UKC

I wonder if so eine could help out with a bit of advice for the following situation.

The leader is climbing a 50m pitch on 50m half ropes. 40m up the pitch they find they are unable to climb the crux. Obviously there is no longer enough rope to be lowered back to the belay. How does the leader escape this situation? 

I was thinking it might involve the leader building a belay at 40m, pulling the two ropes up then abseiling back down?

Thanks

It really depends on the situation and the climbers. There are lots of ways to sort a problem out, and often no one correct answer.

Can you:

Pull on the gear to aid past the crux?

Traverse to an easier route?

Reserve the whole pitch?

Reverse or lower to a belay spot, bring up your second and give them a go?

Abbing off is also fine, but you do leave your gear behind

Try to think of you gear and ropes as a tool kit, and anything goes that (safely) works.

Steve is absolutely correct; there are numerous options.

I've often thought that reversing is an unknown skill to many leaders; down-climbing is sometimes tricky when you can't see footholds well, but you can practise the moves with your top gear in place. Once you're happy with the sequence, remove your top gear and downclimb to your next piece.

On Kalymnos I've sometimes started a route which I know that I'll never be able to complete; ten metres of enjoyable swinging around on 6b tufas until I get to the 7a+ crux, then ten metres of safe and fun reversing back to the ground. Why not?? No tick, but no worry, and no gear left behind....

The first option is to belay and give the option for their partner to lead through.

I've had this discussion a few times but related to the scenario where a lead fall results in injury outside of lowering range. As mentioned there are a few options. Obviously fewer if the climber can't help. Long story short, everyone I ask has ideas but all are a faff.

I would say pretty much exactly what Steve said.

I would say that in most situations like this the simplest solution is going to be for the leader to make a belay, either at their top runners, or somewhere within the 10 metres you can lower them to. The second can then climb up and when you are on the same stance, you can both clip into the belay, sort out the ropes and gear and decide what to do next.

abseiling and downclimbing 20 pitches back to the ground through rope-grabbing pinnacles, occasional rivers and driving rain in the middle of the night is a great way to gain experience on longer multipitches  

As Longsufferingropeholder said, if the Leader can't solve the situation and the second has to solve it instead then it's going to be a very long, drawn-out pita to solve. I've been climbing a lot for a long time now and never faced this situation though, it's pretty rare (which is not to say that you shouldn't be prepared to deal with it).

It's like "escaping the belay". The volume of discussion about it on UKC is inversely proportional to the amount of time it is an issue in the real world

Bloody sport climbers leaving their rope up all day stopping anyone else getting on the route, shouldn't be allowed to venture out of the quarries, it'll be bolted by Tuesday week, you mark my words, thin end of the wedge, mutter, grumble, grumble...

There are lots of methods and I won't try to go into them, but merely mention that one member of these forums was in a situation like this (albeit only a short way from the belay) and attempted to "back lead", removing his gear as he went. He fell off after removing some bomber gear; his subsequent gear ripped and he decked. He was lucky to escape with a broken leg, a slow recovery and a healthy fear of removing the gear that is protecting you. In short, whatever way you get out of the situation, prioritise safety!

I took a pretty big ride once that could easily have put us in this situation. I didn't hit anything or get hurt, but there were plenty ways I could have. It made us think.

Yes but..

A second ascending a rope to recover an injured leader, down jumaring a rope to help an injured abseiler. Hauling a casualty up. All of these are - thankfully - exceptionally rare.

But self rescue skills (which need periodic practice) are like airbags in your car. So far... I've never had an airbag deploy, but that doesn't mean I don't think they're useful to have, just in case.

In reply to Ralphio:

Yes, some of these are a faff, a right blooming faff. And that's why you stand very little chance doing many of these, let alone doing them efficiently and quickly, unless you practice. Even the most basic skills like a free hanging abseil and passing a knot in rope, all need occasional practice 

I don't entirely agree with this, I think the latter two are a bit more common. Taking away the injury aspect, I've had to jumar up a free-hanging abseil to rescue someone who was mid-abseil and I've had to haul a free-hanging person up a few times (a couple assisted, a couple not). I was also once in a situation where jumaring an ab rope with another person attached to me was a solution I seriously considered before deciding to do something else.

The list of problem-solving things sometimes seems endless. I mean, who would have thought that you'd have to work out how to turn an abseil into a tyrolean or lead out a pitch that was longer than your rope? How do you get out of dodge when the ab-rope is stuck and you only have a few metres of it on your stance? What if it's also hanging in space? It's amazing how bizarre and desperate the situation can become when things go wrong on a multipitch!

I do a fair bit of wandering around with an ab rope looking at potential new crags - the sort of faff of rigging, abseiling, ascending, intermediate tie-offs, etc. etc. is a good way to get used to finding different solutions to move in different directions. Particularly if the wall is steep. It's not self-rescue per se but it's still useful and you get the experience while doing something else at the same time - if feels like less of a chore.

Ha ha, yes, but you use these skills more often than most because you're more adventurous than average. Personally it was only a month ago that I had a stuck rope (my fault entirely, decided to use a knot block with krab not just both strands at same time and the krab got stuck, with hindsight in that location it was my very bad judgement not bad luck) luckily it jammed very early and I could still just get to the ab side of the pair and climb up. It was free hanging most of it and as I climbed it decided to suddenly drop 3 or 4 foot or so slack on me, which was erm... "entertaining" but I knew I was on right side of the pair and that the anchor was solid so just keep climbing/jumaring

Had to do hauls, knot passing and all that on occasions, but usually I'm doing something daft somewhere daft, not a single pitch at a popular crag which is probably bread and butter for most climbers. So I still believe these are vital skills, but the average climber won't need them except on rare occasions, but in those situations they'll really need them!