Slick Ice - Moving Fast On Big Ice Routes

I've been having a fairly chilled out 10 days since coming back from the Icefields, I took the weekend just gone off from anything mountain related to give my knee a rest and catch up with some housekeeping, studying and paperwork, and putting this new site together. Weather is also a little funky here at the moment, it feels like spring, I've been walking around the city with just a cardigan on in +10 a far cry from multiple layers of down when it was 30 below in December. From what I hear a lot of the ice in the front ranges is suffering, and the pistes are looking very thin at the resorts, still lots of snow in the backcountry though and relatively low avalanche danger apart from some solar triggered stuff on southern aspects. March is usually a big snow month so we'll see, I wouldn't be surprised if we get the mother of all dumps in the next few weeks but due to how the Arctic Oscillation feedback is working this year I think we may of seen the last of the really cold weather.

So in this aforementioned down time I came across a really interesting article on Will Gadd's site giving tips for speed and moving efficiently on multi-pitch ice, theres a lot of good stuff in there although there are a few things that I don't quite agree with or would do differently, I'll delve into a few of these below. When I first came out here and started the whole pure ice thing, which we don't really get in the UK, and I'd only had limited experience of in Europe I figured I'd best do a little reading to get up to speed so I picked up a copy of 'Ice & Mixed Climbing: Modern Technique' which is written by Gadd - if your getting into this sort of thing this is certainly the book to have and from what I can tell is as current as you can get for the basic techniques.

Will Gadd's Blog article can be read here.

Rope Choice
In Gadd's article he recommends using a single rope for leading on, and from what I've seen this seems to be commonplace for most climbers out here. Using one rope makes things simple, you don't end up with tangles, you don't have to think which rope to clip etc. With the impact forces of single ropes getting lower and lower using a twin rope (both strands clipped into each runner) system on ice is loosing popularity, it will however still always have advantage off if you cut your rope your still left with one strand! Half/double rope technique, what is commonly seen on trad climbs, biggest advantage is that on winding routes it reduce the rope drag on the leader. On ice this isn't so much of a problem as in general you can put gear where you want, obviously bearing in the the quality of the ice etc. On some ice routes, and those with mixed pitches double ropes may have the advantage. I'm specifically speaking with regard to cascade ice here, or continental/north American style mixed - for Scottish winter the double system for most routes is in my opinion the way to go.

Using a double rope system on a wandering route.

So assuming we go with a single rope lets talk about length, I think we're a bit behind the times in the UK with the standard rope length still being 50m, probably still stuck in the mentality that size doesn't matter, when clearly it does. Things are changing though and 60m ropes are becoming more popular, people over here are a step ahead though, 60m would be the standard length of rope, infact a lot of routes that need to be abseiled require 60m ropes but even this length isn't hugely popular with a large proportion of people have 70s. The only people I know with 70m ropes in UK are filthy sport climbers who heady off to Kalymnos or El Chorro for the endless lines of bolts. My conclusion of this is simple: longer rope = less pitches = faster. No two ways about it.

I'm not going to talk about how to speed up descent here, as if I did th article would be a lot longer than it is already going to be but it is important to remember that whatever rope system gets you up need to get you down. So if we look at my suggestion above, of say using a single 70m rope that means with that alone you can only rappel 35m. On a 300m route thats 8-9 raps, which is a lot. The solution to this would be carry a second rope or rap-line in a pack carried by the second, allowing you to rap the full extent of your rope.

Carl Stubbs seconding on a single serenity on a small WI3route.

The ropes I bought just before leaving the UK was a set of Mammut's new Serenity ropes, these are 8.9mm 60m ropes that are rated as single, half and twin. There not the first rope to get the rating as the Beal Joker has been around for 1-2 years before, they are marginally lighter than the Jokers though making them the lightest single rope in the world. I bought them because I was doing a lot of climbing in a three and I was concerned about the seconds when climbing in parallel only being on a single strand of double rope In a personal climbing situation I wouldn't have a problem seconding a route on one of these ropes as the chances of the second falling and generating enough force so that if the rope was over an edge are very very slim, I've even lead loads of pitches with just a single half rope below me but have obviously made an assessment off and am aware of the risk beforehand. In a lot of these situations though I was having to behave in a professional manor, for the most part leading on scouting events, and legally its not considered professional to have your clients on a rope that could be looked upon as being only half as strong as it should be, I imagine you'd be pretty screwed if this ever went to court! Its the same thing with guides in alpine regions, for pure glacier travel carrying a single rope is overkill, a half is fine in my opinion but in a legal sense the guides should have their clients on a single, not that anywhere near all of them do this!

I've got sidetracked a little there, back to the topic. If the routes short I'll just take one 60m and deal with more rappels, if I'm looking at a longer route I'll definitely take both, the main reason being the rappels, whether I climb on one and keep one in the pack or use them in a double rope system will depend on the route. High on my list of things to purchase though is a dedicated rap line, this could be a really thin (7-8mm) rope to pair with one of the serenitys for the descent or what I'm leaning towards more at the moment is a 60m length of 5-6mm cord to simply be used as a retrieval cord for the rap rope. Obviously using all of the above pieces in 70m lengths rather than 60m would also increase speed.

The Autoblock
These are still considered a little bit of a black art in the UK, with many people giving you funny looks when you rig one making you feel a little like the dark horse of the crag. The Europe and Canada they are one of the most popular ways of bringing up a second, the States is a bit like the UK but is slowly catching up from what I read. These devices really do speed things up, allowing the typically male climber to take on female characteristics for a period and multi-task! Belaying is dead time, if your using a placquette (atc) device off your harness you can't let go of the dead rope, meaning you can't do anything else. Using a autoblock device allows you to take layers on or off, mess with the rigging, change gloves, sort the rack ready for the changeover, eat & drink and a multitude of other things while still belaying your second, or even both of them.

The original autoblocks that were around were known as 'guide plates' collectively with modes such as the magic plate, and Kong's plate. These could only effectively be used for bringing up the second though. From my research the first major hybrid device to come onto the market, one that could be used in an autoblock/guide mode and also as a normal belay plate for belaying the leader was Petzl's first Reverso. I owned one of these and it was a great device, being nice and light and slick. Petzl followed this withe Reverso mk2 which didn't really change much apart from adding some grooves which reduced the slickness a little, to the like or dislike of different people. The big failing of these devices, and why a lot of users of the original magic plate shunned them was that they coulden't be released under load. If your second fell and ended up hanging in free space unable to to get back on the rope and take their weight off the rope, or even on a very steep face with little holds your unable to lower them to the ground easily. There is a method for doing this which everybody who uses such a device should know like the back of their hand, it involves attaching a sling or cord to the karabiner which the rope runs on the device (not the one attaching it to the belay) and then running this cord up above the device, through a point on the anchor and then back down and clipping it to your harness. The dead rope coming out of the device is then attached to you via an Italian hitch and the slack between you and the device taken in, the 'dead' rope coming out of the Italian hitch is then held and you sit back and put you weight on the cord. It may take a bit of bouncing but the carabiner being held by the rope int he device should release allowing you to lower the climber off the hitch. SO not the the easiest thing in the world to do. The old plate designs used to have a hole in the bottom that could be used to simply lever the device in this situation and lower the second. Black Diamond obviously picked up on this and released their ATC Guide which solved this problem by adding a loop to the front of a devide enabling this levering to take place, Petzl soon followed with their Reverso 3 which effectively copies the Guide. I currently use a Reverso 3, a big advantage is that it works across a large range of rope diameters, gone are the days of having to own a Reverso and Reversino! Go buy one.

Swinging Leads
On Ice swinging the leads on anything but short routes when your trying to climb efficiently doesn't in my experience tend to work too well. Even on big rock routes I think its far more efficient to lead it blocks rather than switch for every pitch. This is for a few reasons:

• You get into that lead mode, where your head is screwed on to what your doing, you go your eye trained for gear an you physced for it. Spend half an hour at a belay and you'll soon loose this.
• Ideally the second should fly up the route, getting from top to bottom in about 1/4 of the time it took the leader to climb (this is assuming climbing as equals) so they should be pretty dam warm when they arrive at the belay, and also pretty tired. It makes more sense for them to sling a belay jacket on to conserve this heat and for them to have a rest while the leader whose probably starting to get a little chilly after bringing the second up starts up the next pitch, warming up again.
• Changing over the rack is quicker, this is more true on rock then on ice but some things still hold true. Its much easier to replace gear into a depleted racked harness then it is to move the entire rack to a new harness.

So on longer routes, lead it blocks, its faster, and warmer.

A little bit of a side note is that if your climbing in a three, if your going to stand any chance as climbing as fast of a pair (and it IS possible, sometimes a three if everybody is slick and has assigned roles can climb faster than a pair!) you need to be climbing with seconds in parrallel so one person needs to lead substantial blocks, changing the leader in this situation is a real faff and wastes time.

Changeovers
As of noticed i've supported and agreed with a lot of what Gadd wrote in his article with what I've said above, not surprising, the guy is a better and far more experienced climber then I'll ever be but when reading the section he wrote on changeovers, particularly the set up of the belay for bringing up the second I thought it was a bit strange. The way he doesn't equalize the screws properly and essentially brings his second up off a single screw. I'm not saying this is wrong or unsafe but I don't think its what I'd do, below is the steps I would take upon reaching a belay on a big multi-pitch route.

1. Upon reaching where I'm going to belay one, as long as possible bomber screw in, daisy chain clipped to the top hole on the screw (a simply clovehitch with the rope would also work here but I like the daisy, it does however have its whole own world of controversy which I'm not going to get into now).
2. I shout "SAFE", upon hearing this the second takes me off belay, shouting "OFF BELAY", and begins to disassemble the anchor leaving in one bomber piece which they are attached to.
3. I put in a second bomber screw, usually higher but this depends on the ice and equalize it with a sling clipping my Reverso in guide mode to the powerpoint (equalizing this with the rope, while making the system more dynamic makes it more complicated and more difficult for the leader to move off once the second arrives).
4. I take in the slack, coiling it over one foot, there shouldn't be much as you should making an effort to run the rope out. When I hear "THATS ME" from the second its in the plate and I start taking in tight and shout "ON BELAY". The second should no this is coming and be ready to take the last screw out and be on the move in mere seconds.

While the second is climbing I can be eating, looking at the next pitch, changing gloves or anything else. One thing I think is quite easy and useful to do it to put in your first runner for the nest pitch as it should be immediately after the belay and stick a screamer on it so its ready to clip as soon as move off later Gadd suggests drilling a v-thread ready for the descent, and for the second to belay off, I've never done this but I could see how it would certainly speed up the descent. So the sequence when the second arrives:

1. Second arrives, clips into powerpoint of equalized slings, leader takes them off belay.
2. Flip over lapped rope onto the top of the equalized sling so its ready for the second to pay out.
3. Swap gear over, this should be occurring from moment they reach the ledge. The second should make sure them clean all the screws on route so this doesn't have to be done at the changeover.
4. Second puts leader on belay, leader un-clips daisy chain and starts climbing, clipping pre-placed first runner.

Julie Paton - lapping the ropes over the equalized sling, ready to pay out to the leader. Cascade, WI3+, 300m.

So nice and slick if it all goes to plan.

Confidence
Something not mentioned at all it Gadd's article as he concentrates on process and technique is the psychological side of climbing fast. If you go down to your local wall/gym the quick-draws on the lead wall are probably about 2m apart, we've already discussed that longer pitches make things faster, but think if you place a screw every 2m on a 60m pitch thats 30 screws. Never mind the weight of carrying 30 screws, but if it takes say 20 seconds to place a screw that 10 minutes you'll spend on the pitch simply putting screws in. Firstly this is a hell of a lot of time and will obviously slow you down but perhaps more importantly, hanging on one axe for 10 mintues (cumulatively) while you do this would be bloody knackering, energy you'd much rather spend getting further up the route. So you need to learn to climb confidently, for several meters above your gear.

On most routes for a pair I think 16 screws is a good number. If we loose 2 at each belay thats 12, and if each climber has one in reserve for those 'just-in-case moments' that leaves working screws for the pitch, which on a 60m pitch would be one every 6m. I think this is reasonable.

Conclusions
For anybody looking to climb bigger stuff faster I hope this offers a little advice, in addition to Will Gadd's fantastic effort. Its mostly all applicable to water ice however some of the techniques could be carried over in the rock, alpine or Scottish mixed arenas. I've really only scratched the surface of stuff here, and writing the article I got sidetracked a few times down different avenues which at some point in the future I'll return and expand on.