TR Soloing - How to Rappel or Lower Mid-Route?

I am going to be toprope soloing with one (or two) Mini Traxions, primarily on routes less than 30 meters, where I have the rope anchored on a figure eight on a bight from above. If I am working a route that is above my ability and end up hanging on the rope/Mini Traxion, what's the best way to get back to the bottom?

I have seen numerous posts about TR soloing, but little discussion about getting back to the ground from midroute.

Do I step up in a foot prussik and put a rappel device on the adjacent strand of rope? I'm assuming I won't make the difficult moves and will need to come back down. Need some input...thanks.

About the climbing set up -

1) I prefer to use a shunt instead of a mini-traxion myself.

To get down -

Use a gri-gri, or atc, or any belay device. Rig it up below your connection method (shunt or traxion). Get as much slack out as you can through your belay device-cum-descending device, then unweight your connection method so that you're weight is shifted to your belay device. If you need to rig a prussik to do this, do that, but as long as the route isn't crazy overhanging it's pretty easy to do just by grabbing high on the rope and lifting yourself with one hand.

I recommend a gri-gri or something similar because you can go hands free so you can unweight your connection device by lifting yourself with one hand while disengaging it with the other.

good luck!

p.s. - It probably goes without saying but you should definitely practice setting this up and using it before you need it.

edit - and don't worry about weighting the rope so you're traxion / shunt will slide up it. Once you have about 10' of rope hanging below you the weight of the rope itself will make your device ride cleanly on it.

This is one of the reasons that I like to use a gri-gri as my TR soloing device on routes where I plan on working certain sections, hence I'll be lowering a ton. A mini-trax is better for getting in tons of mileage, but you have to switch devices in order to lower.

Steitz pretty accurately described how to un-weight your mini-trax to engage your lowering device. I would just add that if its a bolted route, you could clip in direct to a bolt as well, might be easier than rigging a prussik. Or if you have a jumar or tibloc or something, you could use one of those as well.

Have fun.

I tried solo TRing recently with a shunt, and found lowering to be somewhat of a pain. I would basically unweight it with an ascender, then put the grigri on. The problem was that since I had a heavy backpack weighing down the rope, it was a pain to get the rope through the grigri. Now that I think about it I could have just used the backup rope with the grigri, but then I'd have to take off the shunt too. I think next time I'll try forgoing the shunt when I want to work one section over and over and just use the grigri. I'm wondering how the rope will feed though compared to the shunt.

This thread asks basically the same question. TR Soloing Thread

In my opinion using 2 MiniTraxions for TR Soloing is completely asinine. If it were me I would buy a Cinch and a Minitrax. This way you're not buying redundant gear (who wants TWO MiniTrax's anyways?!) And rappelling simply couldn't be easier with this setup. PM me if you want any more details.

Whatever you end up doing, stay safe and have fun! TR soloing is a great activity especially when your partners flake on you.

Clip into an "Oh Sh:t" knot a couple feet below you before you do any changeover between devices.

apeman e wrote:you can think of a safe way to do this, can't you?

Does completely agreeing with you violate rule #1?

To the OP: You really should be able to figure this out without killing yourself, and the "best" way down will vary per given pitch anyway.

Another consideration is that pitch length may dictate if you can have a strand dedicated to rapping. If not, you may think of bringing another rope and dedicating it to the rappel. I mean, that is a consideration, I'm too lazy for that noise myself.

My answer is to simply get to the anchors. With rope stretch, I am usually able to "work" the crux silly on difficult climbs. Don't be a stranger to bringing up an aid cam or two, or using nylon jugs on bolts if you have to either. It's not cheating if nobody sees you. And remember to tick the climb on your mountain project climbing log, noting it as an onsight lead. That is very important.

Frank, I do one of two things. If the route is less than half my rope, I have two strands hanging and transfer to the unloaded strand via gri-gri, rap. Since I have jugs/aiders, I tend to just clip one jug+aider on the back of my harness and then use it to stand up, winch the gri-gri once, sit on it and undo my minis from the other strand.

If the route is more than half a rope, I'll either pull through and finish the route, or put the jug+aider+daisy above the minis, tie in on a loose bight from below everything as a backup, stand to unweight them, remove the minis, then add my rap device & clip in the device, go up another step in the aider, winch the rap device and weight it, undo aider/jug.

If you use a piece of shock cord or chest harness to hold your top minitrax up tight(recommended, it keeps you from having as much slack and makes it run and load smoother), undo that from your shoulder before adding your rap device. If you don't, it can be hard to weight the rap device because the cehst harness or shock cord will keep pulling the minis up everytime you stand up.

I do a lot of trax soloing, for training laps and to work project routes. On steep stuff you often can't get back on, or with a show stopper crux you need to work over and over it's a PITA on minis, and I'll use a modded gri-gri for those occasionally. BUT, the last route I did this on back in the fall, I fell at one point and the grigri didn't lock up for about 15'. Shared the shit out of me. I'd tied a knot about 6' off the deck and was about 3" from the knot when it finally locked. 10.2mm rope, overhanging route, fall started kind of slow there was no immediate jerk and accelerated.

All the "teeth are hard on your rope" folks IME aren't using them. They think it sounds like a good idea and/or already have a shunt or similar toothless device. I've run tons of pitches on minis and never had an issue. Every single person I know who uses minis has never had an issue with the teeth.

And for the guy with the "who wants to own two, why run two of the same" well, they're smoother with less drag and less issues IME. Unless you specifically need to rap mid-pitch I much prefer dual minis...and so does basically everyone else in CA from what I've seen.

Will S. and others: Thanks to those of you that took the time to respond/explain, without the snide "can't you figure it out?" comments.

FrankPS wrote:Will S. and others: Thanks to those of you that took the time to respond/explain, without the snide "can't you figure it out?" comments.

Hey, man, put on the big boy pants, a little self-reliance will be necessary is all I am saying. A big part of TR soloing is just that: soloing. All the little things you take for granted with a partner are gone, much more than just somebody holding a rope for you. The major thing is to adopt a solo mindset and think every thing you are doing through because you really are on your own.

I've done pretty well over the years TR soloing with a Petzl Basic ascender, and putting a jug handle type ascender onto the rope above that when I'm ready to rappel- I hook my daisy (or a sling) onto the jug handle and weight that while swapping out the Basic with my rappel device. I can also use this setup to move up the rope if I need to get past a section that isn't going free just yet.
I've used mini-Trax pulleys and a Trango Cinch to go up the rope and they all worked fine, though I personally didn't really like the way the Cinch lowering handle worked while rapelling.

One thing I will not do anymore is use a Petzl Shunt for ascending- it doesn't move up the rope as well as the other devices, and if you grab it the wrong way before you've hooked into another device or the anchor you will go down the rope very, very quickly. That's also possible with a Cinch, though far less likely.

How about this.

While your sitting on your solo device, pull up a bit of slack rig your rapell device below the solo device. Tie a quick loop down by your foot, insert foot, stand up> there by locking off your belay device. Now your solo device should be unweighted, unrig it, put hands back on brake strand and unweight the foot loop.

Ive used this method while climbing on my Petzl croll and rapping with a ATC. Requires NO extra gear.

i make it so i have two fixed lines one to use my ascender on to TR solo with and the other just incase i need to get off mid route and rap down

Will S' comments exactly correct. I have done way over a hundred pitches with many "falls" with no problems. The teeth on the mini-traxon have had no perceptible effect on the rope. I have added a thick rubber band to the linkage between the chest harness and the upper mini-trax to keep it high without a sense of restriction. Small BD carabiners or the dmn belay master with the plastic orientation thing are useful to prevent the lower mini-trax from flipping around and cross-loading its biner. To rap, unhook the linkage to the chest harness, stand up on a prussic or ascender, yard up on the rope running through the belay device, sit back down belay device, and disengage the mini-traxes. If the mini-traxes are not completely removed from the rope, they tend to snag and reengage on the way down.

Chris Sepic wrote:I tried solo TRing recently with a shunt, and found lowering to be somewhat of a pain. I would basically unweight it with an ascender, then put the grigri on. The problem was that since I had a heavy backpack weighing down the rope, it was a pain to get the rope through the grigri. Now that I think about it I could have just used the backup rope with the grigri, but then I'd have to take off the shunt too. I think next time I'll try forgoing the shunt when I want to work one section over and over and just use the grigri. I'm wondering how the rope will feed though compared to the shunt.

Once you unweight the shunt (and weight the gri-gri or whatever you're using to lower) you can pull the string on the shunt so it doesn't grab. No reason to take it off the rope. I have logged a lot of hours using shunts on my safety line in the industrial setting and one reason I would never use a shunt to top rope solo is if it inadvertently is grabbed or hooked on something it can be defeated and you'd ride it to the ground or hopefully a knot.

Edit:

If you're attaching the shunt directly to your harness I can see this would be a little difficult. It would be a lot easier if you extended the shunt 12" or so with a cow tail or sling although I don't know how freely the rope would feed. If you lowered on the other strand of rope this wouldn't be a problem. No reason to carry prussiks or ascenders either, if you need a foot loop reach down and tie an overhand on a bight and step into it.

Use a Grigri instead.

Read this thread to hear first hand what I warned about:

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/injuries_and_accidents/red_rocks__0430__helicopter_evacuation/107122188#a_107122839

There are a lot of tools that will get a job done, but not all of them do it best.

Nick Mardirosian wrote:Read this thread to hear first hand what I warned about: mountainproject.com/v/injur… There are a lot of tools that will get a job done, but not all of them do it best.

I hope everyone involved in the accident comes out of it ok and contrary to Nick's post above I don't believe this accident was caused by the shunt, but user error.

I feel the best system for TR soloing is the one you feel most comfortable with. My mate uses the Shunt exclusively and won't try anything else because it works for him and he understands the system. I've tried the shunt and prefer my current set up of a grigri backed up on a separate line with a microcender. Healyje over on RC.com has an awesome article about roped solo that has lots of interesting comments and information that I feel can also apply to TR soloing.

The title is very appropriate too, "One path among many!" Find what works for you, make sure you understand the ins and outs and then play safely...:)

Miguel75 wrote: I hope everyone involved in the accident comes out of it ok and contrary to Nick's post above I don't believe this accident was caused by the shunt, but user error. I feel the best system for TR soloing is the one you feel most comfortable with. My mate uses the Shunt exclusively and won't try anything else because it works for him and he understands the system. I've tried the shunt and prefer my current set up of a grigri backed up on a separate line with a microcender. Healyje over on RC.com has an awesome article about roped solo that has lots of interesting comments and information that I feel can also apply to TR soloing. The title is very appropriate too, "One path among many!" Find what works for you, make sure you understand the ins and outs and then play safely...:)

It's definitely not the fault of the shunt please don't put words in my mouth, the shunt however is a very easy device to override. That's why I'm not a fan. The shunt is the go-to device for a backup device for SPRAT which obviously says something but if you touch the device anywhere except the carabiner when going up or the string when coming down during your certification test you fail. This is because it's so easily defeated by grabbing it wrong. How many casual climbers are disciplined enough for that? That alone makes it a bad device to TR solo with just because an awkward fall could have you riding it to the ground. Obviously I wish the injured a quick recovery but this is something to learn from.

If you're attaching the shunt directly to your harness I can see this would be a little difficult. It would be a lot easier if you extended the shunt 12" or so with a cow tail or sling although I don't know how freely the rope would feed.

Might be wrong on this, but I think I recall reading in the shunt instructions that you are not supposed to extend it with a sling because it would not feed correctly. Overhangs are also a no-no.

It's definitely not a device to be used carelessly. I'd still be comfortable using it with the double backups of 1) knots below the shunt as well as 2) a sling always clipped to a knot in a backup line.

All that being said I'm just going to use the grigri next time for ease of use.

Nick Mardirosian wrote: It's definitely not the fault of the shunt please don't put words in my mouth, the shunt however is a very easy device to override.

Apologies Nick. Just re-read the first paragraph of my post and realized I'd missed the mark with my comment about the cause of the accident.