Hampton Marsh - Full Moon Arete - Cut off rope

[breau]

There is a piece of rope, that we cut, that was left on Full Moon Arete. When we finished climbing I was pulling the rope down and it got stuck up top. We tried to get it off for a good thirty minutes with no luck. We cut the rope as high as we could but there is still a piece there. Another climber had been kind enough to setup the top rope for us, when the rope got stuck we were the only ones left. Neither one of us is strong enough to be able to lead back up the cliff to untangle it.

I'm just posting this to make clear that the rope can be taken down, I'll buy a beer to whoever does. I will also try to find someone that can lead up to it and take it down.

Séb

[Joe]

I'll clean that up this week, and I'll improve the anchors. Joe.

[Adam]

you cut your only rope!?? *gasp*

[*Chris*]

I'm not familiar with that route so there could be complicating factors but did you remember to untie your knots before you pulled it? Cutting ropes is an expensive habit to develop.

[breau]

I did remember to untie the knots at the end. We can see the anchor from the bottom, its caught on the very end of the rope.

Cutting a rope is something we really don't want to get in the habit of doing, hopefully it will be the first and last time we have to do that.

[Adam]

what does the anchor consist of? i am guessing just regular hangers with no maillons or rap rings? i can't see a rope getting caught on rap hangers, but anything is possible i guess.

[breau]

It was off a maillon.

[chossmonkey]

what does the anchor consist of? i am guessing just regular hangers with no maillons or rap rings? i can't see a rope getting caught on rap hangers, but anything is possible i guess.

We had our rope get hung up on a Fixe rap anchor once. The rope flipped at just the wrong time an it caught behind itself. The harder we pulled the better it held.

[Adam]

It was off a maillon.

ah, yah if they're the smaller ones there can be quite a bit of friction. i've realized that you really should put two maillons on each hanger. hanging a single maillon leaves them in an orientation that can create a lot of friction. when there are two, where one is clipped to the hanger, and the second is clipped to the first maillon, they hang better and create much less drag.

sucks to cut yer rope regardless... hope it was well used!

[Fred]

If you place the pulling end on the bottom it should be less of a problem. If you place the pulling end on the top it causes an auto-locking effect on the trailing end of the rope similar to Petzel reverso.

[Adam]

pulling end? not sure i follow.

[Fred]

The rope end that you pull on should be touching the rock and the trailing end should be on top. (for single mailon on regular bolt hanger that is)

Imagine a rope fixed to a petzel reverso in the auto-lock position but with both strand hanging down to the ground. One of them you can pull from the bottom but the other will get cammed.

[Adam]

yah it's all about the orientation, and is avoidable with two links on each hanger. however, that often leads to people thinking there are too many and it 'harvesting' the surplus links.

[Burley]

bbhhhahhhahhhhahhhaaaahhhh.... ha

Didn't we teach you better than that! No need to cut the rope. You should have left it.. a day or two wouldn't kill it in the least.

[Matt Peck]

Oh good. Im not the only one who thought that. Just curious, why didn't you guys leave it up till you could clean it properly? Seems like a waste of a rope to me.

[jeremy]

The best way I have found to keep the ropes from tangling while raping off is to let the first guy rapping off test pull to make sure they will pull. Then the last guy keeps close attention to rope orientation while raping off so they don't twist. When you pull the rope make sure you pull the one you set the rappel for. An extra minute can save most tangles

[Stan]

clip your daisy chain into the strand you're going to pull
this will minimize rope tangling, plus you'll never forget which line to pull on

[breau]

We were really not sure what to do. I didn't like the idea of leaving a rope behind, that is not properly tied to the top. Its not that I'd be scared an experienced climber would use it but more that kids might. If it was to happen again I'd probably do things differently.

[mathieu]

Last week I had a rope caught on a rock horn, the thing had clove hitched itself as it was coming down. No word of a lie, I climbed back up the pitch and found the rope in a perfect clove hitch on a horn about the size of my hand. Couldn't do that again in a million years.

[Greg]

We stopped by there today on the way home in the rain. From what I could see there is a very short piece of rope hanging from the mallion. We are talking about 5 meters of rope here. Considering your situation, I don’t think you made a bad choice in cutting your rope. Assuming you had a 60 meter rope to begin with, you now have a 55 meter which will be fine top roping or leading the majority of routes in this province. Leaving behind (on the ground) 45 or 50 meters of rope would likely have been a big mistake unless you were able to go back right away with some help for retrieval. Roadside Wall is just that, beside a road and it is a common party area for the youngsters. Had you left it, one of them might have come along and got themselves into some trouble or just cut it and taken it in which case you would have had no rope at all.

I think you made the right call.

Now for the crazy part........

Stacey took a photo with her 18x zoom and here is what the rope looks like in the mallion.....

It appears as though it somehow knotted itself as you were pulling it.

[Fred]

How did you get to the ground if you only had to cut off 5m of rope? Or how did you not have to cut 20m off that is?

[Stacey]

haha - we were thinking the same thing.

I know Marc/Seb are tall men - but wow.

Though the rock was dripping on Sunday, perhaps when it's dry? but either way - it must have been sketchy to cut it so high! kudos!

Stace

[*Chris*]

Cool trick Seb. Looks like a near-perfect clove hitch. 'Cept one of your tails is too long and the other is too short!

[Joe]

I tried to get up that route Saturday but was rained off. By the way, anyone know who's ropes are hanging on the overhanging wall to the left of Full Moon Arete? They're firmly locked up there too.

[Stacey]

Yeah we saw those too Joe - gave a few good yanks - but no luck...almost as though they were fixed...

I think a couple of guys from Rbloc were supposed to be bolting around there? Seb - - do you know?

Thanks,

[Pierre]

I'm assuming they are Al Richards... He mentioned something about leaving a few fixed lined and bolting a route at Hampton.

[breau]

When we were there it was dry. Marc scrambled up the side and cut as high as he could. The knot is what I figured had happened but its nice to have a photo confirming, thanks Greg and Stacey. Next I'm going to try and get a figure 8 tied

Pierre is correct, those are both Al Richards ropes. He is using them to bolt new lines and he is still using them.

[Stacey]

Haha - you almost made me pee myself...too funny - I want to see that and then a rethreaded one

When are they heading back down to keep bolting? I didn't see any bolts?

Stace

[marcaucoin]

Well thanks to Stacey for the pictures. It gave me closure. We did think of all the possible options we had at hand at the time before cuting, but cuting was the only one available to us at the time (except leaving the rope behind). I even thought for a brief instant of leading Lunchbox... lol. Me having never done lead, and had somewhat of a hard time on the 5.7 next to it... it rapidly wasn't a good option... I did climb a bit higher off the ground so to cut the highest possible.

I haven't been climbing very long, but what happened on the picture must not be very frequent...

MArc

[Stacey]

yeah - given that fugly knot - your rope wasn't going anywhere..

a few more climbs and you'll be leading Lunchbox without worries

Stace