Mazamas — For the Love of Mountains
Get ready to boost your alpine skills with inexpensive, bite-sized classes based on specific topics. Topics will include practical self rescue, mechanical advantage hauling systems, belay/ rappel transition tricks, descending and rappelling tactics to increase efficiency, especially with larger groups, building and cleaning sport climbing anchors, map and compass navigation, smart phone GPS navigation.
Activity Notes
- “Second Sunday” Alpine Skills Clinic: Multi Pitch Efficiency
- Sunday Dec 11
- 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
- Mazamas Mountaineering Center
- Mazamas members $20, non-members $30
On multi pitch climbing, being more efficient in your belay changeovers, when you're swapping leads going up, transitioning to a rappel when you get to the top, and rapping multi-pitch, can really save (or in many cases suck) a lot of time. Let's learn some ways to do it faster.
What you’ll learn:
- Faster belay changeovers: Swap belay devices with your partner
- Rope management: slip knots and a large carabiner
- Rope management: butterfly coils in a sling on the anchor rather than over your harness
- Backside clove hitch, transition to rappel
- How to quickly descend 2+ rope lengths of terrain that at least one person on your team can safely downclimb
- Ways to fix each strand of rope to speed up group rappels
- How to set up a “J loop” for safer and faster transitions when rapping multiple pitches
- How to build “descent anchors” to secure your team when rappelling
Gear needed: harness, a few carabiners, rappel device,a few slings/runners, friction hitch/prusik loop.
This will be "ground school", so no helmet or rock shoes are needed.
Recommended experience level: Mazamas Basic Climbing Education Program graduate is a minimum, Intermediate School or above recommended.
The links above go to articles (mostly) from my website Alpinesavvy that cover these topics. I highly recommend you read these before class, as it will make our in-person time be more effective.
Hope to see you,
John
