Hogan on Looking Glass Rock

Despite the rain and unusual weather Hogan and I had a great time climbing on the South Face of Looking Glass Rock.  Most of the rock was wet, however Second Coming was dry.  We had climbed multipitch before, but this was Hogan first time with double ropes.  It took a while to get use to the technique but he managed to get the hang of it.

The climb was great to get out on.  I had not been on the climb since last fall and had a great time with Hogan.  He managed the first crux easily.  Higher up at the second crux he fell after pulling the move, oops.  He flashed it second go.

Later in the day Hogan wanted to do some mock leading.  I led a 5.8 face route and put up an anchor for a backup top rope.  Hogan then proceeded to lead two routes on the face.  Nice work.  We packed up and headed out of the woods.

Thanks for the great day.

Top out on waterfall pitch

This ice season has been slim, with the warm weather and rain.  However, last weekend was a good opportunity to take advantage of the available conditions.  Sunday I was fortunate enough to go climbing with Michael and his son MJ.   Conditions allowed for us to attempt Sam’s Knob.

Michael on the Approach

The hike in was with a fresh layer of snow.  This makes for great scenery.  At times the approach has had 2 feet of snow, but today was just a dusting.  At the base of the rope up, water was running so I was not too sure about the conditions.  We traveled upward on thin ice and through some 3^rd class conditions until we reached the climbing at the first waterfall.

The ice was only about 4” thick.  I could only place stubby screws and had to search for an appropriate anchor.  The climbing was fantastic and the warm ice making for hero sticks.

Up higher the ice just got better.  The waterfall pitch had the main flow in and the flanks were forming up.  I enjoyed a great lead and brought Michael and MJ up some fine ice.  MJ was enjoying climbing with the E-climbs axes.  We headed down at this point, enjoying the first ice of the year for MJ.

Thanks for a great time

Patrick

E-climbs axes

David pulled off a great save when one axe pulled out just as he was swinging his other.  The second axe held and it was the move of the day.  I had a blast climbing with David and hope to get out again with him soon.

Patrick

Bouldering

If you want to try climbing close to the ground with minimal gear, then bouldering is for you! As the name implies this refers to very short routes on boulders often 10 feet or less in height. All you need for this type of climbing is shoes, a chalk bag, and a “crash pad” to soften the landing should you fall. Your partner will “spot” you rather than having you on a rope. Some practice in spotting and using pads is essential to do this safely. Don’t think that short means easy, some bouldering routes can be very challenging with moves harder than you would usually see on longer rock routes.

Places to go near Asheville NC

Rumbling Bald is the most accessible bouldering mecca in this area with a wide variety of levels of difficulty. Try “Poison Arête” at the East Side boulders. It’s a easy “V0” (boulders are rated on the V scale), nice for beginners or a great warm up for harder climbing later!

Sport Climbing

Sport climbing refers to routes that have preplaced bolts to clip for protection, usually including bolted anchors. Many sport areas have climbs that are only one pitch in length but some are longer. In addition to your rope, harness, helmet, and belay device, all that is needed for most sport climbs are some quickdraw runners and anchor materials. This can be a great way to get used to leading and also allow you to try leading routes that would be too difficult for you if you had to place gear.

A good place to do some sport climbing is Crowder’s Mountain State Park in NC or Red River Gorge Kentucky.  Crowder’s has some great lines to climb.  The Red River Gorge is one of the premier sport climbing destinations in the country.  There are options at the Red for 5.6 to 5.14 climbing, so there are plenty of options for all levels.

Traditional Climbing

Trad is short for “traditional” which refers to climbing rock with no (or the occasional) preplaced bolts. This requires a climbing rack with cams, stoppers, and possibly other types of protection. The lead will place cams, stoppers, hexes or tricams to safe guard against falling.  The rope is clipped to each protection point placed.  Once the leader reaches the top of at pitch she either rappels and cleans the gear or another climber will follow the pitch and remove the protection.  It’s more difficult to place gear properly than clip a bolt and lots of practice with gear placements and proper instruction. Many traditional leads follow cracks or fission in the rock.  It pays to learn how to climb these features to lead traditional routes.

When you are ready, try the super classic 5.7 crack called “Fruit Loops” at Rumbling Bald for a one pitch trad lead ending at a bolted anchor in a cool cave.  This climb also has an interesting 2^nd pitch if you want to keep going. This turns it into a “multi-pitch” route!

Good places for traditional climbing near Asheville and Brevard NC are

• Rumbling Bald, NC
• Looking Glass Rock, NC
• Table Rock, NC
• Kentucky offers some exceptional trad climbing at the Red River Gorge

Multipitch Climbing

If you climb a long route with several pitches (rope lengths) of trad or sport climbing in a row, you are multipitch climbing.  At the end of each pitch you build an anchor (some climbs have preplaced bolted anchors) to serve as the launching point for the next lead. The second climber will “clean” a pitch or remove all of the protection placed by the leader so it can be used on the next pitch.  The next lead climber re-racks the protection and is belayed by the person following.  She will climb until she reach a suitable belay location and build a new anchor.  The leader will then belay the “second”. This process allows a team to scale large faces to the tops of cliffs and peaks.

To get down you typically rappel the climb although some areas allow you to walk off the top. You want to be on your game with leading, anchor building, and transitions at belays before you tackle a multipitch route.

When you have your bag of tricks up to speed, give “The Nose” a try (5.8 – 3 or 4 pitches). It’s a super classic route at Looking Glass with good gear, moderate climbing, bolted anchors, and great views! 

Some classic multipitch routes near Asheville and Brevard NC are

• Jim Dandy 5.4 at Table Rock, NC
• Daddy 5.6 at Linville Gorge, NC
• Mummy 5.5 at Linville Gorge, NC
• Second Coming 5.7 at Looking Glass Rock, NC
• Sundial Crack 5.8 at Looking Glass Rock, NC

Climbing Terms

Bouldering

Climbing without ropes on small climbs.  These are typically hard problems.  Boulders use foam pads and spotters to prevent injury in case of a fall.

Lead climbing

A climbing style were the climb start from the ground and climbs upward placing and clipping the rope to intermediate protection points until she reaches the anchor.  The climber has the potential to fall twice the distance she is above her last piece of intermediate protection.

Sport Climbing

Lead Climbing with a rope were the leader clips the rope to bolts, or pre-placed protection.  These climbs are typically challenging gymnastically and require excellent climbing technique and physical conditioning.  Most climbs are less than one half a rope length (60m rope) so the leader can be lowered off.

Top Roping

A climbing style were the climbing rope is anchor above the climber so if the climber slips or falls the rope immediately catches the climber.  A good method for practicing ones climbing technique or for learning how to climb.

Traditional Climbing

Lead climbing were the leader places protection and clips the rope to the protection.

Protection

Any equipment that serve to safeguard a fall.  This could be natural protection such as trees or artificial protection such as cams, stoppers, hexes or tricams.

We up the experience by moving on to some 5.10 terrain.  Aiden and Bryce climbed the route without falling.  It is amazing to see how young kids can climb.  These two climbing like ants crawling up anything.

Thanks for a great day

We warmed up on the slabs to the left.  We climbed two short pitches to get the rope systems dialed.  Warren quickly picked up on the cleaning techniques.  Afterwards we grabbed some food and started up the Nose proper.  The first pitch went well and Warren quickly followed.  The second pitch is the crux.  This section has some friction style moves along the dike.

We topped out on the technical climbing and I suggested that we go to the real summit.  A short scramble led to the top where the trail ends.  As we were sitting there a hiker showed up.  We spoke with her briefly.  She commented on how perfect the weather was and how few hikers were out today.  As I sat there I was feeling fortunate.  We had the whole cliff to ourselves; perfect weather conditions and we had no tangles with the double ropes!

As we drove out, the south face parking lot was packed.  Good call Warren; it would have been a zoo there today.  Thanks for a great day.

Patrick

The Nose

We started out on Obamanation (5.8), a more obscure route that was put up a couple years ago on the far right side of Cereal Buttress. I have done it several times before so Chris took the lead. Chris made it look easy and barely paused that the crux.

after rapping the route Chris lead Frosted Flake (5.9), a classic, pumpy, layback flake. After top roping Frosted Flake I decided that I would attempt Whiskey for Breakfast (5.10).  After down climbing from the crux move several times I committed to the crux and fell halfway though onto a #2 BallNut. Somehow the thin flake didn’t break off. I lowered to the ground pulled the rope then did clean on the second try after about spending 45 min on the route trying to work out the moves and placing 8 micro stoppers.  Thanks Chris for being a patient belayer!!!!

After that we hiked out. I headed back to Brevard and Chris back to Charleston. It was an awesome fall day. If you haven’t been out climbing in the last couple of weeks, you need to!

Brad

Brad

Kernmantle ropes have two components that work together to create the desired performance.  Some kernmantle ropes are static, meaning there is limited stretch.  These ropes work best for jugging, hauling, rappelling and anchor construction.  Climbers need a different type of kernmantle rope, dynamic.  A dynamic kernmantle rope is designed to absorb energy from a fall thus keeping the impact forces low.  This is accomplished through elongation or stretch of the rope when loaded in a fall.  The material used in ropes (nylon) is not inherently dynamic; therefore materials need to undergo various processes to provide this.  The older goldline was a twisted rope without a sheath.  They were rough on the hand and when loaded you would spin like top.   All modern ropes are kernmantle construction.

Materials

Nylon is the raw material that is used to make dynamic ropes.  Raw nylon comes in large spools in bundles of a specific diameter.  This material is treated with a lubricant from the manufacture to make it easier to work with.  This is essential for the construction of ropes and their performance in the field.

Nylon will then heat-treat the core and sheath fibers to relax them and make them more dynamic.    Also, some rope companies will dry treat the individual fibers before production.  This allows the dry treatment to completely saturate the fibers and reduce water absorption.

Rope construction

All kernmantle ropes have a core (center) and sheath (exterior).  Typically, core strands are constructed by twisting fibers together into cables.  Sheaths are constructed by braiding twisted fibers over the core.   Both the core and sheath are functional components of the rope.  The sheath must be in good condition for the maximum performance and security.

The core is constructed of twisted fibers bundles.  Core fiber bundles are twisted into a clockwise strand and a counter clockwise strand.  These are call S strands (clockwise) and Z strands (counter clockwise).  The core of a rope will have an equal mix of S strand and Z strands to make a neutral rope.  This prevents you from spinning when one hangs on the rope.  The primarily of the core is to provide stretch (elongation) that will absorb the energy of the fall.  Some of that energy is  converted into heat. .

Around these core bundles a sheath that is braided by a rope-braiding machine.  There are different patterns that can be braided.  A 2-over-2 bundles braid puts two bundles over two bundles.  This braiding pattern reduces fiber exposure and will pick less than other patterns.  A 1-over-2 sheath has one bundle going over two bundles.  This produces a slicker sheath that is more supple, but more prone to picking out.  The sheath determines the handling characteristics of a rope, but also is essential in controlling a fall.  During a fall the sheath squeezes the core controlling stretch rate and helping to convert energy into heat.  The sheath also protects the core from abrasion.  However, if the sheath is badly worn just assume that you need to replace the rope.  A worn sheath will break and ropes with a bad sheath do break in testing.  Play it safe, get a new rope.

Every rope made needs to begin with quality materials to ensure top performance.  However, there are many variables that manufactures can manipulate to determine the handling and performance of a rope.  Each rope will have an ideal situation such as alpine, sport climbing, or ice routes.  Check out next months tech article at Appalachian Mountain Institute on selecting the appropriate type for your climbing needs.

]]> http://appalachianmountaininstitute.com/part-one-climbing-ropes/feed/ 0 http://appalachianmountaininstitute.com/visit-to-the-pmi-factory/ http://appalachianmountaininstitute.com/visit-to-the-pmi-factory/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:14:27 +0000 patrickweaver http://appalachianmountaininstitute.com/?p=2175 Last Monday four of us from Appalachian Mountain Institute was fortunate enough to visit the PMI factory and lab.  PMI has been making ropes for over 25 years here is the USA.  We were able to take a tour of the factory and learn how PMI makes dynamic climbing ropes and static ropes used for rescue and rigging.

After the tour, Chuck demonstrated the UIAA fall test for dynamic ropes.  This test was conducted on some old ropes to see how they retained their ability to dissipate energy.  Each rope was dropped until it broke.  The whole process was illuminating and created more questions that need to be asked.  Thanks to Chuck for the great tour.

We learned a lot about ropes while visiting PMI.  Keep an eye out for upcoming articles on ropes on the AMI tech blog.

Rope testing at PMI labs.  Veiw these two links to see the testing process and a rope catching a fall and a rope breaking.

Video Links

Rope Testing – Fall caught

Rope Testing – Rope broke

Sheath damage

Rope Failure