Cleaning without leaving tat on fixed gear.

Here is a real trick way to cleaning traverses and overhangs and not leave any tat on fixed gear.

Go get a 20 or 25 foot piece of 5 mil cord.

Tie a loop into one end and clip it to the belay loop on your harness. When you climb up to a cabbage patch of tat, run the 5 mil right through the eye of the piece, right through the wire, right through the bolt hanger, the rivet hanger, the pin, whatever.

the initial setup

Notice that before you tie the Munter but have the 5 mil clipped back to your harness, you have a 3:1 mechanical advantage! You can use that to pull yourself closer to the piece you are hanging from easily. This is great because now you can get out your belay knife and cut off all that useless and ugly tat. Stuff it in a pocket and in your wall garbage bag and take a photo of the mound of stuff you’ve cleaned off the route when you’re on top!

Munter Mule

(BTW I don't use the Mule, I just toss a few half hitches on the cord)

Pull it all through till it’s tight to your harness and then secure it to yourself with a Munter and secure the Munter with a Munter Mule.

second step

The Munter tied off

Anyway, once you cut off all the tat, release the Mule and lower yourself out, using the friction of the Munter, till you reach the end of the 5 mil. You should be well below the next piece and can simply let go of the free end and pull it though the now naked piece!

Don't get why this would be easier than a regular lower out...

Ranar wrote:Don't get why this would be easier than a regular lower out...

Ranar-
I believe the point is this:
A strand of 5mm will go through a small or jagged opening (eye of a pin)
A strand of the lead rope will not/(should not)

Mark has done good work cleaning up the Captain.

[edit - strand, not bight. First cup of coffee.]

Isn't it the same idea as regular rappel lower out with a separate rope? I'm curious as to how safe it is to thread that cord thru a wire stopper as the fixed gear.

Nice tip... i dig it.

Yes, the whole point is that you can thread the 5 mil through the actual gear and not leave a sling.

5 mil is worth about 4,000 pounds and I can't imagine that it would take less than five or six walls to wear it enough that it breaks. Even that aside, you're still on your ascenders safetied with a back up knot.

I'm not suggesting that you'll clean the King Swing this way but a smaller pendulum or tension traverse is entirely within its scope.

Tat from Iron Hawk

This is all the tat I cleaned off the first 9 pitches of Iron Hawk. At the end of the route, I had a pile that would fill a grocery bag 3/4 full.

This is a good idea. 20-30 ft of this cord costs hardly anything and the weight is negligible.

Thanks Mark.

My pleasure.

Once you start using this trick, you'll be amazed at how fast it is and you'll be laughing at all the tat you bypass and at everyone who continues to use and leave tat.

Can you imagine how easy this is going to make cleaning the down-aiding section on the 4th pitch of the Trip?

nice!

That tat on Lost In America will be gone this fall, Larry, that's the route Max and I are going to do.

And yeah, Virginia, that start to the Trip is so dumb!

I have two other variations to this technique for the people who don't like lowering out on the mil cord that I'll post up soon.

f'ing awesome