UKC

What is best practice for bringing up a third on single pitch trad?

In the past I have used a single rope to lead, the second has followed me and then we have dropped the rope back down to the third.

But now I have half ropes, do I need to do the same or can I bring each climber up on one of the half ropes?

Yes each climber takes one rope, easy as that! Just watch out on wandering routes as it makes a swing more likely, but the second can re-clip gear with the third's rope rather than remove it.

So 2nd on red half rope and 3rd on blue half rope?

Or second on blue half rope, third on red half rope if you wanted to be adventurous  

That would be very dangerous for my OCD 

Yep, as mentioned above you need to be mindful of placing gear to adequately protect each second. 

It is also worth noting that whilst use like this is well within the capacity of the half rope, one half rope will stretch more than a single, so keeping them quite tight (especially if it’s a long pitch and they’re at the start - lots of rope out = lots of stretch) can be a good idea. 

A single rope alternative on short crags (gritstone, I'm looking at you) is to have the second tie into the middle and the third tie into the end. Works well if you've brought your 60m rope for crags that are no higher than 15m due to a miscommunication with your partner.

A 60m single rope will suffice on a 30m route if the leader tie in at the middle, and the second and third tie in at each end. Lead on one strand and trail other strand. Then belay from above as with half ropes. Works for most routes not needing directional protection for the non leading climbers. 

This is important as I found to my cost when slipping off near the start of  a longish pitch following on a single half rope.

An equally valid approach, though in that scenario I might be concerned that it'd be possible to clip the rope that's not on belay. Perhaps more of an issue in a corner/chimney/other awkward position when you can't see what you're grabbing and might not be able to positively identify which rope is which while you're clipping.

Best advice in this situation is to use a guide plate with a 'powerpoint' style belay - this allows the climbers to move at the same time which vastly reduces time consumed on each pitch. 

Some good words on climbing in a three here: 

https://andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/the_three_climber_system 

As a matter of interest, when using a single rope (which I know was not the original query), can you not just attach both 2nd and 3rd to the rope spaced at, say, 5m apart?

Then what happens if the 3rd falls? They pull of the 2nd and you have to hold them both whilst they fight each other to get back on the rock?

Yes, an alpine butterfly with a very long (>2m) loop is best to give the second person up the ability to move around. This is useful when both seconds are not expecting to fall rather than if one or both are at their limit

Something I tend to do if the route is straight up, is get them both to tie on before I set off, then just drag one rope up, and thats the person who is coming up. If one is a newbie I always bring the newbie up first, so if any of my gear is stuck the more experinced person can retrieve it.

You might find this resource useful http://people.bath.ac.uk/dac33/high/8ClimbingInAThree.htm

No, what's important is the Right rope is Red and the Left rope is bLue, obviously.

Sounds like you need to buy a new half rope in 'lime'.

Both ends of the rope would still be on belay, you treat the 2 ends as if they are 2 ropes. Only potential difficulty is on a wandering route and you're clipping one rope to right and one to left but then most wandering routes would be of a lebgth to require 2 hlves anyway

On the contrary, red is always to the port side, naval left!

You don't necessarily need to be set up in guide mode to bring both up at the same time.

You can do the same thing when belaying from the harness with one rope through each slot of your plate.

Bringing both up at the same time definitely reduces faff, particularly on longer pitches and also helps if the 2nd is less experienced as the 3rd can follow them up and offer advice/point out holds and remove any stuck gear.

Doing it without guide mode gets shit rapidly when one of them falls off and you're no longer able to take in on the other rope due to being locked off. 

Not really, there is never going to me much slack rope in the system and they are always in sight of each other. It's never going to be unsafe, if one falls, the other just has to wait a bit for the first to pull themselves back onto the rock.

Out of interest (and I'm really not being rude, promise!) have you ever actually had this scenario happen to you on a decently vertical wall? My experience in these scenarios is being profoundly glad that the weight of two climbers is being taken by the guide plate and not my hands. Plus if one person gets stuck and needs some assistance (it happens!) then it's so easy to get a quick haul system in place when you've got the guide plate already available protecting the other climber. 

I'm not saying guide mode doesn't offer distinct advantages, and it is almost certainly is preferable when it is straightforward to set up, but there are often times when the anchor options just don't lend themselves to a guide mode belay.

In what scenario? You want a powerpoint belay for climbing a 3 anyway and this is easy to achieve using the ropes even with 4-5 pieces of gear in. 

I get what you're saying but IMO there's rarely a good reason you couldnt build a powerpoint or use a guide plate. I do it exclusively for trad/sport unless it's just totally impractical (i.e. you're forced to sit behind the belay for some reason).