Getting soloing dialed

Just wondering if you guys have any recommended resources for aid soloing. I've got some experienced soloing with clove hitches and an atc, but would like to start using my grigri. I've always thought that rope soloing was a rope management clusterfuck and would like to learn how to do it more efficiently. For example, how do you feed slack with one hand?

Get a silent partner and feed slack with no hands. Are you ATC Jeff? How's it going man?

Buy Andy Kirkpatrick's book on solo big walling.

I had a hard time finding good info so here are some plumb points I've figured out through hard knocks and talking to people:

I used a lightly modified grigri for a long time: I squeezed a loop of 1-2mm arborist throw-line cord around the hindge on the grigri to keep it upright on a chest harness and a ropeman on my leg loop to keep the weight of the brake strand off the grigri. That works ok with aid but seemed to make 5.9 feel like 5.11-, and there are a handful of other problems with that setup that eventually convinced me to try the Silent Partner..

I regret ever screwing around with a grigri. On a test-run, it cut my time on an awkward aid/free climb (in/out of aiders a lot, penji's, lower out's, etc) from 4:10 to 2:15... although it's bulky and heavier than a grigri, it runs soooo much smoother and instills sooooooooooooo much more confidence than a grigri, so you can spend less time thinking about your belay, less time in aiders and more time about climbing with good technique. The SP is bulky and heavy, but it's worth it's weight in gold. Definitely read the manual thoroughly.. it's not as intuitive as it looks.

parting tips to consider:
- buy a couple HUGE screwgate keylock lockers for getting the silent partner on/off your tie-in points efficently at the end of each pitch (then rap on a grigri to clean/jug the pitch).. the manual may say to use autolockers but that's a risk I'M willing to take in order to move faster.
- buy another couple huge screwgate lockers for your backup clove hitches (for when you only have one hand to untie them while climbing)
- tie your backup cloves from your tie-in (i use a fig-8 on a locker instead of tying in hard, so I can take it on/off quickly at the beginning and end of a pitch) toward the silent partner.. for example, first loop around 50' long, second 45', third 40', etc.. that way the loops don't suck each other up and tangle as you're climbing, and you untie the cloves in reverse order you tied them.. simple rope management but not included in the manual and pretty key IMO.
- use some elastic cord (tied in rubber-band sized loop) to tension the rope on your first piece in order to keep gear anchors from walking around. I find that girth-hitching the bungee cord around the lead rope and attaching it the pro works well.
- lots of other stuff. use your brain and have fun figuring it out. If you run into problems, feel free go get in touch if you want my 2c.

Regardless how you do it, it's always way sketchier than a real belay.

I should add. I'm learning this mostly so that I feel comfortable short fixing for the eventual goal of NIAD. My understanding is that most people are leading off of a grigri when short fixing. Correct me if I'm wrong, if they bring up the silent partner then I'll look into that as well

Because I've only recently started using the SP, I haven't short-fixed with it yet so can't advocate for that application. FYI, my experience w/the SP comes from a run on leaning tower (only got to awanee ledge b/c parties forced me to bail) and 3 test runs on the Nose (1 to sickle w/grigri for comparison, 1 to sickle w/a SP, and 1 w/a SP to dolt)

If NIAD is your goal, I'd say make 2 test runs up to dolt tower, 1 with a grigri, 1 with a SP. That way you and your partner can get the penji's dialed, the awkward pin scarred free/aid pitch moves/gear figured out, and use whatever works for you the best (grigri or SP).

When I did NIAD, i used a grigri to short-fix and think that I probably would have been able to get to the end of my rope more frequently before my partner finished jugging the pitch if I had had the Silent Partner.. but then I wouldn't have been able to tag up gear, so I'd have to bring more gear. Hmmm.. not sure. Fun stuff to geek out about. Damn, this makes me wanna go to the valley.

.. another point on short-fixing.. i've become so frustrated with the grigri that just started tying clove backups instead of trying to feed the friggin thing. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Definitely puts you in send mode and a little more incentive to get your ass up the pitch.

one last thing before i leave this thread.. i'm not an expert at this stuff, I just have been messing around with it a lot this summer and a couple weeks recently in the valley.

whever I've wanted the best beta or ideas on techniques, i've never hesitated to get in touch directly with experts (like steve house, colin haley, john frieh) for example, rather than w/people who really don't know what they're talking about online (like myself ;D ) . In fact, I've even considered getting in touch with C-mac about this stuff but never did b/c I forgot mostly.

have fun and be careful out there,
b

David Coley wrote:Buy Andy Kirkpatrick's book on solo big walling.

Link to the preorder of the book.

Can't speak well enough of Kirkpatrick. All of his instructional texts are some of the best and most comprehensive I've read. (though I've never read Chongo's tombs...)

If you want advice/ instruction on aid soloing, talk to Mark Hudon on this forum. Check out hudonpanos.com/ , find the "Big Wall Tips" on that page. Mark is a great sharer and guide for those of us with less wall knowledge.

The other great source of information and guidance on all things big wall is bigwalls.net/, John Middendorf's big wall site/ forum.

My observation from learning bits & pieces over the years is that aid climbing is so time intensive that belayers are hard to find, resulting in a lot of the big wall people being pretty competent solo climbers. The lack of need to feed a Silent Partner makes it weirdly easier to find belayers, and I've been told that on a wall, a SP allows your "belayer" to rest, maybe sleep, saving energy and attention for their own lead or other activity.

The general consensus on choice of solo belay device seems: Silent Partner, Gri-Gri, probably a few other devices, then the Solo-Aid, then various knot systems. I write this because you might be interested in knowing your options. I use a Solo-Aid because it will catch a head-down fall, I hate Gri-gri's, and when I bought it, Silent Partners weren't available.

Rope management is less a problem than you might think... if you use the "continuous loop" system. I used to tie-in, tie-back, and trail a haul-truly a cluster. Since I learned "continuous loop" from Mark, my aiding has been a lot less messy..

Because of the weight of the hanging rope (pulling the slack back through the device), feeding slack one-handed is frustrating. I can do it with the Solo-Aid, (pull slack through, piano roll for 5', then drop slack and strike like a snake on the anchor side) but for the most part, why? It's half the speed, if that, of a two-handed feed, and since you usually have two free hands...

JeffL wrote: I've got some experienced soloing with clove hitches and an atc, but would like to start using my grigri. I've always thought that rope soloing was a rope management clusterfuck and would like to learn how to do it more efficiently. For example, how do you feed slack with one hand?

First, if you're going to be doing a lot of soloing, forget all other devices and get a silent partner. If you're just going to do a few pitches here and there or if you're only going to do pitches that are 100% aid, using a non-modified grigri will be irritating by fine.

JeffL wrote:For example, how do you feed slack with one hand?

If you're freeclimbing and need just a little bit of slack because you're stuck under tension, you can depress the cam with the single hand to allow the rope to run. This is only good for a few inches of movement. Otherwise, you'll need to feed slack long before you need it and only have one hand free.

Free climbing with a Gri-gri, as in short fixing on the Nose, really sucks (by that I mean a non specialized situation where you need to set it up quickly and get going, where you don't have the Gri-gri modified and a neck sling or a small pack to flake the rope into).

BUT, that's what everyone on the Nose does. Essentially though, they are using a modified PDL. You stop somewhere, estimate the rope you'll need to your next stopping point, feed out that much slack, and go for it. I'm sure you could actually climb a pitch faster with an Silent Partner since you wouldn't have to stop and dick with the Gri-gri.

A Silent Partner easily feeds rope while you climb and is a far, far better tool, even given it's larger size and weight.
Having said that though, on my recent ZIAD attempt, and on any future NIAD ascents, I use a Gri-gri (although now that I think about it more...)

Once you are familiar with the Silent Partner, setting it up can be fast, AND it is designed for soloing. The Silent Partner WILL stop you 100% of the time whereas a Gri-gri will probably stop you. Many climber have fallen to the ends of their rope or their back up knots due the Gri-gri getting tangled in the rope or gear.

I went out last night and found it what a true pain both aid solo and rope solo is with the gri. I'm starting to think that moving back to spaced out clove hitches is the way to go. Besides the sp of course. I'd like to try one of those before I commit to buying one. Heck if anyone knows if a used one on good condition for sale I'd love to hear about it.

Back on topic, I'm starting to think that if the aid or climbing is easy, one might modify the 70 ft Peruvian death loop by adding in a 2 or three clove hitches. Seems like one at 15, 25, and 40 feet should keep you safe. Maybe more often to protect against a ledge fall with rope stretch

If you go the Clove Hitch route, get yourself one of those big ol honkin 65Kn steel locking biners to attach yourself to the rope. Also, clip another biner into the knot to use as a handle to loosen the knot if (and when) you fall.

A clove hitch won't be any better than a Gri-gri but its easily as safe and probably safer than one. Ultimately, if you are going to do a lot of soloing, the Silent Partner is the way to go.

BTW, don't ADD clove hitches, simply move the one at your harness along as you climb.

If you are sticking with the Grigri and no backups... I've had an easy time rope solo leading with the rope in my backpack, and then feeding the rope over your shoulder. Since there is no weight pulling the Grigri down, I found the feeding to be easy. Another solution is to use a microtraxion or something similar to hold the weight of the rope and just manage a small slack loop for feeding rope. But if you don't just happen to have a device like that, I'd just save for a legit device like the silent partner. Safer and less hassle.

Peruvians are outraged.

Mark Hudon wrote:Having said that though, on my recent ZIAD attempt, and on any future NIAD ascents, I use a Gri-gri (although now that I think about it more...)

Mark, is that because you are ZIAD and NIAD'ing with a partner? if you trying for a either in day without a partner would you use an SP?

Thanks.

Jeff: I don't know what a silent partner sells for, but I'll sell you a lightly used Soloist (made by rockexotica) for $60. I get up to Ogden twice a year for family visits. Possibly this coming Thanksgiving. Definitely for a ski trip in Feb.

A solo ZIAD or NIAD would be far, far faster with a Silent Partner than a Gri-gri. You could free climb more and faster and you would simply spend far less time dealing with the device than you would with a Gri-gri.

Typically, when you are short fixing on an IAD climb, you never really get too far from the anchor before the second finishes cleaning the pitch and can put you on belay. If you are really serious about making time on an IAD ascent, you are probably good enough to not worry about climbing a fair distance with a PDL

A soloist is NOTHING like a silent partner. The soloist not only requires a chest harness but it also is not guaranteed to catch an inverted fall. I've owned both and the silent partner works simply and reliably, the soloist is less safe and irritating at best.

Mark,
Thanks. What's a PDL?

In September I was on the Nose when Chantel came through in the dark trying for the first female sub 24 hour ascent. I noted that she was using a grigri with a rope man on the brake side of the rope. Not an SP.