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Rope solo 14b
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Original Post
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How the hell does he make this work? His setup isn't shown, looks like he uses a short rope though. |
Tradoholic wrote:How the hell does he make this work?Typical modded grigri setup with loops of rope on his harness he drops as he goes. Used it for years, but couldn't have been happier when the Eddy came out so I could abandon this rigging. |
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Healyje, how does the eddy change your solo set up? I was under the impression it is set up just like a modded grigri but was just an alternative device. |
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Thank you James, I am familiar with Healyje's posts over on ST. Still the eddy seems just like a grigri, the only difference here is feeding a rope over your shoulder from a backpack (which I highly doubt anyone would do if they were rope soloing 14b) |
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I don't own an eddy, so any wisdom will have to come from Healyje. |
Firestone wrote:Thank you James, I am familiar with Healyje's posts over on ST. Still the eddy seems just like a grigri, the only difference here is feeding a rope over your shoulder from a backpack (which I highly doubt anyone would do if they were rope soloing 14b)With the backpack method, sure you have the added weight, but on the other hand, the rope management is greatly simplified, so you can move faster with less screwing around. |
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If using the backpack method, take the time to pack it correctly so there are no loops coming into your face. |
Healyje wrote: Typical modded grigri setup with loops of rope on his harness he drops as he goes. Used it for years couldn't have been happier when the Eddy came out so I could abandon this rigging.Vid makes it look a little too easy. |
Healyje, how does the eddy change your solo set up? I was under the impression it is set up just like a modded grigri but was just an alternative device.A few differences: First, James is correct, the rope path through the Eddy is the reverse of a grigri which means so long as both sides of the rope hang below the device it just runs smooth - that removes the requirement for the chest harnessing with the modded grigri setup which, for me, is essential as I can't stand having anything on my chest that way. Second: if you pull the handle all the way back on an Eddy it drops off the cam and relocks on the rope. It only runs rope in a small range in the middle so the rope snagging and yarding back on the handle doesn't do anything. Third: the locking cam is exposed on the top of the device and if it ever trips you can unlock it by just reaching down and sliding your thumb down along the top of the device - easy. All in all, I find it as good as it gets for rope soloing and I've used every device and technique over the years. I had thousands of pitches in without a device, thousands with a modded grigri and even more with the Eddy. It's the Eddy all the way for me (paired with a Maxim 9.9 Glider or a stiffer 9.8). [ *** YMMV *** ] With the backpack method, sure you have the added weight, but on the other hand, the rope management is greatly simplified, so you can move faster with less screwing around. Thank you James, I am familiar with Healyje's posts over on ST. Still the eddy seems just like a grigri, the only difference here is feeding a rope over your shoulder from a backpack (which I highly doubt anyone would do if they were rope soloing 14b)Again, there are the very significant differences mentioned above, but the rigging of the rope in a backpack versus it hanging in loops off your harness or just hanging down altogether is more a matter of personal preference because either way, you're still carrying the weight of the rope. In the case of the 14b in the video, I suspect he loops the rope on his harness to lower his effective center of gravity for the more sustained overhanging stretches where a pack would put your center of gravity somewhat higher and probably ratchet an endeavor like that up a letter grade. Personally, I'd accept a letter grade hike to (as Mike points out) not fuck around with the hassle of the loops and any possibility of snagging it (less of an issue on limestone cliffs like in the video), but then I'm completely comfortable with the backpack method and find the hanging rope thing completely annoying at this point. While not sustained and only a .10b, this is a route of mine I rope solo all the time with the pack method and it doesn't bother me at all. Again, it's what you get figured out for yourself, get dialed in and feel comfortable with, and everyone is different in that regard. [ *** YMMV *** ]  And another .10+ that is a bit more sustained...  On the technical front, it's worth noting Fabian has a clever approach to anchoring off the ground. I can't tell where the actual end of the rope is anchored (if it is), but at 00:32 and 00:41 you can see he's put a quick link on the first bolt and then tied a figure 8 on the anchor-side of it - i.e. if he fell, the knot would jam in the quicklink. If you're rope soloing sport climbs that's probably a smarter option than anchoring off the first bolt with a locker as I'm always concerned about the possibility of the biner breaking in an upward or strange reorientation across the hangar in a fall. Good idea and I'd probably also go up three feet, put in an alpine butterfly and stick a screamer between it and a second quick link on the first one. And, while I can't quite make out how he's looping the rope on his harness, at 1:20 he clips a draw with a figure 8 so it's likely that's how he's looping - with periodic figure 8s (how I did it decades ago with a modded harness Metolius was kind enough to make for me). The only close up shot of the looping on his harness is at 2:43 and he has the loops somehow associated with some 8mm perlon, but you can't see how exactly though it's just a minor detail and clipping figure 8s into down-and-out biners would work just as well. It's also worth mentioning that at that particular 1:20 clip he appears to be treating it like it's the anchor at the start of a new pitch even if it isn't or he's just doing it to re-belaying the weight of the rope below. Normally when you drop a loop and are clipping you want to NOT clip the knot itself, but rather just clip the rope in normally, but do so on the anchor-side of the knot. Again, I think he's doing it both for the combination of anchor-like security before a steep section and to re-belay the weight of the rope he has out before a hard sequence. Kudos to Fabian, he clearly invested the time to get his rig dialed in and put in the yardage to get comfortable enough with it to climb close to his limit. Hard to beat that and I can tell from the video he's found the surreal calm and quiet zone you can get into when rope soloing once you're vested and have really found your way with it. [ *** YMMV *** ] [ Edit: ] If using the backpack method, take the time to pack it correctly... BigFeet is correct - stacking the rope well is essential to using the pack method. I personally don't stack the rope directly into my pack, but rather into a rope bag which I then put in the pack. And I'm old and lucky enough to still have a half-dozen of John Middendorf's A5 Big Wall Rope bags which are lovely items that occasionally still go by on ebay. I did a video of how I stack the rope in the bag to insure it streams out clean (warning - this looks a lot like the bowling ball polishing scene in Big Lebowski): This video link doesn't allow you to go full screen or to youtube so maybe it's better watched there - just search youtube for "Rope solo rope stacking" if you want to see it full screen as it is a bit hard to see the details. Here are the results though (sorry about the shitty pics) And, after all the help John and Conrad gave us over the five-year course of the SuperTopo D5 Open Source Hammer Project where we recreated 250 of John's classic A5 hammers...  ...I'd be way more than remiss if I didn't mention John is back at it again with a new 'cornerless' portaledge design available now: D5 Kickstarter Notice the similarity of the bag to the old rope bag... |
