Tips & Tricks for Climbers

I am a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors, the professional body for UK climbing Instructors. I hold the top award, the MIC. This page has some wee tips and tricks I have picked up over the years as a professional instructor. It's not in any way a complete instruction manual on how to climb safely, just some neat and/or amusing ideas. A knowledge of basic techniques and basic knots, including knots such as clove-hitches, figure-8's and sheet bends will be necessary to understand this page I didn't invent any of these tips and tricks myself, I'm just passing them on.

Dire Warning Any new climbing or rope-work technique, including all of those featured here, should be practised in a controlled and safe environment first, and tested in a variety of circumstances, particularly when "loaded" or "fallen-on". I would suggest either a climbing wall with big safety mats beneath you or an outdoor venue with a very good landing such as a sandy beach. And better to have a companion with you in case you get yourself hung up in an inescapable position! Only when you are completely familiar with the pro's and con's of a technique should you consider using it in earnest. Dire Warning

General Ropework

Winter Stuff

Odds & Ends

High Altitude Tips & Tricks (new page)

Within these categories these tips and tricks are currently in no particular order.

General Ropework
	Description	Pros and Cons

	Handbag Carry It may sound like bad news for all those macho types, but this is a good alternative to the standard 'rucksack style' rope carry. The rope is lap coiled the usual way then just tied to your body differently. Use a sheet bend or stopper knot. Particularly good when descending gullies etc. as the loops and tails of the rope don't drag behind you and/or dislodge rocks. If you have two ropes tie one either side.	Particularly good when descending gullies etc. as the loops of the rope don't hang behind your back, dragging thru and/or dislodging rocks.
	Cord Saw A short (30cm) piece of thin (2-3mm) nylon cord can cut a loaded rope in just 3 seconds. This is the piece of cord I use for my chalk-bag. In very rare circumstances, e.g. crag rescue, it may be necessary to cut a loaded rope to escape the system, and this is one way to do it without a knife. This is also a very impressive demonstration of how quickly nylon moving on loaded nylon will cut through. You'll never look at a used abseil sling the same way again. Try it and be amazed.	Only works on a loaded rope. Doesn't always cut the last strands cleanly. Gives a slower release of the load compared to a knife cut.
	Centre Tie with Larksfoot An interesting "experimental" way to tie into the middle of a rope (e.g. for three person glacier travel) that uses very little rope and leaves a very small 'knot'. It haven't managed to make it happen yet but there is obviously the chance of the rope "creeping" thru under load. The Larksfoot knot is known to be a weak knot.	Complicated to learn to 'tie', as you have to thread yourself thru, which is very tricky to perform when wearing crampons..! Uses very little rope. Is very difficult to un-do quickly and when loaded e.g. in an emergency.

	American Prussik system An alternative leg system for prussikking, which uses marginally more cord but seems a lot more efficient in most situations. It provides you with a single strand of cord for each foot, rather than a loop for just one foot. Make one by tying a figure-8 knot in the centre of a roughly 2m length of 5- 6mm cord, leaving at the top of the fig-8 knot a loop big enough to tie the line to the rope with a prussik knot. At the foot of each single strand tie a small overhand knot, you can then use this knot to quickly larksfoot one of your feet into each strand. The 'waist' or 'body' prussik used in this system remains the same. This technique I first saw many years ago in Andy Selters Crevasse Rescue book.	Uses marginally more cord. More secure footing when prusikking. Less swivelling when using the system free hanging. With practice and flexibility a much larger 'fetch' on each prussik cycle can be achieved.

	Fig-9 knot The figure-9 knot, tied by adding one more twist to a figure-8 on the bight, is supposedly stronger than figure of 8 and is certainly much easier to un-do after it's been loaded. Good for using in anchors that will be used for multiple abseils, bottom-roping, or similar.	Stronger than figure eight in theory. Easier to un-do after it's been loaded.

	Fig-8 two-loops knot The "figure-8 two-loops knot" is a great knot for use when setting up bottom-rope systems. Tie it as follows. Start the same way as a figure of eight on the bight, but instead of putting the last bight through the last loop, push the two strands of this bight through the loop, then 'catch' them with the bight itself. Better still, get some-one who knows how to tie one of these knots to show you!!	Tricky to learn to tie Provides two semi-independent loops for belaying or similar. Provides a back-up in bottom-roping systems etc. especially if you also use one karabiner in each loop.

Winter Stuff
	Description	Pros and Cons
	Plastic Bag Snow Anchor When camping on snow. For tents only! In my opinion this makes as good an anchor for your tent in most conditions as any commercially available 'snow-peg'. Just dig a hole, filling a plastic bag with the snow that comes out of the hole, tie the bag to your guy line, drop it in the hole and then cover everything with snow. This anchor kindly supplied by Needlesports Very lightweight and cheap.	Few snow conditions seem to suit manufactured 'snow-pegs'. Multi-use. You really need to carry a shovel with you to dig the hole and fill the bag.

	Home Made Pulk For details of how to quickly convert a kiddies sledge into something you can tow across the snow see Piste-Off.com	Much cheaper and lighter than professional pulks, and fine for small scale use on trips of up to one or two weeks.

	Yeti Gaiter Fix Tired of your yeti or supergaiters popping off at the toe? The answer is to glue them on, but the common trick of using superglue makes them very hard to remove. The best answer I have found is to use skin glue, as used by ski-mountaineers for attaching their skins to their skis, with brands such as Coll-tex or Montana.	Doesn't trash your supergaiters when you need to remove them. Works well in wet environments.

Odds & Ends
	Description	Pros and Cons
	Hat Catchers I got this one form a skier - but it works well on windy days when you want a sun-hat on. Tie a short length of cord to the back of your hat, the other end can be tied to your rucksack, but usually works fine just with a know in the end stuffed under your jacket. never lose a hat in the wind or while skiing again..	A great way of carrying some spare cord too.!.

	Cable Ties The best all round repair kit - I've mended everything from snowboard bindings to crampons with these - the snowboard lasted for two weeks as well. Also useful for sealing zips on bags before flying etc. Not as secure as a padlock but at least there is no key to lose.