Is Short Roping Only A Guide’s Technique?

Inspired by related discussions in the threads about the accident last summer on Mount  Roger and the cost of hiring a guide …

I have no experience with short roping. Closest thing for me was reaching out to take my partners hand for a scrambled around a bulge.

Found the below list - with some modification - about the potential consequences in some circumstances when the only other alternative is to pitch it out which is chosen:

• To pitch the Matterhorn would take two to three days. More complex climbs would take a week.
• rock fall due to use of a long rope;
• more time being exposed under ice cliffs;
• greater exposure to fatigue, bivouacs, heavier  packs.

Source: AlpineSkills.com

Is short roping only for experienced/skilled guide’s who must be able to deal with someone else who is far less experienced/skilled?  Any stories out there to be told whether guide related or not? Stories of when it was an essential part of the day? Stories of when the technique was deployed but probably should not have been?

First off, I think it's important to define short roping prior to starting this conversation as there's sometimes confusion as to what it means.  Short roping is 2-4 climbers being tied together with a very short interval of rope between each team member, (5-10' depending on the situation) moving together, with the highest climber being responsible for keeping a slip from becoming a fall by utilizing solid footing and keeping control of the rope with at least one hand at all times.  Maintaining gentle tension in the rope is critical to this working and it works best for managing slopes with low-likelihood/high consequence falling hazard.  Often (but not always) the highest climber is carrying some amount of extra rope (between their knot and the next person below them on the rope team's knot) in their hand to allow them to move more independently of their partners to find more secure footing and to help with anchoring.  This interval of rope shouldn't be more than ~10m as one of the principles of short roping is that in the event of everyone falling, a final possible redundancy is the rope hanging up on the terrain and catching the team. (which wouldn't really work well if the highest climber is carrying a large amount of rope in their hand)  It's also just harder to do well if you're carrying a lot of rope in your hand.  There's a lot more to it than that, but that should help clarify the discussion here.

I think it would be a mistake to characterize it as a tool that is solely available to guides, but with the caveat that it's a really sharp tool that takes years of mentorship, training, and experience to use well.  At this point, I've seen a decent number of non-guided parties 'short roping' each other in the mountains and, more often than not, they're making the situation more dangerous by trying to short rope, but being bad at it.  Personally when recreating, I just solo terrain that I'd short rope at work unless I'm climbing with a partner who asks for more security.  I'm not actually convinced that two equally competent partners make each other safer by short roping because of the risk-magnifying effect of being tied together without anchors.  

Personally, I've probably caught somewhere in the hundreds of short roping falls on rock, ice, and snow and the system works really well when employed properly.  It feels kind of diminutive to be short roped due to the inevitable comparison to walking a dog, but when applied properly by a skilled practitioner, it works really, really well and can dramatically increase the safety margins.  Especially in alpine terrain where pitching out exposed 3rd and 4th class kills hours of your day.  A classic example of this is the Upper Exum Ridge where independent climbing teams frequently pitch out the entire thing and then get passed by guided teams (who are often, but not always, working with really weak climbers) literally walking past climbers belaying each other.

There are a handful of incidents where it's resulted in fatalities because it was being used in terrain that wasn't appropriate. (the short roper's footing was inadequate to arrest the slip) I could be remembering wrong, but am pretty sure that at one point the French government shut down guiding for a season in the Alps due to an increasing trend of short roping fatalities.  Basically guides kept one-upping each other trying to short rope steeper and harder terrain which resulted in multiple tragedies when the inevitable happened and clients slipped.  (I heard this on one of the first AMGA courses I ever took in 2011 from one of the instructors, so could be fuzzy on the details)  Regardless of whether or not that's fake news, both the normalization of deviance and confirmation bias can be real when learning to use and using this technique, so it's good to regularly have real conversations with yourself and others about how effectively employed it was or wasn't in a given situation.

As a client I have had the benefit of being short roped on a number of occasions, most notably on the descent of the Hornli route on the Matterhorn.  It gave me the confidence to keep up a fast pace on a long, steep and frequently loose downhill scramble.  You want to get your ass off that thing ASAP, both to stay ahead of the masses and to beat the miserable weather that reliably rolls in in the afternoon.  It was also very helpful when navigating a low angle "shitty" glacier (hard ice littered with rock fragments).  I think the main value of the technique lies in giving the client the psychological comfort to keep moving in unfamiliar or intimidating terrain.  You can reasonably expect a guide to hold a short slip ( I recall reading a study that suggested that the outer limit was a slip of about 18 inches). Arresting an actual fall, not so much.  I have never slipped when being short roped, so, thankfully, I have no actual experiential evidence of the technique's fall arrest effectiveness.    When short roping, both client and guide are putting a huge amount of trust in the guide's training, skills and experience.  The risk assumed is much higher than when using fixed belays or simulclimbing.  I personally have no interest in using the technique with a non professional.  If moving quickly in the alpine on easy ground is essential, I would choose for each partner to solo.  That way in the case of an unfortunate fuckup, there will only be one fatality instead of two.

Short roping also has its place in rescue. in some instances, you need to get someone off a mountain or route where the person is ambulatory, but maybe suffering from mild AMS/exposure/over exertion. i've also used it as a method to get inexperienced/uninjured people down a route where they don't feel confident (as Mike noted above, the psychological impact of being "attached" to a more experienced person can be helpful).

I would not short or rope up with anyone on technical terrain, if we are not belaying. 

I'm not talking about client/guide situation, which I have never participated in, but in alpine terrain with experienced partner, we  should strive to learn and climb easier  technical terrain un-roped. If/when terrain gets too difficult to solo, belay the climb or simu-climb roped with running pro.. This obviously is different than client/guide relationship but for most people, short roping is not a safe option.

Even John Roskelley said many years ago something like, if you don't belay, don't rope up. That way if things go wrong only one person dies...

I agree, Max. Defining short roping is a good place to start.

And while not a slave to content of instructional books, I did not see it in the index of Freedom of the Hills 5th or based on a quick scan of the belay section. Likely, a basic instructional book is not the place to look.

Much thanks for a definition. A question on part of that … bolding is mine …

Max Tepfer wrote:

Often (but not always) the highest climber is carrying some amount of extra rope (between their knot and the next person below them on the rope team's knot) in their hand to allow them to move more independently of their partners to find more secure footing and to help with anchoring.

To be clear about the possible extra rope, the highest climber to some degree is isolating the extra rope somehow to resist it simply paying out if someone else falls. Isolation is too strong of a word. Still, that could be done by gripping the rope with a hand at a spot on the rope as close to the other climber as practical?  And some other means might be used to multiply the grip friction force - if needed - like a wrap around the torso?

So the deal with the hand positions/extra rope is this:  (I'm just going to call the short roper the guide for simplicity's sake even though non-guides can for sure shortrope)

The guide holds the rope going down to their partner(s) in their downhill hand if they're traversing or in either hand if they're going straight up and down the slope.  You can kind of think of that hand as the 'brake' hand as it's never allowed to leave the rope and you have to grip the rope such that your pinky is towards the client.  Turning the rope around the base of your pinky is the primary means by which you can increase friction on the rope and it doesn't work if your hand is flipped.

In your other hand are either rope coils (typical if you're on rock) or an ice axe. (on snow)  On rock, I was taught that the coils should be round (as opposed to butterflies) so that if the guide loses control with the brake hand, the round coils tighten around their non-brake hand, but know some guides who prefer butterflies as they twist the rope less and are easier to handle.  An additional way to increase friction is to wrap the rope below your break hand around an edge or horn as you climb. (useful in a crux) As I said earlier, you really don't want a lot of extra loops  because it makes it harder to move fluidly due to the sheer number of coils and mass of rope, makes rope management more difficult, and eliminates the ultimate redundancy of the rope catching on the terrain if the system fails.

On snow the best practice is to fix the upper end of the rope to the critical points or belay loop such that there's just enough slack between the guide and their partner to tie a slip knot-handloop to grab with their brake hand.  This creates another redundancy in the event that the guide loses control of the team by adding a small amount of slack which gives the guide time to try and arrest immediately after the hand loop slips out of their brake hand.

There are pretty specific best practices for switching the brake strand and coils from one hand to the other that would be pretty annoying to describe here.  When I see people short roping poorly, they're usually not doing a good job of maintaining control of the brake strand at all times, (you never know when your partner's going to trip over their feet) managing slack, (it's way more difficult to catch someone if there's slack in the system) or rigging the whole rope system poorly for the terrain they're in. (if you tie a kiwi coil wrong, it's effectively a noose and if there's too much rope between climbers, it tends to create slack.  If there's too little, it inhibits movement and you run the risk of people stepping on each other)

I was formally introduced to short roping during my Rock Guide Course. At first, all is students viewed it as a tool that increased security for the client at the expense of the guide. You're tied together, after all. It seemed like the guide had to move slower than they would while soloing because of the added attention required. 

At the end of our course, our instructor asked us if there was anything we wanted more practice with. Since it was novel, we all said short roping. After we short roped each other a bit, he stopped and told us we were using the technique slightly incorrectly. We were adding security for our clients, but we weren't using the rope and client to aid ourselves. 

He then short roped one of us while the others just watched. He used the client as pivot point, letting the tension act as another point of contact so he could move faster. He draped the rope over horns and used the client as a counter weight so he could quasi-rappel. Along a ridge, he had the client hand traverse while he tensioned and just walked along the other side. We both flew through terrain that may have taken me longer to solo. 

All that said, Max is spot on. Short roping is a very nuanced and advanced tool. It takes specialized training and many many hours of practice to do right. But I do believe it can add security to an entire recreational team.

Bill Lawry wrote:

Inspired by related discussions in the threads about the accident last summer on Mount  Roger and the cost of hiring a guide …

I have no experience with short roping. Closest thing for me was reaching out to take my partners hand for a scrambled around a bulge.

Found the below list - with some modification - about the potential consequences in some circumstances when the only other alternative is to pitch it out which is chosen:

• To pitch the Matterhorn would take two to three days. More complex climbs would take a week.
• rock fall due to use of a long rope;
• more time being exposed under ice cliffs;
• greater exposure to fatigue, bivouacs, heavier  packs.

Source: AlpineSkills.com

Is short roping only for experienced/skilled guide’s who must be able to deal with someone else who is far less experienced/skilled?  Any stories out there to be told whether guide related or not? Stories of when it was an essential part of the day? Stories of when the technique was deployed but probably should not have been?

Short roping is psychological pro for the client, better than nothing I suppose.

Dumbest technique you can cook up. The  euros have  been  killing  each other for 100 years  this way.  I  get  it  that  guides have  to make a  living  and it's part of the job  but if you ain't  working  no effing way.  No pro  is no rope in my  book.  Last time I was in that  situation I just  lowered my  friend the  full  length of the rope. and told him to  find a  safe spot  and  stay put.  Then i jogged  down to  him  while  coiling the  rope.  Did that  twice to get him down  400feet  where no  reasonable anchors  available.  That was the last two of 9 rappels . No way would i have  had us move together  roped  together with no  anchor.  This ain't no fckn  guide service.  

^ You might want to read “The Mountain Guide Manual” by Chauvin and Coppolillo, Nick. You clearly don’t know what you don’t know!

It’s an excellent book, not only for guides.

Terry if you like the suicide pact  go for it just count me out. 

  I will do it if I have to to rescue someone but  never doing it for fun.  been tromping around the mountains for well over 40 years  and really don't see a need for those shenanigans on the kind of stuff I climb.  

Thank you, Max, again. Your clarification makes perfect sense to me.

In my words, the experienced person is exquisitely aware of potential forces from slips/falls, also of whatever resistance force they can provide, and making adjustments on the fly.

Trad/alpine climbers are weighing those things all the time. Maybe with better margin to failure? Just at a different level and with almost completely different tools/techniques. That is not meant to trivialize that an almost completely different skill set is needed.

I short roped my 6 year old niece up the back of cyclops at JTree just a few weeks ago. Hadn’t really equated that with this topic   It went fine and she loved it, but I probably could have done a better job.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Terry if you like the suicide pact  go for it just count me out.   … really don't see a need for those shenanigans on the kind of stuff I climb.  

Right?!?!  I suspect that is the case for most of the climbing I do.  Still, I was definitely Not in the mind of a suicide pact with my niece. Very aware that her PaPa and MaMa were waiting out at the curb.

I’ll probably respond to some other posts over the weekend.  Work is crushing me at the moment.

Not sure that  a six year old is a good example.  Even a really light small client would be manageable but uncle Bob   weighing in at 250 in his birthday suit  is probably going to yank the guide off the mountain regardless of how many certificates  he or she has. the only time you have a real chance to  make a miracle save is walking a ridge where you can jump off the other side. 

Some reading.  https://www.alpinerecreation.com/pdf/safetyresearch_verbunden_bis_in_den_tod_en.pdf

Executive Summary.  Only in the ideal scenario can a guide expect to hold a client’s fall on a 30° icy slope. As a rule, a fall of the roped team will eventuate. To hold more than one client on such a slope may be deemed impossible.”

Test details at https://www.alpinerecreation.com/pdf/safetyresearch_shortrope_tests.pdf. There's a video that won't play on my mac at https://www.alpinerecreation.com/TestClips.mov.

(The author was a UIAGM guide with a MSc in Physics whose friend and colleague was killed in a short-roping accident.)

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Not sure that  a six year old is a good example.  Even a really light small client would be manageable but uncle Bob   weighing in at 250 in his birthday suit  is probably going to yank the guide off the mountain regardless of how many certificates  he or she has. the only time you have a real chance to  make a miracle save is walking a ridge where you can jump off the other side. 

Well thats part of the short roping equation as well-understanding when it is appropriate and when it is not. The problem with the Euros that Max referenced.

Sometimes you need to add security, maybe you need to short pitch something for uncle bob that you would short rope your 6 year old on. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Not sure that  a six year old is a good example. 

I’ll admit, it is a little like saying that walking up stairs is a form of free soloing … and even hands-free free soloing if not holding the hand rail.  That might seem a laughable example as well and I kinda would agree. Still, a good friend of a sister recently died six months after tumbling down the stairs - paralyzed below the neck/shoulders.  Pneumonia took him.

Stairs, six year old … they serve my purpose which Noodle Dude saw.  Can cause one to step back a little from an ingrained reaction to gain a little more perspective..

your really reaching there.. 

Mike Grainger wrote:

 I think the main value of the technique lies in giving the client the psychological comfort to keep moving in unfamiliar or intimidating terrain.  You can reasonably expect a guide to hold a short slip ( I recall reading a study that suggested that the outer limit was a slip of about 18 inches).

I appreciate getting a client’s view, Mike.  This seems reasonable to me. I recall times in the mountains decades ago with people who could have moved much faster - and needed to - if they had had this kind of assurance.  None of us had the skill to short rope someone - even if we knew of it as a technique (suspect none of us did)

Adam Fleming wrote:

He used the client as pivot point, letting the tension act as another point of contact so he could move faster. He draped the rope over horns and used the client as a counter weight so he could quasi-rappel. Along a ridge, he had the client hand traverse while he tensioned and just walked along the other side. We both flew through terrain that may have taken me longer to solo.

When I have seen a guide at work, there often is a very apparent hierarchy with the guide frequently telling the client what to do and where to go and when - sometimes as harshly as that sounds and on other occasions more subtle but still there.  Your post has me thinking that that kind of “command structure” could also be a necessary part of short roping … like how some forms of dancing with a partner can go smoothly only if there is a leader and a follower.

Is that the case? I mean, is a kind of understood and agreed upon command structure important when short roping … as opposed to lead-follow which to me implies some shared knowledge and quasi-equivalent level of experience. 

Bill Lawry wrote:

Is that the case? I mean, is a kind of understood and agreed upon command structure important when short roping … as opposed to lead-follow which to me implies some shared knowledge and quasi-equivalent level of experience. 

I think that is just a given on any team that involves one person who is competent enough to short rope someone, and one person who is incompetent enough to solo 3rd class or walk uphill in crampons.

rgold wrote:

Executive Summary.  Only in the ideal scenario can a guide expect to hold a client’s fall on a 30° icy slope. 

That's not been my experience at all.  Angle is just one of many critical factors that hugely impact the mechanics of the situation.  (how icy or soft the snow is, the geometry of the guide's footing, the friction coefficient of the slope the client slips on, etc.)