Interesting trio technique

Try one of these and put tape on the end.

KennyJoe wrote: Try one of these and put tape on the end.

That's how I do it for tree climbing. The tape is a good idea for sure.

Parker Wrozek wrote:That is some pure gold right there. I bet it is really hard on a traversing pitch.

Dr. Octopus would disagree

For climbing as 3 people with 1 rope, the second half of the below article is the best method I've heard of. You essentially tie the extra person into the length of rope between the leader and follower using a very long bight of rope so that if the person below them falls, they do not get pulled off the rock since the long bight of rope allows the end climber to fall and take up any slack and rope stretch without affecting the climber in the middle. See last paragraph in article below. I imagine this would would still be tricky for traverses. To work effectively for traversing routes there would always have to be a piece of protection between the two following climbers, which might not always be possible. So, in the case of traverses, you would want more distance between the two followers to increase the likelihood of having protection between them. In a dead horizontal traverse, I imagine this method would not be wise since a fall by the middle climber would still pull on the third climber following on the end of the rope. Another concern would be the knot (of the bight used to tie in the middle climber) reaching the protection pieces before the middle climber is able to reach the pieces, then the leader would have to stop pulling up slack, and the middle climber would have to climb to it with a bit of slack building up in the bight of rope, risking a dynamic fall.

rockandice.com/master-class…

Ask the Master: Climbing Efficiently As a Team of Three
28-Sep-2016 By Martin Volken (IFMGA Guide)

I have some partners that refuse to climb in a group of three because they say it slows them to a crawl, and I have other partners that swear that three people can climb just as fast as a pair. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle and was wondering if you had any tricks or techniques that allowed a group of three to climb quickly and efficiently.

—Michael Parker, via Ask the Master forum

Martin Volken, owner of Pro Guiding Service and Pro Ski and Mountain Service in North Bend, WA, is a certified IFMGA Swiss Mountain Guide and guides in North America and Europe. He has been a member of the AMGA examiner team since 2000.

Hi there and thank you for the question,
As a guide, you climb with two clients (as a team of three) quite often. If your anchor management is dialed, it can be almost as fast as climbing as a pair. Anchor management (creating good anchor stances for the followers, good rope management and clear communication) can save a lot of precious time.

In a team of three, if the climbing is mostly steep fifth-class climbing, I generally climb with a two half ropes and belay from above with an auto-block style belay device while the two followers climb about five meters apart, on separate ropes. If the climbing is pretty easy and has a lot of short roping terrain, I often just use one single rope. Then the clients are tied into the rope as follows:

One person ties into the end and the other is tied into the rope about four meters or so above with long figure-eight on-a-bite with a little overhand on-a-bite at very end. This person clips in with two lockers. We call this configuration "climbing on a V," because the shape of the rope is an upside down "V." The two clients climb together, but it can be a bit annoying for the person on the figure-eight on-a-bite. It works fine for a good team, however.

—Martin Volken

Got a question about climbing? Submit your question in the Ask the Master forum and Martin Volken will supply the answer.

You might try this.......

have the leader anchor in at the top of the pitch.... then untie the rope and have #2 pull it back down the pitch, leaving the gear in place.... then #2 leads the pitch and #3 follows in the usual manner.

better than throwing

Guy Keesee wrote:You might try this....... have the leader anchor in at the top of the pitch.... then untie the rope and have #2 pull it back down the pitch, leaving the gear in place.... then #2 leads the pitch and #3 follows in the usual manner. better than throwing

Yes, unless they can't climb the pitch leaving you stranded. Brilliant!