3/7 left rope on Unimpeachable Groping

Hi all,

We climbed Unimpeachable Groping on Sunday 3/7 and one of our ropes got stuck on the first rappel into the bowl. It was getting dark so we ended up leaving it and descending with our friends' rope (two parties).

The rope is a blue 70m. Petzl, I think. My buddy would love to get it back and we will happy compensate with $$$/beer/high fives.

Will be in Vegas for the foreseeable future, let us know!! 201 two two oh 9704

Cheers

Jack

You were up there with another party that had a rope and you didn't get the stuck rope yourself? Because of darkness? What would you have done if your friends hadn't been there?

Fair question, was kind of expecting to get called out for this.

Because Unimpeachable Groping is a sport route we had no gear (perhaps I would bring a few small pieces if I were to do it again, but I feel like it's reasonable to bring only QDs on a sport route with a relatively straightforward descent). I considered soloing up and around to where the rope was stuck, but we had a few newer folks out with us who had neglected to pack headlamps (I know, I know, total junk show, YGD, etc.). Given their experience level and the fact that we still had a means to descend, I decided to prioritize getting everyone down rather than burn what little light was left.

I'm curious what other folks would do in this scenario. It's a pretty weird edge case -- you climb a sport multipitch and yet suddenly find yourself in an alpine/trad scenario, but with no gear. It seems to me like your two options are to solo up to the rope or phone a friend/SAR. 

Anyways, the offer still stands to anyone willing to clean up our mess. I figured I'd ask in case anyone was already planning on doing the route. If we don't get any bites, I'll take a day off work and we'll go back up there to clean up our trash :)

Best option in your scenario: Get down safe. Come back in the morning and do Power Failure and get your own gear back while ticking a classic.

What I would do without a bail option: If I have enough rope on the ground, get a belay and clip into bights on the stuck rope, improvise gear on the way up. 

Or solo the pitch with my grigri on the stuck rope as backup. 

Jk I just call SAR the moment the wind picks up. 

Rprops wrote:

Or solo the pitch with my grigri on the stuck rope as backup. 

This. Clip bolts if you can, otherwise the stuck rope itself is your pro. Better yard on it REALLY hard first...

Really the only mistakes you made were: 

1. Thinking Unimpeachable Groping is a sport climb
2. Keeping company with noobs on said "sport climb"
3. Using no headlamps as excuse when everyone had smartphones (you know - for the 'gram) with their own built-in flashlights
4. Posting on MP instead of going back this morning
5. Referring to UG as a "sport climb" multiple times in your excuse post

To your credit you:

1. Didn't get anyone killed
2. Didn't call SAR and escaped the situation on your own
3. Offered a cash reward for your rope (next time go the extra mile and state exactly how much its worth to you)
4. Asked for advice / desire to learn
5. Overall demonstrated humility

All in all, I'd say not too bad and if I retrieved your rope I'd give it back for sure.

Tangent: I will add that the addition of a dedicated rap route in the Power Failure bowl was ill-conceived from the start. First, why? There are TWO excellent rap routes already - Power Failure itself and All You Can Eat, the latter of which can be rapped with a single 60m (very unlikely to get stuck). Second, the hardware on this rap route is so terrible. I've spent my own time and hardware attempting to improve it but it is still just a mess. Why do something like this if you're not going to do it right? And third: This situation goes to show how dangerous dedicated rap routes are. If you're rapping an existing route and you get a rope stuck, there's at least a chance you can lead back up the route to clear your rope. On a rap route that follows unclimbable terrain, you're in a world of hurt; every time you rappel in a direction that is not inherently climbable, you should take a moment to carefully consider what you're doing. On that note, I suspect it will only be a matter of time before SAR has to clean up a mess on the new Crimson Chrysalis rap route. PS: I do not know whether the OP rapped the dedicated rap route or Power Failure.

Edit to add: It was called to my attention that the rope was actually stuck on the first rappel getting down to the bowl itself... So we know it got stuck on climbable terrain: the neo-classic Jack's Lament! And here I had been criticizing the addition of this route to the database... How useful it could have been if Jack was more prepared with the knowledge or gear needed to ascend it. The tremendous irony of this almost prescient name now brings me great joy.

Fair enough, getting everyone down safely is certainly the best scenario given the situation. 

Gotta love the description for that route Jack's Lament:

 "Usually done after your rope gets stuck after rappel from UI and you have to go back up to get it."

Sort of wish people would treat Red Rock with the seriousness it deserves instead of as a casual cragging area. 

A few years ago I helped out a party that had spent the night in the bowl due to their rope getting stuck in the exact same place. We were climbing Ginger Cracks early the next morning and were surprised to find them there. They had friends coming to rescue them, but they were only on p2 or p3 of UG when we reached the bowl. Climbers should bring gear up Unimpeachable Groping for just such a situation, but it really is only obvious in hindsight. And it isn't unreasonable for someone with no trad gear or experience to attempt UG. I'd say that anyone who abandons a rope to get the group down is making the right choice in this situation. The folks we helped didn't have that option, and spending the night was the best choice they could have made.

For what it is worth, there is plenty of room to move far far back from the wall when pulling the rope on this rappel. That's the number one thing that sport climbers and trad climbers should be doing to prevent this situation.

Jack Neus wrote:

Fair question, was kind of expecting to get called out for this.

Because Unimpeachable Groping is a sport route we had no gear (perhaps I would bring a few small pieces if I were to do it again, but I feel like it's reasonable to bring only QDs on a sport route with a relatively straightforward descent). I considered soloing up and around to where the rope was stuck, but we had a few newer folks out with us who had neglected to pack headlamps (I know, I know, total junk show, YGD, etc.). Given their experience level and the fact that we still had a means to descend, I decided to prioritize getting everyone down rather than burn what little light was left.

I'm curious what other folks would do in this scenario. It's a pretty weird edge case -- you climb a sport multipitch and yet suddenly find yourself in an alpine/trad scenario, but with no gear. It seems to me like your two options are to solo up to the rope or phone a friend/SAR. 

Anyways, the offer still stands to anyone willing to clean up our mess. I figured I'd ask in case anyone was already planning on doing the route. If we don't get any bites, I'll take a day off work and we'll go back up there to clean up our trash :)

Just out of curiosity, how many people and how many parties were you with?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone -- learned a few tricks so far (hadn't thought of clipping bights -- that's pretty clever! stepping back from the wall to pull is good beta, too).

In hindsight, I should have taken a moment to think and look at the MP page for Ginger Buttress to see if there was any information about routes on the first rappel. The irony that the route under the rappel is named Jack's Lament is not lost on me ;)

Another mistake was in labeling UG a sport route (as Josh has so kindly pointed out several times ;)). I have done my share of long routes in RR and elsewhere in the alpine and now feel quite foolish that when I saw "7 pitches 5.10b sport" on Mountain Project I didn't bother to do the research that I would do for any other route of the length and grade. This led to a series of misjudgments that snowballed, namely not bringing gear, starting late (left the TH at 9ish) and thinking that this would be a totally cruiser day for all involved.

Re our parties: we were climbing in a party of two and a party of three. I felt that climbing in two parties was not terribly discourteous, especially given that we were starting a bit later. I climbed in the first party with another experienced climber with the reasoning that we didn't want the second party to be waiting on the first. The now-obvious tradeoff was that the second party, who had less cumulative mileage (one experienced, two competent but fairly green), climbed far slower than the first. My partner and I ended up picnicking on the ledge beneath the final pitch of 5.8 from 2:15 until after 4 while we waited for our friends.

Re ropes: We had a 60m and two 70m. This is getting a bit into the weeds (but hey, this is MP and people seem to love this stuff), but when darkness began to fall I decided that the fastest way to get people to the ground from the bottom of the bowl (so 4x35m raps to the ground) would be to fix our two 70s all the way down and have 3 of our 5 zip down the two fixed lines. Then me and a more experienced member would do the four standard rappels. When the [70m] rope got stuck on the rap coming into the bowl, we'd already fixed the other 70 and sent one person down (with the understanding that the second person down would bring the second 70 to fix to the ground). I wasn't sure that our other available rope -- the 60m -- would reach all the way, and I didn't want to leave members of our party hanging from bolts in the dark while we took more time trying to sort out the stuck line. So I decided to abort and focus on the team descent. One experienced member of the party went down with the 60 to see if it would reach, with the idea that he could transition to single raps/ascend/otherwise make it work if not. It ended up working out, and the first 3 were able to ride the fixed lines to the ground. Then me and one other did the standard raps to the ground.

Headed up Power Failure tomorrow AM. Keep the advanced rope retrieval tactics coming (and the jabs too -- I am well-deserving of them :))

It sounds to me like you did a good job all around...sometimes shit happens in climbing. Good luck getting your rope back!

Hey all,

Thanks for all the feedback. Jack and I went up early this morning first in the gate and did Power Failure as Rprops suggested, but no luck. Was a sick climb and we thought it was better movement than UG to be honest. A local we encountered after we rapped off said he went up yesterday evening and didn't see anything so it must have been taken yesterday. He recommended to check the Red Rock Facebook as well as Desert Rocks.

That rope came along for many an adventure and will be sorely missed. If it doesn't turn up, I hope it serves its new owner well.

Still willing to barter for it! The rope doesn't have all that much life left in it, but if cash is more to your liking I'd also be willing to put up ~$60.

- David