Is Texas rope trick safe?

Heard abt this and was wondering if it’s even safe ?

I’ve done it from about 30’ up and it works, but I’d still rather bail from a carabiner rather than rap off. Be careful which strand you pull to recover the rope or you’ll end up with a rope tied to a runner that’s girth-hitched to a bolt hanger.

Jake speaks the truth

Done it, and I didn't die. Just like most things in climbing, if you don't fuck it up it's kinda sorta safe. Once you acquire enough booty/bail 'biners it's just quicker and easier to use those instead. 

I tried it once and died.

Robert S wrote:

I tried it once and died.

Lol!!!

Texas rope trick is stupid if you're bailing off bomber gear, for example a solid bolt on a modern sport climb.

 But, if you're bailing on less than perfect gear, the TRT can make sense. Rappelling puts your own weight on the top piece of gear. Lowering loads the gear with your weight plus the force of the belayer holding your weight (roughly doubling the load).

Still, it's situational. For example if you're bailing off a weak piece, but the next one down is not far and is bomber, your still best off lowering.

Link?

OP, what makes you question the safety of the Texas rope trick? What is your own analysis?

Generally a lot of work to save $.50 worth of tat, but you can feel better about the "ghosting" bail I guess.

Kristian Solem wrote:

Texas rope trick is stupid if you're bailing off bomber gear, for example a solid bolt on a modern sport climb.

 But, if you're bailing on less than perfect gear, the TRT can make sense. Rappelling puts your own weight on the top piece of gear. Lowering loads the gear with your weight plus the force of the belayer holding your weight (roughly doubling the load).

Still, it's situational. For example if you're bailing off a weak piece, but the next one down is not far and is bomber, your still best off lowering.

Are we all talking about the same thing?

Always floors me the amount of back-flips people will do to save a fucking biner.   Leave the biner, don’t leave tat, or try fancy tricks.  Both for your safety and for the benefit of all others that follow.  Consider it the cost of doing business and the price to pay for your fuckup.  Have some class, and for you noobs out there, be safe in the knowledge that biners are like the stock market over time.   You might lose one every now and then, but if you climb long enough, you’ll have a wall of them you never use.  They breed like mice  

If it helps your psychology, Don’t think of it in terms of a precious biner, just acknowledge you now have to skip tomorrow’s Starbucks. Done. 

Mark Pilate wrote:

Always floors me the amount of back-flips people will do to save a fucking biner.   Leave the biner, don’t leave tat.   Both for your safety and for the benefit of all others that follow.  Consider it the cost of doing business and the price to pay for your fuckup.  Have some class, and for you noobs out there, be safe in the knowledge that biners are like the stock market over time.   You might lose one every now and then, but if you climb long enough, you’ll have a wall of them you never use.  They breed like mice  

If it helps your psychology, Don’t think of it in terms of a precious biner, just acknowledge you now have to skip tomorrow’s Starbucks. Done. 

LOL, same.  I tried it just to see if it would "work".  In defense of the TRT, if you do it right, you leave nothing.  However, I probably won't ever use the trick in a real scenario, because if I'm sport climbing, I'm probably gonna chuff my way to the top using a stick so I leave nothing, and I'm definitely not going to have a belay device on me, and if I have a carabiner, I'm definitely not gonna jack up my rope using a munter from which to rappel, or bother with making a carabiner brake.  So for me, it's just a matter of practicality more than anything else.  Also, it should be mentioned, as long as we're all shitting on the TRT, that there's no backup.  At least if you have the lower bolts clipped with draws and you lower off a bail biner and you have a 3rd hand configured from your belay loop to the belayer's side of the rope, there's *some* expectation of a backup.  If you're rapping off a sling that's threaded through a bolt hanger and you fuck up, that's your ass.

Mark Pilate wrote:

Always floors me the amount of back-flips people will do to save a fucking biner.   Leave the biner, don’t leave tat, or try fancy tricks.  Both for your safety and for the benefit of all others that follow.  Consider it the cost of doing business and the price to pay for your fuckup.  Have some class, and for you noobs out there, be safe in the knowledge that biners are like the stock market over time.   You might lose one every now and then, but if you climb long enough, you’ll have a wall of them you never use.  They breed like mice  

If it helps your psychology, Don’t think of it in terms of a precious biner, just acknowledge you now have to skip tomorrow’s Starbucks. Done. 

Truth!!

I have bailed off two nuts and two carabiners when one would suffice.  I have bailed off and retrieved a cam and carabiner.  

Now that I own a double rack, climbing is nearly free. Gas, rope every second or third year, the occasional doodad I don’t need.

I could bail off a whole double rack and still be ahead of what I would have to spend skiing, biking, sailing, golfing...

Plus I have found/bootied(aka stolen) gear here and there.  And again because climbing doesn’t cost much anymore, I now leave other people’s stuck or bail-out gear.  I don’t need, want to carry or store it.

Lastly, I think 80% of the time a Good Samaritan has returned my gear to me (climbed up and retrieved it, freed the stuck gear, whatever). 

Anyone care to explain what this TRT is?

John Clark wrote:

Anyone care to explain what this TRT is?

My understanding of the TRT is that you hang a sling through the hanger, tie one end of the rope to one end, then thread the rope through the ends of the slings to rappel off of. So you will have three strands hanging: two that are threaded through the sling, one that is tied off to the sling. You rap and then can pull the correct strand of your rappel lines to leave no gear. It can only be used if you are less than or equal to 1/3 of your rope length up a route. More complicated than leaving a biner, I've bailed off of plenty of sport routes but never even thought about trying it. 

John Clark wrote:

Anyone care to explain what this TRT is?

It's a way to bail off a retrievable sling from a height of 1/3 the length of your rope. You pass a loop of a sling through a bolt hanger, tie one end of your rope to one side of the sling, then set up a rappel through both sides of the sling, so that you have three 1/3 length strands of rope reaching the ground. Rappel on the two strands of rope that are through both sides of the sling, pull the middle strand, then pull the stand tied to the sling to retrieve it. A lot of faff, but better than leaving a quicklink on a crux bolt IMO. 

John Clark wrote:

Anyone care to explain what this TRT is?

Dang it amarius, ya beat me to it!   

Why would you do this when you can just rig a carabiner block and rappel on one strand?

Fair nuff. I agree with whoever said seems like a lot of work to maybe save a bail piece. Also seems like there should be a way to improve the efficiency to just shy of 1/2 rope length, but I can’t think of a 100% method.

Andrew, I think the goal is to not run the rope through the hanger, which for the sake of this thought experiment has no rap ring and a rope damagingly sharp radius

John Clark wrote:

Fair nuff. I agree with whoever said seems like a lot of work to maybe save a bail piece. Also seems like there should be a way to improve the efficiency to just shy of 1/2 rope length, but I can’t think of a 100% method.

Andrew, I think the goal is to not run the rope through the hanger, which for the sake of this thought experiment has no rap ring and a rope damagingly sharp radius

Thanks I didn't think about that part.