34
votes
How can someone fall 3m to the ground while top-roping & how to prevent it?
If you're top roping on a 14.5m climb, 10% stretch* in the 29m of rope between you will be up to 2.9m. In practice there's less rope than that between you, but if there's a little slack in the rope on ...
- 7,737
18
votes
How can someone fall 3m to the ground while top-roping & how to prevent it?
Not aiming to repeat what Separatrix has said; So assuming he's going to be hitting the floor just because of the stretch, you want to minimise slack.
To do this, firstly you want to see if there's a ...
- 280
16
votes
Accepted
Rock climbing over edge - What can I put under the rope to protect it?
Top roping over sharp edges is never recommended, but if you insist that's what you want to do then what you want is an edge roller:
You can anchor it to the top bolts and hang it right over the edge ...
- 53k
12
votes
Accepted
Is a single strand of webbing unacceptable for climbing anchors?
As with most things in climbing, I myself would not go as far as saying this is generally unacceptable. In multipoint anchors there are often single strand connections between one point and the ...
- 21.5k
12
votes
Accepted
(Why) Should I hold the rope when belaying the second climber with Reverso?
All of the listed reasons hold true, and can largely be simplified to the fourth: never let go of the brake strand unless you have tied it off. This maintains good habits and also mitigates potential ...
- 8,358
12
votes
Accepted
How to belay top-rope climbers who are ascending quickly?
Special devices: @imsodin is right in suggesting a GriGri.
For the method:
The common trick is to have two "belayers." One attaches the GriGri on their harness as usual. The second person stands ...
- 1,109
12
votes
Would top-roping in this limestone quarry be reasonable?
From the technical side I do not see any major issues. Assuming you made a proper, redundant top-rope anchor, your main concern should be a possible sharp edge at the top which can be countered with a ...
- 6,135
11
votes
Accepted
"Used" top rope when bouldering
With due respect to Ben Crowell, who is I believe a far more experienced outdoorsman than I am, I beg to differ with his answer. (Edit: his answer prior to revision.)
Having worked at a very small ...
- 9,445
11
votes
How can someone fall 3m to the ground while top-roping & how to prevent it?
Rope stretch is definitely a factor, but something I always do when I am unsure is I sit on the rope before climbing. What I mean is to have the belayer take in any loose rope, and then let your body ...
- 534
9
votes
Why static rope rather than webbing for toprope anchors?
In addition to the other answer I'd like to add that ropes are way safer than webbing in a scenarion where it actually comes in contact with rock. This is the case in top rope anchors when you have to ...
- 1,717
8
votes
Why static rope rather than webbing for toprope anchors?
Static rope may not be that much more expensive than equivalent tape and is certainly a lot more versatile. In particular rope gives you a lot more options for reliable knots which are also be ...
- 6,172
7
votes
Rock climbing over edge - What can I put under the rope to protect it?
Apart from what ShemSeger suggested if you are looking for a make-shift option for now, you can get an inner rubber tube that people use for Cycles. Cut it and run the rope through it at the edge ...
- 31.5k
7
votes
Rock climbing over edge - What can I put under the rope to protect it?
Use a piece of Scrap carpet or throw rug on the rock edge to protect the rope.
- 30k
7
votes
How to inspect climbing bolts?
To add to a set of already great answers I would like to add two points: Glued bolts and weird old bolts.
There are generally two types of bolts used presently: Mechanical and glued bolts. Mechanical ...
- 21.5k
7
votes
How to inspect climbing bolts?
In old routes in European (at least) mountains and in quarries used by cavers for training you can find small expansion bolts called spits or Cheville Autoforeuse. They use just 8 mm thick screws and ...
7
votes
When making an anchor with static rope around a boulder, what knot should I use
Your current choices are good.
For a fixed loop in the middle of a rope, an alpine butterfly is a solid choice. I can think of alternatives, but no really better ones.
For a loop at the end of the ...
- 1,887
6
votes
How can I transfer my weight to a toprope anchor at the bolts?
I wouldn't do this the way you propose. If I understand you correctly, you want to clip the top bolt, then have your belayer hold your weight while you set up a top anchor, and you want to know how to ...
- 53k
6
votes
How can I transfer my weight to a toprope anchor at the bolts?
You are clearly overthinking this. Even if your are hanging freely, you should be able to take away your weight from the rope by pulling on gear and unclip the quickdraw (there is nothing that can go ...
- 21.5k
6
votes
Toproping with two ropes joined by a double fisherman's
This is why I would not do what that group was doing.
It would be safer to just lead this route and/or do a top-belay if possible.
Let's look at this simply from a safety standpoint, and more ...
- 5,505
6
votes
How to belay top-rope climbers who are ascending quickly?
I'd very much recommend using a GriGri or one of the newer device with the same mechanism. Reason being, the braking mechanism is not dependent on the position of the braking hand. Thus you can pull ...
- 21.5k
5
votes
How to avoid pendulum descent when belaying?
For lowering on top-rope: Grab a quickdraw and attach one end to your belay loop and the other end to the belayer end of the rope.
For lowering on lead: Same idea, but you will have to unclip the ...
- 116
5
votes
How to top belay 2 climbers at the same time on multi-pitch climb?
1) Is it possible to belay 2 climbers using the picture-2 ATC
I think It would be as possible as belaying one leader using double ropes. You would need to take in slack at different rates, as ...
- 1,848
5
votes
How to top belay 2 climbers at the same time on multi-pitch climb?
It's possible, even feasible, and I'll explain how to do so further down. I'd like first suggest that in the absence of a guide mode loop on your belay tube, your likely going to be better of using ...
- 2,702
5
votes
Top Rope Anchors - is a figure-8 on a bight stronger or just easier to untie than an overhand knot?
This answer does not provide much new information to Ben Crowell's and Charlie Brumbaugh's, but I am not entirely in agreement with all their different conclusions.
TLDR:
In your use case and most ...
- 21.5k
5
votes
Why static rope rather than webbing for toprope anchors?
It's not specifically answering your question (I don't use either rope or webbing in my anchors, yet) but I really wanted to say that I'm a huge fan of having a chunk of static rope near my anchors. ...
- 1,430
5
votes
A method to retrieve a carabiner
I believe that what you are referring to is called the "Texas Rope Trick". I hope that it's obvious that this is an incredibly risky idea and that you are better off just leaving the carabiner.
- 68.8k
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