Bailing on trad gear

Fairly embarrassed to share my story but I’m struggling to find literature on what to do in my situation.

Long story short, I was going for a new trad grade and placed way too much at the bottom and was missing gear I needed when I got to the crux. Didn’t want to whip micronuts, and it began raining. I was too pumped to build an anchor but I placed an additional nut just below my previous placement, and asked for a slow and stable lower while I grabbed big jugs on the way down.

Is this the right move? Is it common to bail on trad mid route?

^thanks for the reply!

Slightly more context - I’m getting into trad and mostly with a friend who’s equally inexperienced. I get opportunities to climb with very experienced climbers, but not every time I go climbing. We have tried easing into trad, but I’m bored with 5.3-5.6. Felt good about this 5.8- route bc I climb TR much higher and had climbed the 5.8- route that the story is about on TR before with no issues.

Ended up setting up TR to collect my gear in the rain.

Anyone know of resources on when to bail and how to bail? From my research it seems like most people just do not ever bail on trad.

Of course it happens, and it seems everyone has their own level of risk tolerance for what they will bail off of. I watched a party rappel off a single #5 nut, which I would never do. My life is worth more than $10.

If you're bailing off a single piece or two you can always put a prussik from your belay loop on the rope going up to the piece and slide it down with your hand to clean the gear as you go down. If the top piece blows you'll essentially just lead fall onto the next piece down on the prussik. Just make sure you use an autoblock or prussik which catch in both directions.

To echo what Edge said, bailing happens a lot while learning which is good. You don't yet know the limits of your own climbing ability, of the gear, of analyzing the climbing ahead, of accessing the risks of falling if you do fall, etc. so it is best to bail if in doubt. It is particularly nice when you can just walk up, set up a TR and collect the gear. 

Closest thing I can think of to a resource about how/when to bail is "Down" by Andy Kirkpatrick. It has way more info than you will ever need, but is a fun read.

When I was first learning, I compulsively read the Accidents in North American Climbing reports. It provides a summary of the accident and an analysis of why the accident happened and what the party should have done differently, including bailing rather than proceeding. 

Nothing to be embarrassed about. If you don't leave gear behind from time to time, you're probably not getting enough adventure in your life. And backing off of climbs is its own art that requires practice, so what Edge says. 

You're the one who gets to decide whether that was the right move. Listen to the responses here, but your risk management set points may differ from those of respondents. 

I think the intent of the original question asks about lowering on a single piece of gear; again, that gets back to the climber, the situation, and the integrity of the single piece. In such circumstances, it is encouraging that if the single piece pulls on the initial weighting of the rope, the lead anchors should be in place for backup.

I encourage broadening the question to the system level. A small change in other factors can make a big difference in how breaking into a grade (or other adventure) goes--like the weather forecast, how prepared the climbers are for bad weather, how tired the climbers are, is the climb easy to aid or is there a difficult, obligatory move, whether your car will be towed/ticketed if you are slow...

Perhaps related, these three things bite climbers badly: sticking to schedule, making people happy, and unexpectedly bad weather. 

William Givenswrote:

Fairly embarrassed ... I was too pumped to build an anchor... Ended up setting up TR to collect my gear in the rain.

Why embarrassed? Your choices were bailing or potentially getting hurt because of inadequate gear. Having brain enough to not get hurt is nothing to be embarrassed about. You successfully improvised, learned something, and didn't get hurt. Sounds like a success story to me. Please, disregard all these "tough talk bro's" that say "if you're not whipping, you're not trying hard enough". You will climb again next weekend whereas the "tough talk bro" will be at home for the next two months with a busted ankle.

Too pumped to build an anchor? Well, you were strong enough to place one piece that you could hang on, so you could build the anchor while hanging on that one piece (after potentailly lower a few feet to find better gear placements). 

If you knew in advance that you could walk up to set a TR to save your gear, you could have placed 14 pieces to lower off of. ... and thank you for keeping the cliff free from unsightly bail gear!

I find that bailing is often not in the toolbox of most new(er) climbers, whether its a sport or trad route. Folks are so hesitant to start climbing on something they might not be able to get to the top of because bailing is not normalized or discussed when learning how to climb. Props to you on choosing to bail and doing it (from how it sounds) safely. There's many ways to bail depending on the circumstance but lowering off of a couple bomber pieces is the most common, as long as you have enough rope.

Mark Dwrote:

I watched a party rappel off a single #5 nut, which I would never do. My life is worth more than $10.

But did they die?

Marc Hwrote:

But did they die?

The gods were smiling upon them that day. They didn’t tick their failed attempt on MP, so I guess I’ll never know if their brashness catches up with them. I returned said nut to them later that day, and they were poor camp counselors, so I’m sure that factored into their decision making.

I reference Vdiff a lot. Not sure why it doesn’t get brought up more frequently as a solid online resource for climbing info. 

https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/leader-retreat/

You should be able to lower off your pieces. Having 2 in probably makes sense for redundancy. 

Building an equalized anchor is probably unnecessary, you should be placing gear that can hold bodyweight (enough to lower off of). If your gear can't handle bodyweight stop placing shit pro (hint it won't do anything if you whip on it so why bother). 

William Givenswrote:

We have tried easing into trad, but I’m bored with 5.3-5.6.

Everything in your story is fine but you should change this particular perspective

Bailing on 5.8- is totally, 100%, absolutely, positively smart and valid and not a gumby move --- but the answer to "how do I not bail on 5.8- trad" is quite simply "climb as much 5.3-5.7 trad as you can" 

Tangential, but Mark Smiley thinks it's so dumb to bail from a single piece of gear that he'll reimburse you for the second piece in your anchor:

https://www.mtnsense.com/courses/387200/lectures/6029892

(not sure if the offer still stands)

Placing too much gear is a mistake I make on harder climbs. If you have the time, lower off a bomber piece, then reclimb and clean a bunch of pieces below your top few. Then finish the climb with the rest of your gear. Just don’t get too excited and clean too many pieces and wind up soloing. 

William Givenswrote:

... and asked for a slow and stable lower while I grabbed big jugs on the way down.

If you don't trust that piece / those pieces to hold you when being lowered, why do you trust them to catch you in a fall?  I see no problem with any of your scheme except for the last bit.  If you don't trust your systems, get better systems.  Grabbing jugs on the way down should be totally superfluous but the fact you're doing it gives me pause for thought.

Dave Bakerwrote:

If you don't trust that piece / those pieces to hold you when being lowered, why do you trust them to catch you in a fall?  I see no problem with any of your scheme except for the last bit.  If you don't trust your systems, get better systems.  Grabbing jugs on the way down should be totally superfluous but the fact you're doing it gives me pause for thought.

Part of trad is literally LEARNING to trust gear, and it may take a while for many people.  

“If you don’t trust your systems, get better systems”...my dude, he literally said he’s inexperienced. They may not even know what good gear looks like and are still in the learning process to gain experience — also probably why they’re asking a question on here and trying to...learn more?

I think that's a good learning experience. Lots of good technical advice. But more from a "soft skills" perspective, a few things to think about:

• My experience is that you probably felt at some point earlier that things weren't right. Learn to pay attention to that "gut feeling". If you have fear/doubts/nervousness, it's good stop & ponder your situation a little bit. Maybe the climb is harder than you thought. Maybe you're on the wrong climb. Maybe you're off that day.
• Downclimbing is something we don't do/consider much for sport & bouldering, but is a very legit skill trad climbing. Are there any points before you bailed where you could have downclimbed? If so, yoy might also have been able to back-clean a few pieces. I downclimb most my warmups in gym and some easy for me trad routes as well.
• When we start panicking, we often see the situation for worst than it is. Chances are, if you were on TR instead, you may very well have been able to find a stance that would have allowed you to rest. I find a few deep breaths most helpful in those times.

Ry Cwrote:

Part of trad is literally LEARNING to trust gear, and it may take a while for many people.  

“If you don’t trust your systems, get better systems”...my dude, he literally said he’s inexperienced. They may not even know what good gear looks like and are still in the learning process to gain experience — also probably why they’re asking a question on here and trying to...learn more?

Which, for what it's worth, is *PRECISELY* why I mentioned it.

Ry Cwrote:

Part of trad is literally LEARNING to trust gear...

Yes, that is part of it, but a much bigger and more important part is learning when you can trust the pieces you have placed and when you can't.  if his description of his experience is accurate, and he is climbing on micronuts 2 number grades above his normal grade, it is likely that trusting his gear would be unfounded. (which i think is basically the point you are making, so i agree).

I’ll go beyond saying you’re shouldn’t be embarrassed and say you should be proud..

You were pushing yourself. You recognized the situation before it was too late. You placed a back up piece. You got down safely. You went back and got your gear. You learned something and gained valuable experience. You shared your experience and asked for advice. All signs of a good climber IMO.

As mentioned it’s up to you to judge your gear. I’ve lowered off a single piece of passive pro multiple times. A nut in a constriction where there’s no way it can come out i trust more than most bolts I didn’t place. And we often trust lead falls with decking potential on single bolts. 

But most of the time I would put in another piece of gear, preferably a 2 piece anchor, but that requires two good placements in front of you. Placing another solid nut under it is fine too. 

A good piece of advice upthread was to clip into the piece you placed, if it’s totally solid, and rest. And sort things out. Once you give up on the red point you can shift into aid mode. There’s a lot to be learned from aiding. Getting through a hard section. Using for self rescue (topping out in the rain). Etc. IMO all trad climbers would benefit to aid a pitch or two to have those skills in their tool bag.

Self Rescue by falcon press is an excellent book all trad climbers should read IMO.