Single Strand Method to Transition from Climbing to Lowering at an Anchor With Narrow Hardware

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Every time we switch from one climbing system to another, we invite risk. For a simple example, that is why a climber and a belayer do a partner check before heading up a climb. The belay device wasn’t threaded and locked, now it is (supposed to be). The climber’s harness wasn’t attached to a rope, not it is (supposed to be). It’s the process of changing a system that invites the most risk. Why?

Well, first I’ll mention that I am under the impressions (judging by the proliferation of new gear, gear reviews, gear strength tests, and the like) that climbers spend a lot of time worrying about gear failure. I can understand that. There is a strong, internal dynamic when confronting risk that we don’t want to be hit by a risk that we can’t control. I can control my behavior, so I can determine if I screw up or not. But I can’t control if the gear breaks due to some imperceivable imperfection or manufacturing flaw. So, the emotional process goes: if it comes down to me versus coming down to someone or something else (like gear), I would prefer to place the risk on myself than on the other thing or person.

Control makes us feel good.

We should worry about our gear being built to specifications. We should worry about those specifications being sufficient to do the job we need it to do. But should we maybe be a bit more worried about our own abilities to not make mistakes? If you read through accident report compilations, you will see many, many examples of people either not following a standard safety practice or potentially using gear outside of its purpose.

That’s not because these climbers are lazy or ignorant. It’s because people make mistakes.

What you don’t hear much about (it can happen, but it is rare), is gear just breaking.

A few of the big reasons why the bight of rope method for transitioning to lowering (shown in our last video) is prefered to the single strand method are 1) the belayer never takes you off belay (they do give you slack, but don’t take you off) and 2) there isn’t a need to rety a knot (the figure 8 retrace) that can be done incorrectly relatively easy without a partner check. Those are two switches of systems that each get switched twice: off belay to back on, untied and then retired. Each step is a chance for a mistake. The fewer the steps, the fewer chances something will break.

And I can point to more complexity in the steps than just those two elements: adding a second runner means attaching and removing it carefully. Etc. Etc.

No one of these steps are “hard.” The likelihood of messing up may be low. But simply by the law of large numbers, if you have many many potential points of failure the likelihood of at least one of them happening is greater.

It’s important to know this single strand technique in case you need it. If you ever come to a chain anchor with really small spaces between the links, this might be what you need to do. But the method from the previous video is simpler, and therefore less likely to come apart when run against our all-too-human fallibility.