(Don't) Put knots in the end of your rope...

Seeing all of the posting about Brad Gobright’s death and how we should “always put knots in the end of your rope” shows how people don’t understand climbing systems.

Brad was simul-rappeling. This comes at great risk; like free soloing. Brad did both. Both are fast, both are dangerous. I did not personally know Brad, from what I hear he was a thoughtful climber, especially with another person on the rope.

When you simul-rappel you have 2 chances for 2 people to die. One person lets go two people die; take that times two. You can mitigate all but one problem with simul-rappeling by using techniques like tethering to your partner, and putting knots in the end of the rope. But this takes a fair amount of time; so much so that you might as well pre-rig rappel and take even the one consideration most do not even factor in out; rope damage. When you simul-rap you are putting twice as much force on half as much rope and the likelihood to damage the rope goes way up.

So why do knots in the end take so much time. On the first rappel, its easy, you have both ends. On the second rappel when you go to feed your rope through and pull it from the anchor above, that end flies by. So now you have to pull it back up to time the knot in it. This is the time suck…

Now lets look at risk. Brad soloed. A lot… He was aware of the risks. He seemed to like it. He seemed to like moving fast. Moving fast by todays standards in the mountains usually takes great risk. When you go out and climb, you get in 4-10 pitches and are probably like; yea that was a good day. Brad is probably like “yea 30 pitches… should we go get lunch before we do more?” So we have time to back up rappels, tie knots in the end, and use a rope; the way he liked to recreate, he didn’t.

It is sad, he is gone. I wish he or his partner would have noticed the ends coming up. However, let’s use this time to celebrate the ways he inspired us all and save the “always tie knots in the end of your rope” for the American Alpine Club Rappel clinics.

Photo by Brett Protasiewicz

Rappel Extensions

Rappel extensions started becoming in vogue around 2006 after a climbing accident in Wyoming where a friction hitch backup was likely tended or pushed down by the device causing the climber to lose control and eventually rappel off the end of the rope. The rappel extension helps eliminate this issue and sets us up for success in many other situations.

The rappel extension has morphed over the years as technology has improved. We now can consider using a dynamic extension like the Petzl Connect Adjust to extend our rappels and prevent high force shock loading when clipped to an anchor.

Petzl’s Connect Adjust

The double shoulder length sling is still a great option for extending a rappel and using nylon can allow for a larger margin of error. Most climbers now only carry UHMWPE (Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene) so basketing the sling is a good option and we should stay away from girth hitches with this material. Here are a few configurations with the sling.

double shoulder length sling rappel extension

I do still use a locker draw for extensions at times. Here is a video that I made about the locker draw and some of its uses in 2012.

Mentoring in Guiding

Mentoring has always been needed in the mountains whether recreational climbing or guiding; however the latter requires way more to really perfect the craft. Many times young instructors do not fully understand how mentoring works or how it is accessible to them. The American Mountain Guides Association has made great strides to offer the best mentoring resources in the country. The AMGA members mentoring Facebook page has now given a forum to folks looking for mentoring as well as a place mentors can inform members about opportunities. However many opportunities are gained more by the individuals drive to seek them out.

Many Accredited companies offer personalized training in house to their instructors. At Fox Mountain Guides we regularly have trainings whether is be on an individual basis or a full team training. We also have teamed up with other local constituents in the industry to provide mentoring days to AMGA members as a way to share information.

Fox Mountain Guides allows individuals to shadow days so that they can benefit from seeing professionals work in the field. Here is a little excerpt from a student about this mentoring particular days:

When asked, “How did you get into climbing?” most of us probably think of a person or a group of people rather than a book or a class. Not all recreational climbing mentors are good ones, but they’re still the ones that got us outside and gave us our first real climbing experiences. Mentor-ship is key when you are transitioning into any new activity or field, and that is definitely the case when it comes to transitioning from a recreational climber to a professional instructor or guide.

Last year, I took my first step into the realm of professional guiding by signing up for an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor course with Fox Mountain Guides. Having years of rock climbing experience on more than just single pitch terrain, I didn’t know how much more there could be to learn in that setting. Apparently a lot, and the learning certainly didn’t stop at the end of that course. Armed with a brand new SPI manual and a lot of new tricks to work on, I left the course planning to practice until I mastered all of it. It became clear very quickly that learning and growing at these skills on my own was going to be much harder than just memorizing a book, and I struggled to find people to work with on my areas of weakness. If you only climb with people at your level of knowledge of lower, you’re not getting the feedback you need and you can’t reach for a higher standard if you don’t even know what that looks like.

This May, Fox Mountain Guides provided me with a key mentor-ship opportunity and I was able to shadow Karsten (FMG owner and guide) and Doug (FMG Rock Instructor) while they guided a group at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a few days. This experience was pivotal for me, and I was finally able to see what a professionally guided day looked like and what my role could look like as an instructor. Interacting with real clients and seeing them progress over the course of a short trip was rewarding and really brought everything I’d been learning together in a meaningful way. Observing and participating in the high standard that Fox Mountain Guides practices gave me valuable insight into my own strengths and weaknesses, and the experience motivated me to continue my education and transition from recreational climber to professional climbing guide. Mentor-ship can spark positive growth in a way that no amount of reading or practicing can, and I’m excited to continue down this path after having such positive learning experiences with FMG.

–Peggy

Ways to find mentor-ship:

-Take internships with AMGA accredited companies

-Get on the AMGA professional members forum and mentor-ship forum on Facebook

-Go to the AMGA conference

-hire a guide or instructor and create a mutually beneficial relationship

Remember when searching for mentor-ship be thinking about what you can do for your mentor. Can you provide them with a service like photos or some volunteer time. Help them with some office duties where you might even learn more about that side of the business. When the relationship becomes mutually beneficial both parties win and our profession grows stronger!

Lowering with a Plaquette

It is easy to reverse the direction of the plaquette by using the LSD or Load Strand Direct lower. Here is a quick video:

Opposable Thumbs

I am in the middle of my New Hampshire ice climbing stint and the conditions have been amazing. There was a rain event that happened a week before I got up here and then it froze again. This made many of the climbs super fat!

I was psyched when I got up here with all the fat ice but at the end of day one of guiding I was behind my van and slipped in the parking lot on the ice sheet that covered everything. After a second of airtime I hit really hard; laid there for a second, then noticed a weird feeling in my thumb. As I looked at it I knew it was not gonna just take a band aide. I was holding crampons and one of the points had sliced through down to the bone.

I was able to get it stitched up and it was not to bad to climb with but manipulating carabiners and gear was hard with my right hand. So I tried to keep most of that work to my left hand. It is interesting the things you notice with a bad thumb. The climb Repentance is mostly left handed placements and there is one hand jam that also happens to be a left hand.

Photos by Austin Schmitz

I ended up only ripping out 2 of the stitches over the last 7 days. So it is healing fairly well all things considered.

 …Through all this I have learned opposable thumbs are pretty key to our climbing ability!

Fox Mountain Guides Summer Camp

I have been working with the Fox Mountain Guides Rock Climbing Summer Camp in some capacity for the last 9 years. It has been ever evolving into a very high end teen climbing camp where teenagers come to experience climbing for the first time and after a few years leave having lead multi-pitch climbs and learned technical rescue skills that most adults would be envious of. Some of these campers have gone on into the world to pursue guiding, as well as a couple students are even professional climbing athletes and now pushing the leading edge of climbing today.

Here is a little preview of what we do:

Rescue in Michigan

The Michigan Ice fest had another awesome year and the turnout was amazing! Ice climbing in the U.P. has really grown just like it has around the rest or the U.S. This of course means folk trying things that maybe push their abilities a little over the edge and they can wind up in some trouble. Here is the incident report I put together for ANAC:

Rescue Report February 17, 2017

Rescuers:

Jeff Whit

Sam Magro

Carlos Beuler

Karsten Delap

The call from the 911 center to Bill Thompson happened about 6:45 PM. The call came through that there was a climber that had taken a fall on Strawberry Daze and had possible leg or pelvic fracture. Bill Scrambled to find a few athletes and guides to help with the situation. After raiding the Petzl booth of various tools for the rescue the four headed off to the trail head. At the trail head the Sherriff and Park Ranger were asked to describe the situation and stated that they really were not sure due to the inability to access the patient. It was stated that the Coast Guard had made an attempt but was unable to get to the patient as well.

One of the photos of the climb from earlier that day.

The 4 rescuers were taken in via a tracked UTV for four miles and then transferred to Snowmobiles for another half mile. From there the top of the site was another third of a mile. Karsten set up a quick anchor and rappelled in 160’ to get an idea of the patient status. There were three climbers there all standing behind the ice pillar. The injured climber was complaining of back and butt pain. She stated she fell when transitioning from her ascenders back to a rappel. She was doing this because she had decided it would be easier to climb out than ascend out.

Sam came down next and started getting a screw anchor ready to take the injured patient to down to the shore. He noticed the anchor that was in place was in sunbaked ice and decided to make a more substantial anchor on the other side of the pillar with a directional around it. Sam did a quick refresher for the to other climbers on ascending and we used the gear taken from Petzl to outfit them properly.

Jeff had rappelled half way down the fixed line and set an intermediate anchor to redirect the lower portion away from some hanging daggers and dripping water and would remain there to help with communication and transferring ropes at that station. Carlos would remain at the top and belay a dynamic line strait through to the top that would keep everyone safe.

Karsten rappelled down to check out the shore before taking the patient. He found a 15 meter 45 degree slope to a 12 meter vertical wet dagger with a ledge at the water. Sam and Karsten decided a belayed, tandem rappel would be appropriate for extracting the patient and after getting her to the ledge and secured the ropes would have to be pulled back up until the helicopter had left.

They proceeded to do this, and the Coast Guard came in and made a few passes to burn fuel and then put a swimmer in the water. The patient was lifted into the aircraft via a basket.

Once the Coast Guard left Sam had to rappel the 45 degree slope to throw the ropes back to Karsten. Karsten proceeded to ascend the ropes while Sam gave him a belay.

Once back to the base of the climb proper Karsten continued on up first as he was very wet from the choppers rotor wash on the lake. All rescuers were back up on flat ground around 3:00 a.m. and back at the trail head around 3:45 a.m.

Many thanks to the local authorities for their support during this mission!

Photo from a climb earlier that day