[Muenchener]

Question for those with rigging/frigging/advanced ropework skills.

I had some time free today, and no climbing partner, so purchased a microtraxion and headed off to have a look at a prospective longer term project on a top rope. Arrived the crag and found I couldn't get to the lower off from above.

So, how do they get the rope up there?

Here's what I did.

• Ground anchor two slings, two screw krabs round a big tree. Tree not redundant, but BIG. Not worried about this
• Grigri on harness backed up with a clove hitch on a screw krab
• Stick clip next bolt. Proceed upwards in its general direction by whatever available means
• Arrive at bolt. Clip in with lanyard, stick clip next bolt, repeat

Any potentially fatal mistakes in there?

Two things that struck me as not especially confidence inspiring were the fact that I was basically top roping on one quickdraw, and a rather crowded belay loop - grigri krab, clove hitch krab, lanyard - that tended towards cross loaded clusterfuckedness when I was hanging on the lanyard.

[petejh]

The way you did it sort of negates the point of having a ground anchor - which suggests you wanted the protection of bolts clipped below you as you ascend. For the same risk level that you achieved Edit - just re-read your post.
You could have just tied a fig-eight on a bight and stick-clipped a single strand of rope to the next bolt, then gri-gri up that, clip into the bolt and repeat... Thus losing some faff but trusting your life to a single bolt.. Doing it this way you have to be careful you don't lose the rope when removing it from the bolt you're hanging from and clip-sticking it to the next bolt above - something I almost did when by myself above the sea on the diamond a while back which would have left me clipped to a bolt with no rope, no-one knowing I was there and no phone on me (pull the required slack through the gri gri rather than get complacent and undoing the gri gri to save time).
If you want the security of bolts clipped below, the way you did it is ok but you could improve the faff by larksfooting a fat sling through your harness loops and attaching the prussic to that - prussic on the 'up' rope not the 'down' strand that comes from the bolt above. See the petzl site 'retreating off a single bolt' if you're not sure.

[Muenchener]

Thanks Pete. You were pretty much the person I had in mind with the question - i recall reading that you do a fair bit of this sort of thing.

I used to be quite happy shunting routes close to my limit, but I haven't done much of it for a long time and now I find I'm not mentally comfortable with it at all any more.

[petejh]

I do a fair bit of solo aiding around while re-equipping routes. Wouldn't say I do that much solo top-roping, although recently I have been as a way of training endurance for a 35m 8a project I've bolted on the diamond. It's almost easier to endure the fear and faff of TRsoloing than it is to find willing belay partners for endurance training sessions!

Totally agree with the being mentally uncomfortable bit - I suffer the same. I've found the only way to get comfortable with it is exposure to more and more of it until the anxiety fades. And having a system which, in moments of rationality, you can see is virtually unbreakable - chunky steel biner on the gri-gri or better still a steel maillon (take a spanner in case you can't undo it after loading), independent back-up line, sharp edges avoided. It still doesn't make the thought of the gri-gri/shunt failing and going onto a back-up loop any more palatable though. For me I find TRsoloing useful for fitness training where you aren't really trying moves at the limit, but I don't like doing long sequences at the limit with a high chance of lobbing with a loop of slack in the system.

[Muenchener]

For me I find TRsoloing useful for fitness training where you aren't really trying moves at the limit, but I don't like doing long sequences at the limit with a high chance of lobbing with a loop of slack in the system.

Quite. I used to rig my shunt* with a chest sling and a fairly heavily weighted rope so that loops of slack didn't really happen. Seems to be harder to achieve with a grigri or microtrax - and not actually necessary if you look at the situation rationally, except for the mental comfort thing.

* without backup, usually