Climbing Info Guides

As every climber knows, quickdraws are invaluable pieces of gear that stop you from dying.

They’re absolutely essential because of that. Dying sucks, and it stops you from climbing.

And today… I climbed without using quickdraws altogether.

“You’re a free soloer now?”

No.

Any sane climber would use protection on their climbs.

I still used protection… but the difference is, I wasn’t using quickdraws to clip into the bolts.

“Then you’re just running your rope through the bolt hangers? That’s really bad for your rope, and it damages the hangers too.”

Ah – I didn’t say I wasn’t clipping into them with something.

You see, I was using alpine draws instead.

“Why?”

Because they’re so versatile.

Why Alpine Draws Are So Versatile

There’s one key difference that separates alpine draws from quickdraws, and that difference is the true source of their strength.

That key difference is… they’re held together by a looped over sling, rather than a dogbone of webbing. That’s why they’re sometimes called “slingdraws.”

There’s advantages and disadvantages of this, but really, the pros far outweigh the cons.

The Sheer Versatility of Alpine Draws

The fact of the matter is: Slings are simply much more useful than dogbones. There’s no way around it.

You can’t really use a dogbone for anything else. But slings? There’s so much you can use slings for.

I wrote a whole post about them here.

That’s part of the beauty of alpine draws. You can cannibalize them for their parts, or you can use the versatility of their sling-based construction to customize them to a length of your choosing.

“Why would you want to adjust their length?”

To reduce rope drag.

Longer routes, or ones which wander left and right, can make the rope zigzag hard between the bolts, which makes it build up a surprising amount of resistance when you try to pull slack through.

It’s really annoying, but what many climbers don’t know is that it’s also quite dangerous. I wrote all about it here, if you’re interested.

So, long story short, having extendable quickdraws is a godsend – and alpine draws are the only such things which exist.

Remember how I said that the sling in them is looped over? That’s how you adjust their length.

Here. I’ll explain it a bit more clearly.

How to Change the Length of an Alpine Draw

The slings used in alpine draws are almost always 60cm long at full extension.

What this means is the you have three lengths available to you: 60cm, 30cm, and 15cm.

To achieve these lengths, you’re going to have to double over the sling. Each time you do this, you half its length.

Technically you could go shorter than 15cm by doubling it over again, but there’s no point in having a quickdraw that short.

Now, here’s the thing. It’s not quite so simple as taking off the sling, folding it in half and clipping each end to a carabiner.

First of all, you can’t do that while climbing. Second of all, you you’ll end up with one end that’s more bunched up than the other.

Fortunately, there’s a way of doubling up the sling that allows force to be distributed evenly along it, while at the same time being an easier technique to pull off than aimlessly fumbling around.

To shorten the alpine draw, all you have to do is feed one carabiner through the other, and then clip it through all the strands of webbing that are now hanging down below in a big loop.

To lengthen it again, just unclip a carabiner from all of the strands, and then clip it back onto a single strand.

It’s really that simple.

“Surely there’s got to be some downsides to using Alpine draws.”

Yes, there are. They’re pretty minor though, as you shall soon see.

The Downsides of Alpine Draws

There’s only two main downsides to alpine draws, and they both, obviously, relate to the fact that they use slings.

You see, slings are slingy. They move around – and that’s what both of the downsides stem from.

First of all, alpine draws are not stiff like quickdraws are. You might have noticed that quickdraws have a little rubber thingy over the end of the dogbone that attaches to the rope-clipping side.

These are called “keepers,” and what they do is they keep the carabiner from rotating, so that they’re nice and secure.

Meanwhile, alpine draws jiggle around. They’re completely incompatible with keepers, and there’s no way to stop them moving around.

Fortunately, that means that they solve their own problem that they cause.

A rotating carabiner means that there’s a chance you could “cross load” it when you fall, meaning that the carabiner is sideways when it catches your fall so that all the force goes on the inside of the gate and the spine.

However, because of the way that the carabiners are shaped, there’s no chance of this happening.

If it was sideways when you fell, the force would cause it to automatically rotate back around to the proper orientation when you weighted it, meaning that the minor axis is never going to take the full brunt of your fall.

So, disadvantage number one was not really a disadvantage. What about disadvantage number two?

Well, this one is to do with how you rack them.

When you rack alpine draws, there’s going to be lots of strands all bunched up right next to each other, rather than neat, straight dogbones that line up together nicely.

The bunching up of strands makes them spread out a bit. They won’t get particularly tangled, but they’re certainly not as tangle-proof as normal quickdraws.

In the end, this is only a disadvantage for the neat freaks out there. It might look a little messy, but there’s really no loss in functionality.

See what I mean when I say the pros far outweigh the cons?

Your eyes are fixed on the top. It’s not too far to go now.

You clip into a quickdraw. “Just a little bit further,” you tell yourself, “I can do this.”

You reach out to make the next move. You can see where you need to go.

You reach again, but all of a sudden, the rope pulls tight. It locks you in place.

“Slack!” you call out. Your friend complies.

You move again – but no – the rope still grips you in place.

“I need more slack!” you call out again.

Your friend is confused. There’s already slack in the rope, but he pays out more anyway.

“Slack!” you call again, barely able to move forward. You look down, and the realization quickly hits you:

Rope Drag is Really Annoying

Yep, there’s no doubt about it.

Even if it’s not so bad that it actually hinders your climbing, it’s still annoying having to go out of your way to pull slack through all the time.

Really, you could say the annoyance in itself is something which hinders your climbing. It’s hard to push your limit on a route when you’re literally being held back by rope drag.

But because it’s annoying, we tend to treat it as an inconvenience, rather than a danger.

And it is a danger. Many climbers don’t know this, and it might not be for the reason that you’d expect…

Why Rope Drag is More Dangerous Than You Think

If you told an inexperienced climber that rope drag is dangerous, they’d probably assume that you meant that a sudden bout of resistance might make you face plant the wall or something.

I guess that is possible, but it’s not the real reason here.

The real reason why rope drag is dangerous, is it shortens the length of rope that’s decelerating you when it breaks your fall.

Rope normally stretches dynamically to soften your fall. It can’t do this if you have severe rope drag.

What this means is that you’ll be putting all that force on a small section of rope, which will cause something nasty called “a whipper.”

When the rope breaks your fall, you’ll decelerate much faster, since only a small segment of rope is absorbing all your impact.

You’ll stop with a sudden jerk… and that’ll probably hurt, even if you don’t get rebounded straight into the wall… which is probably what’ll happen next.

So, there you have it. That’s a whipper.

Try to avoid ever experiencing it if you can.

“How do you avoid a whipper?”

By eliminating rope drag.

Goodbye, Rope Drag

Let’s start with the lazy way to eliminate rope drag:

Getting Longer Quickdraws

Well, I say lazy, but the reality is that you’re going to have to be somewhat mindful when using them.

The reason why climbers don’t just use long quickdraws all the time, is that they increase the length that you fall… by quite a lot.

You see, when you fall, you’re going to fall twice the distance between where you were and where your last piece of protection is. That’s just how it is.

The reason this happens, is because the rope pivots around that piece of protection when you reach it, so you continue to fall the same length downwards after that as you fell to get there.

“So, how do longer quickdraws come into this?”

They increase the fall distance by twice the extra length of the quickdraw.

So, the trick with using quickdraws to reduce rope drag, is to use shorter ones toward the center of the route, and longer ones where the route meanders left or right away from the center.

That way, your rope will be going in more of a straight, vertical line rather than zigzagging all over the place.

If you’re doing a lot of routes that greatly vary in the amount of longer quickdraws you use, then you’re probably wishing that there was some kind of extendible quickdraw that existed.

Well, there is. It’s called an alpine draw.

Instead of the dogbone of webbing in the middle, it has looped over Dyneema sling that you can simply “unloop” if you want a longer quickdraw.

Sure, you could just use longer quickdraws on every bolt to achieve the same zigzag-reducing effect, but then you’d lengthening your fall distance for no reason, like some kind of crazed adrenaline junkie, or a madman with a death wish.

The downside, of course, to using quickdraws to tackle rope drag, is that your fall is going to be lengthened whenever the last piece of protection you clipped into was on a bolt to the side, because you’ll have used a longer quickdraw for it.

Also, since it’s a longer quickdraw clipped into a bolt off to the side, you’re going to swing a little bit to the side when the rope catches your fall, so keep that in mind, and don’t let it catch you off guard.

There is, however, another way of getting rid of rope drag; one which not only has fewer disadvantages, but also has some extra advantages.

…and I bet right now you’re waiting for me to say, “but”…

Well, here it is: But… the downside to this method, is that you’re going to have to do some learning to be able to use it.

Not to worry though, because that’s what I’m here for. Besides, you’re going to be able to learn this in no time. It’s not too tricky at all.

So, what is this mysterious method to eliminating rope drag?

Well, it’s simple. The method is to introduce half ropes into your climbing setup.

Using Half Ropes to Eliminate Rope Drag

The great thing about half ropes is that they eliminate rope drag on even the weirdest and most twisted of routes.

Instead of having one rope zigzagging left and right all over the place, you’ll have one rope clipped into the bolts on the left, and another rope clipped into the bolts on the right.

This way, you’ll have two ropes running up the route in parallel, each one being straight enough to radically reduce rope drag.

To top it off, you can use longer quickdraws in this setup to absolutely eradicate rope drag. That is, if you hate it enough to want to take such extreme measures.

Half ropes also have a whole bunch of other benefits, so they’re worth learning how to use anyway. I go into more detail about what half ropes are and what the other benefits are in this other post here, so take a look at that if you’re interested in learning more about them.

So, if your anything like me, you probably love talking, watching and thinking about anything climbing related.

We have all been there, right? A long, slow day at work, hands itching to get back on the wall and climb something, anything.

Once you have seen some of the climbing Shangri-la below you will be left inspired and have some perfect daydream material!

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite is a beautiful glacial valley with a lot of climbing history.

The valley is located in central California, and spans a huge 12km long. This beast is home to some of the most famous lines in the world.

You can’t talk about Yosemite and not speak about El Capitan or half dome.

These majestic faces have inspired many rock climbers worldwide.

El capitan was first climbed in 1958 by George Whitmore, Wayne Merry, and Warren Harding the first pioneers of climbing culture.

The first ascent took 47 days, and they used the aid of pitons and expansion bolts to climb with various camps along the way.

With fixed ropes allowing the team to ascend and descend from the ground up; in climbing, this is what’s called a siege tactic.

After hearing about the ascent, another group of climbers wanted to top it.

Two years later, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt, Royal Robbins, and Tom Frost valiantly set out and ascended El Capitan in one continuous climb.

Even to this day, modern climbers are still competing to try and get the fastest ascents, with some crazy motherfuckers like Alex Honnold doing it free solo, which means without any safety equipment.

If you are interested in more of the history behind Yosemite and the climbers that wrote it I highly recommend watching ‘Valley Uprising (2014)’.

Forest of Fontainebleau

Yosemite might be the climbing mecca, but Fontainebleau or “the font” is definitely the bouldering capital of the world.

People flock to this wonderful forest from all over in order to take advantage of its highly developed bouldering scene.

Located just outside of Paris, this forest is nestled around a small French town.

One of the best things about Fontainebleau forest is that it contains great climbing problems of all grades.

This means that it doesn’t matter if you are a complete beginner or an expert. you can still take advantage of what the Font has to offer.

Climbers have been using the forest as a training ground to hone their skills since the 1870’s.

Which is great news since every crag and boulder has been overturned and tested, this hive of climber activity has resulted in over 20,000 problems of all shapes and sizes to enjoy.

Most of the climbs are spread out throughout the forest, this is great if you love a scenic route. But, if you really want to make the most of your trip, you’re going to need a car.

With a quick google search, you can find local shops that will rent out crash pads, so with no need to carry gear this makes it a perfect weekend getaway.

Laem Phra Nang (Railay Beach)

So if you fancy something in a hotter climate then the steep cliffs of Railay beach might be perfect for you.

Railay beach has three separate areas that are great for climbing, but I’m going to talk about the main one Ton Sai.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, Ton Sai has some really difficult routes rated around 6 to as high as 7a.

You might have a little difficulty getting there, however, as it’s only accessible by boat.

If you’re ready to take the trip I would recommend going in the dry season which lasts from November to March.

The locals of the area even offer guided climbing trips all across the beach including a couple of deep water solo trips.

Luckily for us, a lot of the routes are quite short, but what they lack in length they make for in difficulty.

Ton Sai is also home to some pretty cool bars and cheap accommodation that helps create a nice relaxing atmosphere for when you are done with a days climbing.

If you don’t like lugging your gear around airports, Ton Sai also has a couple of shops where you can hire everything you need for a day or a week if you need it.

I recommend an up-to-date guidebook if you decide to skip out on a local guide, this will let you know if a line has not been recently bolted.

Photo courtesy of Tomas Donoso

Shawangunks

Just like Yosemite, Shawangunks is home to some of America’s best climbing spots.

Being based just 85 miles outside new york city, there is no excuse not to go pay it a visit.

This ridgetop offers amazing climbing routes that cater to all skill sets. Most of the climbs in the gunks are trad style but with over 1000 problems to choose from, you won’t be getting bored anytime soon.

The best time to head to the gunks is during September and October when it’s in its best climbing conditions. Even when the conditions are good you might want to drop a few grades, the gunks has a bit of a reputation of being pretty steep on the grading side.

If you need a place to stay during your trip there is a range of hostels and hotels in the local town of New Paltz. The Chill college Town vibe makes a nice place to spend your downtime when not climbing.

Hiring and renting gear shouldn’t be an issue as there are a couple of outdoor shops that are based in New Platz. If you are unsure of the area you can also hire day guides to make sure you get the most out of your trip.

If you do decide to climb at Shawangunks you need to know its part of the Mohonk Preserve, which is dedicated to preserving and protecting the ridge, you will need to purchase a pass in order to climb there.

Joshua Tree National Park

America is the home to many famous climbing destinations, another one you can’t miss is Joshua Tree National Park.

There is a great variety of climbs set around several campsites, the hidden valley campsite is mainly populated with climbers, this creates a nice social setting that makes it easy to find a climbing partner.

Due to the scorching hot American summer, most tend to travel here in the spring or winter to make the most of the cooler weather.

If you somehow manage to get bored of the amazing routes at the park, you can always go on a hike and take in some of that beautiful Mojave.

While the routes at Joshua tree won’t be very high, they make up for it in interesting problems of all shapes and sizes.

Supplies and hire gear can be found in the 3 local camping stores, the staff members are pretty knowledgeable about the area so be sure to ask them if you are struggling to find a particular route.

If you are worried you are going to get lost in the desert, you can hire a guide from the local climbing school. This can help you find climbs suited to your level with ease!

The Peak District

This gritstone heaven located in the United Kingdom has been a staple for British climbers for years.

With over 10,000 routes across some beautiful British countryside what’s not to like?

This wonderful moorland can cater to all types of climbers. If you like a cheeky arete or to slowly progress your way up a crack line, the peak district has you covered.

It’s easily accessible by car from any of the 2 nearby UK cities Manchester or Sheffield.

Due to the fairly mild weather in the UK, you can climb in the peak district in pretty much any season.

However, to ensure you get the most out of your trip I would recommend going between spring and autumn.

Back when I first heard about half ropes, I just didn’t understand what the point of them was.

There I was, searching around on the internet, reading article after article and getting more confused by the second.

The funny thing is, half ropes are amazing, and they’re actually really simple to get your head around, despite what people think.

I’m going to give you the lowdown on half ropes, and when you see just how great they really are… you’ll never want to climb with a single rope ever again.

Let’s start with the basics. Let’s take a look at what half ropes actually are.

What “Half Ropes” Are

The name is kinda misleading, which is why people often just call them “double ropes” instead.

You could argue that it’s a name which better captures the essence of what they are. They’re ropes used in pairs, so

Unfortunately, people also use the name “double ropes” to refer to twin ropes, which are something else entirely. They’re more of a specialist piece of equipment, so they’re nothing you need to worry about unless you’re into some hardcore Alpine or ice climbing.

So, let’s end all the confusion right here. From now on, we’ll just call half ropes “half ropes,” and we’ll call twin ropes “twin ropes.”

Right, now that that’s out of the way, we can take a look at what makes these half ropes different than your standard single climbing rope.

How to Spot Half Ropes

They’re skinny.

Not paranoia-inducing levels of “this is never going to break my fall,” but they’re still visibly slimmer than normal climbing ropes.

You’re looking at 8-9mm diameters for half ropes, while your average single rope is 10-11mm.

Of course, they look much skinnier than “a couple of millimeters’ difference.” This is because diameter affects thickness much more than you’d expect.

Don’t worry though: These ropes are easily strong enough to take your fall, even if you only had one of them. They’re made that way on purpose.

Just don’t try using twin ropes by themselves. Those are not rated for single use, and you will die if you try.

Speaking of not dying, if you want the absolute safest climbing setup possible, as I’m sure you do, then the biggest difference you can make is to switch to half ropes.

Let’s take a look at the force ratings to see why.

How Strong Are Half Ropes?

They’re rated to be able to take a maximum of 8kN of force, while normal climbing ropes can take around 12kN.

Yeah. They’re around a third less strong…

But, that’s “each.” There’s two of them.

If they both catch you equally, you’re looking at 16kN of maximum force. That’s a third stronger.

They won’t really be catching you equally though. It’s more likely that one rope will be doing most of the work, while the other helps out a bit.

Here’s the thing though: Even if one rope took the brunt of a massive fall – and I mean massive – and it somehow broke, then the other rope would still catch you for sure.

“How can you be so sure?”

Because that second fall would be really short.

You’ve already fallen most of the way, so that little bit of extra distance will barely strain the second rope.

It’s obvious, I know – two ropes mean two chances – but it’s still worth mentioning because we, as climbers, tend to take the reliability of our safety equipment for granted.

Sure, good equipment is reliable; that’s what we chose it for. But let me ask you, what would happen if that one piece of equipment you’re relying on did fail, for some bizarre reason?

It’s worth it to have a backup. The principle is to make your equipment “redundant,” which is a fancy way of saying “if it breaks, I won’t be dead.”

Half ropes give you automatic redundancy. Pretty neat.

Why Should I Be Using Half Ropes?

Other than the whole extra safety thing that I just talked about, there’s a few more huge advantages to using half ropes.

First of all, I’d say the absolute best thing about half ropes is that:

They Almost Entirely Eliminate Rope Drag

…if you use them properly, that is.

Rope drag is annoying. It’s that resistance on the rope you get towards the end of a climb that’s had some sideways movement earlier on.

It happens when there’s a bit of zigzagging between quickdraws going on. The rope can get so hard to pull through that you end up messing with the rope every time you need some slack.

On harder climbs, it can be the difference between making it or failing. An unexpected, suddenly taut rope can even pull you off at the crucial moment, as if you had an inattentive belayer who was slacking on their “slacking.”

Half ropes let you separate the left and right sides of a climb by clipping in appropriately, so an interesting wandering route doesn’t become a boring, rope drag hell. To do this, you’ll have to make sure that you only clip in with one rope on one side, and only clip in the other rope on the other side, so that both ropes take separate, straight paths to victory.

Another great thing about half ropes, is that:

They’re Amazing for Rappelling

I like rappelling. It’s fun, and it makes you feel like a ninja.

There’s two kinds of rappelling: the kind where you tie your rope to the anchor and rappel down off one stand, and the kind where you feed your rope through the top anchor until it’s at the middle, and then rappel off both strands at once.

However, the single-strand rappel means you have no way of getting your rope back, so it’s never worth it unless you’re in some weird kind of emergency.

The rope’s going to have to be twice the length of the climb to be able to pull off a double-strand rappel without rapping off the ends of your rope.

You might think that it wouldn’t even be possible to make that mistake, but I assure you, it really is. People who double-strand rappel when they can’t see the ends of the rope on the floor are just asking for it.

Since it’ll pretty much be guaranteed to happen eventually if you make a habit out of rappelling blind, many climbers tie stopper knots in the ends of the rope.

You can’t rely on this alone. It’s so easy to forget, and besides, you’d still end up awkwardly stuck if this is what saves you. Sure, they’re so worth having, but there’s more you can do than purely rely on stopper knots.

The only way to be absolutely sure that you’ll be able to rappel all the way to the bottom, is to use half ropes. Even an absurdly long single rope isn’t a guarantee, because there’s always the chance that you used more than half of it to climb up, which means you’ll run out when you double it up to rappel back down.

However, when you use half ropes, the rule of thumb is that “if you made it up, you can make it down.” It’s actually impossible to run out of rope on the way down because you’ll be joining both ropes together in a double fisherman’s knot, rather than just doubling one of them up.

Finally, the skills you learn from using half ropes make you a more versatile climber, meaning:

You Can Climb as a Party of Three

This is something that obviously cannot be achieved with a single rope.

Half ropes basically allow you to belay two climbers at once. It’s pretty much the same as when you belaying one climber with them.

However, you can build on this feature to create a much better way for three people to go climbing together using half ropes.

In order to do this, you’re going to need three half ropes.

The idea is simple. All you have to do is set yourselves up in a triangle, so that there’s two half ropes tied to each climber. That way, you can switch from leading, to belaying, and back again whenever you need to, without having to swap ends.

At first, one of you will be leading while the other two are on belay.

The leader will be clipping in with one rope for the bolts on the left, and the other rope for bolts on the right, like I mentioned before. This stops you ending up with that zigzagging of rope between bolts that’s all too common with a single rope on a wandering route.

You see, normally, rope drag is annoying because it’s hard to get slack into the system. However, here, when you switch to belaying from the top, it’s actually really dangerous for the second climber because it’s hard to get slack out of the system.

What this means is that without half ropes, it’s possible for the second climber to fall really far, or even take a ground fall. Don’t try climbing as a three without half ropes unless you really know what you’re doing.

Okay, so, your lead climber is at the top; they’re tied in, they’re on belay, and your second is ready to go.

You’ve now got two choices. Either, the lead climber belays both of the other climbers from the top at the same time, or you take the safer but slower option and make your way up one at a time.

“Why would anyone choose the slower option?”

Well, there’s two big reasons.

First of all, your top belayer is going to have to be good. They’re going to have to belay two climbers at once, which isn’t easy.

Second, if you belay two climbers at once, you’re only going to be using one half rope for each of them. As you might imagine, this nullifies the safety bonus of using half ropes in the first place.

That being said, there’s nothing wrong with doing this quick method if you’re a confident climbing trio. It’s becoming more and more common to do it this way, so there’s nothing radical about it.

The other way – the safer way – is to have both other climbers belay the second: One from the bottom, and one from the top.

In order to do this, your second climber is going to have to unclip the top rope at each bolt, and clip in the bottom rope in its place.

Finally, when the second has reached the top and tied in, both the leader and the second can belay the third climber, while the third climber cleans the route on their way up, unclipping as they go. That’s all there is to it.

To make your way down again, you can simply just lower each other like you normally would, and the last one down gets the option of a cheeky rappel if they want to. The sky’s the limit.

One last tip before I go: make sure you buy two different colors of half ropes.

That way, you can call, “Slack on blue!” or, “Take in red!” and so on. It makes life so much easier for your belayer.