JamesDaily you get what you pay for

Jesus the breathing is insane for sure! Wow....

Actually I found it comfortable. He made me fall asleep.

Hamish his name. Its all describes :) He just forgot as mic increase sensitivity with taping far or closer. Also his boots can be not in frame. Good luck next videos. Nicy overall

I know right!! I found it a bit disturbing

I was about to post the same hahahaha

My first thought

Rope Soloing is a Sith discipline from way back!😜

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Kushwant Bussawah IKR?!?!

Yeah good vid without sound on

Yes, we have done falls with various amounts of slippage in the Grigri. We plan to make a short video showing these. I don't want to give people any assurances of safety. This isn't a beginners activity and so the fall video will make it very clear that we are not telling them that it will all work if they fall. In fact, one of our findings was that the falls are a lot harder because there is no soft catch. Some people have been trying screamers which is a great idea to reduce the force. We may include this as well.

A camp matik may give softer catches.

Here we did a (really home made) video on a controlled fall: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o-B_oph-3dWvlIU.html With a 8mm rope it didn't work, but it worked perfectly with a thicker one (9,8mm). Thanks very much Matt for the vid.

León Délano i believe grigri is not designed for 8mm rope (~8.7mm thinnest) so not surprised it didn't work

Underrated comment, good catch

A silent partner would be nice!!

Using a shunt in this configuration would be extremely dangerous. While not the best device for the purpose, the shunt is functional as a top rope soloing device. A Grigri is cheap, your life shouldn’t be.

Good to hear you are so keen. If you're new to climbing then learning is so important. Rope soloing is something that needs good experience before trying as it is more complex. Have fun climbing and stay safe.

Matthew Hunter ... thanks Mathew, will do indeed mate , keep the videos rolling thoroughly enjoying them .👍

Did you make it back alive?

@@brisktea55 The suspance...

+Leave No Trace Thanks for the support. Currently we don't have any "instructional" aid vids planned but we will show some of it in our training for "Nose in a day" videos. We do plan to do a speed simul-climbing demo some time soon. Probably on a Tibro multipitch or on Ruby of India.

That sounds awesome!

Hi Chris, I am using a GriGri 2. I haven't used the Plus but it should be similar in the right mode.

Hi Alex, Thanks for the comment. Regarding the fall onto the traxion as a backup, have you checked out the petzl documentation on it? www.petzl.com/GB/en/Sport/Self-belaying-with-the-MICRO-TRAXION?ProductName=MICRO-TRAXION&Familly=Pulleys#.WLNdV_JUo5w We did some of our own testing as well because we use them when we simul-climb to stop the leader being pulled off by the second. We found that a factor 0.5 fall did small rope damage and is a very hard catch but of course that will be the case for any device. I you have 10 meters of rope above you, it seems like the traxion is well up to the task. I have actually taken a top rope fall while seconding on simul when I pulled off a large rock. It worked perfectly and my leader didn't even know I fell;) I would be keen to see how you set the jumar into place. I have tried with one but never had it feed very well.

Microtraxion should be main device and without any extension sling, preferably on chest harness. Otherwise it can brake and can/will damage rope.

Thanks for the message. 1) Grigri self feeding. You really do need the grigri to be held in position in order to self feed. The only mod that I have made is to glue on a loop to the plastic section. Another option I have seen done is to put a piece of strong thread or thin fishing line around where it opens. Just make sure that it doesn't interfere too much with it opening and closing. I would love to find a device that will work well without a chest harness although on big climbs I almost always have a small pack that I can clip it to for self belaying when short fixing. 2) Backup Knots. The problem with backup knots that are clipped to you is that obviously you need to have some portion of the rope outside of the bag. Having the biner break is probably more likely than having the grigri break as cross loading is very easy to do. One solution that I have set up but never used or fall tested is to put a mallion on the waist loop of my harness and run the rope down through that or have a sling on the harness linked to a mallion on my should strap. The idea being that if all failed, it MAY catch you there. I have never tried fall testing a mallion blocking any kind of knot but it might be worth testing some time. I tend to focus on avoiding the possibility of cross loading by keeping the grigri solidly positioned with rubber stoppers. Don't underestimate the usefulness of these cheap and simple things. They also help when you lean over and then stand up by stopping the grigri sliding around on the biner. I also velcro the biner to my lower harness loop. BTW. the Biner I use is oval and steel with a high cross load rating. 3) Unfortunately, I haven't tried any of the other device that you mentioned. I was very tempted to order a soloist because it looks clean. The only issue is that a Grigri is just so damn useful on a big wall or even a standard multi. All the best with your experimentation.

I'm probably going to try my 3rd rope solo tomorrow. I will probably end up using the system in the same way tomorrow as I have in the past, but for any future attempts, I sure will use the rubber stoppers. I trust that you have tried many different ways to keep the grigri upright and this is a simple yet effective solution. I am however considering using a rope to tie in the grigri through both loops of my harness (provided I use the rubber stops and the glued in small loop clipped to a chest harness equivalent to keep the grigri upright). That way, it eliminates the need for a carabiner and so no cross loading at all. The Soloist apparently is tied in to the harness in a similar fashion. Its just that it'll be a pain to untie the grigri and tie it back again and hence might slow the process of the climb itself. But until I try this on an easier climb and fall test it, I probably will stick to using a steel carabiner. Thanks again for the response.

I'd be keen to see the setup with the Eddy. I haven't used one but I understand that they are about twice the weight. Did you find that it fed by itself without needing to use your hand to pull rope through?

Matt, I've been lead rope soloing multipitch trad with various techniques since '75 and it constitutes about 50-75% of my climbing in any given year. Here's a piece I wrote about what I do back in '07. www.rockclimbing.com/Articles/Training_and_Technique/Roped_Solo_Free_Climbing_-_The_essence_of_self-reliance_one_path_among_many_675.html I find the weight difference is inconsequential I've never noticed it at all. It does feed way, way better than a non-chest-mounted modded grigri (I can't stand anything against my chest / stomach that way). It feeds better because it has a rope path the reverse of a grigri and so long as both sides of the rope are hanging below the device is just feeds. I rarely have to intervene and when it does occasionally lock, it's a simple and easy thumb slide to unlock it. Here's a shot of me using my rig: www.supertopo.com/photos/35/9/472387_9952_L.jpg and here's one of my routes I regularly lead with it: www.supertopo.com/photos/33/17/453204_29506_XL.jpg

Marcus Ainsworth i think the non climbing crab is just a guide for the rope and the knots are a backup if the grigri didn't bite in a fall.

Luis. The only mod I did was to make a way to hang it upside down. I think I briefly mentioned the options in the start of the video. 1) glue a loop of cord to the black plastic close to the axel end. or 2) put a thin loop of fishing line or strong thread around the axel. Make sure it doesn't interfere with it opening. I did the first option but drilled a small hole in the black plastic (careful not to interfere with anything) and glued the cord into the hole for extra strength. I can't recommend doing this but it has worked well for me and you can make your own decisions. Good luck.

Pretty sure he wasn't nervous as we once simul-climbed all 5 pitches in 12 minutes and he placed 11 quick draws in total, but I will tell him that everyone on youtube is offering him words of comfort ;)

Hi Troy, the slip knots that I use are designed to be blocking knots. The silent partner doesn't have any clean way of stopping the knots from moving through. They may well jam up the clove hitch but it would be messy. It may be worth testing using a mailon to block a knot which can also be an extension to my system, but I am not sure where it would go because I think that with the silent partner, all of the rope is hanging below you. I have never tested this catching a fall, but I do sometimes fix jugging lines using the same method that I showed in the video for taking up the tension on the quick draw. It may be possible to feed a bunch of rope into a cache loop for the silent partner and then periodically, with one hand untie, feed more and then retie the slip knot. Something I did used to do was to use a micro traxion as a backup. Pretty easy to feed more rope into the system and lock off, but although we have tested falling on them, I would not want to take a large fall onto one. Then again, it is a backup and if you keep the cache small, it reduces the risk. But then you still have the same issue of where to place it and what to attach it to so that it doesn't smash against the SP. Hope that there is something in that for you. Remember not to rush into lead soloing. It is much easier to mess yourself up than normal leading.

Thanks a lot for your reply. You're right, I see that the SP design is quite open around the drum so the slip knot wouldn't block well. I see on the 'multipitchclimbing' site (Ch 12: Going Solo - link below) a photo of using the SP with rope in a backpack (but says 'backup knot not shown'). I really like your system where backup slip knots can be just popped out easily at the rucksack strap, but would need to investigate the maillon idea thoroughly! Perhaps the rope could come from the backpack through a (small but very strong) maillon on the belay loop & still feed the SP. multipitchclimbing.com/ You're quite right to advise caution: I always try to follow Whymper's advice to "do nothing in haste"!

It is a grigri 2. I haven't tried it with a grigri 1 but obviously you still want to stick to the recommended size of rope. I use a 9.5 mostly but the style of rope and size greatly effect the auto feeding.

Another quick question. Is there a possibility of the biner on the bag strap snapping in the case of a fall? Could you attach it with strong velco so if you do fall if will tear off and then the knot would jam in the gri gri

No. I don't have it still attached in any way. You need to be able to pull the rope cleanly afterwards for the next pitch. The fact that it hangs is just the weight of the rope. After about 5 metres it feeds fairly easily and the traxions flow fairly well.

There is really little that can be done to account for an upside down fall with a grigri in this position. The best option is to make sure that the stuff holding your Grigri in place is not very strong or not tight. If the pressure from the rope pulling out of the bag is enough to pull the gri gri into the correct position, then all is Ok. Otherwise you might be heading to the backup knot. It may be prudent to position your backup knots appropriately for the pitch you are doing to lessen the risks. Maybe when we get a chance we can do some more tests to get some real world results.

Actually, I forgot to thank you for your video. Also, thank you for the reply :) I am planning an ice climb solo and I'm trying to fail as much as possible in an safe environment (home wall) prior to that. Lead fall in ice climbing are most likely taking you up side down, so this must be thought of. I tested the ACT and a chest loop, but it fails when up side down. I will probably also have iced up ropes as another challenge. Never tried the grigri on icy ropes, but I know it's not advised.

I have used a rock exotica soloist on icy ropes (not recommended) and it has performed fine. As a note you should never fall while ice climbing as the risk of shattering an ankle on small fall is huge and if you are soloing it gets worse as someone might not be around to provide aid.

Shehryar khattak The best way is to use a rope grab like a traxion on your gear loop or waist strap to take the weight. Then you just feed your cache loop from there. Hope that helps.

Cobra0911 the croll or traxion backup would not work like on top rope. Leading requires letting rope out not in. There is a more solid backup option that I will post when I get the chance.

You know i see what you are saying lol. Cheers and Thanks again !

Hi Rob, I have seconded on a gri-gri and the problem is that it requires you to constantly pull through the slack. Takes the fun out of the climbing. If I was only doing a bit of roped soloing on a big climb then I wouldn't bring a croll and would just use the grigri. However, because of their usefulness on multipitches, I often just use 2 micro traxions to second. I also use one clipped above me for repacking the bag at the next pitch. i.e. I pull the rope up, using the traxion to hold it as I stuff the bag and tie the knots. Each style of climb may be best suited to a different method of ascending. Gri-gri, grigri + jumar, jumars, croll or traxions. Whatever works best for you.

Hi Matt, thanks. wouldn't the gri-gri run freely if the rope were tethered/weighted at the bottom. I guess not feasible on multipitch ! Cheers

No. weighting the grigri below would simply act like the break hand and lock it off. That is why when leading, the cache loop can only be so big before the weight of the rope locks it off.

Oh and why not use a clove hitch per carabiner on your way up? If you gonna keep it tight why not lock it off completely? (Sorry only been climbing for a year just trying to see the different aspects of other's point of views not trying to pick a fight)

Generally, each bolt should be able to take a massive lead fall and not be phased. If you are a total of 250 pounds, you should have no problems. Using more than 1 bolt is normally a redundancy on things like carabiner cross loading rather than bolts breaking. If in doubt about a bolt, and have no options to climb, then you should certainly back up and proceed very carefully. But your weight won't be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

If you mean why not place a clove hitch on each draw, then there are 2 reasons. 1) Placing a clove hitch takes time and can be awkward while climbing. Flow is the key to making lead soloing not only something that can be done, but that you want to do. You need to weight up your options on each climb regarding safety. 2) each time you place a clove hitch and lead above it, you are in a potential factor 2 fall scenario. Meaning that the fall may be up to twice as long as the amount of rope you have out. This not only is a huge force on the bolt, but also can cause serious damage to the climber. In fact, when in a potential factor 2 situation, if the fall is very clean, it is probably safer to have a lot of slack which can get you closer to a factor 1 fall which can hurt but nowhere near as much. Hope that makes sense. If you are fairly inexperienced, lead soloing can have some big traps if you rush into it. Take it very slowly because there is no one to check your stuff and often no one to rescue you.

Ahh I understand. Yea, im more inexperienced than most, only really picked up climbing this last year and really loved it. Was spoiled with my last coiple guys that I went with but they have orders elsewhere so looking into alot of different solo setups and then going to try them out to get a knowledge for when to use which one at the training grounds. But yea, gonna be at least 5 months before I take it out into a real day to two day climb for sure.

This climb is at Mount Tibrogargan in Queensland.

Hi Kornel, Thanks for the questions. People tend to hear a lot of things about what device does what to ropes. I have taken plenty of top rope falls on a croll and haven't found a problem. I don't like the croll much because it requires a chest harness and so I mostly use 2 traxions these days. The idea is that a top rope fall should always be very low force. Just don't build up the slack if it doesn't feed well. I haven't used a cinch but it mostly comes down to how well it will feed. I noticed that to feed rope with the cinch, you are meant to hold it in a certain position to make it go smoothly. I would like to have one to play with. Currently, I think the Wild Country Evo shows some promise but I haven't tried that either. As for the Darth Vader comments, he certainly isn't fat or unfit. We climbed the Nose of El Capitan in 23 hours and the 5 pitch route in thi s video in under 9 minutes, so the comments are well off the mark, but I'll try to keep them removed ;) Enjoy the Spanish winter.

thanks for the quick reply!!! and now... let´s climb ;)

Nathan Darval . Queensland Australia. Lots of birds.

No, it shouldn't feed through the grigri before the grigri locks off. Generally, the larger the cache loop, the more easily the grigri locks off.

You're right, you generally put biners on the belay loop but for the purpose of holding the grigri vertically while rope soloing, tie points do a better job and it won't hurt the harness

You do have the danger of loading the biner multidirectionally but it really won't blow the gear people are just pussies

@@ryant5672 True, though he used a steel biner to compensate that possibility. Though I would say that multidirectional /cross loading blowing the gear is possible if your carabiner is more prone to it.

I usually use a 9.5mm mammut but I have used anywhere from a 9.2 to a 9.8. The difference that it will make is mostly to do with the size of the cache loop that you can have and the likelihood of slippage if you take a slow fall before the grigri gets engaged. The age of the rope also makes a difference as newer ropes are much more slick.

stay at home :D

John Edward you just reclimb the pitch as I was doing at the end. Then you do the next pitch.

If you use a clove hitch then you are always risking a factor 2 fall scenario when you climb above it. I wouldn't do it unless there was little to no chance of falling before then next draw. The occasional clove hitch does at least add some backup, especially if your mind starts wondering what is happening down at the anchor.

@@starasoris Matt, Thank you for the quick response and good info. The video is well done very informative. All the best, Joe, from Massachusetts

I have tested it and it can work but there are a few reasons why not. Mainly, it is because if the rope isn't flaked perfectly - which is often the case if you dont have a nice ledge - then it can get jammed and you are unable to sort it out.

You could use any number of non-slipping knots but it would just mean a lot more time and effort to get them undone. You could always add in the odd bomber knot as a super backup but it depends on what you are climbing.

You're still sacrificing some (maybe small) amount of security for a small convenience. No judgement intended, not a trade I'm not willing to make.

As I say, it is all about the circumstances you are in. It isn't for everyone. Although, I would point out that over a single pitch of climbing, it is a small convenience, over a much larger climb, it makes a lot more difference. You just need to make a judgement in each case. Sometimes I use almost no knots if there is almost no chance of a fall.

I would strongly disagree, you definitely don't a 'real' knot of any kind on the rope path - the slip knot is way more than sufficient to trigger the device.

Is the backup knot more about triggering the device though, or is it to block against the device in case the device doesn't catch (this was my understanding, and I've read all of your posts)? Will a slip knot come out when slammed against the grigri/eddy/etc?

fxdx they are backup knots to jam the grigri if it slips. please don't try this technique unless you are an experienced climber. grigris can fail under certain conditions with this configuration such as upside down falls.

Thanks. I wish I had seen this video before I did my first ever solo aid pitch on El Cap, had to learn along the way :) you got some really good tips here on efficiency!