Top Rope Solo Gear

Solo top roping is a great way to get a lot of laps in and have a positive training day when you can t find a partner or are just looking for some solitude.

Top rope solo gear.

Eventually though there comes a time when you want to set up your own top rope anchor. Next rappel your main line to the ground. Now fix your back up rope to the anchor and drop it down. Only the basic technique is described here.

Attach your solo belay device to the rope weight the rope end with a light pack or extra gear to help it feed and clip two locking carabiners through your belay loop. Steel carabiners are the strongest gear to thread the rope through for the rope which goes from the belayer on the ground to the climber above. You can use this technique to lead or top rope belay. Solo toproping techniques vary mainly in their back up methods.

The top rope online course really gave me systematic insights in what is good and what is less good and it also shows lots of different ways of looking at things. Solo top rope self belay advice some progress capture pulleys and ascenders can be rigged to travel along a fixed line providing a self belay for a solo top rope climbing experience. To me it was a good investment. Anyone wishing to rope solo should already have an extensive knowledge of all the systems and.

Petzl has not developed a device for this activity but certain ascenders may be used for it by experts. Fix your 9 2 10 4mm rope off a solid top anchor. Connect both devices onto the rope and into your belay loop as shown above. In climbing or mountaineering the rope team offers the highest level of safety.

Nevertheless fixed rope solo climbing is an option that many climbers have taken experimenting with a variety of technical solutions. I prefer to always use locking carabiners on my entire top rope anchor system rather than regular ovals. Leave it slack so it won t dislodge rocks as you climb. Aluminum wears much faster leading to grooves in the carabiner.

These skills are outside the scope of this article. Rope soloing is a technique where you belay yourself instead of being belayed by your partner. And you must be backed up never depend on a single device. Rope soloing is highly dangerous and demands a great deal of experience and good judgment and in many ways is more dangerous than free soloing due to an increased reliance on systems.

Using a static rope is most convenient but a dynamic will work as well. More complicated techniques are needed to solo an overnight alpine route or aid solo a big wall. When you first start top rope climbing you always have a more experienced climber set things up for you. Access to the top of routes will vary as will the available anchor points.

This blog is not meant as instructional text and is simply a description of how i rope solo.