Teaching Climbing

The one thing I always conclude whenever teaching and experimenting with hoists for improvised rescue is that they all suck. Z-pulley, 6:1, Spanish Burton, bla bla - all worthless. And think I am in venerable company when I make this claim. If you disagree, then you have never hoisted an incapacitated climber, heavier than thou, in complex terrain, over any distance. No Traxion allowed. Friction ruins all the fun It is a natural fact that it is easier to work with gravity and friction rather than against them, meaning we should always try to go downhill. Or just stay put and slam the panic button. Still, there are times when we really need to get an injured or tired partner up,  notably in environments like sea cliffs, canyons, crevasses, etc. One big obstacle when hoisting, apart from that 110-kilo Godzilla at the other end, is the friction over the edge of the belay stance. This can be minimized if the anchor is built nice and high and the ledge is small. But on a big ledge and wi

There is one thing about your climbing technique that you probably think you are doing right. Or, more likely, you are doing it right sometimes out of sheer luck. Let´s talk about the nitty-gritty of the figure-of-8! For most of us, the (rethreaded or follow-through) figure-of-8 was the first specific climbing "thing" we ever learned. It is a standard tool for climbers for good reason. It is strong. It is easy to learn and hard to get wrong. It is easy to inspect. And it is easy to untie. "Weeell..." you say about the last statement. Maybe you prefer a bowline variation, because when you work those routes and fall a lot, your figure-of-8 gets really hard to untie. Hmmm, maybe we can do something about that. Let´s look at how we usually teach the figure-of-8, and how that can be improved!  The way I learned, and continued to tie the knot for a long time, was something like this:  Make a single figure-of-8. Pass the end of the rope through your harness´ tie in point.