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John M.
Trad climber
Tempe, AZ
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 3, 2016 - 07:11pm PT
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You are belaying 4 pitches up on a difficult traditional multi pitch climb. The belay is at a tiny stance, so small you are basically in slightly more comfortable version of a hanging belay.
Your partner climbs up and 20 feet left around and over a large bulge and out of sight. You pay-out an additional 75 feet of rope as your partner progresses.
After a minute or so of inactivity on the rope, you feel yourself suddenly catching what appears to be a large fall. It's windy, but you did hear your partner scream during the fall. Your partner is still out of sight, and isn't responding to any of your shouts. Your belay is holding all of your partner's weight as far as you can tell. You fear she is completely unresponsive and in need of immediate attention.
You don't know the condition of the protection that caught her fall, the condition of the rope beyond what you can see, or what terrain lies above the bulge (other than what is on your hand drawn topo, which shows a finger size crack, a few small ledges, and a brief section of face climbing.)
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What's next?
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Dropline
Mountain climber
Somewhere Up There
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Phone call. :-)
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MikeMc
Social climber
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I only climb with bros, so your example is nothing I'll ever have to deal with.
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jonnyrig
climber
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Review the beginning of Vertical Limit. If that doesn't answer your question, consider tying of the belay and going for a beer until your partner quits napping and joins you.
There's always the option of tying off the belay and going to see what happened. Course, that would depend on where you're climbing, whether anyone else is around, what kind of resources you have with you, etc etc. If it was me, I'd damn sure be trying to establish line of sight with the partner as a minimum. How to go about doing that would be very situationally dependent.
By your hypothetical description, it sounds like you would be about mid-rope, so if the two of you were fairly matched, you could follow the route, using the existing pro to clip into, with yourself basically on rope-solo. Additionally, if the partner's rope followed the route close enough, I suppose you could latch onto it with a prusik as well. Either way, what you describe is sort of a nightmare of a situation, right? So, either you've faced it, you truly are trying to be prepared for the worst case scenarios you can imagine, or you're trolling easy waters. Whatever the case, what-ifs can be fun.
What if, instead of holding your partner's weight, the line goes slack?
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rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
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Lower the pardner until in sight, tie her off, then lasso the lass. Lower and pull in.
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WBraun
climber
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other than what is on your hand drawn topo, which shows a finger size crack, a few small ledges, and a brief section of face climbing.)
This is stupid.
A good climber always scouts the route before the ascent to get a good idea of everything up there.
Topo is useless without foresight ......
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John M.
Trad climber
Tempe, AZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 3, 2016 - 09:38pm PT
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Thanks Johnny and Rick,
I guess ya, I am trying to describe a worst case scenario. I am actually describing a pitch I climbed recently where I played out a worst case scenario in my head, and I didn’t have the answer, and it bothered me, alot. We were far from nowhere, and help other than my own wouldn’t have come for multiple days.
I've had the luxury of climbing with people much more experienced and stronger than me from the very start, but that has also put me on relatively hard trad routes in remote places maybe before I have some of the other requisite skills for big backcountry adventures. This was the first time I truly gave a solid introspective look at my responsibility to the people I climb with to be prepared for the absolute worst scenarios.
This alarming lack of experience and knowledge is my own fault, I get it. But I am trying to reduce my ignorance.
I've never epic'd, so outside of practicing at my house the basics of escaping a belay, which I understand and am confident I could perform in this scenario, and a few other super basics like the munter and prusik, I guess I feel like I would be shitting my pants without any idea of what to do to best help my partner.
I should have included that we are on a 50m rope, so in my scenario, we are probably beyond halfway point. No tag line. But even if we weren't, or had a second rope, I wouldn't know what to do to get my unconscious partner back to me because of the 20ft traverse I described. Rick, “Lasso the lass” doesn’t compute with me… What do you mean? Am I literally trying to throw a weighted bight of rope to "lasso" her somehow?
What is my first objective? Trying to get my partner from (presumably) hanging in space? Trying to get to a point where I can see my partner’s condition? Something else?
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Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
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"Cut the rope. John! " "You're limping Ben."
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rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
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First off John I assumed at least a 60 m rope-pretty much standard now a days. So if you're on a 50 m, tie her off and solo up the line using a prussik on the weighted rope to protect yourself (perhaps anchoring the rope to some pro points as you pass) to assess the situation. Might have to use any remaining gear on the gals rack, or in the crack on the way up, to set up another belay and anchor the injured off as comfortably as possible while you figure a way to either lower her off, or rap off to seek help. At a minimum always bring a second rope on remote multi pitch routes.
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rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
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You're a sick man Cosmic. LOL.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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First thing I'd do, go buy yourself a modern rope. I haven't owned a 50m since about 1999, and the 60s that get cut down become either my Joshua Tree rope or minitrax line.
Rick's solution of ascending the line is what I'd do, to the point you could see what's going on with the partner at least. I started writing how you could ascend the line, using the other half as a self-belay and clipping it through whatever gear was good, but then you added the part about it being a 50m and over halfway.
So you have little to no options. Get to the climber, rig a chest harness to keep them upright, stop any bleeding, go from there. If they need medical attention and cannot move on their own, you better start screaming and hoping someone is around. Otherwise you're into ridiculously complicated schemes of lowering or grabbing the rack from her, going back down to the belay, cutting the excess rope off, using the gear and rope fragment to rap to the ground leaving gear as needed for rap anchors, and calling a rescue.
That's a two minute version, top of my head, probably tons of holes in it.
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MarkWestman
Trad climber
Talkeetna, Alaska
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I concur with attempting to ascend the rope on prussiks to at least assess the situation. If you are indeed able to reach your partner- first thing would be to try to get them upright, ABC's, stop and fix any life threats. After that, try and assess the top piece which is at this point holding the weight of both of you. Even if that piece is well above you, it might be worth putting in a good backup if one is available. Then re-rig yourself for rappel on the same single strand on which you ascended. At this point, if you simply clip a long draw from your belay loop to your partner's belay loop, and start rappelling, the rope will pull through the top anchor as you rappel and you will be able to rappel with your partner for the maximum distance the halved rope allows- although the best course obviously will be to stop and make a belay at the first good spot. Thinking ahead will save you trouble here, if you have an extra Purcell prusik on hand, be sure to use it to park your partner on the new anchor especially if they are not ambulatory or able to help. The Purcell is a release-able device so, if you believe you are able to continue assisted rappelling, you won't have to try and lift their dead weight off the belay, you can transfer tension to the rappel device using the Purcell.
For most climbs I now carry one 6mm Purcell prusik and one 6mm loop. The Purcell serves as a personal anchor for the descent, the loop as an autoblock, and in the event of a grim scenario such as this, it gives me a lot of options for rescuing my partner.
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overwatch
climber
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Take a class or get the books and practice with a partner using a belay back up. You might need a third person for this. The subject is too complicated and the scenarios possible are too numerous to learn it on the internet. Using standard terminology so that everyone is on the same page is also important.
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jstan
climber
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Agreed, getting your priorities right as soon as you can see the leader is important. One priority that
occurs to me may be to get your descent line back to the route you climbed. You know where to get
rappel anchors on the route. Getting out on an entirely blank or overhanging face four pitches up is
something to worry about.
You have only 60' feet of rope so letting any of it out is a big decision.
Absolutely worst case.
You tie off short the available rope at the belay and climb the lead rope to the top anchor. Rig a
backup and proceed to leg lift the hopefully light leader to that anchor. Put the leader on that
anchor and get the rope free. Rappel/pendulum back to the other end of the rope and retie it off as
long as possible. Climb back to the leader and tie off there so the rope is stretched as tightly as
possible between the two points so it acts a little as a tyrollean. You can then put the leader on
rappel with you counterbalancing her weight, both of you linked to the tyrollean. Do a simul rappel
till the stretch in the tyrollean puts you below the original belay. Tie off the leader, batman up, leg
lift her and tie her off. Now go back to the high point and rappel. Rope now free and you are on rock
you know. Resist the impulse of doing further simul rappels. Hell on the rope.
If the leader has a broken neck you are in a world of hurt. Wherever she is get her anchored with
the weight off her back, get the rope free and go for help if at all possible.
Edit:
Leg lift: Using the largest muscles we have to do physical work.
Edit2:
Letting all the rope out is a commitment/decision that cannot be reversed short of going to the top
protection, and being fortunate/able to set up a good anchor there. And the decision is based on
the mere hope that the leader will come into view. A view you can get without making a decision by
climbing a short distance up the rope. You never know. That sixty feet connected to the belay may
be enough to allow the leader to be swung back to the route.And in a real pinch you may have to cut
it off.
A trick I have found very useful in decision making. We generally make decisions thinking we
already know the answers. Before making a decision I ask myself, "What am I going to say if this
does not work out as I expect?" This leads to much better planning and better hedges.
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overwatch
climber
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Shouldn't need to "leg lift" anybody with proper use of load releasable hitches.
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