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June, 2006
Self help - Tips for sea cliff climbing
BY JON TIERNEY
It's Saturday morning. What to do?
Maybe it's a good day to rock climb on the coast in Acadia. You pick up the phone and call a few people to find a partner for the day.
Excited to climb, you both arrive at the parking lot and head down to a sea cliff. For most of your climbing in the past you have been able to hike up to the top of the cliff and set up your anchors and drop down the cliff. So you do the same here.
Once on the bottom, the climbs are a bit harder than you thought. Looking around, you and your friend see no easy way to hike out and the water is lapping at your feet. You are not into soloing without a rope! Hmm, now what to do?
Having a good basic ascending system in your bag of tricks is important for all climbers. And having a couple ways to haul your friends up is a good thing to have in that bag. You can use these same techniques to free a pinned boat in whitewater, to help pull your car out of the ditch or to build a slack line.
Ascending Skills 101
The most basic ascending system requires only one single length (24-inches) sling loop and a carabiner. Attach the sling to the rope with a suitable friction hitch such as a three-wrap prusik hitch. Clip this to your belay loop on your harness and slide it up the rope as far as you can reach. Now you need to create a step for your foot. At about thigh height, form a clove hitch in the rope and place your foot into it like a stirrup. This will take some practice to tie efficiently. Now step up and slide the prusik hitch up the rope. Gently test that the hitch is holding and sit back in your harness, then remove the clove hitch and replace it higher on the rope. Now keep alternating this all the way to the top. Every once in a while you should tie a figure eight on a bight knot into the rope and clip it to your belay loop. This will prevent a bad scene should your friction hitch slip, which they sometimes do.
There are myriad other ascending systems that you can learn that require more gear but also increase efficiency. These are good skills to practice in your backyard before heading to the rock.
Raising Skills 101
First let's take a look at basic mechanical advantage systems. If we have a weight on an end of a rope and we pull up on it, we call that a theoretical mechanical advantage of 1:1, meaning you have to pull a force of one to raise a force of one. In reality, we know we have to pull a little more than that which is our actual mechanical advantage - but let's keep things simple and stick with the theoretical MA.
Now if we tension a line between two objects, such as a pinned canoe and a tree, and apply a pulling force perpendicular to the line we can exert tremendous force on the objects and pull them toward each other. The actual force is dependent upon how tight the line is - i.e., a tighter line means greater force. This is called a vector pull and is very useful when you only have to move an object a short distance such as when helping a climber get over a tough spot (if the belayer is on top) or freeing a pinned boat.
Now if your climbing buddy is stuck at the bottom of a sea cliff and didn't read "Ascending 101" you will have to use a more elaborate raising system to help them out.
I'd suggest starting with a 2:1, or dropping loop system. To do this you will need either a second rope, or sometimes you can use the tail of the climbing rope you are using if it's long enough.
Fix one end of the rope to your anchor at the top and lower a bight (a "U" shape) of rope to your friend. Have them clip this bight into their belay loop on their harness. Now you can pull on the strand coming back up and they can even help you by pulling on the fixed strand. I suggest putting a friction hitch around the rope you are pulling and attaching it to you (if you are anchored) or the anchor. Use the friction hitch to hold the load while you take up slack in the belay. Be sure to secure the belay while you haul away. We use a drop loop system frequently in mountain guiding and rarely do we need to create more mechanical advantage to raise someone because the system is so efficient.
However, if you do not have enough rope to reach your friend with a drop loop, you could build a 3:1 system. This is the classic Z-drag and is also used commonly in whitewater rescue.
In this situation, your friend is tied in to one end of the rope below you. Hopefully, you are belaying directly off the anchor (see No Umbrella Volume IV, Issue 2 for how to set up a top-managed belay). Attach a friction hitch to the rope going down to your friend and secure this loop to the anchor. Slowly transfer the belay load to the friction hitch to make sure it holds. This is called the brake, or a ratchet. Keep the belay plate in place and tie a back up knot (an "oh #@%!" knot), such as an overhand on a bight just in front of the belay plate, to prevent dropping your buddy should the friction hitch fail. If you are belaying with a self-locking device you can simplify things and skip the above steps.
Now attach a second friction hitch as far down the rope as you can reach. Grab the loose side of the rope (with the overhand knot in it) and clip it to this second friction hitch. This is called the tractor. Voila, you have built a 3:1. Now pull up on the loose strand to start raising your friend from the sea. Every few feet you will need to reset the system. Simply transfer the load back to ratchet, reposition the backup knot and tractor, and then pull again. You'll be sipping tea with your buddy in no time and then you can remind them that they owe you one.
DISCLAIMER: The above guidelines are not a substitute for professional instruction.
Jon Tierney is a certified rock and alpine guide, paramedic and owner of Acadia Mountain Guides and Alpenglow Adventure Sports located year round in Orono and in Bar Harbor during the summer season. He has been guiding and instructing mountain skills, wilderness medicine and outdoor leadership since the early 1980s. He is also a lead instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates.
Email nick [at] noumbrella [dot] com with your questions, comments and concerns.
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