Getting soloing dialed

kevin deweese wrote: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.

Shhhh. That is why I'm trying to sell it. ;)

David Coley wrote:Mark, Thanks. What's a PDL?

Pakistani Death Loop.

Long loop of slack between the climber and the last protection when short fixing or soloing.

Tom Nyce wrote: Shhhh. That is why I'm trying to sell it. ;)

I meant, um the silent partner is so much worse, I mean, who wants something that never shouts any encouragement? And silence is golden right? That's why the SP costs so much, all the gold plating and such. And the soloist? You're going to be solo right? Why wouldn't you choose something with what you're doing in the name? I mean, the silent partner has partner in the name you're trying to go without a partner! If you want a partner you can't commit to not having a partner! Not committing means doubt! Doubt is failure. Only the soloist has the built-in nomenclature that will assure you roped-soloing success! Buy now!

David Coley wrote: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.

Extreme talent beats extreme gear most of the time but it sure as hell does seem to me that a Silent Partner would have been easier.

Just like the people who tell me that they couldn't get my 2:1 hauling system to work for them, the Silent Partner, at first glance looks big, cumbersome, and complicated. You need to spend some time with it. In the end, I think you will agree, it's worth it's weight in gold.

Mark Hudon wrote: In the end, I think you will agree, it's worth it's weight in gold.

I use an SP a lot for free climbing, so I'm a natural fan.

I happened across this thread at a time when I am rethinking my own rope soloing system.
As someone who started rope soloing back in the dark ages with Penberthy knots,
I have to concur that the Silent Partner is hands-down the most safe and efficient rope soloing device for upward movement that I have used. I bought mine as soon as they became publicly available and its seen a lot of pitches. The difference in weight between a gri gri2 and a Silent Partner is about a half a pound. Its easy to compensate for its this weight by going light elsewhere in the system.

My only real issue with the SP is that it is a poor descender. You can do the rope around the leg thing so you can have both hands free as when back-cleaning for a faster jug on the way back up. Unfortunately, that alone is often enough to engage the clutch. Regardless of whether the clutch is engaged intentionally or unintentionally, it can be maddening difficult to disengage and continue downward. You may have to clip in with a jumar to free it. (At this point I am wishing I was on on a gri gri)

You can stay clipped into the SP and rap on another device above it such as a gris gris. That generally works ok on the way down. Then, you can use the SP as sort of a running backup when jugging and there is no time wasted taking the SP in and out of the system. For me though, that is nowhere near as fast as simply speed jugging with a couple of backup loops. Also running rope through the SP quickly will often lock it up and that burns time.

My best solution thus far has been unclipping from SP and leaving it on the rope at the top of each pitch so that I have to re-rigging the clove hitch in the SP. For me, this is where the clunkiness really comes in. Situating that clove hitch properly takes quite a bit more time and brain power than rigging a tweaked gri gri, especially if I’m tired, so I try to avoid that as much as possible.

As long as I’m doing long pitches, at the top of each pitch I’ll just slide the SP to the end of the rope next to the anchor, where I’d want it to start the next pitch. I’ll rap on the Gris Gris so I can clean whatever I can on the way down and jug back up with as little gear in the pitch as possible.

That’s reasonably efficient system for soloing with a single cord but if any of you have any suggestions for a better cleaning and jugging system using the SP, I’m all ears.

At this point, my SP is now so old and worked that I have to wonder whether some of the locking up issues described above are simply due to clutch wear. Do any of you regular SP users experience similar clutch lock? The folks at Wren and Rock Exotica have been unwilling to even talk about servicing it so I’m thinking about just trying a newer SP

Thanks