Carrying it on your back

Put the bundle of rope on your back.

Each free end then goes under your armpits, before crossing behind you, over the rope bundle... This will prevent the rope from bouncing around as you're walking.
Finally, the free ends are tied together at your waist (over your stomach) using a reef knot.

Comments

[Mother Natures Son]

Thanks for posting this. I used to know how to do it. Now I do again.

[tallfuzzyone]

dude, u need more music lol, all your vids have the same docile-toned song. ~not hatin'

[CajunBorn]

The only thing not said in the instructions is that the rope is doubled before starting. It's only noticable if you look closely at the video or the pictures.

[LittleMonkeyMojo]

The problem with starting in the middle, or starting at the ends is that when you get to your climb you're going to have to flake out your rope for it to be ready to climb on. If you start at one end of the rope, when you get to your next climb, you unwrap your coil, drop it on the ground and you can start climbing without having to re-flake the rope.

[qtm]

LoL... yes, but it takes twice as long to coil in the first place! Actually I think there are too many sloppy coilers out there so the extra 1 minute spent flaking the rope is worth the effort.

[Trelligan]

How about recommendations for types of rope for different uses. I've never 'rapped' (rappelled?) or scrambled, but it sounds interesting.

[darc]

Cool coil, but I always stuff my rope in my rope bag, then it goes inside my internal frame pack with my harness, shoes, biners, chocks, cams, ATC, 8's, etc, etc, etc Though, that does make me carry all the weight : P

[qtm]

Do you carry your rope bag and pack up every route? There are times you need to carry your rope where you might not have your pack; when you walk off, if you're rapping down fixed lines, rapping off another party's ropes.

[sam noyoun]

lots of scramblers also carry a rope for safety, but no other climbing gear... It is surprising how much you can do with just one rope, but a lot of people are becoming increasingly dependent on a lot of gear, whereas it might not be needed in a lot of situations...

[Mr. Rig It]

Thats good stuff to know. Now I gotta get me a rope. Good Job.

[qtm]

I start my coil from the middle of the rope. That way you don't end up with a odd sized loop that falls out of the coil. Also, to flake out the rope, don't just grab an end and pull. Unwrap the coil, unfold the coil and lay on the ground. Pull from the ends and flake into two piles. Once you reach the middle, flip one pile onto the other.

[Johnsons on fire]

This is really helpful whenever you go hiking. (i'm a boy scout)

[Mr Tenacious]

cool!

[Ezza]

An excellent method, one which I use often.

[theRIAA]

i thought you would be able to put stuff in it... D: but where does all your climbing stuff go?

[threecheersfornick]

Me too.

[sam noyoun]

on your climbing harness... However, traditionally, mountaineers only carried a rope, and no gear...

[gmoon]

Hunh? That's silly, and I'm a 'trad' climber. I use a mountaineers coil all the time. One climber carries the rope (and maybe a small amount of gear.) The other climber carries the bulk of the gear. Sport climbers might carry the gear on their harness. But trad climbers usually use a gear sling. You might only have a fanny pack for water, etc. on the climb, but you most likely had one backpack for the gear. If the descent and walk off are not where you started, then the 'second' carries the backpack on the climb.

[crapflinger]

hehe i need to go climbing with you then hehe i usually have to carry at least one of the ropes (we usually go with 2 ....mmmmm twins!)and at a bare minimum half the gear in a backpack while my buddy carries the other half of the gear...and one of the ropes if i'm not carrying both we either have a rope bag (nice) or we use the "butterfly coil" (never heard it called that....always mountaineers coil)...if we use that method then i just tie the rope around my backpack as if i were tying it around myself...alot less cumbersom

[gmoon]

Sure, I'll carry the gear ;) Twin ropes, eh? Never used 'em but I bet two twins (8 or 9's) weigh more than a single rope.. To be honest, I always called this one the mountaineers coil, too. Guess I learned something. Don't have any photos of someone humping a rack, so instead, here's one of the guys just sorting gear. (So much for not carrying gear.) Sure wouldn't want to carry 10 or 15 cams on my harness for 5 miles, jabbing me behind the knees every step.

[LittleMonkeyMojo]

It they're sport or trad climbing they're probably using two Double ropes (sometimes referred to as half ropes). Yes, two doubles weigh more than one single, but two double ropes will get you twice as far on rappel. When my wife leads, she tends to not want to carry all of the gear, she'll look up at the route and say "I won't need these large cams and hexes" and will give them to me. So, I'm humping up part of the rack, but I certainly understand the desire to not have to carry something on lead which you won't need.

[edAg]

Who sport climbs with doubles? We used 'em for ice and trad, where the main benefits are redundancy ('specially nice when you are swinging axes and wearing crampons), reduced rope drag, and being able to skip interim raps. Some of the sponsored sport climbers may use thin ropes for weight reasons, but they are still climbing on a single rope and I can't see *any* benefit to using doubles on a straight line of bolts. Note that doubles and halfs are two different things--half ropes are for avoiding rope drag, and are NOT redundant; a rope marked "1/2" is not rated to catch a fall on its own. When people refer to doubles, they are usually talking about 8.5s or 9s where each rope could, effectively, be used as a single.

Do NOT underestimate the benefits of using doubles to avoid rope drag...

Sam, coiling with just yer hands (not yer neck) is much faster. As long as your hands are big enuf to hold the middle (the part which would be behind your neck), you can just whip your arms apart and bring them back together for each side loop. A lot faster and probably a slightly higher coolness factor.

And, little monkey, you only have to reflake the rope once. Once you are climbing and at intermediate belays, things restack nicely if you are swinging leads.

[LittleMonkeyMojo]

Hate to disagree with you a bit, but I'm going to. Halfs and Doubles *ARE* the same thing, maybe you're thinking of Twin ropes which are really only used with ice climbing. Double/Half ropes should NEVER be used as a single rope they are always to be used as a pair, but never clipped into the same carabiner on a piece of protection. If you feel you must clip both ropes to the same piece of protection use an additional carabiner.

Check out these sites:
High-on-ropes - Rope Glossary
Just Just Ropes
ABC of Climbing - Climbing Ropes

If you butterfly your rope correctly (starting from one end) you should never need to flake your rope out when you reach your next climb, because you already did the flaking in the process of making your correct butterfly coil.

[edAg]

Whups, you are right. Been a while since I've looked at the UIAA/CE markings. I know mine are each rated for single falls. What friggin' awful terminology tho'--1/2 means OK, some funny yen looking symbol is a twin? How odd. Guess no one probably makes twins anymore anyway, given the lightweight doubles out there. When you say "butterfly correctly," you mean with a single hank each loop rather than a double? Seems like a matter of style... The mountaineer's coil shown is useful when slinging it on your back, say at the summit or something. I'd argue it's twice as fast too, since you are slinging double hanks. At the price of flaking it out at the beginning of the day... Whatever works and keeps you safe.

[crapflinger]

hehe indeed especially the #6 BD camalot....that things the size of a chihuahua (but it comes in handy) twins are actually lighter...i believe the twins we've got ar 8's or 7's....technically designed for ice climbing (waterproof core etc...) they definitely feel alot lighter than the 11mm PMI that we use on quick trips

[gmoon]

You laugh..I've got the old #5, from before they dumped the 1/2 sizes. People love that cam, but nobody wants to carry it. If you have it and don't use it, you're miserable. If you don't have it and need it, you're miserable and very scared ;) .

I wanna try twins or halves for ice. Sure must make rapping easier.

[edAg]

The big cams are one thing to carry, but I had an old climbing partner who insisted on bringing a #7 (I think) tri-cam on every climb. Even thin crack climbs. That thing hadda be 10" long, 6" wide, and the yellow webbing on it was wider than a seatbelt. Made very nice tones when banging against the solid metal #5 tricam on your rack. Whenever leading, I tried to make a point of placing that sucker as soon as I possibly could, just to avoid being weighed down. I used to carry the #5 a lot... One thing that made it slightly better to carry was putting a pin on a little string attached to it. You could pull the trigger almost all the way back, feed the pin so it wedged between a couple of the big holes on the lobes of the cam, and it would pin shut. Then, when using it, you could grab it with one hand, turn in sideways, pull the trigger slightly, and gravity would cause the pin to simply fall out. Doesn't help how heavy it is, but it takes up less space on the rack.

[gmoon]

Good one. I've done that trick on occasion, just using a stick that falls out (and drops away.) You reminded me of it, as it's been a while. This also helps keep the trigger wires tucked out of the way on the rack--they are so long on a #5, normally they twist and other cams easily get hung up. I've only met one person who regularly uses tricams--I guess if you love 'em, you love 'em. I've placed one maybe a couple of times...

[edAg]

Dunno why tricams fell out of vogue... I really used to like the little pink 0.5. In cam mode, those things felt bomber. The big ones were kind of on the heavy side. Nowadays, probably easier to carry cams tho', greater range and all. Something just more trustworthy about a big nut or tricam. I think I stopped carrying most of the tricams when I filled out my rack with camalots and aliens. *Love* the little aliens. Maybe I just like little gear. Fits in little cracks better.

[gmoon]

In our area, they're favored by climbers who frequent the 'Gunks,' as the horizontal nature of the natural features work great for tricams. I agree about passive pro being my first choice, but generally fiddle in a hex or a nut instead (especially if there's a good stance--save the cams for when it's on you)... RE: aliens--I love small TCUs for similar reasons. And the three-cam units fit where a regular 4-cam won't. In fact, they're similar to a tricam in that respect.

[crapflinger]

PASSIVE PRO ALL THE WAY BABY! me and my buddy went on a crusade for about a year where we didn't bring a single piece of active gear on any climb...just nuts, hexes, lowe tricams, and a few pitons....it was the most beautiful thing ever in my opinion if you can't protect the climb with a rack or two of nuts and hexes...then it's not worth climbing....that said...i do still love cams...it does save time when you're pumped trying to get some pro in if you ever end up at looking glass in north carolina...you better have a tricam or two on you...it's covered in these undercut eyebrows that are virtually impossible to protect...every so often you get a really bomber tricam placement though...and the small cams will at least slow you down if you skid off the slab

[edAg]

NC... Y'all don't really like pro anyway, do ya? ;) My recollections from NC are all Stone Mtn related. Nothing like run-out friction climbing to constipate you for a couple months.

[crapflinger]

hehe indeed! NC invented runout! (and death blocks)

[gmoon]

Naw--Seneca's the place for death blocks....

[crapflinger]

hehe...well just the GIANT deathblock that fell off the top (the gendarme) seneca is what i think heaven would be like if it existed...absolutely awesome (except for solar....5.7 my ass!)

[gmoon]

hehehe--classic Seneca. Like 'west pole', 5.7+ --it's a joke to tack a 'plus' to a 5.7, just call it a 5.8. Or getting offroute on 'Thais' and trying to turn the corner back to the climb from the west pole exit ramp (hard 'seneca' 5.9 (really 5.10) with the gear below your feet.)

Or end of the second pitch of 'prune?' Funny, I just ran into a guy last weekend at a local crag. He and I were involved in a rescue several years back when someone fell off the top of that pitch, zippered almost all his gear and got banged up pretty bad. At least 25 other climbers were involved the the rescue, too.

We were just walking up Roy Gap rd. when Markwell came toolin' up in his pickup and said "Drop your gear, boys." We humped all the first aid stuff, body board, etc. to the base of Prune.

I know another guy who broke his leg at the same spot. I finally led that pitch a couple years ago and it's not too bad, but it's not for someone who's leading limit is 5.7....

[crapflinger]

deffinitely...if you're ever somewhere and you think to yourself "i wish i had a #6 (or #5) but i don't" you're screwed unless you happen to be climbing with a dwarf that has high endurance and likes hanging out in cracks (no offense to any dwarfs) and yeah...you can turn a double pitch rapell into a single pitch rapell by tying a "german death knot" (i have no idea what the real name of that know it) to splice the lines together at the anchors...then you've got double the length (instead of running the center of a single rope through the anchors effectively halfing the rap distance) also for ice...twins are great because you can equalize the load on the screws by only cliping one rope into any given screw then cliping in the other rope in the next screw

[gmoon]

We use it too for two single ropes--when you rap together with another party to reduce the # of rappels.

We call it the 'euro death knot.' Gets it's name cause it's nothing but an overhand knot and it looks scary. It's actually an excellent knot--the fat 'knotty' part is only on one side, so it slides over edges, etc. when you pull the rope. Almost never gets hung up. Long since gave up using a figure 8 or a double fisherman's...

[crapflinger]

found it it's the "euro death knot" or the "flat overhand bend "

[gmoon]

Opps. You already said that...