A day out teaching Rob various rigging setups. Rob wants to be confident in setting up both top rope and personal anchors to develop his outdoor climbing both as a climber and leader with his wife and other friends. We initially looked at gear placement. I asked about rating systems and process. We then looked at rock assesment, gear rating and what to look for when assessing the quality of placements. We discussed the pros and cons of passive vs. cam for rigging vs. climbing. We then moved onto building a top rope anchor looking at 3 peices of gear brought together at two points, keeping safe using a lanyard and Prussik. We then moved to personal abseils. We considered the use of a BFK, and a bowline for the first price of gear (Rob sport climbs with a bowline) and looked at personal safety when preparing to abseil, using a overhand as a backup to the prussik. Finally we looked at personal anchors, using a HMS to allow movement back to the edge of the crag and holding the ropes to laugh ease of adjustment and safety. Rob was more familiar with this so we moved to creating a personal anchor and then converting it to a personal abseil. In each case I would demo the setup, Rob would ask questions and then I would get Rob to do it and then ask him questions about his choices to gauge his judgement. In each case of a new technique area we also made slight variations in each setup, specifically testing in practice the difference between trying to manage three rope strands vs using a sling and two rope strands. Use of a two strand sling and two ropes with quicker in each case. We did all of these setups at base of the crag and plans do it at the top but the weather became quite dreadful.
Area :Peak District Grit: South-East and SE Outliers
The gritstone crags of the South-East Peak District around Cromford and Matlock, and nearby crags just outside the Peak District National Park.
A day out teaching Rob various rigging setups. Rob wants to be confident in setting up both top rope and personal anchors to develop his outdoor climbing both as a climber and leader with his wife and other friends. We initially looked at gear placement. I asked about rating systems and process. We then looked at rock assesment, gear rating and what to look for when assessing the quality of placements. We discussed the pros and cons of passive vs. cam for rigging vs. climbing. We then moved onto building a top rope anchor looking at 3 peices of gear brought together at two points, keeping safe using a lanyard and Prussik. We then moved to personal abseils. We considered the use of a BFK, and a bowline for the first price of gear (Rob sport climbs with a bowline) and looked at personal safety when preparing to abseil, using a overhand as a backup to the prussik. Finally we looked at personal anchors, using a HMS to allow movement back to the edge of the crag and holding the ropes to laugh ease of adjustment and safety. Rob was more familiar with this so we moved to creating a personal anchor and then converting it to a personal abseil. In each case I would demo the setup, Rob would ask questions and then I would get Rob to do it and then ask him questions about his choices to gauge his judgement. In each case of a new technique area we also made slight variations in each setup, specifically testing in practice the difference between trying to manage three rope strands vs using a sling and two rope strands. Use of a two strand sling and two ropes with quicker in each case. We did all of these setups at base of the crag and plans do it at the top but the weather became quite dreadful.
