First top rope solo...

been climbing for about a year and just short on partners,,,
picked a easy unknown route in just to the right of the black rose in rock canyon. used the eddy on single line anchored to 2 bomber bolts with a 16mm sling around a bolder as a back up....
youtu.be/Pr2V6AO_STw

You should read this thread...

mountainproject.com/v/top-r…

jared jaynes wrote:been climbing for about a year and just short on partners,,, picked a easy unknown route in just to the right of the black rose in rock canyon. used the eddy on single line anchored to 2 bomber bolts with a 16mm sling around a bolder as a back up.... youtu.be/Pr2V6AO_STw

Is there a question in this? Maybe "critique my setup"? Tons of existing threads on toprope soloing.

Feedback is welcome I am pretty happy with my set up I really dislike anything requiring a chest harness... Rather feed the line over my back which keeps the eddy up by my waist vs in between my legs...

I had the same thought Frank. Not sure if the thread intent was to show off or ask for suggestions. Plenty of posts around about TR solo setups. In regards to this one, it's kind of difficult to get a clear shot of everything going on. One obvious thing I'd change is to just use the rope to build the anchor in this situation. Looks like there's plenty of it.

hmm that's not a bad idea to just tie in straight to the chains and bypass the locking beiners and dog bone set up would save weight for the hike to the anchors
thanks

Ben B. wrote:a Petzl Shunt is probably the single best TR solo device out there- it can take a lot more force before damaging the rope. Some guys even use toothed ascenders, though I personally wouldn't want to risk damaging my sheath if I managed to fall with some slack in the rope.

This is an area where there's some debate- rope damage from toothed equipment vs. Grigris or Shunts, etc. I use toothed ascenders myself, but I'm not here to argue that- I just want to mention that the Petzl Shunt can get you in serious trouble if you make a mistake on a toprope solo. You can make a mistake with any system, but the Shunt is particularly easy to grab the wrong way, which, combined with even slight un-weighting, will cause a rapid drop. For an experienced climber that might be one thing, but for someone a year into it I'd highly recommend something else.

My preferred setup uses one 60 meter rope, a petzl Basic, a miniT (or something similar) and a gri-gri as a rappel device.

I first tie a knot in the middle of the rope (bowline on a bight or apline butterfly work well) clip this to my anchor, and drop both ends to the ground. I use a two rope (active/passive line) system with the Petzl basic on one line (active) and the miniT on the other (passive) as a backup. I clip the bottom hole of the basic into my belay loop with a locking carabiner, and the top two holes into a sling that I rigged into a simple chest harness (Also with a locker). The chest harness doesn't not actually hold any load when weighted, it is just designed to keep the device upright and against my chest and not hanging down below my waist. The other line is clipped into my backup ascender which I clip to my belay loop as well.

How the system works:

When I climb, both ropes naturally feed through both ascenders. In the event of a fall, the basic catches the fall putting 95% of the load onto the active line. The passive line clipped to the backup ascender might recieve some load after rope stretch in the active line, but it still remains generally slightly slack.

With this system, if the top ascender fails, the second ascender will catch with about less than a foot of slack in passive line. Also, if hanging frequently on routes, only the active line will be weighted at any given time. So if some unseen sharp rock cuts my tensioned line, I will still have a second line that has thus-far remained slack enough to not receive similar abrasion.

When I get to the anchor, I can sit on my active line, put my rappel device on the passive line, THEN un-clip the backup ascender. Then I put my weight onto the rappel device (in this case my grigri) and disengage the basic and rap down on my Passive line. This switch over takes roughly 20-30 seconds, and I am secured to both ropes the entire time until I actually start to rap. (i.e, fast, redundant, safe).

Also with this system, if I ever get stuck on a route, I can either:

1. Set up a rappel device on my passive line and escape the route at any time.
2. Use my backup ascender and a sling and jug the active line past the crux, or set up my grigri on the passive line and set up a frogman style system for ascending the rope.

The two ropes stay nice and organized, with the simple chest harness the first device stays well out of the way of the backup device eliminating clutter, it is redundant both in actual devices and in ropes, and it can be quickly and efficiently manipulated to jug either line or simply rap back to the ground. And for what its worth, I have climbed thousands of feet, fallen hundreds of times, and never stopped to feed slack or tie back up knots on this system without any real visual wear on either side of the rope. And in the event a hard fall does cause some wear to the active line, you can quickly and safely rap back down on the passive line which you can know with some confidence is still safe and sound.

This has some similar ideas as well as acceptable devices to use:

petzl.com/en/outdoor/produc…

If persuaded I could take pictures of my setup and post if there is any interest.

I'm pretty sure that area is called the ska block, just fyi.

Ben B. thanks for sharing... and yes i finally found it on MP... it is right below the ska block routes it look like a beginner trad route with chains at the top... bill c. sounds like a good system i really like the redundancy of your system...please post pics thanks

I use a Grigri with a Klemheist or Bachman backup.
Works great and light.

You backed up two bomber bolts with a boulder?? Okay...

dorseyec wrote:You backed up two bomber bolts with a boulder?? Okay...

Jared,
Good for you. Backing up your setup so you have two separate anchor points is smart and safe. Redundancy is great to have, expeicially when it is quick and painless to rig.

Was looking around, as I am about to do some TR soloing myself, and fopund this interesting doc on the petzl site:

"Self-belay for solo climbing with a fixed belay rope" petzl.com/en/outdoor/produc…

I use my gri when soloing on top rope, you just gotta pull the slack through which is not hard. Pretty much same movement to pull slack as it is to clip rope into draw, etc. Just make sure you tie your safety knots in case gri fails. Then i use the Silent Partner when soloing on lead though they are a bit expensive. In my opinion it is the best soloing device there is right now and you can also use it for top roping solo. Good luck and hope i helped.

And what up Ben B. To bad it didnt work out for me to get out to oregon to climb with ya. Should be good for later on this year, probably in Nov or Dec. Be safe bro

Bill C. wrote:My preferred setup uses one 60 meter rope, a petzl Basic, a miniT (or something similar) and a gri-gri as a rappel device. I first tie a knot in the middle of the rope (bowline on a bight or apline butterfly work well) clip this to my anchor, and drop both ends to the ground. I use a two rope (active/passive line) system with the Petzl basic on one line (active) and the miniT on the other (passive) as a backup. I clip the bottom hole of the basic into my belay loop with a locking carabiner, and the top two holes into a sling that I rigged into a simple chest harness (Also with a locker). The chest harness doesn't not actually hold any load when weighted, it is just designed to keep the device upright and against my chest and not hanging down below my waist. The other line is clipped into my backup ascender which I clip to my belay loop as well. How the system works: When I climb, both ropes naturally feed through both ascenders. In the event of a fall, the basic catches the fall putting 95% of the load onto the active line. The passive line clipped to the backup ascender might recieve some load after rope stretch in the active line, but it still remains generally slightly slack. With this system, if the top ascender fails, the second ascender will catch with about less than a foot of slack in passive line. Also, if hanging frequently on routes, only the active line will be weighted at any given time. So if some unseen sharp rock cuts my tensioned line, I will still have a second line that has thus-far remained slack enough to not receive similar abrasion. When I get to the anchor, I can sit on my active line, put my rappel device on the passive line, THEN un-clip the backup ascender. Then I put my weight onto the rappel device (in this case my grigri) and disengage the basic and rap down on my Passive line. This switch over takes roughly 20-30 seconds, and I am secured to both ropes the entire time until I actually start to rap. (i.e, fast, redundant, safe). Also with this system, if I ever get stuck on a route, I can either: 1. Set up a rappel device on my passive line and escape the route at any time. 2. Use my backup ascender and a sling and jug the active line past the crux, or set up my grigri on the passive line and set up a frogman style system for ascending the rope. The two ropes stay nice and organized, with the simple chest harness the first device stays well out of the way of the backup device eliminating clutter, it is redundant both in actual devices and in ropes, and it can be quickly and efficiently manipulated to jug either line or simply rap back to the ground. And for what its worth, I have climbed thousands of feet, fallen hundreds of times, and never stopped to feed slack or tie back up knots on this system without any real visual wear on either side of the rope. And in the event a hard fall does cause some wear to the active line, you can quickly and safely rap back down on the passive line which you can know with some confidence is still safe and sound. This has some similar ideas as well as acceptable devices to use: petzl.com/en/outdoor/produc… If persuaded I could take pictures of my setup and post if there is any interest.

I use a very similar system, with only two differences: I use a micro-traxion/Soloist combo and I create two knots at the top of my climbing rope. Each knot supports it's respective half of the rope and is separately clipped into the anchor points. In this configuration I have a primary and backup anchor, attached to 2 separate strands of rope, attached to 2 devices, each of which is attached to my harness independently. Except for the harness itself there is redundancy at every single point that attaches my body to the TR anchors.

It seems I do have an issue that you don't appear to have. When I fall, the stretch in my active line is sufficient to weight my passive line. The passive line is weighted so much that I have to unweight prior to switching my micro-traxion to pulley and rappelling. This has caused some difficulty.

What are you using to attach your harness to you passive device? Is it just a biner? That's what I am using and it doesn't have enough slack to prevent weighting of the passive line when the active line stretches. I am curious how you avoid this issue.

Just want to throw in my 2 cents for the shunt. The device rocks.

SwineFlew wrote: When I fall, the stretch in my active line is sufficient to weight my passive line. The passive line is weighted so much that I have to unweight prior to switching my micro-traxion to pulley and rappelling. This has caused some difficulty. What are you using to attach your harness to you passive device? Is it just a biner? That's what I am using and it doesn't have enough slack to prevent weighting of the passive line when the active line stretches. I am curious how you avoid this issue.

Sounds like you have a much stretchier rope than I have. My passive line will typically see a small portion of the load if I fall low on a route, but I have always been able to disable the backup ascender. I have been using a ropeman MkI (the one with ridges, not teeth) as a back up recently and that is super easy to disengage the cam even when partially weighted without hurting the rope.

I also have been using a rope that is typically marketed towards climbing gyms/schools etc. as the sheath is supposedly more durable, and it is not nearly as dynamic as a typical climbing rope. (Probably to limit potential ground falls in a gym due to rope stretch)
I got this from a gym I periodically work at, and while I cant tell you the brand/model off the top of my head, I know it is generally sold in large spools so I'm not sure if one can affordable buy it in a reasonable length.

A simple fix to your problem using the equipment you already have might be just attaching your backup device to a very short sling girth hitched to your tie in points, and let it trail slightly behind. That might give you the extra 8-10 inches you might need.

Bill C. wrote: Sounds like you have a much stretchier rope than I have. My passive line will typically see a small portion of the load if I fall low on a route, but I have always been able to disable the backup ascender. I have been using a ropeman MkI (the one with ridges, not teeth) as a back up recently and that is super easy to disengage the cam even when partially weighted without hurting the rope. I also have been using a rope that is typically marketed towards climbing gyms/schools etc. as the sheath is supposedly more durable, and it is not nearly as dynamic as a typical climbing rope. (Probably to limit potential ground falls in a gym due to rope stretch) I got this from a gym I periodically work at, and while I cant tell you the brand/model off the top of my head, I know it is generally sold in large spools so I'm not sure if one can affordable buy it in a reasonable length. A simple fix to your problem using the equipment you already have might be just attaching your backup device to a very short sling girth hitched to your tie in points, and let it trail slightly behind. That might give you the extra 8-10 inches you might need.

Or maybe I just need to lay off the cheeseburgers. I am going to rig basically a quickdraw except with 8mm cord and locking biners. I think that you are right in that an extra foot of slack is all I would need to keep most of my weight off the passive line. I just need enough slack so that I can pull my passive line down and click the traxion over to pulley mode so that shouldn't be tough. My rope is a lot like being on the end of a slinky though so its hard to judge until I am actually hanging on it.

Bill, do you make a chest harness or have an "actual one"? Any advice on that would be rad as I'm a newbie at the TR-Solo thing as well

I use a double length sling with one locker in the middle on your chest to hold it together. Really you could use anything you want, (cord, bungee, shoelace, etc.) because the only purpose of the chest harness is to keep your main ascender upright and out of the way of the backup ascender. Your belay loop is what is going to catch the whole load.