Chapter V · CLIMBING IN COMBINATION (continued 2)

In climbing singly on steep ascents, the rope, as it is drawn out by the man climbing above, must be watched as well as held, and warning must be given to him that it is running out at least four feet before it is taut. This is a primary rule. To jerk the man climbing, by a hitch, or to let the rope closure his advance without sufficient warning, is an unpardonable fault.

As we draw in the rope of a man ascending or descending to our stance, it should be gathered in neat coils, near the belay if one is used. Above all, it should be laid well out of the way—at the back or side of the stance. In pulling in the rope we must always consider exactly where the next man will come up and how he will stand; and lay his coil, as it runs in, as well as the coil of the man ahead, which is running out, where there is no chance that the rear man will be forced to ‘cross’ either rope. If our hands are occupied with holding or with the belay, so that we have no time to coil it down, the slack of the rope should be flung evenly over the arm, or somewhere out of the way, as it runs in. The moment the next man is up it should be passed to him in its chance coils; or else, if it has coiled down neatly, it may be left lying where it is.

If a belay has been used, the end of the rope running in should be taken off the belay as the next man reaches the stance, while the end of the rope nearest our own waist is put over it, lying always in the direction in which it will afterwards have to be paid out. These operations have to become practically mechanical. The instant the next man takes our place on the stance and imitates our last position, the rope, rightly laid, should be ready to his hand.

On severe climbs there is often not room for two men at the same time on the same stance or platform. To avoid any awkward juggling on the ledge, it is best for us, if we are holding, to move a step or two from the belay, so soon as we see the next man has got a good handhold near the stance that will bring him securely and immediately to the belay. In this case it is essential for us to leave the ropes lying exactly right, so that the next man may take position to protect himself, and us, with the shortest possible interruption to the safe continuous anchor of the rope.

The man who is actually climbing is the man first to be considered. To clear the way for him we must be prepared momentarily to sacrifice our own comfort or solidity. This may seem a commonplace, but it requires quite an effort of will. I have remarked even among good cragsmen that seven times out of ten they wait too long on the stance, until the next man is on the top of them, and ropes and legs are all in a muddle. But when, with the object of leaving the next man room, we move out of his way off a stance, we must take note exactly of what is going to be our own line of advance when he is secure and we start the next section; and we must avoid moving into any position which will mean repassing and unsettling him, or even, as one sometimes sees done, climbing over him. Apart from the risk to his and our own balance, we shall almost inevitably entangle the rope by a switchback of this sort.

In pulling in the rope of an ascending man, we should be mindful to keep it just taut, but never tightened or tugged, unless he calls for it. It requires some education of touch to distinguish between the three. Guides are wretched judges in this respect. “Don’t pull!” “Nicht ziehen!” “Ne tirez pas!” is the groan of protest that eddies all the week round alpine centres. But the guide remains convinced he merely had the rope ‘taut.’ All leaders who have never or seldom practised going behind on the rope are apt to make the same mistake. The complaint is constant. The difference between ‘taut,’ ‘tightened’ and ‘tugged’ is best learnt from below.

On the other hand, many climbers who have never led are equally unconscious of the difference, and of how much they owe on occasion to a discreetly handled rope. “You didn’t pull me there!” or, “I did that without the rope, anyway!” are the common forms. Only a climber experienced in balance can honestly distinguish between the constricting tug that takes his whole weight, the taut rope that is only precautionary, and the delicate tightening that just serves to keep his body in balance and so allows freedom to hand and foot to find easy holds. The first is called “using the rope,” the second “without using the rope,” and the last guileless but material aid to adjustment is often euphemistically entitled “the moral support” of the rope.

I must repeat that, however easy the place or good the climbers, a man who calls for the rope, or a pull from the rope, should always be helped at once. Inexperienced climbers are incurably prone to argue that the rope is not really needed. Some accidents have been caused in this way. The rope should be put on before rather than when it is really wanted.

The rope of a man descending to our stance, especially of a man descending last, demands no discernment between subtler strains; but it requires even more adroit handling. It must never be jerked or tightened, which may pull him off his balance holds. If it appears to be catching on intervening points, it must be loosened with the lightest of flicks: a strong flick will run up the rope and jerk him like the crack of a heavy whip. It must never be left loose to drag or catch close to his feet, where it will get in the way of his foothold or get round his feet or legs. If he has a long rope out, the weight alone of the rope, if we hold it anything like taut from below, will drag on him. It is best in such case to keep it sliding gently down the rock towards us. As the climber moves down, a very slight motion of our hand will just free it, without taking its weight off the rock.

Our eye should never for an instant leave a man so descending to, or ascending from, our stance, so that if he finds it necessary to reascend or redescend a few inches in order to better his holds or position for the next movement, we may at once be ready to relax or take in the extra coil he requires or releases. If he is out of our sight while descending towards us, we watch the rope, which tells us as much as the sight of the man. If he is out of sight while ascending above us, our feel of the rope as it tautens or slackens will tell us almost as much as sight or speech. But a man ascending or descending out of sight below us will have to tell us what he wants, if it is anything more than the usual steady playing, out or in, of the taut rope.

If, as often happens in the case of a man who is just climbing up off our stance, the rope, owing to his having tied his waist-knot in front, or crossed the rope, makes a spiral round his leg, he should be warned at once, and we must hold the rope ready to swing it from under his foot as he raises it for the purpose. This sometimes also happens if a man is descending quickly on to our stance. In neither case must the rope be jerked or swung, to release it, without his knowledge or the signal of his lifted foot. Similarly, if a man is starting to descend from our stance, and has his rope knotted in front, as he turns face inward the rope makes a spiral round his neck or arm. A warning, and a light sway of the rope may prevent him from anticipating fate.

In climbing with beginners it is always worth while seeing, before they leave our stance, that the knot of their waist-loop is secure, and pulled round well to the side, under the arm. For ascending, the rope should run up straight from the knot, in front of the shoulder; for descending, in front of or behind the shoulder, as balance and the angle of the rock suggest.

A very risky practice, common with beginners, is that of using the active rope as a handhold in difficulties, to pull themselves up by. Unless they can reach a balanced position in one pull, they are forced then to keep hold of the rope for their balance, and to take yet a second and higher hold upon it for their next movement. They are thus accumulating a quantity of slack between their point of dependence from the rope and its noose on their waist. And a slack rope is full of dangers. If their grip fails, they fall all the length of the slack, and the rope may break. If it does not, the man above will be subjected to a most unfair jerk, of whose possibility he may be all the time unconscious. In any case, the climber is depriving himself of the steady help and protection of a rope, pulled in taut from above, on just the passages where he has found himself least capable to cope with the difficulties unaided. No climber should use the rope as handhold without full warning to the man above, and without making certain that he can in a single pull reach a balanced stance, where the rope can be again drawn taut upon him.

With Stones.

To avoid sending down stones with the rope is a sure test of expert climbing. A climber’s responsibility in this respect extends the whole length of the rope between him and the companion whose progress he is superintending. In the case of a man above us, we have a personal interest in seeing that his rope does not drag over loose pebbles or catch on disintegrating points. In that of the man below us, our personal interest may be less, but it will be no less appreciated. It must be remembered that the rope as it comes in taut will touch and dislodge much that seemed out of its range when we selected its line of pull-in. An inspection should be made to discover if there are any pebbles lurking just over or on the edges over which it will pass. These last are a special danger in couloirs or British gullies, which consist largely of steep pitches surmounted by accumulations of loose scree. It is often safer and more tempting to move up to the top of these scree spits and not to anchor on the immediate lip of the pitch. Great care has then to be taken to remove all loose stones from the line of the rope; for the rope when taut will drag over the edge of the pitch, and even apparently firmly embedded stones may work loose under its friction when it is too late to move them into safety.

If a rope length has been allowed to sag against the rock, it must not be pulled in or jerked free hurriedly, unless we can see that there is nothing it might loosen. Over surface visibly friable or pasturing stray stones the rope must be kept from touching at all—a delicate task in continuous going.

When men are all moving together, and our hand, while seeking for its holds, is also charged with loose coils and the task of freeing the rope, it is often difficult to combine an attention to all the loose stones that may be caught by the swinging coils with a simultaneous precaution against possible loose stones under our feet or hands. Of course we give warning if one gets loose in spite of our care. But I must add that it is considered no valid excuse among mountaineers to plead that a stone was dislodged by the rope.

During Halts.

The rope, during halts or interruptions, should never be left lying about in a tangle. It may catch over points from which it will be difficult to release it. I remember an occasion on an Aiguille when it took a quarter of an hour to extract some loose lengths, which had jammed in a deep cleft of the slab on which we were standing.

Halts for lunch are full of dangers. Men begin to cross and recross each other’s ropes, for matches or for conversation, and at the end of the halt a maze presents itself which can only be solved by long, impassioned moments of general untying and reroping. It is better for the two end men to unrope for the halt, and leave their coils ready for easy resumption.

Two middle men can only get their rope twisted, not crossed. When a middle man finds, as often happens, that the ropes going backward and forward from his waist-knot have got twisted round one another and make a bunch at his waist, he has only got to lift the upper of the two ropes over his head and pass it under his feet the requisite number of times, to clear it. Once, after an eighteen hour traverse of the Dent Blanche by the Viereselgrat, we took a midnight halt on the glacier, and on re-starting found the rope inextricably interwoven between the five of us. The guides were tired, too tired to unrope, or to move eurhythmically; and the next ten minutes of frenzied gyrations, with the lanterns whirligigging round one another in the darkness among the crevasses, will remain a picture as precious as its moral.

Coiling.

At the end of a climb the rope should be carefully coiled up, so that the loops will run out without entanglement. To coil with the lay of the strands avoids kinks. We never know when next the rope may be needed in a hurry; and the unknotting evolutions, the passing of the long ends, etc., are more irritating before a late start than a late return.

During coiling, the loops should be caught up in the hand, with the lay, and laid against one another, but not allowed to cross. For most men, especially if they prefer to carry the rope round their chest, the most convenient length of coil is that made round the sole of the boot and the knee. Some prefer coiling round the hand and the elbow.

A convenient trick for finishing off such coils is to bind the loose end once or twice round the whole mass of coils near one end, and then thread it through the smaller of the loops into which the whole coil is thus divided. The loose end, so threaded, makes a comfortable shoulder-strap, by which the whole coil can be suspended over the back. This method of fixing the end is less trouble to undo than the more usual method—to twine both loose ends of the rope through and round and round the finished coil in opposite directions, and knot them where they meet. This forms a single firm hoop to hang over one shoulder.

For this single hoop, however, a still better way to finish is to make a half-hitch on the coil with one loose end, and then wind this one end in a spiral round the coil in the same direction as that of the spiral of the rope-strands. While winding this loose end, twist its strands tight with the fingers. Their inclination to untwist will keep the spirals clinging close round the coil.

Yet another convenient and quick method of coiling the rope, suitable for short intervals of disuse, is that of linking it in ‘chain knots’: short loops are successively pulled through one another in a continuous linking chain, and this is then swung over the shoulder. The rope should only be left in chain-knots for short periods.

The rope can be carried either as a hoop round the shoulders, or, more conveniently, hung over the shoulder-straps, as a cushion between the rucksack and the back. If it is wet or heavy, it is best to put it in an empty sack, or to fix it, by means of string or its loose ends, upright between the shoulders, like a rucksack.

If the rope is new, and has got wet, it is well to uncoil it in the evening and suspend it, neither strained nor taut, round the banisters or looped along a wall. It is wrong to strain a wet rope, as many climbers do. It stretches the twist and weakens the resilience which is its strength.

If a rope has kinked during a climb, or from being left wet in coil, in order to clear the kinks it is not necessary to untwist them with the hand. The rope need be only grasped some distance from its end with one hand and swung round circularly in the direction opposed to the twist of the kinks. They work themselves free, and the hand can then be shifted farther up the rope, and repeat the swing for another section.

The rope should never be dried in the sun or near a fire.

The rope should be examined after every ascent, and at intervals during the day, for bruises or frayed strands. A single frayed strand justifies the cutting or rejecting of the rope. An old rope should never be used. Guides are careless in this respect.

Suitable Lengths.

Some parties prefer to have their rope in lengths of 45 to 55 feet. Each climber is roped separately, and the middle men thus wear two waist-nooses. This method allows of rapid changes of order, of easy separation into parties of two, and so on. For most rock climbing a length of 60 feet is all that is required for the leader. A rope of 100 to 120 feet is sufficient for three. For parties of four, one length of 60 feet for the leader, and one of 90 to 100 feet for the rest, are generally found correct. For parties of two, the length depends on the character of the climb in prospect. But the leader requires more initial allowance for absolute security, since it is awkward, with only two men, for one to unrope in critical positions and give his leader more as he requires it. In larger parties this is less risky.

A run-out of 50 to 60 feet is usually accepted as the maximum which a leader should allow himself, and most sound climbs on rock offer good stances within or at this distance. A few exceptional climbs need 80 or 100 feet; but their supposed number is constantly being reduced, as later parties at their greater leisure discover adequate anchorages at shorter intervals. At distances of 100 feet, or even less, the rope ceases to be even a moral reassurance to the leader, and its drag alone diminishes his security. If he has a following on such climbs who cannot get up without the help of the rope, to carry it coiled, and let it down when he reaches his remote platform, may be the safer course.

Funicula.

Our first lesson is to learn how to knot the waist-loop quickly, and how to untie ourselves. Our second, to unravel expeditiously the entanglements that invade the rope during the extra manœuvring which the presence of inexperienced climbers entails. The best end-man knot can be made with a single continuous movement of the hand. The methods of roping and knotting are dealt with elsewhere; but we must remember to re-examine waist-knots frequently, for ourselves and the inexperienced. The noose sometimes slips down or becomes dangerously loose amid the confused disarrangement of garments which stiff rocks excite. Cases have occurred where men, slipping on rock or into a crevasse, have all but fallen out of their careless waist-nooses, and have remained suspended by one armpit. Theoretically we always rope round the chest; but round a large chest or tapering ribs the rope will not stay up, unless it is too tight to be comfortable. Consequently many men, and all women, prefer to rope round the waist. Anyone who, like myself, prefers to keep the rope up round the chest, will find a convenient device is to pass the end of the rope, after tying the knot, over one shoulder, and knot it lightly on to the noose again behind. This prevents the weight of the rope, especially in the case of a leader, from pulling down the noose round the false chest.

If a climber has to make a jump while on the rope, he must give notice first, and be sure that he has enough slack rope not to jerk his friends or spoil his own jump. Beginners and boys are apt to jump in unexpected places, and to forget that they have the rope on.

On boulders and such-like problems, wherever height and difficulty make the protection of a rope from above advisable, the climber should be roped on properly. To dangle a loose cord past him, as is so often done, is worse than useless. It tempts him to risky assays; and then, if he slips, it is utterly impossible for him to save himself by snatching at the rope.

An unroped man who calls for the rope is generally unable to free more than one hand to tie himself on. Therefore the loop, already tied, should be sent down to him, which he can work under his armpits seriatim. Failing a loop, he should twist the rope round his forearm; but never trust to the grip of the hand alone. If he is within reach, it is often easier to give him a hand than the rope. A hand-clasp is not strong enough for a sheer lift. Each man should grasp the other’s wrist; or they should crook and interlock their fingers. This last is a very powerful hold.

Every climber should know how to make the simple hitches for sending up sacks or axes on the rope. An undue proportion of the wasted moments of my own life have been spent in unravelling the labyrinthine ‘granny’ knots with which well-meaning friends have plotted to protect the ascents of their sacks.

The ‘stirrup’ and other marabout rope-tricks may be studied in rescue handbooks. The rope, as a support, precautionary, corrective or moral, cannot be too minutely studied; but as a means of evasive traction, or detached ætherial flight, it need not occupy the mundane climber.