re falling, the knot will fail. For this very reason you need a backup anyway. Warning #2: Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. Alternative improvement by Yann Camus: Petzl Ring Open, two lockers with opposing gates, one locker to give slack.

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Improved running clove hitch www.alpinesavvy.com •

Yann Camus' improved running clove hitch during a test fall

Stopper knots only: only good as an emergency lead rope solo system. See my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf8kGvEI6fY Pass the rope through one maillon attached to the belay loop and only use stopper knots (preferably pre-tied) to stop your falls. It’s a good idea to use two maillons, one with a colored adhesive tape, in order to make sure to grab the live rope and not the spare rope. Pro: No device to fiddle with, only stopper knots, quick to untie if you use slip-knots. Cons: The distance of the falls can be long, depending on how many stopper knots you tied and where you are on the route; great chance of decking in the first part of the route • Stopper knots are generally hard to untie after a fall, so being your only belay system you will find yourself fighting with a tight knot all the time • If you happen to grab the rope below the quick link while falling, you can squash your fingers • You still need a cache loop anyway because of the weight of the spare rope, which is more weight than normal due to all the stopper knots, meaning you have more spare rope hanging; clipping is pretty bad because of this reason (the rope tends to fall back down) • Sometimes you’ll find yourself clipping a quickdraw while getting nothing in return because the last stopper knot is so far.

Basically, just throw a Revo on the system.

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Cache loop – Weight of the spare rope Related to Spare rope management.

The purpose of the cache loop(s) If you use the GriGri or similar devices, they will feed bad because they tend to lock due to the weight of the spare rope, so basically you won’t be able to climb up and to clip. Even if you use the Revo, giving slack will require more pulling force the higher you get on the route (especially with stopper knots), you may not be able to lock the device if needed, and when falling you may get the repetitive unlock failure. To solve all these problems, you may want to have a cache loop, either by using the Micro Traxion or by clipping backup knots to your harness.

Cache loop system 1: Micro Traxion For the GriGri it’s the best method. I have no experience with other devices, but any similar pulley/ascender should work too, like the Wild Country Ropeman. The Micro Traxion feeds very well though and is… micro. The idea is to use a Micro Traxion installed backwards to the spare rope and clipped to e.g. a gear loop in order to create a cache loop that eliminates the weight of the spare rope. Now the belay device will automatically feed as you climb upward; with the GriGri though, the cache loop must be free of any hindrance. When the cache loop runs out of rope, simply pull it to get more rope from the spare rope. 34

The live rope will pull with its weight too, but that tends to be less of a problem until the live rope becomes quite long (you’re higher on the route): for that, see Back-feeding. It’s important to understand that without stopper knots the Micro Traxion is not acting as a backup: in fact, in order to give slack to the belay device, it is working backwards; if the belay device fails and slams the Micro Traxion, it can potentially push it down and you will fall to the ground if you don’t have stopper knots. However, if you’re using the GriGri, it’s also true that the cache loop, while not directly acting as a backup, when it’s very short it will get in tension and “awake” the GriGri even if it initially slipped, acting as a brake hand. Even with a long cache loop, as soon as it reduces its length during the fall, at some point it will be so short that it will start to create tension. So that’s additional safety. As you can see the interactions are pretty complex. Careful with anything else than a GriGri: in my tests, the Beal Birdie wasn’t able to catch not even when the cache loop ran out, and I was saved by the backup knot. Where to attach the Micro Traxion?

The most common setup is to attach it to a gear loop. If you use the GriGri installed upside-down, it’s probably better to place the Micro Traxion on the gear loop on the left, so the GriGri may feed slightly better due to that curved edge; but for hard enough routes, the most important thing is the pitch itself: with which hand you are mostly going to clip, where are the bolts in respect to where you’re climbing, how you’re going to climb the crux.

Other options have been able to flare up heated debates in the forums. Options that have been mentioned: • Waist belt of the harness, either on the front, side, or back • Belay loop, therefore close to the GriGri (used by Pete Whittaker) • Leg loop (near the crotch, to prevent the buckle to release!) The positioning of the Micro Traxion is key and complicated because of its influence on a lot of aspects: 35

• • • • • • • • •

The management of the cache loop and the chance of getting friction against the rock/feet and lock the GriGri. The backup system, e.g. the stopper knots. The difficulty of grabbing the cache loop and pulling, in respect to all the possible stances that you find yourself in while free climbing. The likelihood of the cache loop ending up between the legs or wrapping one leg (and is this actually a problem?) The locking mechanism of the GriGri (because of tension/stiffness and direction of the cache loop) and therefore the likelihood of preventing or helping the GriGri to catch a fall. The bulkiness of the resulting setup (e.g. the belay loop option). The clutter and the arrangement of the different strands of rope, meaning the live rope, the part of the cache loop going down, the part of the cache loop going up, and the spare rope. The cache loop hindering the quickdraws and other gear on the harness. The specific case of a stance with a high knee, where the cache loop may end up resting on the thigh. Here yet other variables come into play: if the GriGri is attached to a carabiner it may be the one resting on the leg, while with a maillon (shorter distance) it may be the cache loop.

Micro Traxion on the leg loop If you plan to use stopper knots or other backup belay systems, you probably want to attach the Micro Traxion with a steel carabiner / maillon too; but there is more to know: see Backup belay systems. My own Micro Traxion positioning – Back of the harness

I personally setup the Micro Traxion on the back of my harness and while climbing I keep the cache loop between my legs:

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The rear location of the Micro Traxion provides the max possible rope-routing distance between the two devices, with the added friction of the perineum area. As a result, the brake strand has the max possible friction when/if the cache loop runs out. This feature allows me to confidently reduce or completely discard stopper knots, which is a big hassle while climbing hard enough routes. A different strategy for discarding stopper knots is to use the rope with the largest diameter that still feeds. But I only feel confident with ~ 9.8 mm ones, which already require very slow pulling most of the time. Moreover, with the gear loop solution you get the cache loop between your legs all the time anyway, and that's a reason why I decided to go for this new system, after realizing the advantage of the added friction. It may look like it could hurt your genitals but that won’t happen. The reason is that if the tension activates the GriGri, it will lock before the cache loop could tighten on you; if the belay device (in case it’s not a GriGri) still doesn’t lock and so you fall to your stopper knot, there will be not much tension – I’ve tested this with the Beal Birdie, which didn’t lock on my 9.4 mm Beal rope. Other belay devices + Micro Traxion + a backup

With other belay devices together with the Micro Traxion, the problems come if you want a backup belay system. Using the Micro Traxion, the only reasonably compatible backup belay system is stopper knots on the spare rope. However: • You have two things to manage while climbing, both the Micro Traxion and untying the stopper knots. • Since you have the cache loop, you can’t have very close stopper knots and you have to untie the next stopper knot as soon as it reaches the Micro Traxion, leaving you with a lot of slack before the next stopper knot. With the Revo it’s even worse because you need a long cache loop to prevent excessive back-feeding, but if you always have a long cache loop it means that you have a lot of slack. Therefore you may want to ditch the Micro Traxion and opt for one of these solutions: • Backup knots clipped to the harness: combining the need for the cache loop and the backup belay system in one single system. • Backup knots + stopper knots.

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Cache loop system 2: Knots clipped to the harness creating loops of rope This can also serve as a backup belay system. See Backup belay system 2: Backup knots clipped to the harness.

Cache loop system 3: Coiled rope passing over the shoulder If you coil your spare rope, either inside a backpack that you wear, or on your harness, you can then create a cache loop by making the rope pass through a point on your shoulder, e.g. a small carabiner or a buckle. Related: Spare rope management.

Dariusz Sokołowski on a D15 (dry tooling) using the Revo and the spare rope coiled on the harness (apparently with no backup)

No cache loop GriGri

The GriGri will always 100% catch after you are high enough on the route because the weight of the spare rope will act as a brake hand; for feeding the GriGri though you will need to use your mouth to simulate the Micro Traxion everytime you need to clip, and at some point, just to be able to climb up (therefore giving you slack in advance); this is the old-school method. In this video of mine I demonstrate the technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=pFz9gjLnoO8

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Revo

The Revo without the cache loop is the fastest and smoothest experience. However you must be aware of the repetitive unlock failure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmnSkb7LWgk (Revo Repetitive Unlock Failure Mode - Yann Camus BlissClimbing). Basically, when the spare rope is around 20 meters long or more, when falling the Revo may get stuck in a loop of falling-locking-unlocking. You can either: • Not care and wait for the next stopper knot to engage (sketchy). • Use Backup knots clipped to the harness. • Tie at a certain point of the spare rope, approximately 40 meters, creating a single very long cache loop, so: in the first part of the climb the cache loop mostly sits on the ground. In the last part, the higher you go up the shorter the cache loop becomes.

Backup belay systems You can have a backup belay system in case your main belay system fails. People on the internet are adamant about always using some form of backup, either backup knots tied to the harness, or stopper knots on the spare rope (generally calling them “backup knots” too, leading to confusion). There are accidents where people rope soloing had their life saved by their stopper knots. We could differentiate between belay device failures and setup mistakes. The most quoted accident: Tom Randall, carabiner broke in factor 2 long fall: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13200305300 Notice that he didn’t use the anti-cross-load feature of the DMM Belay Master carabiner (more about this carabiner in What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load). Therefore, this is a setup mistake; the goal of this document is to describe a good setup in the first place. Then there is belay device failure. I, personally, trust the GriGri mechanism 100% when combined with the Micro Traxion clipped to the back of the harness. Also see chapter GriGri failures. I also ended up trusting the mechanism of the Revo by understanding how it works and by doing a lot of test and non-test falls. So, with these two devices, depending on the route, I may not use any backup. If I were to use any other belay device, I would use a backup. Finally, we have user mistakes. But once you’re set up and ready to go with a good system, there isn’t much that you can do wrong that a backup would resolve: therefore for what concerns user mistakes, it’s more important to do a careful preparation (see Preparation). Keep in mind though that multi-pitch trad is a different world: see Multi-pitch/Intro – Important!.

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Backup belay system 1: Stopper knots

Also see: • Other belay devices + Micro Traxion + a backup It’s important to understand that without stopper knots the Micro Traxion is not acting as a backup: in fact, in order to give slack to the GriGri, it is working backwards; if the GriGri fails and slams the Micro Traxion, it can potentially push it down and you will fall to the ground if you don’t have stopper knots. However, it’s also true that the cache loop, while not directly acting as a backup, when it’s very short it will get in tension and “awake” the GriGri even if it initially slipped, acting as a brake hand. Even with a long cache loop, as soon as it reduces its length during the fall, at some point it will be so short that it will start to create tension. So that’s additional safety. As you can see the interactions are pretty complex. Petzl doesn’t recommend the stopper knots solution because: • Only one rope, so no redundancy: repeated rubbing against the rock can quickly cut your only rope; counter-argument: this is in the context of top rope soloing, where e.g. the rope is tied to a tree anchor and it goes down a ledge. In lead rope soloing the rope doesn’t move so, in this regard, it’s actually safer than having a human belayer. If you’re not using two ropes to climb a given route, you don’t need to do that when lead soloing either. • Need to have both hands free to make the knots; counter-argument: this is in the context of top rope soloing, so it doesn’t apply, in fact we tie the knots before starting the climb. • In case topping out is necessary to exit the route, retrieving a rope with many knots in it could be complicated or even dangerous; counter-argument: this is in the context of top rope soloing; also: tsk! • Significant potential fall length; counter-argument: that’s true, but that’s why it is a backup system: in 99% of cases we should not need it; when we do, a big fall is a good compromise. • The ascender is not designed to sustain the impact on the knot; counter-argument: this is in the context of top rope soloing; since we’re leading, we need a strong non-toothed device, so we don’t use an ascender, we use the GriGri, which can sustain up to 17 kN against a stopper knot (see chapter GriGri failures); for weaker belay devices we can use backup knots clipped to the harness instead of stopper knots. https://www.petzl.com/INT/en/Sport/Appendix-5--Analysis-of-solutions-observed-in-the-field---Use-of-asingle-ascender-with-knots-in-the-rope-

Stopper knots are an hassle to untie while you are free climbing, so you have to find a good compromise about how far you tie them between each other. If the route is vertical or slightly overhang, 40

with no ledges, you could tie the furthest knots even further between each other, because the higher you are on the route, the higher you can fall without hitting the ground. Slip-knots are way easier to untie (just pull) compared to any other knot; they tend to untie by themselves due to the weight of the spare rope, but if you cinch them good you should be fine. However you have to be 100% sure that you tie them with the right directionality. When you’re trying to untie a slip-knot, by pulling the spare rope you just get the live rope back, cutting slack, so you may not be able to actually untie the knot; a solution I’ve come up with to easily untie a slip-knot, is to put the live rope over your shoulder and then, with the helping friction, pull the spare rope and successfully untie the knot. I demonstrate this technique in this video: https://youtu.be/vhymjrXAW6k If you plan to use stopper knots and you use the Micro Traxion for the cache loop, let’s analyze what happens in case the belay device completely fails to lock - the GriGri, IMHO, will always catch when the cache loop runs out. The Micro Traxion, while not being a backup, will take part in the action by finding itself compressed between the belay device and the stopper knot; it could even break and the system will still work. In this test (factor > 1) the Micro Traxion is slightly damaged but it survives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLar6eXD40E (Micro Traxion Testing for Lead Rope Solo, Yann Camus BlissClimbing)

Therefore, since the Micro Traxion doesn’t directly provide the backup, you may think about attaching it to a gear loop. However, in case of belay device failure you risk damaging the gear loop and possibly even the harness, so it may be better to attach it directly to your harness. Related: The concept of “full-redundancy” in backup systems.

Micro Traxion on the waist belt of the harness

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Weak belay devices + stopper knots

If you use some belay devices that are not the sturdiest thing, you may not trust it to hit stopper knots without breaking, so… you can place a maillon rapide on the belay loop below the belay device (and the rope through) for it to take the hit, but… that is yet another complication in the system and it may interfere with the feeding of the belay device. Therefore you should consider: • Backup knots clipped to the harness: combining the need for the cache loop and the backup belay system in one single system. If you trust the belay device to survive stopper knots, there is still the problem of the weight of the spare rope, which is even amplified by the fact that there are stopper knots tied on it, which means there is more spare rope and therefore more weight. To solve this you may consider: • Backup knots + stopper knots.

Backup belay system 2: Backup knots clipped to the harness The main purpose of “backup knots” is generally meant to be that you have something to save you in case the belay device fails (hence why “backup”). But they also create loops of rope that are the same as the cache loop created by the the Micro Traxion, so they also help with eliminating the weight of the spare rope and with feeding the belay device. Clip backup knots (overhand on a bight), into different carabiners, into either: • Your belay loop. • The waist belt of the harness. • A loop sling passed through the waist belt of the harness. Don’t use slip-knots, you would pull their bight and fall to the ground. Those are only good as stopper knots tied on the spare rope. Whichever knots you choose, just don’t tie them hard, don’t pull them at all, actually: they’re clipped to the carabiners so there’s no problem. Clove hitches are super easy and quick to push out of a normal carabiner (non locking) and they’ll then untie by themselves. However they are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. Also, they are extremely hard to untie even after a standard fall. 42

Excerpt of Brent Barghahn dumping a clove hitch in one second (https://www.brentbarghahn.com/climbing-blog/redp oint-rope-soloing-2021) In regards to the length of the loops (or the length between one knot and the other), that’s the big question and it’s your call: it depends on how much you trust the belay device, the likelihood of falling, how hard is the route, etc.

Option 1: Pre-clipped Clip all the backup knots before you start climbing, each on a different carabiner. When climbing, when the knot is about to jam into the belay device, unclip and undo the knot. Pro: Minimal hassle when untying. Cons: Lots of loops of rope attached to your harness, making it heavy, unbalanced and clustered • Cannot use bombproof lockers / maillons because too much weight. Option 2: Clip while climbing Another option is clipping into the next backup knot every time; of course this is only practical for very easy routes or for aid climbing. Prepare the knots on the spare rope while on the ground. When climbing, you will use two carabiners: when the knot is about to jam into the belay device, retrieve the rope (with the help of your teeth if you don’t have free hands) until you can grab the next bac43

kup knot, then clip it into the free carabiner in your harness. Now you can unclip the other one and untie the knot. Pro: You can use bombproof lockers / maillons since there’s only two of them, so they won’t add too much weight. Cons: Only practical for very easy routes or for aid climbing. In regards to safety, with these systems you don’t only cover a belay device failure, but also the case where the belay device or its carabiner completely breaks and detaches from you: see The concept of “full-redundancy” in backup systems.

Backup belay system 3: Combined system #1: Backup knots + stopper knots

Here the cache loops are short for clarity; they are meant to be quite long.

Two or not much more backup knots with very long cache loops (for the weight of the spare rope), and stopper knots on the spare rope and on the cache loops themselves (as the main backup). This can be considered a fully redundant backup system if not for the fact that the backup knots are very far apart, so it only is in super straight vertical / overhanging walls in multi-pitch climbing.

Backup belay system 4: Combined system #2: The running clove hitch backup tl;dr: don’t use this method. Combining the belay device with the running clove hitch (see Other belay devices/systems); the idea is that the running clove hitch can do the work of both the cache loop manager and the backup belay system, therefore eliminating the need for stopper knots and backup knots. However you still need the Micro Traxion, otherwise the weight of the rope will take back all the slack that you’re trying to give.

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Two opposed HMS carabiners and a belay plate

A single bombproof carabiner plus just the “slackcarabiner” and nothing more

With the GriGri it doesn’t work that well: the running clove hitch works best with thin ropes, but the GriGri is best reliable with thick ropes; the running clove hitch works best when there is backfeeding, so by pulling the carabiner to give slack, you only pull from the cache loop; however, using the GriGri, it holds the live rope a bit, so sometimes you end up cutting slack instead of giving. With a belay device that feeds very well, like the Revo, it’s a bit better. Pro •

With a short enough cache loop, the running clove hitch will act as a true brake hand, allowing to stop a fall before the belay device could engage. So, if you use something like the Revo you theoretically have the ease of feeding of the Revo plus a rather solid backup system.

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The running clove hitch acting like a true brake hand on the Revo, catching the fall before the tuber of the Revo locks Cons • •

•

•

•

Safety Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. If the “slack carabiner” were to catch onto something while you’re falling, the knot will fail. This is a remote possibility, but having a backup system that is not bombproof is not a good thing, and it probably won’t give you peace of mind. If there is slack and you fall, the clove hitch may not re-form correctly on the carabiner, potentially braking the carabiner, especially on the gate; to prevent that you can tie the knot through a belay plate, but it will worsen the friction; or you can use a bombproof carabiner, but it may worsen the friction depending on the carabiner; or you can add two opposed HMS carabiners, but this will also increase friction and is not a guarantee. Ease of use You have to manage three things: the cache loop between the Micro Traxion and the clove hitch, the cache loop between the clove hitch and the belay device, and giving slack with the belay device when you have to clip. This basically defeats the purpose of using a Revo: it just becomes the same hassle of the GriGri + Micro Traxion system, with more cons. To avoid pulling the Micro Traxion’s cache loop, you need the less friction possible, and it will still cut from the Revo-side cache loop too anyway, since that’s where there’s less friction, before only feeding from the Micro Traxion; even when you can pull rather easily, it’s still way worse than a free Revo. To climb up you need to give slack in advance, including on the Revo side: if you only give slack on the clove hitch, it will work but you will get some friction that you will need to counteract with your body/legs/arms while climbing. With other belay devices it just won’t work. 46

•

• •

Only thin ropes are good with this system due to less friction, but you may feel uncomfortable climbing with very thin ropes on certain terrains, and especially with the “shredder” Revo. Sometimes you just don't find the slack carabiner, which is hanging somewhere below, and you waste time trying to grab it. Since it's a clove hitch, it will twist the rope.

The concept of “full-redundancy” in backup systems Stopper knots cover the case where the belay device fails to lock and slips through the rope. However, another possible failure is that the belay device and/or its connector break and completely detach from you, especially in multi-pitch trad and multi-pitch aid climbing after a huge factor 2 fall onto the anchor. This scenario may be fatal because the Micro Traxion becomes the only thing you are attached to, so, together with the stopper knot, it becomes the backup belay system: for this backup system to work, you should clip the Micro Traxion into e.g. your waist belt of the harness (preferably with a bombproof locker because of cross-loading), but the Micro Traxion is a small device and it may simply explode against the stopper knot. In this test (factor > 1) the Micro Traxion is slightly damaged but it survives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLar6eXD40E (Micro Traxion Testing for Lead Rope Solo, Yann Camus BlissClimbing)

Anyway, if you use the the GriGri, which is a very strong device (see GriGri failures), you shouldn’t worry about this second case scenario. If you use other belay devices you may want to improve the backup: • •

Clip backup knots to the harness, or choose backup knots + stopper knots. Keep using stopper knots but use a steel maillon rapide (Ø 8 mm or more) that will jam into the stopper knot before the Micro Traxion does. Of course the rope has to pass through such maillon. To avoid having a mess in your belay loop, you could clip it into your tie-in points. The leg loop is not ideal because while it should be strong enough, you will fall on a side or flip over. In my experience the maillon rapide interferes with the feeding of most belay devices.

Maillon to hit the stopper knot 47

All these solutions create full redundancy in this single rope system. In alpine climbing you may want rope redundancy too; see multi-pitch/Ropes.

Bad ideas Simulating the brake hand

This is a very complex subject. See GriGri + Micro Traxion which probably is the only safe and usable simulated brake hand system. And the running clove hitch as a backup, which however is less safe and smooth. If we could simulate the brake hand, than we wouldn’t have to worry about the belay device failing. So you may be tempted to use e.g. a prusik to simulate the brake hand. The problem is that when falling, it will be the first thing to hold the fall, and so it can damage the rope sheath. Basically, any attempt at creating a brake hand will result in shadowing the belay device and putting all the impact force on the fake brake hand. Whichever fake brake hand you have, if you actually trust it to hold a lead rope solo fall, then you should simply use that as your main belay system. Using more than one belay device

It can make sense on two ropes (however, what a mess), but on a single rope you need slings to separate them, a chest harness/sling, and not only the result will be bulky and it will be a pain to give slack, but there’s so much that can go wrong. Something better is the idea of replacing the Micro Traxion with something that can also function as a second belay device. Professional fall arrest devices like the DMM Buddy have been used; however, professional fall arrest devices require thick ropes (which not only are an hassle to use in free climbing, but may not be compatible / feed well on the main belay device that you use), are not meant for lead falls on dynamic ropes, etc. - see Other belay devices/systems. Another option is the Revo, but it won’t hold the weight of the rope, so you need a third device and the system will become a mess; and if you trust it as your backup you can just trust it as your only belay device. Using more than one belay device can be successfully done in top rope soloing, even though I consider it unnecessary and a hassle. Using two ropes

A mess. Debatable for multi-pitch (see Multi-pitch/Ropes).

Spare rope management Related to Cache loop – Weight of the spare rope. For multi-pitch see Spare rope management in multi-pitch. One method is to carry the rope in a backpack; however, for hard enough pitches it may be annoying, and at the crag it is especially ridiculous and you don’t feel “free” enough in your “free climbing”; so I just leave the rope hanging freely, which never gave me any problem. Another option, if the rope is light enough: Cache loop system 3: Coiled rope passing over the shoulder.

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Additional gear/advices Using the following gear/advices is up to you. Your decision may be based on your experience, the route that you’re about to climb and other factors. • Use a backup: see Backup belay systems. • Helmet: while falling you may hit the head. Also, especially in multi-pitches (but not only!), you may get hit by falling rocks. In lead rope soloing the falls are longer and harsh, so it makes sense to wear an helmet to protect you against bad hits against the rock. • Keep your smartphone in a pocket (not in the backpack) to call for help, especially if you’re alone at the crag or you’re doing a multi-pitch route; to prevent dropping it by mistake you can buy one of those smartphone lanyards and clip it to your harness. • A tubular belay device clipped to your harness, to have something else to lower down with in case things go wrong. I suggest using a Mega Jul so you don’t have to bother with a friction hitch. • A ready-to-use PAS. This will help you in so many different cases. • A nut tool or something similar to help you untie stopper knots and clove hitches, especially if your rope is old and worn out.

Climbing Preparation Tie a stopper knot at the end of the rope in case anything goes wrong. If you are doing multi-pitch this is especially important because pitch length varies, and you are not secured to a partner, so when the rope runs out you’ll fall off the system. For the same reason it’s very recommended that you use a backup belay system. Tie the figure-eight. If you use stopper knots or backup knots, tie them now. Install your belay device. If you use the Micro Traxion, install it now on the spare rope with the right directionality. If you use backup knots, tie them now on the harness. Prepare the anchor and temporarily attach it to a gear loop. Make sure that you don’t cross the live rope with the cache loop(s). A good way to prevent this, assuming you have the Micro Traxion / knots on your right, is to keep the anchor on the left gear loop. If you have the Micro Traxion on the back, or you don’t use it, choose the gear loop depending on how you plan to clip the first bolt. Before starting, make sure that you’ve closed the gate of what attaches yourself to the belay device. This one is basically the most important check that you have to do, and it’s why it is very useful to use a connector with a triple-action locking mechanism. If you use the improved maillon rapide trick, make sure that you’ve closed the maillon rapide of the backup anchor and passed the rope through it; then, temporarily attach the locker to a gear loop; which one depends on how you plan to clip the second bolt.

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Ready to go

Anchoring Climb unprotected to the first fixed bolt (not different than having a human belayer, except you don’t have someone to spot you) and attach the anchor. Remember to close the gate (a triple-action locker is very useful here). Now you have to climb to the second bolt. If you fall here there is a risk to do a factor 2 fall. To prevent that, just have some slack, so it will be a factor > 1 fall but not a full 2 one. However, the more slack, the more you’re likely to fall to the ground. The best thing at this point is just not to fall, especially with the Revo: you will either deck or damage the rope. If you use the Revo, it may be wise to tie stopper knots very close to each other on the first meters of the rope, even if you’re using backup knots; however that’s not enough: because of the FF2-shredding problem, you also need enough slack to get a factor > 1 fall and not a full factor 2 one, which in turn means it’s very likely to deck, though. So, again, just don’t fall or, if possible, go with a tree anchor. If you use the GriGri, for some reason it catches very quickly at this point of the climb, even with very thin ropes like 9.2, so you don’t need to worry about slippage and cache loop length. The reason probably is that since there is very short live rope out, it immediately gets into tension. Revo aside, factor 2 falls are not the end of the world, but it’s better to avoid them because they’re not pleasant and the ropes are only certified for around five falls that have a factor of circa 1,7. See the related chapter Factor 2 falls. Climb to the second fixed bolt and clip the backup anchor. Remember to close the gate (a tripleaction locker is very useful here). Now you’re out of the factor-2-risk section. If there is a serious chance of falling in the first part of the route and/or if it’s very hard to clip, switch between the different anchor systems until you find one that better suits the route. Of course you could also setup the anchor system first, climbing by using whichever means (french free, Kong Panic, clipstick, etc.), then lower, regain your energy, and start climbing the route from 50

scratch with the rope already clipped to the second bolt. Then get ready to mentally masturbate about the climb being a proper redpoint or not (hint: not).

Back-feeding The higher you climb the more you will get back-feeding (the cache loop starts to feed through the belay device due to the weight of the live rope); this means that you’ll have more slack in the live rope than what you’re expecting, and if you fall you will fall for more meters. It also means that the live rope is pulling down, so if you use the GriGri it will feed worse (not when clipping, but while you’re climbing above the last quickdraw). Back-feeding can be particularly bad with the Revo because it is a pulley so the rope will automatically flow through very easily. Solutions: pull the live rope to tension, then: •

Tie a Clove hitch on the quickdraw. This actually creates a re-belay. This can be done with one hand. You can use a locker in place of the quickdraw: when you fall after the next clipped bolt, the carabiner will turn upside-down and this will add very few inches to the fall compared to a quickdraw (which is longer); it’s also safer since the quickdraw could escape the bolt during the flipping. Pro: Can be tied with one hand • After a fall, back-feeding is still prevented. • Since it’s a “blocked” solution, it will serve as a backup anchor; if you care about this purpose, you may consider using a bombproof locker. Warning: Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays. Cons: Potential factor 2 fall before clipping the next bolt; the fall factor can however be lowered by having enough slack above the knot (i.e. giving enough slack with the belay device before and while climbing up); never use a clove hitch with the Revo, see Keith Leary’s accident. • Hard to untie after having fell • You don’t use the whole live rope length for the elongation during falls.

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•

Tie a Munter hitch on the quickdraw, leaving a bit of slack below the knot. This can be done with one hand. The munter hitch is enough to prevent the live rope from pulling down, but in case of a fall it will allow the slack to slide a bit, dissipating some energy, so it will slightly reduce the impact forces.

You can use a locker in place of the quickdraw, like for the clove hitch: even if you do want the fall to be longer, the added dynamism will only come from the sliding slack, not from the quickdraw flipping. Pro: Can be tied with one hand • After a fall, back-feeding is still prevented • No full factor 2 risk before clipping the next bolt, but then requires adjusting the slack again; never use a munter hitch with the Revo, see Keith Leary’s accident. • The first fall (only) will be slightly dynamic. Cons: You don’t use the whole live rope length for the elongation during falls.

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•

Tie a Slip-knot just above the quickdraw. The direction would be such that when you fall it would pop. With some practice it’s possible to tie it with one hand.

Pro: No factor 2 before clipping the next bolt, but then requires re-tying • If you fall it will untie and you will use the entire rope length to soften the fall. Cons: After a fall, back-feeding is not prevented anymore • Hard to tie with one hand while free climbing. •

Tie an Alpine butterfly knot just above the quickdraw.

Pro: If you fall you will use the entire live rope length to soften the fall • After a fall, back-feeding is still prevented • After a fall, any next fall will still use the entire live rope length to soften the fall. Cons: Very hard to tie with one hand while free climbing.

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•

Use rubber bands.

Pictures by Frank Schobel

Some use a mountain bike inner tube (around 1,7 inches). The section has to be wide enough to sustain the load of the rope and not to be teared off during use; thin enough to be strapped easily over the carabiner, somewere inbetween one and two centimeters. Pro: Super quick and efficient. Cons: None.

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•

Use stuff specifically made for this problem. Below, the 3D-printed Groom Hitch by Matty C Skinner (https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/gromm-hitch).

Pro: Super quick and efficient. Cons: You need to print these items. Final considerations

If you want your fall to be the shortest possible (because e.g. there is a ledge below you), then you actually do not want to use the full rope length to soften the fall, so it’s better to use a munter hitch and give the amount of slack you prefer, including none. When lowering after having completed the route, if you have difficulties untying a clove/munter hitch, unclip the quickdraw from the bolt and just leave it on the rope, lower to the ground and retrieve the rope from the live rope end, so you can untie the knot on the ground and retrieve the quickdraw. In place of quickdraws and lockers you could use a bombproof locker to cover cross-loading and cantilever-loading. Using a normal locker for anti-back-feeding I’ve been able to damage its gate. The cons is that carrying some bombproof lockers is going to make you heavy.

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Feeding the GriGri (cutting and giving slack) You have to cut slack yourself, since there is no human belayer. You may want to cut slack after you high clip and after you’ve climbed upward when the last clipped quickdraw is above you. You can easily cut slack with one hand. To do that, you pull the cache loop near the GriGri, to steal rope from the GriGri, like when belaying a top roping partner. To give slack instead, first you pull the cache loop near the Micro Traxion to give rope to the cache loop, stealing it from the spare rope; then the GriGri should simply feed as you climb upward. If you use stopper knots, when a knot is about to jam into the Micro Traxion, of course you have to untie it with one hand before attempting to give slack to the cache loop. The cache loop needs to be free of any hindrance. Friction against some rock feature, your legs, feet, etc., can lock the GriGri. Sometimes, even when it seems that everything is ok and the GriGri should feed, it may not, simply because it locked before (you can visually notice that the cam is engaged) and now it needs help to unlock: just lower your pelvis a bit or manually unlock the cam with one hand, and you’re free to go. Chalk and bad GriGri feeding

The GriGri is extremely sensible to chalk: so if you use a lot of chalk you’ll need to wash your rope all the time; an alternative is to use liquid chalk.

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Clipping After the factor-2-risk section, proceed to climb normally as you would do in a lead free climb with a human belayer, clipping the quickdraws / trad gear as you go. Make sure that you clip the live rope, not the spare rope or the cache loop. That would be the equivalent of not having clipped at all. In the same fashion that you may grab your knot when you have a human belayer to make sure that you have grabbed the rope above the last quickdraw to prevent Z-clipping, grab the rope that comes out of the correct side of the belay device (the live rope side). Also make sure that you don’t pass the live rope through the cache loop(s) by mistake: after a certain point you won’t be able to climb up and you will have to go back to fix your mess. Clipping with the GriGri

Clipping a quickdraw that is around your waist level is fairly easy and safe. However, most of the time climbers clip a quickdraw above their shoulders (“high clipping”) so that when they perform the next move, if they fall it will be like on top rope – they will fall a smaller distance. The problem with this approach is that if you happen to fall while you are about to clip, you will fall with a lot of slack in the system and therefore you will take a scary fall. To be precise, the fall distance would be the same of waist-level-clipping, but you start from a lower point, therefore ending up lower on the route, which is especially dangerous when there are ledges or when you’re close to the ground. Also, consider the fact that you may give more slack than what is needed: in that case even the falling distance itself will be greater.

This downside is easily tackled by finding a good enough stance, scrolling the arm, and clipping quickly with determination. On the other hand, with the GriGri the chance of falling while high clipping is higher because there are more things that you have to do in order to clip (you have to increase the cache loop size, and maybe even manage the loop by moving it around so it doesn’t get friction) and because the GriGri may lock itself while you are trying to give slack. This is how you can improve the situation: • Choose the right rope. See Ropes and GriGri compatibility. • Install the GriGri upside-down (see How to install the GriGri), so it’s easier and faster to pull rope out from it, both downward and upward. • Give enough rope to the cache loop before initiating the clipping process, making sure that the cache loop becomes long enough that you won’t have to go back to fiddle with it again (you need to eyeball); a good hint is give more slack than what you think you need. 57

• • •

Again, make sure that the cache loop is free of any hindrance. Friction against some rock feature, your legs, feet, etc., can lock the GriGri. If possible, you can give rope to the cache loop with one hand and then clip with the other hand, so you don’t tire a single arm. Pull slowly. If you pull too quickly the GriGri will lock. When you’re desperately trying to clip you will probably pull too fast. This system needs you to be in control in your climbing. Anyway, smaller rope diameters will allow you to pull quicker without locking the device.

With the GriGri installed in the standard way (not upside-down), it’s harder to give slack. You need to grab the live rope near the GriGri and pull it down. Pull slow, or do quick and short movements. You will need to eyeball how much slack you need, and it’s typical that it’s never enough: if it doesn’t reach the quickdraw, drop the live rope and start giving slack again. It’s better to have more slack than trying to clip and noticing that you don’t have enough rope, so: give quite an amount, clip, rest the arm, and then cut the excessive slack if needed.

If your arms are giving up and you can’t hold onto the quickdraw, use your last bit of energy to cut the slack, then keep the hand on the brake side of the rope while you fall. These two things will make you fall for a lesser distance. Don’t grab the live rope, you will burn your hands: see Grabbing the rope while falling. If the cache loop is too long, its purpose will vanish; also, the longer it is, the more likely it will get friction against the rock features and it may lock the GriGri. So, if it is too long, open the Micro Traxion’s cam (only one hand needed) and the weight of the spare rope will clean the loop. This only works when the spare rope has a bit of weight, which is when you are at least around the second fixed bolt. If the GriGri still locks too easily: • Chalk and bad GriGri feeding Clipping with the Revo

Theoretically the Revo should feed better than when having a human belayer; however, when you pull the live rope upwards, you will also pull the anchor; so you will reach a point in the movement when, while the Revo would potentially feed, your hand is kept down by the anchor. For this reason you need to give slack in multiple movements, like with the GriGri, unless there is back-feeding; while you don’t want back-feeding, it’s also true that if there is some slack then you can pull with your arm straight up to the quickdraw, and have the smoothest and quickest possible clipping experience. The second thing to consider is the mod; modding the device means that you probably won’t be able to give slack super quickly like with an unmodded Revo. But this depends on how you mod it.

Resting Resting with the GriGri

When you want to rest (giving up or working a section), if you are at the level of the quickdraw or below it, cut all the slack, then hold the brake side of the rope with one hand and simply "sit" on your harness. This allows the GriGri to lock immediately. Don’t hangdog for too long: see Elongation of the rope and bad GriGri feeding. For overhangs, give a push with the legs and keep swinging or you’ll loose contact with the wall; then, clip your PAS to a bolt / quickdraw. 58

Resting with the Revo

If you own a Revo, you know what to do. However, if the route is long enough, it’s important to have a cache loop (even if rather long) to prevent the weight of the spare rope unlocking the device.

Pulling yourself up If you fell and you want to go back to a section, you may want to climb the rope. You cannot do it as you do while having a human belayer because the live rope is fixed to the anchor so you cannot do the “pulley move.” Assuming that you don’t have jumaring devices in your harness when you do single pitches at the crag, you need to grab the live rope, pull yourself up, and cut slack; sometimes grabbing both strands together (the one coming up to the quickdraw and the one coming down) does help.

Falling

Since you don’t have the dynamism of the human belayer, the falls will be harsh in that you will smash against the wall, so remember to always put the sole of your feet towards the wall as a cushion, to avoid hitting your head, hands, etc. Use a rope with a low impact force. Falling with the GriGri

Expect to take long falls, because of back-feeding and because the GriGri may not catch immediately. With thin ropes, the GriGri may not catch until the cache loop runs out. See Ropes and GriGri compatibility. Falling with the Revo

With an unmodded Revo, expect to take insanely long falls. 59

With the modded Revo, still consider that back-feeding is easy to happen with this device, so make sure to manage it. Mentality

Do some test falls in order to get your subconscious to actually believe that your system do work and that your belay device does catch. You can start with small falls below the quickdraw, then increase the fall distance. The first test falls will be scary, but then you will be able to climb, even on difficult routes, with no fear and trusting your system. If you never test your system you will always have doubts about it and you will climb in fear, which is not fun. Grabbing the rope while falling

When falling, sometimes you may instinctively grab the rope with your hands, which is a bad habit to have; the best thing that you can do is to get rid of this habit by practicing falling; anyway, when you have a human belayer, grabbing the rope doesn’t give you any advantage, but it also doesn’t have any particular negative effect since the rope is directly tied to your belay loop. In lead rope solo however, the belay device and therefore the climber are falling through the rope: this means that if you grab the rope you will burn your hands. Moreover, with the Revo, grabbing the rope while you’re falling means that you may not reach the required speed for it to engage. ( Notice however that it’s also true that if you only loosely grab it for a second, e.g. with one hand, due to an instinctive response, this creates very little friction such that it doesn’t really change anything. So, even when you’re not able to control yourself 100%, you still have some margin, especially with the modded Revo. )

However it also means that you can actually arrest a very long fall with your hands, so, preferably with gloves, it can prevent you from hitting a ledge or the ground. Still, it’s obviously better to prevent the long fall (also because you don’t normally climb with gloves), by knowing what you’re doing, preventing back-feeding, and letting your belay device and the backup belay system do their job. 60

Free climbing easy grades with ferrata gloves

Rope drag and quickdraws In lead rope soloing there is no rope drag when climbing up, because the rope doesn’t move, you move through it. However, there is rope drag when falling, because there is always a bit of slack in the system; and if you take a fall on a zig-zag route the fall factor will be a bit higher, and the impact forces greater, especially on the top protection. Moreover, there is the problem of back-feeding. Why do we use quickdraws? • Comfort while clipping. • With a single carabiner it's very easy for the rope to open it and escape. • Quickdraws tend to always maintain a good orientation preventing cross-load. • If the route zig-zags, they allow for less friction. • You wear out only the carabiner that goes to the bolt, the other one stays clean for the rope to flow.

You could use single carabiners in place of quickdraws but it’s still better not to, because the rope could open the gate and escape the carabiner. You could use lockers, but it’s slow. Also, there is a higher risk of cross-loading them when you fall, compared to quickdraws (which always maintain a good orientation). You can however use lockers for re-belays since you are tying a knot on them (see Back-feeding), although it’s safer if they are bombproof lockers. You certainly want to use quickdraws in trad climbing, otherwise you will pull the gear out, and in case of a fall on a zig-zag route there will be drag and therefore a higher force on the top protection.

Lowering If you use the GriGri, you can directly lower with it, after unlocking/removing the Micro Traxion. You can actually even leave the Micro Traxion as it is if it doesn’t bother you. Untie any remaining stopper knot as you go (if you used them). With a GriGri installed upside-down nothing changes:

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Lowering with an upside-down GriGri If the first fixed bolt is significantly high, removing the anchor can be a bit troublesome. My solution is: clip a quickdraw to the anchor bight (where the bombproof locker is attached to) and secure it to your belay loop. Lower a bit in order to release tension on the locker and to load the quickdraw. Now you can safely remove the locker. At this point you’ll find yourself in a self-lowering-with-theGriGri technique situation (https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Self-lowering). The only difference is that in the recommended technique the rope should be attached directly to your tie-in-points. Simply lower with the GriGri and you are safe on the ground.

Lowering after having removed the anchor Lowering with the Revo

If you use the Revo, it lowers like a tubular device, so if you have to retrieve the quickdraws it can be a pain, because you have to manually lock the tuber every time; solution: mod the device; it will lock very easily so cleaning the route will be much more comfortable: since the rope will be alredy in tension, if you let it go it will catch rather fast, and so you will be able to free your hands. If you 62

still don’t like how it lowers, you may want to bring another device with you, or a cordelette to create a friction hitch for rappelling. I suggest the Mega Jul or the Micro Jul, since they are super light.

Friction hitch for rappelling on a single strand; Intelligenza artificiale, Fabio Elli, Diego Pezzoli Mega Jul Closed ring at the crag

We all know what to do in such a situation. However, in lead rope solo we first need to retrieve the whole length of the spare rope, so this can be rather annoying. What you can do is to calculate how much rope you need, and tie the bottom anchor starting from a point in the rope minus the extra rope that you don't need: in this way most of the not-needed rope won't be on the spare rope end but on the live rope end, on the ground. So there will be less rope to retrieve when you're at the top of the route. This is especially useful when the route is very short but you happen to have a rather long rope. Another option is to buy a rather short rope (e.g. 40 meters or even less) for short routes, depending on the crag you generally climb at, so you have less rope length to bother with. Last option is to bring with you a rap line and just leave it hanging on the harness, and use it to lower. However it can hinder the main line depending on where you have your Micro Traxion, so it can become quite a mess.

Soft catch / dynamic belaying Since there is no human belayer to jump when you fall, the only dynamic part in your system is the rope itself, so the falls are a bit more harsh and you slam against the wall. Nothing crazy though, placing the feet forward as a cushion works fine. Or you can use Beal ropes which stretches a lot and are more than enough to have a soft catch. Some solo climbers try to simulate the soft catch with various systems. This is especially useful in trad climbing where you may have insecure protections. The simplest solution is to tie a munter hitch on the third bolt or above and leave some slack: when falling it will slide a bit reducing the impact forces; the same trick is used to manage back-feeding. However this works one single time only and the effect is not outstanding. Others tie a backpack or other weights at the base of the anchor to simulate the body of the belayer; this has not been demonstrated as actually useful and some have doubts it actually works. Another solution is screamers, which however works one time only too. 63

Personally I just use Beal ropes and I don’t bother with other annoying things to setup.

Top rope solo free climbing systems Top rope soloing may be used to study your routes, to quickly re-climb them, for training, etc. Also it’s what you do when you re-climb the pitch in multi-pitch lead rope soloing. Petzl’s tech tips (starting from https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/To-read-for-self-belaying) are certainly a good read, but then of course you need to get real and practical and use less bulky and less redundant systems. Fix your rope to the top anchor (maybe create an anchor yourself in case the master point is not in the best condition) with a bowline on a bight or a figure-eight; always use your own carabiner so, later, if the knot is very tight you can at least unclip the carabiner and proceed to abseil, caring about the knot later on the ground. If the route calls for it, you can use those removable rope protections in PVC. Then, choose your preferred device. If you’re interested in what pro climbers use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCoZBWPCRyI&t=3m42s (Alone On The Wall: Fabian Buhl's Rope Solo Mission | Living Legends S4 Ep3, EpicTV) He uses the Micro Traxion. Since you may already have it for lead, it makes sense for you to do the same. I don’t personally use the chest sling, although it may be smart to use it on traverses to reduce the fall factor, so you don’t risk damaging the rope sheath on big falls. The modded Revo is also a good option: you need to cut slack but it’s very smooth, and you can lower easily. To attach to the belay device, you may want to use an anti-cross-load carabiner, because even if the forces in top rope soloing are quite low, the gate is still a very weak point. You can use normal carabiners for the anchor, since it won’t move, contrary to what happens to a lead rope solo anchor. Before climbing, always check that the Micro Traxion is engaged. With the Micro Traxion and other devices that can’t lower, if you need to lower down to a certain section or the ground, you need to install the GriGri. Having two strands of rope hanging is very useful here, because you can install the GriGri onto the other one, clip it to your harness, load it, disengage the Micro Traxion with the button (or detach it), and simply lower down. If you need to do this many times, it’s better to just top rope with the GriGri itself, even though you would have to cut slack everytime (and it’s difficult to do in top rope because of the weight of the spare rope), or you could opt for a modded Revo, which also gives you the advantage of practicing downclimbing (e.g. for free solos or just for better technique in general). Choose depending on what you want to do: climbing from the bottom to the top in one go, working a section multiple times, or practicing downclimbing. To switch devices, if you have one single strand, either attach with a PAS and do your thing or, while hanging from the Micro Traxion, install the GriGri below, then hold yourself with one hand on the rope, release the weight from the Micro Traxion, and remove its carabiner; you can then sit on the GriGri. If you can’t reach the top of the route by walking, you first have to lead rope solo a nearby route or the route itself by using whichever means (french free, Kong Panic, etc.); don’t use a clipstick from the ground because it’s risky to rely on one single bolt. When at the top, secure yourself with a lanyard and setup the anchor. 64

You already have two strands of rope when you reach the top of the route after a lead rope solo. However, you may want to give more rope to the live rope that you used for leading, in order for that strand to reach the ground once you will undo the bottom anchor later. When lowering for the first time, you may want to choose the strand that was the spare rope and leave the quickdraws on the strand that was the live rope, especially if the route traverses. Remove the bottom anchor that you used for lead rope soloing since you don’t need that anymore. You may want to clip your backpack or something to the rope to keep it in tension (or just coil the rope), so the Micro Traxion will auto-feed in the first part of the route – higher on the route, the weight of the rope itself is enough. When you’re done top roping, ascend with the GriGri and a Petzl Ascender (https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/using-a-gri-gri-to-ascend-fixed-ropes), or just climb; then secure yourself with a lanyard, dismantle the top anchor, and rappel with a tubular belay device on the two strands. I suggest using a Mega Jul so you don’t have to bother with a friction hitch. If you’re worried that you will get tired before reaching the anchor, you may want to avoid fixing the rope to the anchor: just pass it through, and climb by tying the rope to your harness and attaching the Micro Traxion to the other strand, then cutting slack as you climb. The cons is that it wears the fixed anchor, so first check the ethics of the crag. Don’t use this system with the GriGri, it’s way less comfortable. A more advanced method which allows to retrieve the rope from the ground is the blocked rappel (https://www.petzl.com/INT/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappelling-with-a-single-rope#Partie%202). With this method the obvious fatal mistake is climbing on the strand of rope meant for the retrieval.

Top rope soloing with the Micro Traxion

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Top rope soloing with the GriGri

Top rope soloing with the Micro Traxion without fixing the rope to the top

Anchor: bowline on a bight on the master point

Anchor: figure-eight and alpine butterfly

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Multi-pitch I’ll only talk the differences from single-pitch. Hauling and other big wall techniques are not covered in this document. More advanced and risky belay systems like the alpine death loop are not covered either. The systems here described are good for sport, trad and aid. On aid though, you have to be careful with the GriGri, because in case of falling, if you’re standing on a ladder, you may push down its carabiner which will push down the cam of the GriGri so it won’t engage; always have a backup belay system.

Intro – Important! You are not secured to a partner, so you should always tie a knot at the end of the rope in case anything goes wrong, or you will fall off the system when the rope runs out. For the same reason it’s very recommended that you use a backup belay system. If you do trad, use a bombproof carabiner to attach to a strong belay device and/or have a fullyreduntant system. Just to be thorough, note that the belay loop of your harness may be rated for 15kN only, so it can break on some FF>1 falls on static slings; however on a dynamic climbing rope you cannot reach such a high kN value.

Wear your slings nicely, clipping them to a carabiner so they don’t get into your belay device. It must be noted though that if a sling gets into the cam of the GriGri, it can only potentially lock it and not release it. The handle though is a different story; some cut it off, but it’s not necessary, just, again, wear your slings nicely. Since you have to lower and jumar every pitch (to retrieve the gear), you can leave on the anchor all the stuff that you won’t use to free climb a given pitch. You can e.g. clip your backpack to the anchor and climb without it, and recover it later.

Anchor When you start a multi-pitch route, the first pitch won’t have a fixed bolted anchor on the ground; if it’s a sport multi-pitch, you can use any of the anchor systems previously described for single-pitch climbing; if it’s trad, either you have a tree you can anchor too or you have to build an anchor yourself that can withstand upward pulling. For the other pitches, build a typical multi-pitch anchor, but make it so that it works both when pulled down and when pulled up. For sport climbing you are already set up, but if there is a fixed maillon rapide or any other master point in place, avoid using it and build your own anchor using the available bolts of the anchor, because the chains are very likely placed in a way that doesn’t really suit an upward pull. The best thing is to just tie the rope directly to the two carabiners, e.g. with a figure-eight and an alpine-butterfly. In technical words, create a series connection, not a parallel one. It’s up to you to use bombproof lockers or not. Now your anchor is already redundant so you don’t need to use the anchor systems previously described for single pitch climbing. 67

Still, it may be useful to use those systems for example if you want to free solo the first part of a pitch and start self-belaying at mid-pitch, or if the belay station has just a single fixed bolt with no chance of adding a second protection. In these cases though, the bolts are probably far from each other, so you should go for the Anchor system 3: Series connection.

Place the first protection as soon as you can in order to avoid falling directly onto the anchor while you start the pitch. If you decide to create a parallel connection for some reason, use the dummy runner technique on one of the bolts for the same reason - to avoid a factor 2 fall onto the master point, and at the first bolt that you find up on the route use a munter hitch to keep the anchor in tension in an upward position. Now, if you fall, the anchor already is in a good orientation and you don’t risk cross-loading it. Yet another system to avoid falling into the anchor is the “Pluss-Clip”: climb past the belay and clip in the first good protection / fixed bolt, then go back to the belay. Now you can setup your belay station and you’re ready to climb the next pitch with the first protection already clipped. That’s cheating though on a sport climb redpoint perspective.

Series connection: figure-eight and alpine butterfly on bombproof carabiners Careful with using a clove hitch: Clove hitches are a less safe knot when used outside of standard belays.

Cleaning the pitch Also see Top rope solo free climbing systems. You have to fix the rope to the anchor, abseil while retrieving some or all gear, dismantle the previous anchor, and jumar/re-climb to the last anchor while retrieving the remaining gear. 68

While you’re rappeling, especially if the pitch is long, consider tying off the rope at multiple points (re-belays), so when you’ll jumar later, rope stretch will be reduced. Another reason for this is to prevent the rope to rub against the rock on overhangs/bumps: on each of these places tie off the rope like it’s another anchor (no need for redundancy though) and leave some slack. If necessary, you can also use those removable rope protections in PVC. Ideally, you want to leave as much gear in the pitch on the way down and take as much out on the way up: this saves carrying the whole rack back up the pitch and helps keep you close to the wall taking some of the stretch out the rope. Exceptions: pieces of gear that are placed off to the side of the main climbing can be awkward to retrieve when re-climbing the pitch via jumaring, as there will be lots of weight going through the piece of gear; poor pieces of protection will be worth retrieving on the way down because putting weight through the piece whilst jumaring could pull it in a strange direction and it could blow on you unexpectedly. https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/how_to_rope_solo_-_with_pete_whittaker-11160 For rappeling I won’t change the name of the strands of rope: therefore the live rope is the one with the clipped quickdraws. If you use the GriGri or the modded Revo you can immediately absail with these, otherwise you may need to switch device; after having fixed the rope to the anchor, you can either: • Go down the spare rope: (make sure you have enough rope and tie a stopper knot!) Remove/unlock the Micro Traxion (if you used it), and then simply lower down. While you go down the spare rope, untie any stopper knot or backup knot. If the pitch is traversing and/or overhang secure yourself to the live rope with a quickdraw to avoid swinging. Pro: very quick if your device can rappell • If you are not using stopper knots for this pitch, it’s even quicker. Cons: If you use them, you have to untie any stopper knot • If the pitch is traversing and/or overhang, you have to clip to the live rope to avoid swinging off route. • Go down the live rope: Remove/unlock the Micro Traxion (if you used it), remove your device and install it on the live rope, then lower with it. If you use the Revo you don’t need to remove it, just tie the anchor knot on the right side. Pro: Super quick with the Revo • No need to untie any stopper knot (and those still tied can be reused later) • You will never swing off route. Cons: If you have led with anything else than the Revo, you have to detach and re-install it • If you want to leave some gear to retrieve it later when you are jumaring, you have to unclip it and re-clip it.

Re-climbing the pitch Also see Top rope solo free climbing systems. The most common method for re-climbing the pitch is to jumar your fixed line back to the belay. Jumaring is easy, but due to its repetitive nature, after a few pitches it can start to become tiring. On single day ascents, your pack will probably be light enough to carry on your back whilst jumaring. However, if you are covering steeper terrain it can be nice to do a 'mini haul' instead of trying to jumar with it on your back. Attach your pack to the end of your fixed line, jumar the line, then use a Traxion to easily 1-to-1 haul your pack up. Another way to re-climb the pitch is to free climb it again. You can use top rope solo techniques and just Micro Traxion your fixed line back to the belay. When the terrain becomes very easy, jumaring can be more difficult and time-consuming. https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/how_to_rope_solo_-_with_pete_whittaker-11160 69

If you use the jumaring method, if you have the GriGri, you can climb the rope with it, an ascender, and the Micro Traxion: https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/using-a-gri-gri-to-ascend-fixed-ropes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u785RZPrM-c (“Using A Mechanical Ascender To Climb A Rope | Climbing Daily Ep.1554”) If you use the re-climbing method, make sure that the rope is hanging down and is not lying on a ledge: it needs a bit of weight to stretch and not be loose in order for your device (e.g. the Micro Traxion) to automatically feed during the first part of the pitch. Or just manually feed the device during the first few feet. You can re-climb with the GriGri so you don’t need any changeover if you got down with it, however you need to cut slack everytime, and it’s also quite difficult to do in top rope due to the weight of the spare rope.

Final abseil When there is no walking down, the best thing to do is long rappels with a static rap line. See Ropes. You can do a typical absail, but if you have the GriGri with you, you can use it to absail, if you want: • Automoulinette (self-lowering) technique (https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Selflowering). • Descend on a blocked rappel (https://www.petzl.com/INT/en/Sport/Multi-pitch-rappellingwith-a-single-rope#Partie%202). With this technique you can lower for the entire length of your rope, so you can avoid bringing another rope with you: you just need a retrieval cord, very light). These methods are safer than rappeling with a tubular belay device on the two strands made by a single rope tied to a thin rap line, not much because they could untie (if you use a fisherman’s knot you should be fine) but because the rap line may feed through the tubular belay device while the other rope may not, resulting in an uncomfortable rappel, and you risk falling out of the system if you haven’t tied stopper knots. You can also descend on a single strand with a tubular belay device, but in this case you should use this knot here instead of a prusik or a machard:

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Intelligenza artificiale, Fabio Elli, Diego Pezzoli Of course the Beal Escaper is another option, if you’re up for it.

Ropes On multi-pitch you risk that your rope gets cut from falling rocks or things like that. However, in lead rope solo you are kinda forced to use one single rope because of how the belay devices suitable for this activity work - if you are interested, there is Andreas Trunz's rather controversial idea of using two Revos and two ropes (https://auftriib.com/lead-rope-soloing-filling-the-summer-gap/).

There’s also the fact that you would have to carry both ropes up. So, if you use one single rope, it’s very recommended that you use a Unicore rope or a very thick rope: in this last case, unless you use the Revo, the old GriGri 1 is mandatory to have good feeding. I personally use the Beal Stinger III 9.4 mm Unicore Dry Cover when I use the GriGri (GriGri 3). About the final abseil, having one single rope forces you to either use a very long single rope or to bring another rope with you. The last option is better, especially if you use a thin static rap line: just 71

leave it on the bottom of the backpack during the climb and only take it out in the end when you have to do the last abseil, unless you want to use it as a tagline to haul some stuff. I use the Edelrid Rap Line Protect Pro Dry 6 mm. As for the length, it obviously depends on the route, if there is a trail back down, etc.; it’s a good idea to have different ropes and rap lines for different trips.

Edelrid Rap Line Protect Pro Dry 6 mm on the bottom of the backpack

Spare rope management in multi-pitch Before leading the second pitch, stack the spare rope inside an IKEA bag, hanging it on the anchor. I’m serious: it’s generally suggested because you can fold it and fit it easily in the backpack wasting very little space, it’s big when open, and it has the right amount of rigidity and flexibility. Another option is to butterfly coil the rope and neatly clip it to the belay with a short sling, however it’s so easy to get tangles and ruin your day. Of course, if you’re on a good ledge you can just stack it onto the ledge. Another option is to have a second very lightweight backpack and climb wearing it with the spare rope coiled inside, leaving your main backpack at the belay station to retrieve it later after cleaning the pitch. You can tie slip-knots as stopper knots while you stack the rope into the bag or the backpack. A smart way to stack the rope is to pass it through a quickdraw clipped at the anchor so you can easily pull down the rope to put it inside the bag.

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In-depth information Forces Fall factor

First of all, it should be noted that talking about the fall factor only makes sense in the context of a blocked rope (secured at the anchor). The system you are climbing in defines how meaningful it is to use the fall factor concept. When climbing with a partner, you may belay the leader with: • a tubular belay device like the ATC or the Reverso: the belay device lets the rope slide into the device itself dissipating most of the fall energy into friction, which is heat. • an assisted-locking belay device, either those which pinch the rope between the device and the carabiner, like the Mega Jul, or cam-assisted, such as the GriGri; the produced energy in a fall is absorbed less by the rope and mostly by the weight of the belayer. If he weights less than the climber he will be forcefully pulled into the air, if he weights more he can step forward or jump. In both cases this is dynamic belaying. So, when you have a human belayer you generally have a dynamic belaying situation; therefore it doesn’t make much sense to talk about the “fall factor,” more about belay devices and techniques. In lead rope solo however the belayer is a fixed anchor and the belay device is the GriGri or other assisted-locking devices: this makes the system almost completely static, therefore the fall factor concept can be used. Notice that if we choose non assisted-locking belay devices, since we cannot use our hand to help with braking, we would have to use some system that keeps the device forcefully blocked, and this will make the device not dynamic at all, but most importantly it may even sever the rope. See Other belay devices/systems.

Also see Factor 2 falls. Pulley effect

The top protection is the one that takes most of the impact force. Less on the climber, and even less on the belayer. This is the pulley effect. The same mechanical advantage we use in pulleys works against us when we’re on the end of a rope. Because at the point where the rope returns, normally a carabiner, the force of the fall is increased by approximately 66% (it would be doubled except for the friction of the rope against the metal). https://www.camp4.com/fall-factor-explained/ (from Petzl Catalog: http://www.petzl.com)

In a lead rope solo system the belayer is the anchor, and the belay device is attached to the climber, but the top protection is still what takes most of the impact force. Actual forces in real falls (some numbers)

With a dynamic rope, in a fall on a blocked rope and with one quickdraw, on the climber end of the rope you can get a maximum impact force of 12 kN. Due to the friction of the quickdraw (assuming a friction coefficient of 1,5) the impact force on the anchor end of the rope is 8 kN. Therefore the quickdraw is subjected to the sum of the two forces: 20 kN. That’s why quickdraw’s carabiners are rated like that on the major axis. Club Alpino Italiano manuals, 2014

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However, in normal climbing situations, the forces are much lower than the maximum. Petzl demonstrated (https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Forces-at-work-in-a-real-fall) that, when belayed by a partner with the GriGri 2, the forces are generally: • Around 3 kN on the climber. • Around 2 kN on the belayer. • Around 5 kN on the anchor. When the anchor is (almost) blocked (fixed point): • Around 4 kN on the climber. • Around 2 kN on the belayer. • Around 6 kN on the anchor. Conclusion

The difference between lead rope solo and having a human belayer, regarding the forces that happen during a fall, is that in lead rope solo we have a static belaying system, so the impact force is dissipated mostly by the rope elongation. Therefore the impact forces are slightly higher but still absolutely safe. For trad climbing though it’s important to understand that the impact force on the last mobile protection is higher. However, in lead rope solo you cannot check everytime what’s going on at the anchor and on your belay loop, so we enter the problem of cross-loading: see the next chapter, Cross-loading and cantilever-loading.

Cross-loading and cantilever-loading When you have a human belayer, you basically never cross-load because: • Belay: you can keep an eye or just feel how the belay device is attached to your harness and re-adjust in case; for additional safety, you can use a carabiner with an anti-cross-load system. • Anchor (both multi-pitch anchors and top rope anchors): once your anchor is set up correctly, the carabiners won’t move (much) and will stay loaded on their stronger major axis, and towards the side opposite to the gate). However, when you lead rope solo: • Belay: you cannot constantly check your belay device and on harder pitches you cannot free your hands; even if you can, it’s bothersome to fiddle around with the system while you’re free climbing. • Anchor: your anchor is moving all the time while you climb up. When using a normal carabiner as the anchor, it may very easily rotate such that the gate is pressing onto the bolt/rope. Falling in that situation could break the carabiner. Also, the carabiner can get stuck into the rock, getting stressed in bad ways (cantilever load) to the point of breakage. As we’ve previously seen, the anchor + belayer can receive up to 6 + 2 kN of impact force in normal climbing situations. Considering that most carabiners have 7 kN on the minor axis if not less, and that the gate has no certification requirements at all, you can start to see how this is a problem. This problem becomes even more important if we consider factor 2 falls, which can happen in two cases when lead rope soloing: • When using the first fixed bolts of the pitch as the anchor and falling directly onto the first one (at least here we’re very close to the ground though). • When falling directly onto the anchor in multi-pitch solo climbing, for whatever reason - including the case where you’re trad climbing and all of your pieces fail. 74

Proof that carabiners can break during rope soloing: • Tom Randall, carabiner broke in factor 2 long fall: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13200305300 Notice that he didn’t use the anti-cross-load feature of the DMM Belay Master carabiner (more on this carabiner in What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load). All that said, it is therefore important to carefully choose which gear to use and how to use it. What gear to use: steel, minor axis, gates, cantilever-load

The first solution that you may come up with to prevent cross-loading is to use stronger gear: steel is the obvious option. However, if used as the anchor, the carabiner can get in bad positions and stress the gate (Cantilever load on locking nuts and/or the rock), and the gate is not really bombproof in steel carabiners either; there is the option of using Z359.12 ANSI carabiners (credits: Matty C Skinner), which means minor axis is 16 kN and the gate can withstand 16 kN from all directions. I personally use the Petzl Oxan Triact-Lock M72A TLA. Good: anchor problem solved.

For attaching the belay device though, steel carabiners are bulky and heavy. So we could use non-steel but with a high enough minor axis value. But the gate would still be weak. A maillon rapide is generally suggested to attach the belay device. You will notice that very different maillons all have 10kN as the minor axis value. They are not really breaking at 10kN though, they just start to deform, and it may be hard or impossible to manually open them after the accident. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7rg20Fy4cc (Slack Snap - QuickLinks cross loaded are all rated the same??? by HowNOTtoHIGHLINE). Basically that value is the WLL (working load limit) and not the BL (breaking load); the latter is generally 5 times higher. As you can see in the video, the deformation happens quite soon, but to actually break the maillon it takes way more load. That said, another important thing about maillons is that maillons tend to always slide in a noncross-loaded position due to their shape. Maillons however are not so fast to set up compared to lockers, and this may be annoying especially in multi-pitch climbing; moreover, they don’t fit certain belay devices. So… we enter the magical world of anti-cross-load carabiners. 75

We could use a non-steel carabiner with an anti-cross-load system, like for example the CT Concept SGL HC. However, these carabiners generally only have one single internal wiregate, which makes the system useless for lead rope solo because they can still cross-load in case it’s the part without the internal wiregate that cross-loads, e.g. while the GriGri is fine, the belay loop may cross-load the carabiner (or, for the anchor, the rope bight may cross-load the carabiner). In general, lockers like these can get into weird positions and still cross-load:

The positions in the picture are not random demonstrations: I actually pulled, in those positions, and they didn’t slide into better ones. Basically they are good for belaying a partner (where you still have some control over them), but not for self-belaying. When belaying a partner, how do you attach these carabiners? Some are meant for the narrow side to attach to the belay device, others the opposite; read the instruction manual.

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Lockers with a good enough anti-cross-load system are: • DMM Ceros Locksafe (credits: Garrett Knoll): has the tooth on top-right to stop the device from sliding. • Mammut Crag Smart HMS: has the plastic guard. • Metolius Gatekeeper: has a good shape.

DMM Ceros Locksafe On first look, the DMM Belay Master 2 too, but not really. There are reviews online that report that the plastic guard can open by itself, making the whole design pointless. With these carabiners, especially the Ceros, it makes sense to set up the GriGri on the wide side of the carabiner, because the belay loop can easily escape the tooth. With the Revo there is physically no other option. Again, don’t use these for the anchor: see Cantilever load on locking nuts and/or the rock. How to tighten the maillon rapide

Both for anchors and to attach the belay device, hand tightened is enough; and avoid tightening too hard too. Using a key is only needed for permanent anchors because with time and meteorological events it could unscrew.

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If you can’t open the maillon, after ensuring that it’s the correct direction, use your shirt so your fingers don’t slip. Another option is to girth hitch a Sterling HollowBlock or a short loop sling and use it as a wrench. Finally you can buy something like Slacktivity's climbing tool “YoureScrewed.” If you always mistake the opening direction, use adhesive tape to help you with that.

Considering other gear

Adventuring on weirder gear, there is the Petzl Omni: its omnidirectionality for loads is intriguing. But its manual says that cross-loading it is still dangerous: cross-loading in this case means that the load is pulling the gate, see the picture. It says that it can take up to 15 kN in that position, but very likely less if the gate itself is stressed. In fact its specific intended use (cheImage: Petzl st harness) avoids stressing the gate and the tests that you can find on the internet don’t stress the gate directly. So, thumb down. Then there is the Petzl Ring Open, but it needs a key to lock/unlock, so not very practical.

Factor 2 falls In this chapter we talk about factor 2 falls in the context of lead rope solo climbing. Please first read Forces and Cross-loading and cantilever-loading. Factor 2 falls can happen in two cases when lead rope soloing: • When using the first fixed bolts of the pitch as the anchor and falling directly onto the first one (at least here we’re very close to the ground though). • When falling directly onto the anchor in multi-pitch solo climbing, for whatever reason - including the case where you’re trad climbing and all of your pieces fail. Full factor 2 falls actually never happen

It must be said that factor 2 falls are rare to happen in real life: first of all your body is not an 80 kg metal block in a drop tower, so the impact force is lower just because of how your body is made. Also, by just having some slack before starting the fall, the factor decreases even more, and we generally always have some slack while climbing. When we talk “factor 2 falls” in climbing, it’s just an approximation.

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How many kN can the human body take (and how ropes reflect that)?

The human body can only handle, for a brief instant, a shock force of 12 kN without risking serious injury. https://www.camp4.com/fall-factor-explained/ This value comes from military studies on paratroopers: the human body can withstand a maximum deceleration of about 15 G, or 12 kN for an 80 kg mass. https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/How-was-the-max--impact-force-of-12kN-determined1. The existing legal limit of 8 kN for the Maximum Arrest Force in the industrial , personal fall arrest systems applies exclusively to the shock load (MAF) directed into the sub pelvic area and acting upwards along the spine. 2. The MAF of 8 kN (the existing limit) may lead to a serious injury or a fatality when applied perpendicular to the spine, from the back towards the front in the waist area (+X). Such loading may occur in some ladder fall protection systems, unless the length of the link between the user and the system’s rail (or a wire rope) is severely restricted. 3. The MAF of 8 kN (the existing limit) may lead to a serious injury when applied laterally, perpendicular to the spine, from the side in the waist area (Y). Such loading may occur when the FAS is attached to the side Dring on the harness. 4. Not all of the currently available North American and European personal energy (shock) absorbers can be considered safe for the MAF acting along the +X or the Y axis. https://www.fallpro.com/fall-protection-info-center/online-articles/maximum-arrest-force-limit-in-fall-arrestsystems/

The absolute limit is 15 G. For upside-down falls, the deceleration however is just 4-6 g. Anyway, applying the mass of 80kg, the physiological safe limit becomes circa 12 kN. That’s why the UIAA-CEN regulations says that the ropes must elongate for at least the amount necessary for the maximum impact force to be not over 12 kN (on the climber end of the rope), and that they need to hold up at least 5 high impact falls with a mass of 80 kg. Club Alpino Italiano manuals, 2014 Ropes are actually designed to work in this extreme case (ed. fall factor = 2), in which they have to guarantee that the induced strain is in any case tolerable by the human body. Club Alpino Italiano manuals, 2014 Force rating of dynamic ropes

The force rating indicates the maximum amount of force the rope can deliver to a falling climber, measured in kilonewtons (kN), under test conditions designed to simulate a hard fall (ed. factor 1,77); typical live ropes range from 9 kN up to an Arborist's 24 kN. The force rating is often misunderstood by climbers, because all other climbing gear is rated by the breaking strength (in kN) of the material. Whereas a higher rating (indicating greater strength) is desired for other gear, for dynamic ropes a lower rating is generally desired, as this indicates it would give a “soft catch” that is less likely to injure the climber or break or dislodge protection or anchors. http://www.alpineexposures.com/pages/faq-climbing-ropes-explained-test-uiaa Rope breaking

There are no documented cases of a rope breaking under "normal use". The documented occurrences of rope breakages in the field are attributed to pre-exposure to sulfuric acid or by being cut by a sharp edge. Sterling Rope Guide to Rope Engineering, Design, and Use 79

Conclusions

Factor 2 falls while lead rope soloing are not dangerous unless you fall directly on your back/spine, or upside-down, or you badly hit the rock or some ledge (obviously). The rope will never break from the impact force alone. The Revo however can shred the rope in a factor 2 fall because of how it pinches it. Cross-loading and cantilever-loading must be counteracted using appropriate gear and/or techniques. The lower the force rating of your rope the better, to avoid smashing into the wall after any type of fall. A rope can probably only take 5 falls of factor > 1,8 circa before it should be trashed (or at least it looses most of its elasticity). On the contrary, it can take hundreds upon hundreds of factor < 1 falls.

Clove hitches in the context of lead rope solo climbing The knot is not that safe when used outside of standard belays. See https://www.andykirkpatrick.com/blog/view/clove-hitch-issue). Also, they are extremely hard to untie even after a standard fall. That said: • The problem probably only exist in factor 2 falls - where the knot as an anchor is getting all the kN of the fall, or if you fall on a clove-hitch re-belay - where the knot is suffering from the pulley effect. When used as a backup knot clipped to the harness the knot is probably fine? • The problem can be worsened by the tension when creating an LRS anchor, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZMEuthPKhA (Yann Camus BlissClimbing - Rope Solo Anchoring to 2 bolts); leaving some slack may help with the knot performance. • The problem of the carabiner snapping can be solved with a bombproof locker. And if the knot is used only as a backup, the minor rope damage can be justified by assuming that it’s very rare that the backup system would be needed, if using a rather reliable belay device. Still, carrying steel carabiners on the harness is very heavy and therefore not ideal.

Anchor: more info You don't always have trees for anchoring, therefore the main anchor system is securing to the first fixed bolts of the route. Fixed bolts take pulls in all directions and generally take up 20-30 kN. They are made to be the top protection in the previously described pulley effect, together with a quickdraw; this means that using them as a lead rope solo anchor is going to stress them less than their normal use. Other anchor systems: Munter hitch (unsafe)

On the second fixed bolt, use a locker and tie a munter hitch, leaving some slack. In case of failure of the first bolt, the figure-eight of the main anchor will jam against the munter hitch. This has been proven to fail by Matty C Skinner. Cantilever load on locking nuts and/or the rock

Most fixed bolts have a locking nut and/or the bolt itself protrudes the rock for quite some inches. This is not a problem for the quickdraws hanging downward, but our anchor’s carabiner / maillon rapide will hang upward, creating a cantilever situation against the locking nut / bolt. The strength of a carabiner in this case can be less than 30 % of the major axis strength. https://www.petzl.com/INT/en/Sport/Examples-of-dangerous-carabiner-loading-#6.porte 80

A Ø 10 mm steel maillon rapide or a bombproof locker will cover this problem. Most glue-in bolts are eye bolts or similar, and they do not have a protruding bolt or a locking nut; still, cantilever loading can also happen against the rock itself, depending on its features. So in this case too it’s best to use appropriate gear.

Examples of cantilever load

Rotating hangers

After a fall, the hanger where your anchor is attached to could rotate. Always bring with you a nut tool with the key or something like Slacktivity's climbing tool “YoureScrewed” to reposition the hanger and re-tighten it. It’s our duty to keep the crags ok.

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Changelog Not including very minor corrections, typos, etc.

2022/04/14 • Added link to the Revo modding video. 2022/01/10 • Added Petzl Shunt in devices not to use. 2022/01/09 • More about the upside-down GriGri. Also rephrasing a lot of sentences to not downplay the importance of the high-clip failure. 2022/01/08 • Expanding on clove hitch safety issues. 2021/12/14 • Added safety issues with clove hitches as backup knots. • Added a picture demonstrating dumping a clove hitch backup. 2021/11/19 • Added a copying license. • Adding a “Required knowledge” section with info about the basics of belay devices and belay techniques in general, after the recent YouTube video featuring Magnus Midtbø and Adam Ondra which displays not recommended belay techniques. 2021/10/17 • Chalk as a GriGri feeding problem. Thanks to Berg Bazi’s testing. • Added the IR Gnome belay device. • Moved up the back-feeding section due to its importance especially for a LRS beginner. 2021/10/15 • Added a link to the 3D-printed Groom Hitch file by Matty C Skinner. 2021/08/12 • More about the clove hitch for anchoring. 2021/06/30 • Updates on how I personally climb these days. • Yet more additions and changes about the Revo. 2021/06/20 • Included the always-up-to-date-version link in the document index. • Yet more edits about modding the Revo, after more testing by my part. 2021/06/09 • Terminology in the quick link trick. 2021/06/03 82

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More changes and additions about the Revo again, since it’s what I’m focusing on recently. Ways to open a tight maillon.

2021/05/27 • New schematics for the introduction; thanks Yann Camus for suggesting the safety knot on the tail. 2021/05/26 • Big revamp for the Revo, including how to mod the device. 2021/05/19 • Being more neutral about the Revo. 2021/05/14 • Some additions in top rope soloing. • Mentioned the Beal Escaper for multi-pitch. 2021/05/13 • More about my own Micro Traxion positioning. • Added my shoulder technique to untie slip-knots. 2021/05/11 • More about the Revo. Including Keith Leary’s accident. • Moved other devices up in the document. 2021/05/10 • Added rubber bands for back-feeding. • Anti-cross-load carabiners are not a bad idea for top rope solo too. 2021/05/05 • More about professional fall arrest devices. 2021/05/02 • Changes in Bad ideas → Using two belay devices and in Simulating the brake hand. • Added the Edelrid’s Jul family. • Correction on my system which uses the Micro Traxion on the back of the harness. 2021/04/27 • Complete revamp of the manual, incorporating the Revo, and adding a lot of corrections and info. The document now has enough information to cover not only a single specific system but to be considered a proper “lead rope solo manual.” Also, more pictures. 2020/12/20 • Improvements on forces, cross-loading, cantilever-loading, and factor 2 falls. • Revamp on what gear to use to attach the GriGri. 2020/12/16,17 • Revamp of the anchor systems; added the series connection system. • Fixed internal links. 2020/12/13 83

• • • • •

Link on top of the document which always points to the latest online version. The index is now more readable. Ropes I use. Info on Beal Birdie. More on my Micro Traxion positioning.

2020/12/01 • Big improvements on multi-pitch. • Options for closed rings at the crag. • Updated GriGri failures section. 2020/11/23 • More about ANSI Z359.12. 2020/11/03: • New pictures/schemes to summarize my lead rope solo system. • Complete revamp of the maillon rapide trick and the section "Cross-loading", plus minor edits here and there to reflect these changes; thanks to Stefan Jacobsen, Gregory Paul German, and Matty C Skinner. • New picture for cantilever loading. • Improvements on rope and GriGri compatibility. • Improvements on soft catch. • Bad GriGri feeding causes are all in one chapter. • Reorganization of the chapters. 2020/??/??: • Removed the munter hitch anchor system because it has been proven to fail; a big thank you to Matty C Skinner.

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