How to clean overhanging, traversing sport route

Searched but didn't see an answer to this specific question.  Got into a bit of shenanigans cleaning a route this weekend (Cowboy Bebop, if you're curious).  It's not severely overhung but enough, and it traverses quite a bit as you climb around an arete at the start.  I was trolleying down, but by the I got roughly 5 draws down from the anchor, I was being lowered into thin air despite the trolley.  Other sources suggested having the belayer keep you super tight, but as I had ~20 lbs on him, this was the best we could do. If it was just traversing I think we'd have been OK, but as soon as I got waist level with the draw I couldn't pull in AND over enough to unweight the draw.  Any rope tricks here? 

Have your partner do it 

That's what we ended up doing - he TR'd and I used my weight advantage to help haul him up. 

havent need to put this into practice - but i thought this was a super cool tip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32weN4q5sw

Math Bert wrote:

 Any rope tricks here? 

Cleaning on TR WHILE following through draws is always an option.

Here are some tips how to make cleaning overhangs a bit easier, go to 1min20s if time stamp gets messed up

One more tip - with some clip sticks removing 1st draw is easy. In that case you may consider lowering through the 1st draw and removing it with the stick.

I'm surprised you haven't encountered this up until now... Yes, you get lowered "into air" even with the trolley. And that is fine. The belayer feeds the rope out, until you are approximately level with the next draw, and then you pull on the rope, until you pull yourself up to the draw. Grab a nearby hold, unclip the draw from the bolt. Some times a bit of shenanigans are needed, and it is easier to go in direct on that draw to fiddle with it, or to transfer your trolley from above to below the draw you are trying to unclip. Eventually you unclip, and you'll swing out again. The process repeats until you get the the last couple draws, which you should be able to reach with a stick clip. Then, depending on the terrain, you can either put your side of the rope through the draws that are going to be left on the wall for stick clip retrieval, stay trolleyed in, and get lowered to the ground, or you unclip, swing out, and get lowered to the ground.

Alternatively, clean the route on TR, either the entire route, or the bottom few draws that were too cumbersome to retrieve on lowering.

And, depending on the area ethics, you could leave a cleaning 'biner or two... Or maybe equip the route with couple strategically-placed permadraws to aid with the cleaning process. 

Chris Outings wrote:

havent need to put this into practice - but i thought this was a super cool tip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32weN4q5sw

For what it's worth, if you have a nice keylock bolt-end carabiner (like the Petzl spirit, for example,) you can essentially do the same thing without bringing a fifi hook up your sport route. Open the gate of the carabiner, pull yourself into the wall, and in the same action, slide the carabiner out of the bolt hanger.

I have a buddy that for 30 years has talked about putting in a 100' completely horizontal route over a wide cave. Every move would include a heel hook. Left foot heel hook one direction, right hook coming back. Best we could figure for cleaning is that the leader does it themself in a out and back run. The engineering involved here is daunting, hence why it hasn't happened yet 

Beta Slave wrote:

I have a buddy that for 30 years has talked about putting in a 100' completely horizontal route over a wide cave. Every move would include a heel hook. Left foot heel hook one direction, right hook coming back. Best we could figure for cleaning is that the leader does it themself in a out and back run. The engineering involved here is daunting, hence why it hasn't happened yet 

Or just use perma draws? There's a reason why a lot of steep and traversing climbs are fixed. 

Adam B wrote:

For what it's worth, if you have a nice keylock bolt-end carabiner (like the Petzl spirit, for example,) you can essentially do the same thing without bringing a fifi hook up your sport route. Open the gate of the carabiner, pull yourself into the wall, and in the same action, slide the carabiner out of the bolt hanger.

A fifi hook weighs nearly nothing, costs like $15, and is super super thin. That is the benefit. Putting the fifi in behind the QuickDraw in the same bolt and being able to yank it out. A fifi is a different shape than a beaner - will work better. 

Sometimes it's worth it to sacrifice a biner to leave midroute as a directional. N00bs will think it's booty, steal it, and then realize why it was there when they try to clean the route.

Eric Chabot wrote:

Sometimes it's worth it to sacrifice a biner to leave midroute as a directional. N00bs will think it's booty, steal it, and then realize why it was there when they try to clean the route.

I did this on a mega traversing route once. A lot of effort to move a carabiner down one bolt.