[Paul B]

Apologies if this is a daft thread but recently, I've been having some serious problems with drag. Now, I'm not the heaviest of people but a recent weigh-in revealed I'm not as light as I'd imagined.

Over the past few sessions I've been on the various links into the Ashes and on the LHS (Sticky Wicket > Ashes) I was struggling above the last bolt to get my foot up, not because I was pumped but because it felt like someone had tied an anchor to my harness (perhaps I wrongly blamed my wife for short-roping me  )

The first time through the roof at Kilnsey (with in-situ extenders, including a roller) I couldn't lower off without back cleaning a number of draws!

For draws I've got a mix of Spirits and new WildCountry Proton draws which range from 12cm to 25cm.

In the instance above (S into A) I'd removed the first two draws, extended (2ft) a number of others including the Sticky belay but still had problems. The rope is a 9.5mm Mammut (it feels thinner than this).

Apart from turning to Ginsters for solace, what are the practical options to sort this out (as it's frustrating)?

• Roller draws (crux draw or 1st draw?) - does this make a large difference
• All long slings
• Even skinnier rope
• Skip more

It was noticeably better on the RH link which wanders less (bolting obviously plays a big part).

[abarro81]

On Mandela you should have just dropped a rope from stood on the ledge at the top of the 6c+..

[Fiend]

• Skip more

Meant to be pretty good for losing weight, yeah.

Longer draws lower down always seems sensible to me. With rollers on too.

[tomtom]

I was hoping this thread would be about smoking, or life as a transsexual...

[T_B]

I've got about 4 long q/draws with DMM Revolvers on and use them on sport (though originally got em for trad/alpine). They make a big difference.

[Paul B]

On Mandela you should have just dropped a rope from stood on the ledge at the top of the 6c+..

I did on a few goes up it but didn't fancy my chances of doing a 'Davison'.

[jwi]

Most of my climbing these days seems to be on 40 m pitches or longer. I apply the following:

1. Thin rope
2. Maximum of 4-5 short draws on a route, and only where they are absolutely needed to avoid hitting stuff. Rest is 17, 27 or 60 cm.
3. Two-rope, two-GriGri technique (or hauling through the lead-rope and dropping it down) on anything that has a ledge or a sharp bend.

Other than that, I don't know. Are the roller-biners really working as advertised? I tried a friend's roller-biner and couldn't tell the difference to a normal big cross-area biner.

[Adam Lincoln]

I just bought 18 of these and a few revolvers.

[Kingy]

Use the roller draws all at the bottom of the route where they are most needed. I had 3  on first 3 bolts of Full Tilt and was shocked at how quickly I plummeted earthwards when I dropped the 2nd crux. had them on the first 2 bolts of Mecca and first 3 of Monumental as well, also made quite a difference