Rope Systems: A Progression

An excerpt from NOLS Wilderness Mountaineering:

Free Soloing Glacier Travel Technique The Running Belay Fixed Lines Conclusions The various belay techniques one might employ in the mountains are often treated as different systems. In reality, each system--be it a running belay, a fixed line or a 5th Class belay--is a variation on the same theme. Each climbing situation demands a different combination of friction, position, anchor, and communication to satisfy the needs for security while allowing for adequate speed. There is, then, a continuum or progression of rope systems. Keeping the four elements of a belay in mind, let's look at this progression beginning with the fastest and least secure and ending with those that sacrifice speed to increased security.

Free Soloing

Free soloing: no rope, just you and your ability and judgment. The word conjures up images of reckless rock stars high off the ground, but soloing is a part of every mountaineering day. Everybody solos within their own personal comfort level, and it is important to know that limit and to understand soloing as a technique that has limitations but that can be done safely. Soloing allows the climber to cover terrain quickly but offers little room for errors in judgment, climbing mistakes, or unexpected objective hazard.

Think of a situation in which soloing might be most appropriate. It should be a situation in which either the likelihood or the consequences of a fall are negligible. If you are climbing up a pure snow slope that slowly levels off to flat snow at its base, and you fall, the worst consequence is probably that you would slide to the bottom and slowly stop as the slope levels off. Maybe you are on the broad summit ridge of a peak and, although the ridge drops off steeply on either side, to fall over the edge would require an effort. In either of these examples, a rope system would only slow you down.

These examples are fairly straightforward. As you confront more difficult decisions, remember that the wilderness does not forgive errors: Always consider your level of protection. If not backed up by a safety net, use all that you have to avoid hazards and mistakes. Do what it takes to be safe. Don't solo on slopes too steep for self-arrest. Keep three points of contact while moving the fourth. Focus; you know the drill.

The terrain mountaineers are willing to cross without a safety net is as varied as their personalities. If you begin to feel that a fall is possible and there are consequences greater that you can accept, do something about it. Add a safety system!

Glacier Travel Technique

Consider a most basic rope system. Two people are walking along on a snow-covered glacier. They can't see the crevasses because snow covers their openings. If they make a route-finding error and accidentally step on a soft snow bridge, they will fall through it and tumble deep into a frigid place. Very high consequences.

You have already learned the skills necessary to catch your partner if he falls into a crevasse. Say you both tie into the rope and stretch it out so there is no slack between you. To make sure you both won't wind up on the same snow bridge, tie in at least 50 feet apart. With your ice ax in self-arrest position, you can now begin traveling up the glacier. You'll have to adjust the pace to keep slack out of the rope. In this scenario, if one climber falls in, will the other be able to catch him with a self-arrest in the snow.

In most low-angle glacier travel situations this is the preferred belay technique: walking along, attached to your partner via the rope but not attached to anchors in any way. In the event of a fall, the partner can stop the falling climber with a self-arrest. He can accomplish this only because his rope system absorbs most of the energy needed to stop his partner's fall. The rope rubbing over the snow surface and cutting into the lip of the crevasse during the fall, the tightening of the tie-in knots, and even the friction of harness tightening around both climbers all play a role in dissipating energy. There is enough friction in the system to decrease the force that comes onto the belayer so that he can stop his partner with nothing but good position: his self-arrest.

Remember, in every belay it is necessary to consider four components of friction, position, anchor, and communication. Traveling on a snow covered-glacier usually offers a great deal of friction, though it varies with the snow surface. Softer snow offers excellent position; it is malleable, and the belayer can dig right into it when trying to stop the falling climber. With such excellent position and friction, combined with good technique that keeps slack out of the system so that the falling climber can't get going too fast and become difficult to stop, you don't even need the anchor.

If the slope is steeper making position less effective, or if the surface were icier, making friction less prevalent, you might need to consider adding anchors. By adding intermediate anchors, the rope is attached to the mountain, so that if the climbers fall, they are caught on the anchors and stopped. Anchors might be simply consist of rope woven through rock protrusions on a ridge, but this would be very insecure. They might be slings tied around boulders or trees, or they might be pitons or chocks placed in cracks in the rock.

Finally, consider communication. The climber should agree on some simple signals to help them keep their rope ;system as effective as possible. See chapter 8 for a more complete discussion of glacier travel techniques.

The Running Belay

The running belay is a technique used in terrain in which the position of one climber would be insufficient to hold the fall of another. One of the most common mistakes in mountaineering is climbing together without protection in place on terrain so steep or difficult that one climber could not be able to hold the other's fall. The running belay is simply climbing together with intermediate anchors in place. It is usually employed on snow routes but is also useful in 3rd, 4th and easy 5th class rocky and mixed terrain.

In the past, climbers protected moderate, or 4th Class, terrain with belay anchors every pitch but no intermediate protection. This technique is called 4th Class belay. The traditional 4th Class belay does not protect the team against a factor two fall, so the running belay is now more commonly used instead.

In a running belay, the rope runs through running protection but the climber does not stop after one rope length to build a fixed anchor. Both climbers move along at the same rate of speed without allowing slack to develop in the system. Each is the counter to the other in the event of a fall. Running pro., no fixed anchor--hence the name, running belay.

Running belays can vary greatly in their level of security. A team of two might place only one piece between them if it is a very good one and the terrain is low-angle enough that it will be easy to stop the fall. As the likelihood and consequences of a fall increase, the leader can place pieces more frequently to decrease the possible length of the fall if one should happen.

Eventually, the leader will run out of equipment. Before he runs out completely, some of it must be used to build a regular 5th Class anchor and belay his partner to it. Either he can keep his partner on belay and the partner can lead the next section of the climb, or his partner can clip to the anchor, give the gear to the original leader, restack the rope so the leader is again on the top of the stack, and belay him on his way.

As the frequency of placements goes up, so does the need to build a fixed anchor and exchange equipment. The decision of when to change from a 4th Class to a 5th Class system is often made for you. Unlike the decision point between glacier travel technique and the running belay, which sneaks up on unaware, this decision point is far more obvious. As the terrain becomes more difficult and dangerous, the team places more and more protection. Pretty soon, you'll be using gear so quickly that you place belays every rope length and find that you are using a 5th Class system almost without deciding to do so.

Fixed Lines

A climbing rope tied between anchors is a fixed line. Once in place, fixed lines allow several people to belay themselves across a section of difficulty or danger without having to use several ropes. When left in place over short distances that must be crossed either many times or by many people, they add speed because the pitch does not need to be led again and the rope replaced each time. Large expedition-style climbs often leave fixed lines in place for several days while they ferry loads up to higher camps.

A climber can belay himself up a fixed line rather than get a regular top-rope belay from the leader. This frees the leader for other tasks, like hauling up a pack. Teams larger than three must carry extra ropes in order for each follower to receive a top-rope belay on each pitch. Using a rope as a fixed line allows several to belay themselves over the same section on the same rope. (Belaying each and then throwing the rope back down to the next would accomplish the same end, but in reality, throwing a rope directly to a belay stance 50 meters away is impractical.)

The friction for the self-belay on a fixed line should be supplied by friction hitches or mechanical ascenders. Ascenders are easy to manage but not as versatile as friction hitches tied with webbing or accessory cord. Ascenders can cut the rope in a severe fall, some models twist off in certain situations, and they only hold in one direction. Every wilderness mountaineer should have cordelettes or webbing that can easily be tied with either an improved prusik hitch or a klemheist onto a fixed line. Clipped to a locking biner on your harness, the cordelette or sling is a self belay device.

A single cordelette or sling will provide adequate security where it is not likely to be cut and in climbing situations where a fall will not create a big load. In very steep terrain, the second will actually ascend the rope rather than just use it as a belay. This technique is more thoroughly discussed in chapter 8. It is more secure because the climber puts two friction hitches on the rope. If one fails, the other holds.

If you choose to free-climb with prusiks on a fixed line as a belay, consider using two in tandem to add security. Tandem prussiks can hold much more of a load than a single one. The hitches should be attached to the harness by a system like the magic X, which self-equalizes the load between them.

The climber's movement skills provide the position on a fixed line. Once the climber falls, he is out of position and fully loading the anchors. The anchor is very important to fixed lines. Since there is no belayer in position to absorb any of the load in the event of the fall, the top anchor must be fail-safe. There may be other anchors in the line holding the line in the correct place or anchoring the bottom. These, though important, are not nearly so crucial as the top anchor, from which the entire system hangs.

Communication is the final element necessary to consider. Since the climber belays himself, you might think that there is no need for signals, but the climber needs to know when it is safe to get on the line. Generally, because a fall by one climber would pull others off their feet, climbers travel on fixed lines one at a time. Because the lines are sometimes used nearby or in conjunction with 5th Class belays, the signals should sound very different from others.

I have used simple signal, "The rope is fixed," instead of "On belay" to indicate to those below that the top of a line is "fixed," or tied into a good anchor. This is followed with the same "Climbing" and "Climb" as the 5th Class belay. A climber who has reached the top and gotten into the anchor and off the fixed line could tell the next that it is safe to begin climbing by signaling, " Clear."

The 5th Class system offers the most security. It was described at the beginning of this chapter, so I won't reiterate it here.

Conclusions

It is important that you be able to see these various systems as a continuum of security and speed. Safety systems offer various levels of protection, depending on how they are created and used. They can be excessive, slowing and endangering parties unnecessarily. They can also be inadequate, failing to offer the protection needed when a fall finally does occur. These are all judgments that the mountaineering team must make. Questions of speed must be weighed against the need for security.

To keep the decisions more simple, there is really only one question each individual must ask: "Am I safe right now?" Anchored, on belay with an adequate system, or comfortably soloing in appropriate terrain, the question remains the same. Once a team ensures that it is not taking unnecessary or unwanted risks, it is possible to consider other methods that might increase speed without unduly compromising safety.

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