Ideas to keep toprope out of the way while leading at gym

At our gym, every other route (except on the overhang) has a toprope setup and also fixed draws so people can lead the route. While leading, the toprope is often in the way. I’m curious to know if other gyms have figured out a creative solution to hook or tie off the rope somehow to keep it out of the way.

Comment if you’ve seen any options where you climb… a photo would be great so we can see the solution.

Or post a comment if you have a creative idea on how to keep the toprope out of the way?

• Clip them to a belay melon and put it far back/sideways from the route
• Clip them to something fixed far back/sideways from the wall (bench, railing, etc)
• Wrap them around the TR a few routes over (when the gym is empty)
• Climb in a party of 3 and have them move the ropes as necessary
• Have the belayer hold the ropes out of the way with their body while belaying (if safe based on the route, weight difference, belayer competence, etc...)
• Just deal with it. I feel like usually I move the ropes and it's not really much better or that they were never really in the way that much to begin with (I could see it being worse with different gym layouts though).
  
  1&2 work well for gyms with fixed Grigris and figure 8s left half-tied since you can easily tension them with no extra gear

I've never heard the term "belay melon" but I can guess what it is. My girlfriend just made me one. It looks like a purse that you set away from the wall and clip the top rope to. We're hoping we can get by with water bottles in it. If not, I'll get a small sand bag for it.

Sparkington TheThirdwrote:

I've never heard the term "belay melon" but I can guess what it is. 

Yeah I guess that's not a universal term (and they may not even be that popular as a concept). Basically a ~70lb weight you can clip to your belay loop when belaying somebody a lot heavier. They're round so you can roll them around and they look vaguely melon-shaped.

I often don’t bother to move it. It’s good practice to remain undistracted by such minor external circumstances. 

Austin Donisanwrote:

Yeah I guess that's not a universal term (and they may not even be that popular as a concept). Basically a ~70lb weight you can clip to your belay loop when belaying somebody a lot heavier. They're round so you can roll them around and they look vaguely melon-shaped.

That looks more like a belay marrow than a melon. Or maybe a belay airship - but a really long way away. 

one of those collapsible laundry baskets.......nylon or synthetic fabric, has a coiled wire that give the thing its shape.....20-30 liters of volume......  Essentially acts as a rope bucket

The gym I go to has triangular shaped sandbags in a cloth cover with little tie loops lying around to tie the rope out of the way.  If you can’t find one there are benches all over to tie it

All gyms in my area use sand bags to keep tr ropes out of the way.

One uses share.google/h3GKEduPomMehd…;

The others have something more designed for general fitness - can't find any links, but they look like a small pouch with straps 

Adam Wwrote:

The gym I go to has triangular shaped sandbags in a cloth cover with little tie loops lying around to tie the rope out of the way.  If you can’t find one there are benches all over to tie it

We have something similar but they are weighted bags for lightweight belayers to clip into.

Hi Anna. Do you climb at Midtown? If so, what we do is we tie a simple overhand knot in the two ends of the top rope, and then we just shove the knot into the gap on top of the benches/cubbies in the walkway.  On the slightly steeper walls, to the right of the lead cave, the dangling top ropes don’t really get in the way, we find.
We don’t climb much at North, and when we do, we pretty much just stick to the prow, so no top ropes there. I’m not sure if the technique described above would work there, as the benches are a little further from the wall than at Midtown.

It doesn’t seem to be much of a problem at our gym, the lead anchors alternate with the tr anchors, about 2 1/2 feet apart. 

1. Pull that rope and climb through

2. Tie it to your dog

3. Tie it to a small child

4. Cut the offending rope

5. Tie it to a random belayer

6. Bring a big bunch of helium balloons to tie it to

What? You didn't specify good ideas ...

Our gym has a few of these hanging around. The base is heavy so when you tie the rope off through the top it doesn’t fall over. 

amariuswrote:

All gyms in my area use sand bags to keep tr ropes out of the way.

Same here. One has little bags full of sand. The other has larger, heavier ones with PAS's tied to them, which sounds like overkill but is really convenient for tying multiple ropes to a single bag.

Here in Colorado this is never a problem as the gyms have enough people in them that there will always already be someone climbing on the top rope, thus keeping it out of the way. Until they lower right on top of you of course, but that's great practice for when that happens climbing outside in Colorado.

Frank Steinwrote:

Hi Anna. Do you climb at Midtown? If so, what we do is we tie a simple overhand knot in the two ends of the top rope, and then we just shove the knot into the gap on top of the benches/cubbies in the walkway.  On the slightly steeper walls, to the right of the lead cave, the dangling top ropes don’t really get in the way, we find.
We don’t climb much at North, and when we do, we pretty much just stick to the prow, so no top ropes there. I’m not sure if the technique described above would work there, as the benches are a little further from the wall than at Midtown.

Frank,
I notice it mostly at the North gym. Sometimes tying to the benches work but not always. I think the toprope anchors at Midtown protrude further out from the wall so those ropes aren’t in the way as much when I lead.

Can you post a photo of the sandbag? The link above with the example doesn’t work for me. Maybe I’ll make my own and stick it in with my rope. 

Anna - gyms here in the triangle have long cylindrical sand bags with a daisy chain attached, a great solution in my opinion. Makes it easy for several adjacent routes to get ropes out of the way when necessary and can just be dragged across the gym fairly easily. I assume they’re also used for anchoring but I have only ever used it to clear ropes-hopefully the resolution of this crappy screenshot shows decently well.

Here's what they have at Mesa Rim Austin: