Rope Solo Trad

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Well, I recently took a solo trip out to “Hiroshima’s Yosemite” – Mikuradake.  Its got some granite spire/tower formations with multipitch, crack and sport (very sporty).  I managed to onsight a 5.9 and a 5.10 trad crack, so I was very happy about this.  Its a whole different game trying to place pro on the lead with the Soloist.  I took some video, but its pretty boring (things go quite slow rope solo trad leading).  This is the first time I have experimented with back-up knots pre-placed in the rope, and had to untie them during the lead.  The 5.9 looked like it had a few no-hands rests, so I placed 3 backup knots and a knot in the end of the rope.  Well, just as I predicted, it was a huge pain!  The knots kept getting stuck in the crack, preventing me from climbing up.  Then, after finishing the climb, the knot in the end of the rope got stuck, and I couldn’t pull the rope up! This means that one end of the rope is ground anchored, and the other end was stuck.  Therefore, I couldn’t feed the rope through the anchor to lower myself.  I had to fix the line on the anchor, rappel on a single line, and scramble back up to the anchor afterwards to untie the rope and drop it down.  If there was no scramble to the anchors, I would have had to jug the line, refix it, and rappel again.  WHAT A PAIN!  Yes, in theory back-up knots could save your life, but in practice it just screws up your climbing big time!  This may be my last experiment with back-up knots, unless I find an overhanging route with a good rest spot to untie.

Video Series Update

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So, now that I have been doing some more rope solos, I decided to make a new video series about what I have learned.  I made a video series of 5 videos.  Perhaps the most useful video is the first one in the series.  It is all about how to anchor yourself (ground anchor) at a sport climbing cliff without trees and natural protection.  Its really quite handy, and I use this setup a lot now.  The other videos are great too, talking about tricks and tips for reducing painful and dangerous errors/malfunctions in the rope soloing system.  Check out the videos, learn something new!

Here is the full updated (advanced) rope solo lead climbing series:
UPDATE SERIES #1 – Rope Solo Lead Climbing – Rope Systems and Anchoring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNTojGc5EFI

UPDATE SERIES #2 – Rope Solo Lead Climbing – Choosing an Anchor Location
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt0gG5Yxotk

UPDATE SERIES #3 – Rope Solo Lead Climbing – How To Tie the Alpine Butterfly Knot – Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAv2yOJQLVQ

UPDATE SERIES #4 – Rope Solo Lead Climbing – Soloist Belay Device Jamming with the Climbing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek-X5ylufHQ

UPDATE SERIES #5 – Rope Solo Lead Climbing – My Rigging — Justifications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgrZVWAcuEQ

5.12D Update

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So, towards the end of my trip in Arco I decided to go for a 5.12D sport climb!  This is really approaching my redpoint limit with a proper belay (exceed my onsight limit- for sure!).  I was able to scramble to the top and rappel down the route, putting on the quickdraws and working out the moves on my gri-gri.  I was able to piece together all the moves, so I rapped down with confidence and pulled the rope.  I rigged up a ground anchor for rope soloing and I went for it.  Well, I clipped the last bolt and started the crux before I totally pumped out- about 4 moves from the anchors.  It was a good try but I got insanely pumped.  I came down, and proceeded to have a liver failure attack!  I had some problems with my liver (antibiotic poisoning of my liver, 4 days in the hospital) about 2 weeks prior, so this was quite a bad thing.  Sorry I haven’t posted lately, but that is the reason.  I had to quit climbing and drinking beer and change my diet for about 3 weeks.  Now I am healthy again, and ready for some more rope solos!

Anyway, 5.12D is certainly within the realm of possibilities, which was very exciting (although I didn’t get the send this time).  This means that the crux pitch of the British Route on Nalumasortoq is feasible! 

Aside from that, on this climb I developed my best ground anchor rigging system yet!  Im workign on the video now so you can see my anchor.  The system is really great and innovative.  I’ll update with a video posting soon so you can see how I rigged it up.

New Video!

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OK, well I finished my new video of the 5.12A in Arco, Italy.  The route is called “Moonwalk” and its no gimme for the grade.  Big dynamic moves on crimps in an overhang.  Pretty scary to dyno on the lead with the Soloist, especially when you don’t know what the hold is going to feel like!  On the send I was pumped out of my mind, legs shaking, and the device was totally jammed up!  Pretty epic and scary for a 35 foot sport route!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKoKSbFBnL8

Arco, Italy

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Well, here I am in Arco, Italy.  I have been rope soloing a bit here.  I have done numerous routes in the 5.5-5.8 range, as well as a freesolo or two.  I decided to start pushing my limits a bit more, and went for a 5.12A (or 7A+ in the French scale) onsight.  On my onsight attempt the rope got completely jammed in the device!  I had a lot of trouble with the device that day, and I ended up getting the send on the 3rd go.  I have never put in more than 2 tries on a rope solo before, so this was my biggest project thus far (although it only took about 30-40 minutes).  This was also the first time I took a whipper on the lead with the Soloist device!  Nothing too dramatic really, only about 4 feet or so.  Anyway, baby steps, and I redpointed my hardest route to date.  Two days later I visited a different cliff and decided to push up to 5.12B or 7B French.  Although the grade was harder, the route felt easier to me.  I almost managed the onsight, and got the send 2nd go.  After that I tried again to onsight a 5.11D or 7A, and again blew the onsight.  So, it turns out that I can send most routes 2nd go, but I am having a really hard time with onsights on the Soloist.  I am going to have to work on that.

It also turns out that climbing in the summer is not good for the Soloist device.  Last summer the rope got jammed in the device because of humidity and a soft sheath.  During my 5.12A, the device got jammed again.  I thought at first that tree sap had gotten into the device, but after careful inspection of my rope, grigri and Soloist, I think the culprit was chalk!  I was sweating profusely and the chalk turned into paste on the back of my hands.  This paste got onto the rope and in the device, and jammed up the whole thing.  Even during the send, the device was jamming and I had to stick my pinky finger inside the device to pop it open.  I never thought you could have an epic on a 3-bolt sport climb, but you sure can!

Training

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OK, so if I really want to pull this off (free Nalumasortoq solo) I am going to have to do some serious training.  I need to push my single pitch redpoint level higher, ideally into the 5.13 range.  I need to get my trad onsight level higher, ideally into the 5.11 range, but 5.10 range bare minimum.  I also need some more practice doing multipitch and bigwall soloing on aid climbing.  So, here are the routes and goals along the way that should prepare me for Nalumasortoq:

“Elephant” 5.13B in Thailand, Tonsai Beach

onsight 5.11 trad – Mikuradake, Japan

“Lurking Fear” 5.8 C2 VI, El Capitan, Yosemite - solo aid

“Rostrum” 5.11C - Yosemite

If I manage to pull off all of these goals, Nalumasortoq should be very doable.

The Dream

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So I am a pretty good climber, but I am not a professional.  Redpointing 5.12A with the Soloist device was a great achievement for me, but of course I wanted more.  I made it a long-term goal to redpoint 5.13 on the Soloist device.  This is a great goal, and when completed will likely be the hardest redpoint by anyone in the world on a Soloist device.  However, I haven’t found the right route yet.  A trip to Thailand should produce some great results, but alas, I need to book a ticket. 

My interest in climbing in Mongolia started to wane as my desire to climb a bigwall in Greenland waxed.  I have been craving a real adventure, and would love to plan my first expedition.  Again, the main problem (aside from money, of course) with climbing in Greenland became finding a partner.  It is not easy to convince someone to fork out thousands of dollars to go to Greenland.  And then, one day, the ultimate dream came to me.  Why not use the Soloist device in Greenland? 

I started thinking about it, and I don’t think a bigwall has ever been freeclimbed solo.  This surely would be revolutionary in the climbing world- free a bigwall in a remote location, solo.  This idea got me very excited, but could I do it?  Free climbing a bigwall is no mean feat.  There is a nice route on Nalumasortoq in Tasermiut Fjord in Southern Greenland that just might be doable.  Timmy O’Neill and Nathan Martin managed a free ascent of the British Route on Nalumasortoq at 5.12C.  With only 2 pitches in the 5.12 range, this seems feasible.  However, I have been rope soloing on sport climbs and not on trad.  5.12C trad is hard!!!  After much thought, I decided to mix trad climbing and sport climbing tactics on the big wall.  I will try to onsight each pitch on trad, but if I do not, I can rappel down and pre-place the gear.  On the second try, I can send the pitch in sport climbing style (sometimes known as a pinkpoint).  While the oldschool hardasses may frown on my ethics, I don’t care!  Its still awesome, hard, and very enjoyable.

So there it is- the seed has been planted.  Freeclimb Nalumasortoq solo…

The Beginning

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What better place to start than the beginning?  Well, for me the beginning was about a year and a half ago.  I wanted to take a climbing trip to Mongolia, but I couldn’t find a partner.  So, I ordered the Soloist belay device by Rock Exotica from MGear.com and started experimenting with it.  I took it to my local crag in Kakogawa, Japan and tried it out on some short, single-pitch sport routes.  My first route was a 5.7, which I was able to onsight using the Soloist device.  I am not sure what I was thinking, but I decided next to go for the hardest route at the crag, a 5.11D/5.12A.  I did not onsight this route, but instead battled my way to the top hang-dogging all over the place.  I worked out the moves on rappel, and was able to send the route clean (redpoint) on the second attempt.  I ended the day after this, figuring that 2 routes up to 5.12A in less than 3 hours on my first day with the device was really successful. 

Well, I never ended up going to Mongolia, but in the following 1-2 months, I returned numerous times to that small sport cliff (called Heisoko).  Each time I got stares and questions from the other Japanese climbers.  They had never seen anyone doing rope solo lead climbing before, especially at a sport crag!  They were really curious about how it worked, and loved watching me climb, and inspecting my setups (whilst mumbling in Japanese- “EHHHHHHH!”).  I had also recently purchased a video camera and has eager to shoot some climbing videos.  So I shot a video called “Free Solo and Rope Solo Rock Climbing Training Day” and posted it on YouTube.  (Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z5ygoxcEXA)  I figured no one would ever watch the video, but a few weeks later the video had over 1000 hits, and people from all over the world were asking me questions about it.  “How do you do this?”  “Where can I get one?”  The questions and comments came rolling in, so I decided to make a tutorial video series about how to rope solo lead climb.  (Here is the first video in the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhAww0CI-Gw)  Well these videos were a total sensation, and have had views from countless countries in six continents).