Jon Todd

Today was a beautiful day in CT and what better way to spend time outside then to go for a climb. The only problem was that there was nobody around to climb with. Sure, I guess I could have busted out the bouldering pad and made another low traverse on the rock face but it just not as thrilling and technically challenging as climbing up the cliff. So instead, I did a “top rope solo.”

The idea here is that typically when you are climbing with a top rope setup, you climb the rock while tied into a rope that goes through an anchor at the top of the pitch. On the other end of the rope there is a person called a belayer who takes in rope as you climb so if you are to fall you would be gently caught by the rope instead of the ground.

Well to solo you need to belay yourself by feeding your own rope. This is of course problematic because you normally need two hands to belay and well, that doesn’t leave you with many hands to climb. After looking online at how others approached the problem I realized that much like a releasable tele binding, there is many ways to tackle this problem, and there is no clear best method. Actually that’s not true. The best method and I quote “is not to solo at all.”

(I just killed a fly with my bare hand)

As others have been so kind to post there thoughts on the topic I thought I would put in my two cents and describe my rig. For those of you who just typed “top rope solo” in Google and found this entry, please don’t rope solo unless you feel comfortable doing it and this is by no means the “right” way to TR solo because everyone will have their own method that works best for them. Furthermore I am going to assume you know the basics of rope soloing and just provide a review of gear used and helpful tips.

First and foremost you NEED a multi-directional ground anchor. I didn’t use one at first, and the rope drag was insane! I originally tied into the end as if I was doing a regular TR climb and while it worked and was relatively safe, I was more prone to falling since it required extreme effort to get the rope through my belay device.

Next most important thing: wear a helmet! This should be obvious.

Third, no matter which method you choose, use figure 8′s on a bight to tie in every once in a while and always before a crux. This is the most bomber protection you can have regardless of your belay setup.

On to the belay. So many others have talked about playing with ascenders. While they do keep you from sliding down the rope, they are not designed to take falls, they wear on the rope, and they can come off the rope. Furthermore, should you need to down climb you’ll be putting yourself in harms way when you need to release the device. While this might be the cheapest option it certainly seems like the worst to me.

Others have talked about the soloist and silent partner. These are good commercial options designed for soloing but have there own drawbacks. The soloist won’t catch you on head first falls and the silent partner requires rope feeding.

I decided instead to use a gri-gri. I know they are expensive and I actually swore I would never use one but since I found one on the ground for free I decided it would be best suited for the job. While they are not designed for soloing, they provide a reliable lock when falling and allow easy feeding of rope.

I first rappeled the route placing slinged cams to control fall direction with the rope. Then setup a bomber ground anchor and tied in one end of the rope. The other end of the rope went through the gri-gri with the climber end going up to the anchor. I also brought a few slings along for prusiks for backup if needed. Once off the deck a bit I tied my first 8 on a bite and clipped in below the belay devices. As the climb continued I would replace the figure 8 backups as needed. The beauty of using the gri-gri is that once you reach the top you can simply rappel back down with out changing devices.

Overall my experience felt safe and quite peaceful to be alone. Much like lead climbing, with soloing you take things slower and focus on not falling. This makes the climbs more rewarding. Since I really didn’t want to fall this time, I only climbed 5.8-5.9 routes where I had places to tie safety knots. Harder climbs are doable with some planning.