RRC Archives

do people rope-solo sport routes in the red? if so, how do you build the anchors?

if you have to ask, don't do it.

LOL I have seen it done a few times in the red, the last time was at the lode with some strong (dumb) canadian climber. He took a fall on Team Wilson. It was hilarious after we realized he didn't kill him self

I agree, and if you were to lead solo, the falls would most likely be much greater since you don't have someone constantly taking slack and locking off the belay device.

You should probably just look in to top rope soloing, but since you are by yourself you have to find a route where there is a trail to get to the top of it. The most convenient way of doing that I have read is having two ropes, one two feeding through your Gri, and then you attach a counter weight at the bottom of the rope, like a backpack. Then on the other rope you tie tons of loops, and you are always clipping and unclipping in to these loops to ensure that if your Gri fails, at least the loops will stop you from falling all the way. You clip and unclip in to the loops with the same technique as Via Ferrara, you should never be unattached from a loop at any moment.

Since you don't know how to build anchors, you should read up on that. There is some great tips for setting up a top rope in my book "The Complete Climber's Handbook" available at Borders.

Here is some info from there, and some of my own thrown in there also:

Tips for top roping:

Always use two caribeaners, it is not only for redundancy, but also because if the rope goes strait up, and then goes over one beaner and strait back down, it bends the rope so much that it reduces the strength of the rope by allot. Using two beaners makes it so there isn't as much of a bend in the rope.

Always run two ropes from the tree to the beaners for redundancy; if one of the ropes snaps, the other one should be able to independently hold the climbing from falling.

Use a rope pad like a towel, or the bottom side of a rug(the top side can melt the rope, never use the fuzzy side) on the edge of the cliff so that your anchor ropes don't get cut. Sometimes this isn't necessary, but it will almost always reduce wear and tear on your rope, and also help keep it from getting dirt in it which can work it's way to the sheath and then to the core jeopardizing the ropes strength.

Always wrap the tree you rig to with something like a towel to avoid rope abrasion.

If the tree is a conifer, it has a shallow root base, only rig to one that is 8 inch in diameter. You can rig to a 6 inch diameter tree if it is not a conifer. If you have any doubts about the tree you are rigged to, you should always tie a separate rope from that tree, to another tree, and it should be located behind the first tree away from the cliff, so I am trying to say, if the second tree is off to the far right or left of your 1st tree, that won't help you at all.

wow, dude! i didn't realize you cared so much for my well-being! but since you do, rest assured i will not be attempting anything unless properly informed or trained. did it ever occur to you that i may have rope-soloed trad as well as sport routes in other parts of the country and i just may have been asking about principles and practices at the red?

Well if you didn't know how to set up a anchor, then my reply is no. Well it's pretty obvious you shouldn't use the first bolt for an anchor since anchors should consist of at least two pieces of protection for redundancy.

If you have trad gear, then all you have to do is find a route where you can set up some pieces of it at the bottom. I would use opposing pieces myself, you wouldn't want your pieces falling or rotating out of the cracks they are in. And trees are always nice, just use two of them. Don't forget the angle in which you connect your anchors to one point should never exceed 60 degrees(0 degrees is optimal of course). If you do use trees, I would use webbing, and do a wrap 3 on them, that will prevent the rope from slipping up the tree, but low branches on a tree would also help. A wrap 3 also prevents tension from ever being applied to your knot. The knot we use in caving is a waterknot, backed up on both sides by double over hand knots. You can use just 2 double over hand knots opposing, but it's not as safe. I wouldn't recommend only using a waterknot since they can untie themselves with time according to Rock Climbing by Jogn Long. He calls the waterknot something else though.

Buy a Silent Partner (Wren Industires). Read the booklet that comes with it. Go climbing. Be careful.

Redpoint wrote:. Well it's pretty obvious you shouldn't use the first bolt for an anchor since anchors should consist of at least two pieces of protection for redundancy.

Um, I use the first bolt for stuff like this all the time. Sometimes I add the 2nd as well. Since you are most likely betting your life on one bolt for much, if not all of the first half of many rrg routes much of the time anyway, might as well at least embrace it.

hey redpoint thanks for your help. little fyi, my smartass remark was not directied toward you, but rather toward pigsteak for his enlightened initial response.

pigsteak wrote:if you have to ask, don't do it.

quit arguing with redpoint all you newbies! you need to listen an expert.