Skills Refresh

Hi everyone,

If any of you are like me, sitting around doing "nothing" feels like a waste of time. I started a thread over in the training forum for workout ideas you can do at home with minimal equipment, but I had another thought. I really love the AMGA/ Outdoor Research series of videos that run through some handy, but often neglected, climbing skills like extending a rappel, belay with a munter, setting up a 3:1 haul. With the summer season just around the corner (fingers crossed) and some extra time on our hands, it's a great opportunity to refresh some of these skills in a safe environment before you're struggling to remember how to do them out in the wild. Below are links to videos/ playlists that include most of the AMGA/ OR videos. Feel free to add any others you like!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajYFniMZtJgsk2RYOLK69AEKR8vIrWpT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocOcujRmZ9I
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajYFniMZtJjgk0hlM7SN28GCdEFe42Hw

As always, if you're unfamiliar with any of these, get some professional guidance before executing them. Always test systems before removing back-ups. And in the wise words of Chris Kalous, check your knot.

excellent thought Chris, thanks for the refresh!

That’s quite cool. Thanks!

great idea, i've been meaning to knock off the winter cobwebs too.

Alright people. After reviewing the videos, here's what I practiced today.

Clipping! Been wanting a cleaner way to clip R facing gates with R hand and L gates with L hand to keep my fingers out of the gate.
Escape a ground belay with an ATC
Tie a munter in the correct orientation (lowering vs raising). This can be important in some rescue scenarios when you don't want to introduce any more slack into the system.
Munter-mule-overhand
"Escape" an above belay on ATC in guide mode. If you need to get your ATC back to rap down to a follower, being able to get the load off the plate and onto a munter.
Bowline. Still gives me trouble.

Things that are still on the list:

Practice most of the above again, hopefully without a video refresher beforehand
Pass a knot on rappel
Lower climber on loaded belay plate (not taking them fully off)
Reepschnur hitch
3:1 haul
Maybe ascending the rope, though that's fairly straight forward.

What else? Anyone have anything else they like to keep in their skills bucket?

The AMGA videos are top notch. You might also like the Ortovox videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpNJNTd93Sbk3h6P4PN7bo1_bQ1583uSS

I love working on this kind of thing. It's amazing how much you can learn just doing ground school practice with repetitions. I keep a running list of skills and techniques to work on, particularly good for rest days, bad weather or worldwide pandemics.

I didn't see any transitions on your list and those are probably my #1 thing to practice, problem solve and get up to speed. Things like up to down, belayed 4th-class to rap, short pitching, shortening the rope, etc. This is the perfect time to get a copy of my buddy Rob Coppolillo's and guide-Jedi Marc Chauvin's book The Mountain Guide Manual. I can't recommend it enough. There is a massive amount of information and while some stuff is more guide-oriented (particularly the party of 3 skills), anything in that book will make your climbing more pro, faster and safer. Once I wrapped my brain around their concept of the backside of the clove, my life changed. I use it constantly. Oh and pre-rigging rappels and the safety, speed and options that opens up.

Look up Dale Remsberg, Karsten Delap and Cody Bradford on Instagram. All 3 pro guides post amazing, challenging and unique tech tips and skills.

Last, Mark Smiley's Mountain Sense online courses are excellent. It's premium content and priced accordingly, but he currently has a 40% off pandemic sale that makes them more accessible. I believe he actually shot and produced all of the AMGA videos you like, and it's indicative of the quality.

Justin P wrote: The AMGA videos are top notch. You might also like the Ortovox videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpNJNTd93Sbk3h6P4PN7bo1_bQ1583uSS

I love working on this kind of thing. It's amazing how much you can learn just doing ground school practice with repetitions. I keep a running list of skills and techniques to work on, particularly good for rest days, bad weather or worldwide pandemics.

I didn't see any transitions on your list and those are probably my #1 thing to practice, problem solve and get up to speed. Things like up to down, belayed 4th-class to rap, short pitching, shortening the rope, etc. This is the perfect time to get a copy of my buddy Rob Coppolillo's and guide-Jedi Marc Chauvin's book The Mountain Guide Manual. I can't recommend it enough. There is a massive amount of information and while some stuff is more guide-oriented (particularly the party of 3 skills), anything in that book will make your climbing more pro, faster and safer. Once I wrapped my brain around their concept of the backside of the clove, my life changed. I use it constantly. Oh and pre-rigging rappels and the safety, speed and options that opens up.

Look up Dale Remsberg, Karsten Delap and Cody Bradford on Instagram. All 3 pro guides post amazing, challenging and unique tech tips and skills.

Last, Mark Smiley's Mountain Sense online courses are excellent. It's premium content and priced accordingly, but he currently has a 40% off pandemic sale that makes them more accessible. I believe he actually shot and produced all of the AMGA videos you like, and it's indicative of the quality.

Ooooohhhhh thanks for the tips! Definitely check out the Ortovox vids and the Instas.

Can you give me some more about the transitions? I don't do a ton of scrambling, so not sure if that stuff would get used, but happy to be proved wrong! And yes! Love Rob and Marc's book. I went to their talk at Neptune here in Boulder when it first came out, and borrowed it from the library and read it cover to cover. Should go back and re-read now that I've taken a rock rescue class and gotten into trad climbing.

Awesome you got their book and saw the show!

If you're only doing pure sports action climbing some of that stuff can still come up as useful, though not as often. If you're trad climbing, many of those transitions happen constantly. When I say "4th class", it's beyond just scrambling type routes. I include things like getting to an exposed rappel anchor, exposed descents/approaches, using terrain features for quick belays, etc. Quite often people do these things unroped because the exposure doesn't bother them, perhaps they see other people unroped and feel like using the rope is a sign of weakness, or they simply don't have the tools to efficiently make these kinds of transitions or solve the problems.

Think back through your climbing career to situations where slipping would have resulted in injury or even death. How could those have been protected with the rope, and little to no gear? Or maybe you or a partner got sketched out in one spot and a quick belay would have made the experience a lot more mellow (sometimes the rope = added confidence = more solid movement = less likely to fall = safer). After climbing for 20 years and getting older, solving those problems has become more and more interesting and important to me, tools I wish I had started learning a looooong time ago. If I had a nickel for every time the descent was more dangerous than the climb...

Justin P wrote: Awesome you got their book and saw the show!

If you're only doing pure sports action climbing some of that stuff can still come up as useful, though not as often. If you're trad climbing, many of those transitions happen constantly. When I say "4th class", it's beyond just scrambling type routes. I include things like getting to an exposed rappel anchor, exposed descents/approaches, using terrain features for quick belays, etc. Quite often people do these things unroped because the exposure doesn't bother them, perhaps they see other people unroped and feel like using the rope is a sign of weakness, or they simply don't have the tools to efficiently make these kinds of transitions or solve the problems.

Think back through your climbing career to situations where slipping would have resulted in injury or even death. How could those have been protected with the rope, and little to no gear? Or maybe you or a partner got sketched out in one spot and a quick belay would have made the experience a lot more mellow (sometimes the rope = added confidence = more solid movement = less likely to fall = safer). After climbing for 20 years and getting older, solving those problems has become more and more interesting and important to me, tools I wish I had started learning a looooong time ago. If I had a nickel for every time the descent was more dangerous than the climb...

Descents is a good one. After a sketchy alpine day last year, reading about some gnarly descents has scared me off some easier alpine routes up in RMNP. Knowing how to still move fast but be somewhat protected would be good. 

Ascending and rappin past knots.  
knots with eyes closed.  
Learn to tie knows with your fingers and with your hands.  In case fingers get cold. 

Chris Johnson wrote:

Descents is a good one. After a sketchy alpine day last year, reading about some gnarly descents has scared me off some easier alpine routes up in RMNP. Knowing how to still move fast but be somewhat protected would be good. 

Totally. Curious, what route did you have a sketchy adventure on? Or was there one particular spot on the route/descent that caused problems? I dig the thought exercises if you there's something to toss around...

Chris Johnson wrote: 
"Escape" an above belay on ATC in guide mode. If you need to get your ATC back to rap down to a follower, being able to get the load off the plate and onto a munter.

If there's a load on the line, you're not going to rapping down it with your ATC.  Think about what you could do in that situation.

Justin P wrote:

Totally. Curious, what route did you have a sketchy adventure on? Or was there one particular spot on the route/descent that caused problems? I dig the thought exercises if you there's something to toss around...

We were super slow on the South Face of Zowie up in the park, then couldn't find the third rap station on the way down. We started scrambling around looking for it and at some points, it might have been better to be roped up. At the end of the day, we were fine, but after getting rained and hailed on, and then getting a little lost on the descent, it sure felt sketchy!

Gunkiemike wrote:

If there's a load on the line, you're not going to rapping down it with your ATC.  Think about what you could do in that situation.

Rap on a single strand! 

Chris Johnson wrote:

Rap on a single strand! 

Good. Now, what if your incapacitated partner is 140 feet below you?

if they are that low, lower em back to some pro, descend that fixed line, hook em in, get em off, jug that line up and bail. 

First thought was haul them up with 3:1 or more likely 6:1, but Franco mentioned descending the fixed line. Is that doable with weight on it?

https://www.alpinesavvy.com/ has a ton of great skills and techniques for people to learn. There's something for everyone on that site. 

Adam Fleming wrote: alpinesavvy.com/ has a ton of great skills and techniques for people to learn. There's something for everyone on that site. 

This looks like good stuff, thanks for the info Adam!

Chris Johnson wrote:

We were super slow on the South Face of Zowie up in the park, then couldn't find the third rap station on the way down. We started scrambling around looking for it and at some points, it might have been better to be roped up. At the end of the day, we were fine, but after getting rained and hailed on, and then getting a little lost on the descent, it sure felt sketchy!

Sounds like a great and typical RMNP adventure. Obviously I have no idea about the particulars or what would have helped, but a couple of things in that book address those sorts of situations really well. 

Once recent example was on a somewhat obscure route with little info on the descent. In this case I was worried about missing an anchor as I didn't know which side of a feature to go around and couldn't see where I was going. I always pre-rig rappels, but in this case I made a point of rapping on a single strand below my girlfriend who was rigged like normal, fixing the rope. This allowed me to more easily ascend back up if I missed the anchor, which I did have to do. Stuff like that, belaying into an anchor and converting to a lower, self-belay a downclimb with partner as a counterweight, etc. are all awesome techniques I like to practice on the ground and might give you some ideas for problems to solve.

I think there was a long thread recently about the issue of a helping an injured follower on a weighted line. It's situational, but the LSD lower, with a load transfer to a shelf if the partner can't unweight, is quick and awesome for going down. It's in the book. I'd be interested in trying to down-prusik a fixed line, but I'm guessing it might be impossible if the rope is running over a convexity or pulled super taught on some pro. 

It is near impossible if the rope is going over an edge.  The only solution I have came up with is to make a new friction hitch under the obstruction ( hopefully) and transfer onto it.   the IRATA TACS has lots of good info too.  just needs some mod from the rope access world.