Knots and Skills

Knowledge of these knots and skills is taught and eventually required to complete the class: Knots Test 

Belaying

• Top-Rope Belaying with ATC

  • Pull-Brake-Under-Slide newbies will find this video useful

• Detailed video on belaying and the safety checks

• Top-Rope Belaying with Munter

  • Use Pull-Brake-Under-Slide (no longer Slip-Slap-Slide)

• Hip belay

Rappelling

• Extended Rappel w/ ATC (with both dominant and non-dominant hand, HollowBlock backup)

• Rappelling w/ Munter Hitch (with dominant hand, HollowBlock backup)

• To go hands-free, use a leg wrap (FOTH (9th ed, page 218)

Skills

• Climbing Signals

  • Refer to FOTH (9th Ed), page 197-198, for a list of voice commands. Use partners' names when issuing the commands, starting the command with your partner's name (e.g. "Jill, on belay").

  • For more detail about climber communication, the American Alpine Club has an article

• Reversed and Opposed Carabiners - Used in lieu of a locking carabiner

  • Refer to FOTH (9th Ed), page 170 for illustration

• Cleaning a sport anchor:

Outdoor Research and the AMGA have created a video for reference:  OR & AMGA video 

• • @2:35 & 5:50 the guide says that he is on belay the whole time. This is only true because the quickdraws from leading the climb are still clipped to the rope. In a scenario where the leader deciding to clean the quickdraws on the way down, the guide would not have been on belay anymore. He has unclipped the rope from the anchor quickdraws and there would be no quickdraws on the route below him.
  • @4:58, the guide uses a personal anchoring technique we don't teach in the class. We use the PAS.

• Single Butterfly Coil with Nail Bite finish - Rope storage

  • Secure the butterfly coil with a Nail Bite finish

• Passing protection on a running belay - Use this to pass protection while tied in for glacier travel

  • While both ways shown are certainly valid, for this class, you should learn the "fast" way

  • Passing protection on a fixed hand line - Use this to pass protection while attached to the hand line with a prusik (FOTH (9th Ed, page 267-268)

    • After tying prusik on hand line, the prusik should be clipped into harness' belay loop (if it has one) with a locking carabiner

    • Bod-style harnesses with no belay loop would have the prusik clipped into the carabiner that is attached to the harness' waist and leg loops

    • To pass the protection, slide prusik hitch through the carabiner on the fixed line and then clip the two strands of the prusik through that carabiner's gate

• Escaping the Belay (step by step)

• Crevasse Rescue -- Setting up the Z-pulley

Knots

• Overhand - Mostly used to tie off other knots

• Figure Eight on a Bight  - Used to create loop in rope

• Re-woven Figure Eight - Used to tie into harness

  • Ensure 5-8" of tail, enough to tie either an overhand or stopper knot (one side of double fisherman's)

• Clove Hitch - Useful in belay setups

  • Learning to do this one-handed is useful, although not necessary for the test

• Munter Hitch (steps 1 - 6 in animation) - Used in lieu of rappel device

  • Article on self rescue techniques, core skill #3, has a good description

• Girth Hitch onto harness - Used to attach personal anchor to harness

• Water Knot - Used to tie two ends of webbing, such as chest harness for glacier travel or setting up a rappel anchor in certain scenarios.

  • Ensure at least 3" of tail

• Double Fisherman's - Used to tie two ends of a rope (e.g. perlon, climbing rope)

  • Ensure at least 3" of tail

• Device-Mule Hitch - Rescue hitch, used to hold a belay (go hands-free)

  • Instructions from FOTH (9th Ed) page 160.

  • Article on self rescue techniques, core skill #5, has a good description.

• Stopper - One side of a double fisherman's, used on the end of a rappel rope

  • Ensure at least 12" of tail and that knot is tightened.

Friction Hitches

• Auto-block - Backup when rappelling, we use the Sterling HollowBlock for this.

  • Extended Rappel w/ ATC: Clip the HollowBlock to your belay loop with a small, locking carabiner. Wrap 2-3 times around both strands of rope (enough for it to grab), and clip other end to the same carabiner for the WAC Way.

  • Munter Rappel: The HollowBlock carabiner gets clipped to your leg loop.

• Prusik - Friction hitch, engages when loaded in both directions

• Klemheist - Friction hitch, engages when loaded one direction, can use webbing

Anchors

• Quickdraw anchor

• Quad 

• Pre-equalized with an overhand 

• Magic (Sliding) X 

• Magic (Sliding) X with load limiting knots 

Other Useful Resources

The following skills and topics are covered in this class, although they are not on the classroom knots test.

• Escaping the Belay (with Munter-Mule-Overhand) - The video steps are slightly different from the WAC Way but touches on all the main points

• Rigging up for Prusik Ascension - Photo of how we rig for prusiking

• How to self arrest, Self arresting is not always effective

• Crevasse Rescue Using a Z-Pulley - Good video on using a 3:1 z-pulley to haul a climber

• Shortening the Rope for Glacier Travel - Video with 2 methods for shortening the rope (kiwi coil and stacking in pack)