Rope Soloing from the Top

[@jjburnes5176]

The breakdown of showing each individual part (1 micro, 2 micros, addition of chest lanyard) was super helpful to see why each component is important. Thank you.

[@bobbystorc]

Thanks for this! I've been climbing since 1994 and have never rope soloed yet! Im going all next week!

[@johnliungman1333]

Hey Ryan! Thanks for sharing! A comment though: Petzl themselves do not recommend using two identical devices. The idea is that they would have the same failure mode which increases the risk of complete failure of the system. I think the risk would be minimal, but that´s what they say anyway. So maybe go with a Petzl Basic or Shunt for your chest piece and a microtraxion below that. Another tip: an elastic "Spinner leash" as used with your ice tools actually makes a great "harness" for keeping the device on your chest. Because it is elastic you avoid hurting your neck in a fall. Attach it to the back of your harness, across each shoulder, and into your device. Works great!

[@Steve-en8if]

One of the best rope soling videos out there! Clear and well explained. Thank you Ryan!

[@Manuescrax]

I heard that the most confortable way of climbing this way is by adding some weight to the end of the rope so that you don´t have to pull the rope everythime you climb as it is tense it feeds itself. I´d like you guys to address that. thank you and congrats for your video.

[@PathofCultivation]

How long is that sling? And doesn't locking the chest carabiner into the top microtrax carabiner cross load it?

[@johnchan6191]

Wow, very cool way of solo rock climbing. Thx 4 sharing on Utube. Keep on rock climbing.

[@bmacaz]

What about a grigri in conjunction with a microtraxion device? Could this suffice for a redundant system? Which would be used for the chest piece / belay loop?

[@namelastname2449]

Hey Ryan I’m a follower of yours as you know. Too much work and not much time to try things. Because of where I live, I climb solo. Would you have some day some time to show what the latest is on TR solo and Lead solo? Would be a great show

[@ryantilley9063]

Ya sure, not to much has been changed since I made this video but I can talk about what I have changed in my specific setup

[@namelastname2449]

@@ryantilley9063 that’d be great Ryan!!

[@TonySpinach]

thanks bro, answered all my questions

[@bobwojcik6196]

Excellent video. Just what I needed to better understand the use.

[@utenteutente9531]

this video is gold, thanks man!

[@avermaak12]

Finally, common sense prevails. Keep your setup simple and uncluttered!!! I've used the first method (with gri gri only) without incident hundreds of times without in incident!! If toprope soloing use a slightly thicker rop 9.8 -10mm if leading use a thinner rope say 8.7mm and you won't have problems taking or giving yourself slack

[@nstark3944]

Once you start using a progress capture device like a micro trax, you will never go back to using just a grigri.

[@TassieJake]

Awesome video

[@jaredhesselbein7429]

Great video! Thanks for sharing 💪

[@finechartscom]

If you fall in the overhang route using two microtraxions and end up hanging, how you get your descender ( gri gri for instance) engaged?

[@derekatwood6236]

I just got a taz lov2 for TR solo, its basically a straight running grigri that is also capable of holding falls because its a cam not teeth. Pricy but the best tr solo by far imo because you can fall on it and it has a lower lever like the grigri!

[@stereothrilla8374]

Petzl actually does not recommend top rope soloing with a Micro Traxion or Micro Traxions at all. At least not in the Micro Traxion’s manual. They’ve actually specifically addressed that the Micro Traxion is not a fall arrest device, it is a pulley progress capture device for hauling and rescue. They do specify the device can be used as an “emergency ascender”, so, if your top rope solo session for the day is an emergency I guess you’re good to go. 😂 Also keep in mind that trying to use any toothed device for fall arrest can de sheath a rope. Will this ever happen? Probably not. Can you top rope solo with a couple of Micro Traxions? Yes.

[@kylerey09]

Marymoor park in Redmond? If so this is where I got my start rope soloing

[@ryantilley9063]

Yep, it is Merymoor park in Redmond for sure, also where I learned to rope solo.

[@namelastname2449]

It was long due to watch this one!! How are you dude?

[@ryantilley9063]

Doing good, I’m happy to be back making some new videos too!

[@heli400]

The best rope solo device is the Ushba! I've seen a lot of rope solo videos on YT using every other device but the Ushba. It's so easy to setup and use. I guess no one has heard of them :/

[@finechartscom]

I am using it. Its super

[@kyonan1127]

Great video😁😁

[@carrotsclimb4930]

Great video! Is it necessary to weight the rope at the base ?

[@ryantilley9063]

It would be highly recommended to make the rope fun smoothly through your belay devices. If you don't have it then you can pull the rope through yourself but you really don't want to have slack build up and you then take a dynamic fall onto the rope because the teeth and strip the sheath of the rope.

[@GizmosBushEscapes]

thanks Ryan. i haven't ever used a toothed device like that micro traction. do you consider it to be tough on rope wear. especially on a fall. i have a couple of non toothed devices like the shunt. i think i would prefer ? and most of the time i do this on twin ropes. chest on one ,waist on 2nd.your thoughts? no i will never have an icy rope either.i know the shunt has some issues when you grab it accidentally

[@TheDing888]

Gonna piggyback onto this. Ryan, can you do a video on progress capture devices in general? Would love to watch that, thanks!

[@ryantilley9063]

Hey gizmo, I haven't used the shunt before, but it would work for this purpose for sure. The toothed devises like the micro-traction, pro-traction, or jumar all do bite into the rope and cause some abrasion to the sheath of the rope. So doing this a lot could reduce the lifespan of your rope, if you get a thicker rope (9.4-9.9) it would help with making the sheath last longer and also add a little bit o mental security too. Doing this with two ropes is perfectly fine, I would be a little worried about using twin ropes since there not rated for single use, but since you have a back up line and aren't putting a lot of force onto them you should be fine, just something to think about.

[@ryantilley9063]

@@TheDing888 Ya I definitely will, that's a great topic for a video!

[@greenleafguidance3370]

did you file down the little mechanism that locks the trax open while soloing with just one trax? i heard that is a good safety precaution for them while soloing. Or did you never have a problem with that when you used just one

[@ryantilley9063]

No I haven't done that, I guess you could do it if your planning on only rope soloing with your microtraxtion, but if you use it for other things like hauling or crevasse rescue then it's really useful to be able to lock the cam open. I don't think that it's really worth filling the little lock down, the only time it would really be a problem is if you forget to unlock it before the climb, it's extremely unlikely that it would accidentally get locked out of place while you're using it.

[@KK-wk3wk]

Hi Ryan, Thanks so much for this clear concise video as I have been wanting to top rope climb solo. I as well have a hard time finding partners mostly due to living in a very small town. What I would like to add when using the gri gri method it's a good idea to add stopper knots every so often to give you a bit of redundancy. I have the mico traxion as well, but I find once the device is loaded it is very difficult to unload it. I agree many people go this route. What do you think about having one micro device on your harness and one Petzl Tibloc as your chest harness for redundancy? Tibloc however tend to fray the rope and is usually used to ascend the rope. Just wondering what you think. Thanks again!!

[@ryantilley9063]

I don't think I would use a tidblock for rope soloing, the way how it stays connected to the rope is by the carabiner, so you would probably have to do a lot of experimentation with the carabiners to find one that keeps the tidblock in the best position for your rope. You would also have to get one that can't get cross loaded or spin around freely, so that would mean using a belay style carabiner. The best part of the micro traction is that it keeps the rope in an enclosed system. Just my thoughts

[@drummer2532]

@@ryantilley9063 Did you consider using your GriGri+ on top, and microtraction below? Any downsides?

[@testboga5991]

taking two likely increases failure chances instead of limiting it. either use two different devices on one rope or two ropes with the same or different devices. i don't think there are many people going to die on one micro traxxion that would have survived on two.

[@mattxrp]

Nice video kidda...

[@TonySpinach]

Last question lol, if I were to use two ropes, would the setup be the same except the top trax would just go on the other rope? Thanks man, cannot wait to start soloing :)

[@ryantilley9063]

Ya having the two tracxions on each rope is usually what people do if they have the separate ropes.

[@TonySpinach]

@@ryantilley9063 thanks Ryan!

[@booger5514]

Any reason not to set up the top rope anchor as a Reepschnur hitch to save time walking back up to the top when done? Beyond that, if you have a normal two-chain anchor, what is your favorite knot to fix the rope at the anchor?

[@ryantilley9063]

Ya you could use the Reepschnur it help cleaning the anchor at the end, that's a pretty great idea really! If I have a two chain anchor a lot of times I just do the bunny ears figure- 8 and clip it to both the bolts with Either a locker and non- locker or two lockers.

[@TheDuroProject]

PETZL recommande two different locking system, and if possible two ropes....

[@ADVNevada]

Great video!

[@highonelevation9102]

Have you used a rollNlock? If so how do you feel about using it and would you used two as you did on this video?

[@ryantilley9063]

I have use the rollNlock a few times before, it would be good for rope soloing. You would definetly want two for the redundancy (when I used a microtraction as my main device and a rollNlock as my back up) but you could switch the two around or use two rollNlock’s. It does take a little more time to get used to the rollNlock over the microtraction, but other than that they’re pretty much the same.

[@Govanification]

I use a Roll-n-Lock on one rope and a microtraxion on the other rope extended with a locking quickdraw. They work great as a combo.

[@kangdanlin]

do you ever use the CAMP GOBLIN device?

[@filippodarinvidal]

hi, thanks for the video, super useful. I do have a question, is there a scenario were your fall would load the chest harness instead of the regular one? In that case would it hurt or just be uncomfortable? Thanks

[@ryantilley9063]

Filippo Da Rin in my limited experience I’ve never had only the top micro traction catch me without the bottom. Usually they both are sliding down as you climb up so the bottom one usually catches before the top. But maybe someone else who has more experience with rope soloing than me could chime in and say if that ever happens to them.

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks

[@TassieJake]

Can't the chest harness cross load ? Prob best use a belay caribiner

[@ryantilley9063]

The forces are so small on the carabiner that a cross loading wouldn’t matter that much, but if you want to use a belay carabiner then feel free to go for it!

[@rudeman1914]

Hi, what type of rope are you using? I have dynamic rope 9.5 and 10.5 I was told to used static rope cause my rope is only for climbing. I also want to do this on tree climbing. Thanks

[@ryantilley9063]

The rope I’m using in this video is a sterling nano IX, it’s the rope that I had with me but I would probably use something a little thicker for rope soloing. Something in the 9.4-10mm range. As far as static vs dynamic goes you can use either, it is a little nicer to have a static rope but not a safety hazard if you only have dynamics. I don’t really know to much as far as tree climbing goes but I think more arborists use static rope too, but you’ll probably have to check that with a more reliable source!

[@thomashouchin5379]

Petzl recommends using two separate ascension devices to avoid human error such as forgetting to activate the teeth on the traxions. Great video but I've had better luck with a trax as primary and a ropeman 2 on a double lock quick draw attached to belay loop BELOW that way it hangs lower and avoids the two devices coming in contact and eliminating the need for a chest harness. If you want to be extra safe carry two ropes, one device on each and you can girth hitch one incase belay loop fails you. cheers.

[@mls01981]

What do you think of the ropeman2? I got one as a surprise birthday gift (had they asked I would have pitched in to get the microtrax!) and I was planning to TRS with it. I plann to use two ropes -- one with a GriGri and one with the ropeman2. Reddit threads favored the microtraction over the ropeman2. Curious of your thoughts 2 years later!

[@andrewleon2406]

is it ok to use the micro traxion with a dynamic rope

[@ryantilley9063]

Ya, plenty of people do that, but be carful to not let the slack build up to make a longer fall, the teeth from the micro traxtion will really hurt your rope sheath.

[@tomreynolds6082]

Absolutely great video! My only question is what’s the knot at the top of the rope - I can’t remember its name and need to relearn how to tie it!

[@ryantilley9063]

I'm using a "bunny eared" figure 8 in this video, and it's usually the knot that is my go- to for rope soloing stuff.

[@TheChago14]

just a grigri is not enough, I m talking from my own experience with only a 9.5 rope, I almost fell to the base of the route, luckily the grigri stop me one meter before, so I don't understand how you can recommend that, maybe the problem was me .

[@TheChago14]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5qXiqaDl5mrsLc

[@ryantilley9063]

Were you using the Grigri for lead rope soloing or top rope soloing? I wouldn't recommend the Grigri for lead soloing (unless you're aid soloing.) It's just not the easiest device to work with while you're trying to get up the climb. For top rope soloing the Grigri is enough, but it is recommended that you put in a backup knot every 10 feet or so to prevent that situation you got into- but there could have been a number of other factors, I don't know the whole story.

[@TheChago14]

@@ryantilley9063 tope rope, my fall didn't apply the minimum friction for actuate de grigri I guess

[@mls01981]

That's super scary. In a way, the device worked, but almost too late! Glad you're ok in the end.

[@mikefarthing]

Hey Ryan! I was rope soloing with a single Microtraxion a few weeks ago as I've done before. But I needed to ascend the rope to get past a steep part of the climb I had swung out from. I used the Garda hitch technique exactly as seen at 5:00 in this Outdoor Research video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZS4npd9fstlZ9E. But as I was ascending, the the microtraxion started to slip down as I weighted it. So I'm not sure if the carabiners from the Garda jammed the device? Or if I was grabbing it in a way that made the cam open? It was partially open so the teeth were still able to grab a little bit, but it slipped about 5 feet down while destroying the sheath of my rope. Luckily I swung to a ledge and rapped down. Scary! Any ideas? Thanks.

[@ryantilley9063]

What type of rope and diameter were you using? I could see a little more slippage with a new rope and a slicker sheath. Also were you sliding the micro up with your hand, you could have maybe disengaged the teeth of the micro when you were sliding up it. That does seem to be very strange, and also scary as hell!

[@mikefarthing]

@@ryantilley9063 Yeah I was sliding it up with my hand. Seems like the only option to get it nice and high on the rope! I was using my 10.2 Sterling dynamic. Not a dry rope. It's about a season old.

[@mikefarthing]

Also Ryan I'd love to see a video about trad anchors in a mulit-pitch environment. At the top of the pitch are you building one three-piece anchor for the two of you (climbers)? Are you anchoring yourself in separately to get safe (and then have that be your belay stance), before building the follower anchor? When lead-belaying the next pitch are you thinking about changes in direction of pull of that anchor? Rock on dude! Keep the vids coming.

[@fugley100]

9:57 subliminal

[@prettyboysvc]

So if I were to use the 2 trax method rather than a grigri and trax method, how would I descend back down the wall? Also if you had enough weight or possibly even tied the bottom of the rope to something, a grigri would feed smoothly? I apologize for silly questions I'm just trying to figure out what 2 piece method would work best for me.

[@ryantilley9063]

So for your first question, it can depend on your set up, most of the time you'll have a full anchor holding the rope to the wall, so the easiest way is probably to clip yourself into the anchor at the top of the climb and then you can take off the micro tractions and set up whatever rappel you want. If you wanted to descend back down to work a section over and over then the two traction method isn't the best option- that's when you would want to use a grigri or other device like that. If you were in the middle of your route while using the two traction method and you had to go down in an emergency situation here's one possible way to transfer yourself to a grigri to get down: 1. Sit down on your rope- so you can use both your hands 2. you could also use a friction hitch (like a third hand) and wrap it around your rope above both of your microtraxtions. 3. Attach yourself to the third hand with a sling or PAS system. Use the wall to stand up and slide the third hand as far up the rope as you can and sit down on the friction hitch. 4. Take off the lower microtraxion (the one that's on your belay loop) and replace it with a grigri - the higher mictrotracxion is functioning as your backup for the friction hitch you are standing on. 5. use the wall to stand up pulling the slack through the grigri, pull enough rope through so that the grigri is engaged when you sit back down on the rope. 6. Clean up all your other things and rappel down with the grigri. This is a good idea for a video so I'll put it on my list and try to have a tutorial video on this topic soon-ish. Thanks for watching!

[@prettyboysvc]

Ryan Tilley great thank you! I decided to go with mini trax and grigri. My only issue now its the best way to run a single line (like you have in this video) to an even two bolt anchor?

[@mls01981]

@@prettyboysvc Bunny ears knot with two locking carabiners (one for each bolted anchor) or you can build an equalized anchor with two locking carabiners (one for each bolted anchor) and equalize a double length sling (or cordelette) and fix your rope with a figure of 8 knot with a third locking carabiner.

[@dabratory9801]

Nobody ever actually climbs in these videos

[@Nerudah]

Too much wind bruh.