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RocaLibre
Trad climber
Mexico City, Mx
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 5, 2010 - 10:06pm PT
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Can anybody recommend a good source of information (maybe taco links?) on belay systems to solo aid climb, can't find much on the usual textbooks
gracias
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Top of the 5.2-5.12 Boulder
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Double 'biner, clove hitch set up.
It Works, It's cheap & easy.
Free climbing sux with this system.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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,,,,, although its not much better with any of the others! lol
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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Ask the old farts and they will all rave about the clove hitch. Including me. Two reversed carabiners. No lockers used BITD. If you wanted to free climb, you had to yard out a ton of slack and go for it. And hope that it didn't all snake back down to the belay and get hung up on something.
That said, I loved it. (note past tense)
Hell, it took me forever to get over a sewn sling. Knots were good. Sewing was not that good back then. Or so everyone thought. It was really weird giving up your precious swami, which you could wear all summer long if you didn't take a shower. Soap was evil on all counts. Lack of personal hygeine was an art.
The good thing about soloing is that you don't have rope drag, since you are feeding rope from the free end.
Now PTPP will get on here and tell you the BETTER WAY. Which I no doubt believe, because he has soloed a ton of routes and is lazy to boot.
He made a ton of technical posts on the subject over on rockclimbing.com or here on the taco if you look them up.
edit: just PM Pete. I am pretty sure that he uses a grigri. I know that some people using this will modify it a little.
disclaimer: You will probably die.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Keepin' it simple...
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Great cartoon, Joe!
As a BITD solo aid climber, who's returned to the game fairly recently after a 35-year layoff, the double-carabiner clove hitch method works about as well for aid as anything. I've used Jumars backed up by a prusik and tie offs, as well as the Barnett Method (See Advanced Rockcraft if you want to know what it is, but don't try it! Even though I've held myself in falls up to ten or fifteen feet using the Barnett Method, I've read and heard too many horror stories about ropes failing to catch or trying to melt.
Better yet, if you're planning on doing a lot of soloing, consider investing in a Silent Partner. It's easily my favorite for general soloing because of its ease in paying out the rope on free climbs.
Three words for any system, though: Back it up! Tie the rope in with no more that about 20 feet of slack so if the system fails to catch, your fall lenghth is limited.
I hope you have fun!
John
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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It's Pete's drawing, I just posted it up...
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adamiata
Ice climber
Candia, NH
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That picture has always confused the hell out of me. I'm counting 3 rope bags and 4 separate ropes there. Maybe Pete's having a little laugh at our expense.
I've done some multi-pitch aid solos using a Gri-Gri and two ropes, which worked very well. But I'm still pretty much a big wall theorist, so maybe I'm missing something.
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Prod
Trad climber
Dodge Sprinter Dreaming
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Base,
I read Chongo's book and found it mildly entertaining. I think I shelled out a hundy for the thing.
Healyje said...
Keepin' it simple...
Hahahaha.
I thought Pete dropped that continous loop system? There are some good/ great pieces of advice in that pic though.
Prod.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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After playing around with all kinds of rope-solo setups [SP, Solo-Aid, Soloist, Gri-Gri, modified Gri-Gri, a Gibbs/Stich Plate/knot thing ...don't ask] I'm always drawn back to the clove hitch on reversed biners for mostly aid climbing. My biggest problem, probably stemming from being a true coward, is not feeding enough rope out for the free climbing sections. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up about 12" short of a stance, belay anchors, or good hold because of this.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Top of the 5.2-5.12 Boulder
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Yep, that can be terrifying.
Pulled up tight against your knot, frantically tryin' to get just a bit more cord. Yowza! Hate that part!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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the silent partner is the way to go.
it takes some getting used to, but once you buddy up with it,
you can solo aid, and solo free climb, easily transitioning between the two.
the only hitch is that it sucks for top rope soloing. so you'll have to employ another gadget for cleaning your pitches.
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rick d
climber
ol pueblo, az
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I'm also drawn back to the clove. I've taken 30 footers on them, I've fought them on free climbing, but in the end the simplicity of the system rules. I owned a silent partner and had little success with the bulky POS. I still have not used a gri gri and don't see the point when I always have the clove system with me.
as for the PTPP image, what a cluster fark.
(I also don't use fifi's)
I am a convert to adjustable daisies!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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bulky? what do you mean rickd?
i feel like a loose feather upon the up-drafts!
once i waft lightly upon the summit,
i down one of these up-draughts:
cheers to travellin' light.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
obsessively minitracking all winter at Knob Hill
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The clove hitch remains the only system to ever chop the end off my left ring finger.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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If you eliminate the rope and bag on the left, Pete's drawing is quite simple and the system is quite elegant.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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The only aid I've soloed was one pitch stuff using (what else) a clove hitch. Never had an opportunity to test it out on something bigger though that was always the intention.
I doubt I'll ever muster the time, energy or capacity for suffering to solo the Captain, but it makes me wonder. Are there any or many instances of soloist dying due to their system failing. I know soloists have died due to exposure, etc., but are there any stats on others who bought the farm?
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John Mac
Trad climber
Littleton, CO
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I use a silent partner as well. Well worth the money and steep learning curve. Gotta use a nice smooth running rope. 10.2 works really well.
For free climbing I have the rope in a small bad on the back. I perfer this to loops. Like Healyje! I copied his system. Thanks.
For aid climbing I use the continuous rope method (although this isn't a good descriptive name for it) and best damn rope bag ever made. The Fish Snake charmer!
If you shoot me an email I can send you some diagrams of my system.
Have fun and always have a backup in place and keep things really simple.
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Slakkey
Big Wall climber
From Back to Big Wall Baby
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John Mac I would be interested in your diagrams sent you a message via the taco
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