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bigwalling
Feb 23, 2002, 12:09 AM
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Registered: Dec 29, 2001
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So tell me about it. Right now I use the gri gri with prusik(spelled wrong) loops on bomber pro to lighten the weight of the rope. So tell me what some people are doing with the gri gri and soloing.
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passthepitonspete
Feb 23, 2002, 1:20 AM
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You seem to "get it." You even spelled "prusik" correctly.
As for using prusik backup knots on bomber pieces, I have written about that elsewhere.
Please click here to read about rebelaying your solo lead rope with prusiks.
This is both an art and a science.
Get out an practise, and always remember to TIE A BACKUP KNOT!
Cheers,
Dr. Piton
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big_wall_theorist
Feb 23, 2002, 8:35 PM
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Registered: Feb 19, 2002
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The last piece of pro you tied into to reduce rope drag while soloing with a grigri would take on hell of a force in a fall, would it not? Since it is tied off, the dynamic anchor that was set up would never get a chance to do it's business. This is condraticting what was said in the need for a dynamic anchor whiel soloing with a grirgi dicussed on the Dynamic Anychor - Grigri thread, no?
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passthepitonspete
Feb 23, 2002, 9:00 PM
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No.
Think about it.
First of all, there are two reasons I use prusik loops on the lead rope:
To hold the weight of the lead rope
To rebelay the lead rope, so that when I jug the pitch to clean it, the rope is intermittently fixed to completely eliminate all abrasion during jugging
I am using a regular solo belay system. The lower end of the rope begins at the power point of the lower station, and is connected to the top of the pig with an alpine butterfly knot.
The pig is my "dynamic belayer."
The rope runs through the gear and up to me on lead, where I am attached to the rope's middle by my Gri-gri belay device, plus a backup knot of course. As I move up, I pay out slack through the Gri-gri. Don't worry about the rest of the rope for now.
Every so often, I rebelay the lead rope to a good piece of gear with a LONG prusik loop. The pig pulls the rope down, and the prusik knot pulls up on the lead rope, holding the weight of the rope so the rope doesn't slide through my Gri-gri and create unwanted slack. There is a very slight amount of tension in the lead rope created by the upward pull of the prusik.
The whole key is that the prusik loop is LONG, so that if I blow it and fall, the pig lift plus the rope stretch which causes the rope to move up during the fall is not so much that the prusik loop pulls up against the piece to which it is attached.
For instance, I simply clove hitched the lead rope into say a piton, and put no slack in the system, then obviously a fall would generate and upward pull on the pin and would hugely increase the fall factor.
This is Traditional Big Wall Technology. It is stupid because you put the unnecessary clove hitch in your lead rope, which reduces its strength, and you increase your fall factor as well.
The LONG prusik is the better way because it solves both of the above problems.
When you are close to the lower belay station, a single long prusik may be sufficiently long since there is not much rope out to stretch.
But as you get higher up the pitch and there is more rope between you and your pig, then there is more rope to stretch. You might want to lengthen your prusik with a sling.
Note that the lead rope also runs through the carabiner attached to the piece you have prusiked. The prusik loop attaches to the bottom of this carabiner.
This is a complex topic, and I hope I have explained it correctly.
If you still do not "get it", I will try again.
I have used this system time and again while soloing walls, and it is just The Shit! Clearly it is the better way.
Cheers,
Dr. Piton
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big_wall_theorist
Feb 23, 2002, 9:24 PM
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Either somebody erased or edited their post above, or I'm going crazy. I thought someone up above was talking about tieing in with clove hitches into there pro as they lead to reduce rope drag. That's what I was responding to. However that post seems to have gone missing. ANy way, as you confirmed Dr. Piton. tiening in with clove hitches into bomber pieces while soloing with a grigri is a no no. I wasn't refering to the concept of rebalying with long prussiks. Using prussiks for rebalying and reducing rope drag is obviously the better way.
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