Snow Climbing: Rope Choices That Save Lives

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I’m approaching 50 years old. I’m not the slowest climber, but I’m certainly not the fastest, at this point. I do the work I need to keep my fitness and speed from deteriorating too fast. I still get out there, fit climbs into weather windows, work to keep the approaches short on time so the surprises of the climb don’t push me beyond turn-around times. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “weakness,” but I wouldn’t classify my speed as a “strength,” either.

I bring up weaknesses - even if that’s maybe over stated - because there is this whole performance philosophy centered on identifying your weaknesses and then devoting time, attention, and effort to improving those weaknesses. But there is an alternate philosophy: work on more on your strengths. The idea is that putting all that energy into getting okay at something may not buy you as much as putting a lot of energy into being really great at something.

Of course, for the “work on your strengths” approach to work, the strengths have to be related to, and potentially offsetting of, the weaknesses. Luckily, in climbing everything is related.

One of the ways I compensate for my slowly reducing speed is by getting good at transitions. I can get into and out of systems pretty quickly. And there is the relationship; travel speed and transition speed eat of the same resource, time. So, if I can assess a set of risks, choose an appropriate system, get into that system quickly, then get out of that system when it is no longer needed, and do it all quickly, then I can make up some time that maybe I lost in comparison to a faster climber while on the approach. If the climbing is complicated - as many big mountains are - then the transitions happen a lot. A lot of transitions means a lot of made up time.

Now as I mentioned above, I don’t take this idea to the extreme and disregard fitness. But I do spend a significant amount of time on the mental work of matching systems to circumstances and the mechanics of creating (and breaking down) those systems.

This video gets into a number of different rope system choices we can make as we balance travel speed, system complexity, crevasse danger, and fall risk (just from hard climbing, not from a crevasse). As our assessment of the relative risks across these factors change, our systems choices may change. It’s not unusual to half to deploy several of the rope systems on the same day within the same climb. So, lots of transitions. Lots of time saved if I can assess, choose, construct, and deconstruct… quickly.