Mark Hudon Big Wall clinic 2 - Docking cords and Hauling

This is a series of videos from big wall climbing clinics presented by expert big wall climber Mark Hudon. See the full description below for a summary of tips covered in each video.
The videos cover Mark’s tested techniques on aid climbing tips, big wall anchors, mechanical advantage hauling systems, how to set up your bivy / portaledge, how to pack your haul bag, the best way to connect your haul rope to the haul bag (it’s not with a knot), ascending, cleaning, leading sequence, and more.
The videos were taken over different clinics in 2015 and 2016, at the Mazamas Mountaineering Center in Portland OR.
www.mazamas.org
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Once the leader arrives at the anchor, they have one main task: Allow your second to get off of the anchor below you ASAP, and then get comfortable.
This means 3 tasks:
1) building a simple, strong anchor as quickly as possible
2) fixing the rope for your second
3) setting up your haul system and pulling a few strokes to get the haul bags off the anchor below you.
THEN you can take a break.
When the leader gets to the anchor, resist the temptation to take a drink, take pictures, relax, etc. The leader still has work to do.
ALWAYS use a docking tether to attach your haul bag to the anchor. NEVER use a daisy chain!
A docking tether is about 15 feet of 8 mm cord.
Tie a figure 8 on a bight in the middle of the cord, clip this bight to a locking biner on your haul bag.
Take the two remaining strands, tie a munter hitch onto one of the two quick draws on your anchor kit, and then barberpole the two strands around the loaded strand, and finish with a square knot.
Doing this lets you effortlessly release the bags in any circumstance.
Mark climbs with one haul bag for each climber, he likes Metolius.
Always dock the bags UNDER your primary anchor system.
Note that the rope is always clipped closest to the gate of the master biner. Any additional niners added to the “anchor kit” lockers are added behind the rope, not between the rope in the gate.
Doing this allows you to remove the rope in case of an emergency and nothing loaded is between the rope and the biner gate.
No need to have the haul bags tied in close to the anchor bolts, fine to have them hang down a bit.
No need to “safety" the haul line as a backup to the docking cords.
Mark always uses a Petzl micro Traxion to connect the haul line to his haul bags.
He never ties a fixed knot or clove hitch.
Doing this as a host of advantages.
1 - gives you an instant 2-1 mechanical advantage if you need to wrestle the haul bag at the anchor for any reason.
2 - allows you to use all the remaining rope of your haul line as a lower out line.
Mark uses a 70 meter, static, 10 mm haul rope.
With a 70 meter rope, for just about every pitch on a trade route, you will be able to use the extra haul line to lower out the bag, eliminating any need to bring along a separate lower out rope.
No need to add a water bottle protector to the traxion connection, because it swivels out of the way when hitting an obstruction.
The steeper the route, the less of a problem this is.
If you are not swapping leads, and using the rope to make your anchor, the second and the leader need to swap ends of the rope.

[@bonefishboards]

I'm pretty sure Chongo invented or at least first publicized the docking cord method before 2010. Great idea putting the bag on a micro-trax; this allows far-end hauling, too.

[@johngo6283]

I agree with you, I think Chongo was the originator of many of these big wall tricks that now are becoming standard practice. I don’t think a credited Mark with this as his original idea, he is more popularizing some of these techniques. I never met Chungo, but he was clearly a man ahead of his time.

[@Yose7492]

Chongo is still here & doing well

[@MTN831]

Mark is a big wall genius!

[@johngo6283]

Max, he is indeed. And he's a generous teacher too.

[@TheHudrv]

Someone in the crowd refers to documentation on Hudon's website. Does that website still exist?

[@johngo6283]

Hugo, I think it’s no longer available. But I think I might’ve saved PDFs of most of the information on his website. If you tell me what you were interested in, I might be able to find it and send it to you.

[@TheHudrv]

@@johngo6283 that's very nice of you. I'd definitely be interested in those pdfs. Here is my email Hugodrouin *at* hotmail *dot* com Feel free to add me on Facebook.

[@brettholman3606]

@@TheHudrv - hudonpanos.com is up again