Fixed Lines and Climber Load Transfers | A Single Pitch Rescue Scenario

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!)

I don’t like taking “extra” equipment. It’s not like walking around with extra weight is really any fun. It also takes more time to pack… more time to unpack. There’s just an overall lack of efficiency. It also let’s me be intellectually lazy, as I can just pull out the tool to do the thing rather than learn how to use the tools I have and make them work in the situation.

But I also am not one of those guys who thinks every added piece of equipment is some kind of surrender, a slight against the ultralight gods. As I’ve written in other places, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that my kids are regular climbing partners. When I’m out with them, I need to think through contingencies that would have me extricate not just me, but three people from the field. And as much as I am training my kids in rescue techniques, I am still not going to put the pressure on them of expecting them to act like a trained and practiced adult in a situation with (likely) both physical and emotional turmoil.

So, this video is kind of a long look back at one of those choices I made to bring along some “extra gear” on climbs when my kids were very young. In this case, the extra gear was a rope like the 30m Petzl Volta Guide, a Petzl Tibloc and a long cord - I like the Sterling PowerCord. The reasons I brought it is because I wanted to be able to rescue my kids if they got hurt on the wall as well as be able to coach them from along side them when things were going just fine. As the video describes, the standard rescue techniques can’t account for the large weight disparity between me and my (then) small kids. I was just not willing to complicate the demands that such a rescue contingency would demand… plus, there was this added benefit of being able to really help them enjoy their time on the wall, with the “comfort” of Dad along side them.

Just like I had a couple of reasons to bring along the gear, I also wanted to make this video for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted parents to think a little bit about how they would handle a hurt kid up on the wall. They don’t have to do it the way I did it, but I would hope that they think about it and come up with their own plan. Second, not every climber has a partner of nearing equal weight, particularly as climbing proliferates across the population. A big guy and a smaller woman as climbing partners is not exactly rare, anymore. Normally, we worry about that with a light belayer, and whole pieces of equipment, like the Edelrid Ohmega, are being developed to address that problem. But in the extreme, we have a problem with a heavy belayer and light climber. So, again, not that anything has to be done my way, but does that partnership have a plan?

And if things get to multipitch, things get even more complicated. It’s not like we’re fixing a line above each pitch. So, can we lead rope solo with the backend of the rope or use some other tactic? Weight differences matter in a sport that is so concerned with forces. We don’t have to avoid those weight differences, even if in the extreme, but we should know about the problems they can create and have a plan in place to address them.

If that takes a little extra gear, so be it.