Starting Prusiking with a single Prusik

Here's the situation which I've seen (but never been in) in the Gunks: your leader led the pitch and you're following, and you fall off right after cleaning the piece before a big roof. You're now hanging in space, unable to communicate with your belayer, and you only have a single Prusik loop and two locking carabiners.

The system I've practiced for this situation is, attach Prusik to the rope. Clip Prusik to belay loop. Do an awful, painful twisting thing to flip upside down and get the rope wrapped around your thigh so you can slide the Prusik up. Unwrap the rope from your (now bruised) thigh, wrap the slack around your foot, and stand up, pushing the Prusik higher. At this point, the rest is easy: wrap rope around foot, push up Prusik, repeat, tying alpine butterfly loops in the slack and clipping them to your harness as backup occasionally.

Typically I have two things useable as a Prusik on me, which makes this a lot easier, but not always--the only thing I always have on me is the Prusik I use for backing up rappels. And there's always the possibility that I drop a sling, so I don't have another Prusik to attach to my foot. Let's assume for the sake of this scenario I don't have the slings, or anything else that can be used as a Prusik.

My question is about the awful, painful flip to wrap the rope around your thigh. Is there an easier way? It seems like there has to be an easier, less painful way to transfer your weight from the rope to the Prusik and get some slack to wrap around your foot.

You can use your slings. 

Michael Diep wrote: You can use your slings. 

Let's assume for the sake of this scenario I don't have the slings.

Just pull up on the rope with one hand and slide the prussik. Or carry a sling.

climbing.com/skills/walking…

if your single sling is a double length runner you could prussic hitch it around the rope, toss an overhand knot in the sling very close to the base of the prussic and clip your 'biner between the overhand and the hitch.
then step in the sling, and clip the pre-set 'biner to your belay loop and sit down.

David Kerkeslager wrote:

Let's assume for the sake of this scenario I don't have the slings.

Let's assume you should have two prusiks or slings on your harness, at all times. Be prepared.

Always carrying two prussiks is easier, faster, and less painful than what you described. 

FrankPS wrote:

Let's assume you should have two prusiks or slings on your harness, at all times. Be prepared.

Eh, it's not necessarily worth it for a situation that is fairly rare and I have a solution for (albeit an annoying one, I think it's safe). I'm just looking for a less annoying solution. I'm not looking to add a piece of gear--I already carry what most people would consider too much up the wall.

Usually I (or whoever is following) will have cleaned at least one sling before the fall happens, so usually there will be a second sling in play, avoiding this situation entirely.

In the rare cases where this happens sounds like there's not an easier way than what I'm doing (except maybe John WIlder's solution, but I don't always bring an autolocking belay device on multipitch).

Austin Donisan wrote: climbing.com/skills/walking…

This is the same idea as what I do, but he's stepping on the rope, which takes a ton of strength. It might be less painful than wrapping around my thigh but the thigh is much less difficult.

1. Place prusik on rope
2. Tie a overhand in the prusik an inch from the rope
3. Foot in prusik, stand up and clip a biner between belay loop and the little loop formed by the overhand in the prusik.
4. Relax. You now have a nice loop of rope to attach your grigri or reverso (in guide mode).
5. Prusik upward 

David Coley wrote: 1. Place prusik on rope
2. Tie a overhand in the prusik an inch from the rope
3. Foot in prusik, stand up and clip a biner between belay loop and the little loop formed by the overhand in the prusik.
4. Relax. You now have a nice loop of rope to attach your grigri or reverso (in guide mode).
5. Prusik upward 

Whoa, that sounds much better! I was missing two things: 1) the tying a knot in the Prusik idea, and 2) didn't know you could use guide mode devices this way. I'll have to give this a try next self-rescue practice day (probably this weekend).

I don't always have my LifeGuard (what I use instead of a GriGri) but I always have a DMM PIvot with me.

David Coley wrote: 1. Place prusik on rope
2. Tie a overhand in the prusik an inch from the rope
3. Foot in prusik, stand up and clip a biner between belay loop and the little loop formed by the overhand in the prusik.
4. Relax. You now have a nice loop of rope to attach your grigri or reverso (in guide mode).
5. Prusik upward 

"Foot in prusik" is going to be difficult when the prusik sling is less than 2 ft long i.e. the size you'd have for rap autoblock.

John Wilder wrote: The weight argument is silly and the versatility it provides is hard to beat.

1. I personally don't think its entirely silly as it takes an uncompromising approach to really save weight across all your gear.

2. BUT, a Gri-Gri is one of the best pieces and most versatile of all the gear I own ie when leading an unknown rappel it is very comforting to know I have something that can easily function as an ascender or self belay up to a ledge etc going down first on a single rope.

John Wilder wrote: I don't understand what people's aversion to grigri on multipitch is. The weight argument is silly and the versatility it provides is hard to beat.

I agree with you when using single ropes, but when using half ropes, as I usually do, the GriGri is fairly useless.

You can also implement David Coley's solution by just holding yourself with your hand in the little loop and then using both lockers to create a garda hitch on your belay loop; no belay device needed. I am sure a garda can easily be tied with one hand... where's bearbreeder when we need 'em.

Gunkiemike wrote:

"Foot in prusik" is going to be difficult when the prusik sling is less than 2 ft long i.e. the size you'd have for rap autoblock.

Gunkiemike wrote:

"Foot in prusik" is going to be difficult when the prusik sling is less than 2 ft long i.e. the size you'd have for rap autoblock.

True. Which is one reason I always ensure either my auto block cord is much longer (with a knot to shorten it), if I'm carrying one, or my chalk bag cord is double length - as I'll always be carrying that. I also have a short length of 1mm cord tied to my helmet (through adjacent air vents), or wrapped around an attachment point on my chalk bag, to use as a "knife".

If you fall under a roof at the Gunks, just cut the rope.

Andy P. wrote: You can also implement David Coley's solution by just holding yourself with your hand in the little loop and then using both lockers to create a garda hitch on your belay loop; no belay device needed. I am sure a garda can easily be tied with one hand... where's bearbreeder when we need 'em.

This is the same solution that I thought of when I read your scenario. You probably wouldn't even need to tie the garda one handed. If you just cleaned a piece that means you should have whatever biner(s) were attached to the piece. Just use that biner to clip the prussik to your harness. If you dropped that piece use the biner from one of the other pieces you have cleaned (your leader has placed more than one piece correct?) If you have dropped all the pieces you have cleaned do you really want to make it up to your leader? It seems like an awful lot of work to go through just to have them throw you off the belay ledge for losing all of their gear.

I had posted a thought to just wait until your partner decides to lower until the rope can finally be unweighted.  But then I got tripped up as the 'unconscious' scenarios unfolded in my mind.

I mean, all your partner knows is the rope is taught.   And if you are in fact dealing with an unconscious partner, speed to resolution is of the essence.

Is that what folks here think?   (That is not a pre-judgment on my part.)  If there is no reason to suspect unconsciousness (e.g., concurrent sounds of rock fall), just hold fast on the belay until - hypothetically - your partner works out how to ascend under conditions of scant equipment?

I say "hypothetically" because you really don't know what has happened - though if you know your partner, you probably have a good guess.