Managing excess rope as the second

I wanted to get some opinions on how to best manage excess lead line as the second on an aid route.  I'm very new to aid climbing and recently cleaned a shorter pitch where the leader fixed the line when they arrived at the belay and I had about 35m left of rope on my end when I began jugging.  I would love to hear some tips from those with experience. Thanks!

My personal favorite and least clusterfucky technique is to have the second not tied into the rope and just use a microtrax backup for your jugs. You just leave the rope hanging with no knot in the end the whole time. When you need to belay at the anchor, use the microtrax to hold the rope weight while you belay with a grigri. Really simple, and no one ever has to coil the rope. 

If there’s no lowerouts or pendulums required to clean the pitch then the leader should pull up the excess slack in the lead line before fixing the line. (this also allows them to start shortfixing if they finish hauling before the second finishes cleaning) 

Then the leader just clips 20’ loops of slack to them as they clean.

Be careful with the hanging rope method suggested above as wind and traverses and cracks have a way of making getting the rope stuck when you try to pull it up after cleaning the pitch. 

I'd second Christian's recommendation unless the leader is short fixing or it is windy (often the case on El Cap).  I never tie backup knots and just use a micro as the backup.

alternatively, i like to have several large carabiners, and every 30ft or so i tie a loose bight in the rope and clip that bight onto the biner, starting from the end of the rope.

when you get up to the next anchor you have all of the rope automatically organized on your spare biners, and you can feed to back out to the leader one loop at a time.

Obviously this works best when leading in blocks and not speed climbing.

I’ve never seen any reason to do anything other than the old method of tying in short with figure 8’s to one large carabiner.. I do them every 30-60ft depending on the terrain and how often I’m taking a jug off the rope to pass pieces (steeper/traversing) then when you get to the anchor and stack the rope in to a bucket- you don’t have the entire rope weight hanging, and you just unclip bites as you come to them (usually done by the previous pitch leader, while the climber that just cleaned the pitch racks for the next)

I don’t use a master-point, opting to tie the anchor with the lead line, so pulling up rope doesn’t really make sense.. 

Quinn Hatfield wrote:

I’ve never seen any reason to do anything other than the old method of tying in short with figure 8’s to one large carabiner.. I do them every 30-60ft depending on the terrain and how often I’m taking a jug off the rope to pass pieces (steeper/traversing) then when you get to the anchor and stack the rope in to a bucket- you don’t have the entire rope weight hanging, and you just unclip bites as you come to them (usually done by the previous pitch leader, while the climber that just cleaned the pitch racks for the next)

I don’t use a master-point, opting to tie the anchor with the lead line, so pulling up rope doesn’t really make sense.. 

I don't use a masterpoint either, but wondering how pulling up the rope doesn't make sense? It doesn't matter whether you anchor to the bolts with the end of the lead rope or pull it up and anchor to the bolts with the rope at the point before it comes tight to the second. It's not like you're using a rope anchor to clip things to so when the second reaches the belay they just remove the rope from the anchor biners. In this the anchor is not your rope at all but your biners attached to the bolts. 

I have an extra spectra loop sewn around my belay loop. I hang a large locker from there so my back up knots hang lower and are less in the way when cleaning and jugging. I typically only tie one or two knots in the slack rope.  I’m not worried my jugs will pop off.  Also, get a petzl pulley biner to make bagging the ropes super easy when you reach the belay.  

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

I don't use a masterpoint either, but wondering how pulling up the rope doesn't make sense? It doesn't matter whether you anchor to the bolts with the end of the lead rope or pull it up and anchor to the bolts with the rope at the point before it comes tight to the second. It's not like you're using a rope anchor to clip things to so when the second reaches the belay they just remove the rope from the anchor biners. In this the anchor is not your rope at all but your biners attached to the bolts. 

Doesn’t make sense to me because if you swing leads- you’ll need to re-tie the anchor for the next leader to have enough rope... 

Skot Richards wrote:

I have an extra spectra loop sewn around my belay loop. I hang a large locker from there so my back up knots hang lower and are less in the way when cleaning and jugging. I typically only tie one or two knots in the slack rope.  I’m not worried my jugs will pop off.  Also, get a petzl pulley biner to make bagging the ropes super easy when you reach the belay.  

Skot- the Pulley Biner rocks!

For the haul line- I just lock open the teeth on the PCP in my 2:1 and reverse the rope through that down in to the rope bag.. 

Quinn Hatfield wrote:

Doesn’t make sense to me because if you swing leads- you’ll need to re-tie the anchor for the next leader to have enough rope... 

IDK, I lead blocks anyways  when I can so the leader can short fix. But if you're swinging leads, seems like it wouldn't take that much effort to fix the line, pull up the slack and fix it again. Thenn you don't have to redo the anchor when the second finishes (just unclip the second fix point) and your second, who just cleaned the pitch will have more energy to rage into the next pitch because they didn't have to carry the extra weight of the extra lead rope. Every way works though so I'm just being petty. 

I stack the rope in a bag that hangs from my harness.  When I get to the belay, the rope is stacked and ready to go and the wind can't get it stuck.

Here's one approach, pretty similar to what Skot mentioned above. Girth hitch a 30 cm sling to your belay loop, add a large mouth locker, and clip bight knots to it as needed.

One nice trick with this, once you are at the upper anchor, the rope is pretty much stacked on the carabiner knots and you don't really need a rope bag.

Here's an article that describes it in more detail (disclaimer, my website.)

https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/rope-management-clip-knots-to-a-big-carabiner