Flatiron Advice: Looking for info on Simul-Climbing

What advice can you give on climbing in the flatirons?

Thanks

What routes are you looking at doing? Do you want info on the technnique of simul climbing or are you looking for routes that are easily simul climbed?

This photo about captures it.

Don't fall. Do your research (ask specific questions). Give search and rescue the day off.

Nice Eric! Good advice.

Simuling can be a fun way to cruise some long routes in the Flatirons if you know what you are doing. It most likely will never be as safe as pitching out the entire climb but the danger can be moderated if you keep a few important things in mind.

1. Don't fall! Be wary of an added sense of security given by the rope, have the stronger climber follow.
2. Keep multiple good pieces between the climbers. If this cannot be achieved you are better off soloing.
3. Consider using a microtrax at key spots on the climb to prevent a follower fall from taking out the leader as well.

I'm sure there's more but you will be much better off finding someone experienced and learning first hand from them. It's pretty fun once you've got it down. I took a less experienced climber up the direct route on the first and with two microtrax was able to climb it in three pretty safe pitches. Seek in person instruction and enjoy!

Will Wright and Has Florine wrote a book on safety and "efficient" climbing. This covers safety measures for simul-climbing.

amazon.com/Climb-Skills-Eff… A book on just that.

What has been echoed above ^^^

There is a crap ton of climbing in the flatirons area. You looking for the major formations? What are you comfortable soloing? Simul-climbing on most of the flatirons seems like a bad idea as a lot are short or offer limited pro, but then again have multiple easy routes

Vague questions get vague answers on MP

No one wants to give you advice if they dont know you're background...

Its like someone asking "You think i could solo that?"- we enevitably want to sandbag you, but dont want to send you on a death wish

Yeah, it's a vague question. But I'm going to use this opportunity to pimp a new simul climbing method my buddy picked up from Hayden Kennedy in the Valley a couple weeks ago.

Kong makes a micro ascender called the Duck

It's very similar to the WC Ropeman, but seems to feed through more smoothly. As everyone here knows, while simul climbing, the follower's skill is much more important than the leader's. The greatest danger in simul climbing is the follower falling and pulling the leader down with him. If you have the Kong Ducks, the leader places them upside down on a bomber piece every 50-70 meters. The Duck will allow rope to pass though for the leader, but if the follower falls, it will cam down on the rope and stop the follower without pulling the leader off the route.

I know many alpinist's who use a similar system with Tibloc's, the Tibloc is lighter for sure, but it relies on teeth clamping down on the rope, so if the follower comes off you run the risk of shredding the sheath which is not going to be much fun. There isn't any consequence to the rope if you fall on the Duck because it just cams down. Sure, the leader can't go up an further as long as the follower is hanging there off the duck. But that's a hell of a lot better than taking a massive ride because your follower's foot slipped off a lichen covered hold.

A couple of notes:

1. There's a newer edition of the book mentioned by Tony:

Speed Climbing

2. A reason to consider simulclimbing is the ease of transition to regular pitched climbing. If there's a significantly harder section of the route that you'd rather deal with from the relative security of a standard belay, you can simul the easy terrain until you get there; then the follower stops and sets up a regular belay. In such cases, it's a good idea for the leader to build the belay anchor. If the leader does not wait for the follower at that belay anchor, the follower should carry some of the rope in coils.

It goes without saying that the technique should be well rehearsed before it's put to use.

If you are soloing, even if you carry the gear, the temptation is strong to keep going until it's impractical to make the transition to roped climbing.