Climbing and Mountaineering Safely

Remember: Redundance, Buddy Check, Test with body weight (load test), Helmet

Tying In - connecting yourself to the rope

1. Direct Waist Tie-In - NEVER USE IT for technical or vertical climbing. A person cannot hang free with rope tied directly around the waist (waist tie-in) for more then a few minutes. Hanging in a waist tie-in constricts the chest and leads to death by suffocation - like death by crucifixion. This was a traditional method used until the 1960s. It may still has a place for class 4 mountaineering where a person will not hang directly on the rope and you have no other options.
2. Sit Harnesses - Widely accepted standard. Climber can usually hang free for a long time. Relatively safe for sport and free climbing with no backpack. Must be careful to maintain the attachment point above the climber's center of gravity. There is always a danger of falling backwards without being able to upright yourself. Sit harness alone is not enough if you are carrying a heavy pack.
3. Sit Harness with Chest Harness (or full body harness) - SAFEST. This is a must for small children and highly recommended whenever you have a pack or other conditions that could flip you upside down on a fall.
4. Connecting Sit and Chest Harness - Best is to tie both directly into the rope. When tying into the middle of a rope for glacier travel, it is common to connect the chest harness to the sit harness with a sling or perlon. If so, tie a knot in the sling on both sides of the connection.
5. Durability of Sit Harness - A modern harness, like a rope, does not "break." However, through abrasion and normal wear, as well as abnormal things like battery acid. Nylon harnesses can be damaged and should be replaced. Pay special attention to tie in points. Harnesses today commonly have a stitched ring for tying in. Keep watch on how this ring wears on the harness it attaches to.

Knots and Slings

6. Bowline - NOT RECOMMENDED! The bowline and double bowline was once a standard tie in knot. Although it works well and holds a load under direct loading it has two major flaws and enough accidents have occurred because of them.
   1) It opens under ring loading. Normal loading of the know is through a force on the rope going away from the climber. If however, a carabiner is placed in the loop created by the know and the loop is loaded, the knot can become undone.
   2) The knot is not easy to tie or check. The know was used extensively through to the early 80s but today is found only among die-hard old timers that have not yet experience the horror of watching their knot untie when loaded improperly.
7. Figure 8 - USE THIS - The standard tie-in knot. Easy to tie and easy to check.
8. Clove hitch (Sackstich, Mastwrof) - useful knot for temporary tie offs.
9. Fisherman's Knot - careful that you don't tie onto the wrong ends of the rope. The knot will appear correct until tested. Moral - Always test your knots with at least hand force.
10. Munter Hitch (HMS, Halb mastworf, VP) - Commonly used for belaying. Not good for rapelling. Careful that rope path does not open up your locking carabiner's screw gate.
11. Tying Slings - Webbing should be tied with a blood knot. This knot can also be tied within the sling - Tube Knot. While the tube knot is 20% stronger, it cannot easily be visually inspected so it is rarely used.
12. Prussik - Don't fall on a prussik. It only takes 80 kg (175 lb) falling 2.5 m (8 ft) to burn through 5mm perlon. Prussiks always slip when loaded. Fall leads to melt and lowered strength. Typical slip is at least 1/2 m (1.5 ft). Then the perlon's 6kN strength drops to 4 kN or to zero. Consider using an ascender instead. Always add redundance! Prussik are good for redundance such as putting one over an ascender as well as adding the prussik safety to your rappel. Also be aware of the grab reflex: If you are falling and you grab your prussik, you may inadvertently keep from blocking on the rope.
13. How much tail? - As a rule, leave 10 times the diameter of the rope as a tail (extra rope extending beyond the knot). For a 11 mm rope, leave about 11 cm.

Rappeling and Top Rope

14. Never thread slings - they will burn through when you pull the rope or if you have rope movement. Watch out for other peoples rope in your gear - not recommended! Don't share anchors if at all possible. People should wait.
15. Knot your rap rope - always tie a good knot in the end (figure 8). Get into the habit. Rappeling of the end is not a surprise you want.
16. Always use a leash - One or two slings directly connected to your harness and then ready for separate connection to the belay.
17. No pulleys for top rope - you want the friction and pulleys can break.
18. Thread Rope to pull from under ring - When pulling rope after a rappel. The pull should not push the anchor ring against the rope. Pull should come from behind anchor ring. PICTURE.
19. Kamikaze Flight - Those who want to surprise their gym partner by jumping into the rope could find themselves with a quick trip down. Not recommended.
20. Sharing Anchors - better to wait. Keep your gear separate. Build separate anchors. What seems bomb proof can easily fail when adding a second set of people loading the anchor. See Pitons and Bolts below.
Back-up your Rappel - In addition to knotting the end of your rappel rope, always put a prussik knot on the rope below the rappel device.

Your Mind - Psyche

21. Blackouts - Make your anchors look different. This could avoid the error of unclipping completely out of the belay.
22. Natural Reflexes - careful with natural reflexes to grab the rope. For instance, in a grip of fear you grab the rope and your prussik preventing your prussik from engaging. Grabbing the rope is false security and can be dangerous.

Climbing Techniques

23. Never lead with the rope between your legs - falling in such a situation can spin you around, upside down and backwards leading to head injuries and center body jackknifing.
24. Make 2nd clip close to first - This can be the key to avoiding grounders. When you are pulling out rope to make the second clip there can be enough rope and stretch to bring you to the ground if you fall. The danger is obvious when the 1st clip is way off the ground but if 1st clip is low and 2nd is high, you have the same level of safety -- none -- as before making the 1st clip.
25. Climb high before clipping - A fall before clipping the second piece will be 3 to 4 times the distance between the 1st and 2nd piece. Not just 2x as we assume. This is especially true if there is a little extra slack in the rope. Because of this, it is good to climb high so that you are nearly level with the 2nd placement before clipping it. This reduces the amount of slack you pull out before clipping. Of course the location of stances and ledges will effect where you clip. It is always safer and easier to clip when you have a good stance or a rest position.
26. Use short express slings - Especially for the first and second pieces, short quick draws (slings) or just two carabiners for the first few clips will also reduce the fall distance.
27. Belaying off your harness? - Not recommended when you are outside. Very common in the gym and because of sport climbing it became a norm again but it is not as safe. The leader or belayer once off the ground should belay off an anchor whenever possible. The belayers body does not have much fall capture energy.
28. Belay devices - Many devices are on the market. The weakest in terms of holding power, after the body belay, is the figure 8. An 8 can be OK if the rope is threaded only through the small hole and a big diameter carabiner is used for the break bar. A munter hitch (VP) is also one of the best brake methods.
29. Belayer's Position - In addition to staying out of the fall line of the leader, consider the direction of pull in case of a fall. The belayer should be stabilized and able to catch the unexpected fall. This is all the more reason to not belay off you harness but off an anchor. The fall force is then on the anchor and should not be able to pull the belayer out of balance and over the edge.
30. Passing - Use common sense. Be courteous and polite. Watch out. Passing can freak out a slower party and put them in jeopardy. Make sure you have agreement. Don't get your ropes tangled in their anchors or pro. Consider waiting.
31. Clear communication - To avoid misunderstanding due to noise and improve the sense of what partners are doing, DAV recommends reducing the number of command between the leader and follower - primarily when they are a pitch (rope length) apart. All that is essential can be spoken by the leader. The rope tells the rest. a) Leader must say OFF (D: Stand) when he has reached the belay and secured his anchor. b) Leader must say Belay On (D: Nach kommen) when she is ready to belay up the follower. When climbing in a canyon with a roaring river, you can yell "no more rope" all day but the message is just as effectively delivered by the rope which no longer comes. The leader must also have the sense to know how far out they are and when they must set anchor. When in doubt, a shorter pitch with clear communication can save much more time then running a pitch out and then spending time guessing, waiting and wondering if your partner heard you and why they are not coming.
32. Practice - Belay on level ground around the corner of a building or bridge in a noisy area and have someone watch.

Pitons and Bolts - What can you trust?

33. Erosion and Corrosion - Many climbers are worried about old pitons or bolts because of the metal corroding. While this is a factor, erosion of the rock in temperate climates can be much more severe to reducing the holding power of anchors to zero.
34. Minimal Holding Power - Older piton placements often hold much less then you would imagine. Often less then a 1 m (3 ft) fall will dislodge a piton. The best bet is to bring a hammer and test the placements. Hammers are rarely part of climber gear these days.
35. Hangers Break - piton rings with a welded closure can break. Check them before using.
36. Chopping Anchors? - Clearly a counter safety practice. In Germany people caught chopping anchors can get fines and prison time. This practice sometimes occurs in the USA for two nearly opposing reasons. On the one hand some purists only want the original first ascent gear to be on a route. When in the name of safety fixed protection is added, the first ascenters or their followers remove the original bolts. On the other hand, national part service and environmental groups have been known to remove anchors from "protected" rocks.

Glaciers and Crevasses

37. So many tracks - must be safe!? - Tracks are no guarantee that you won't fall through. There may be 100 tracks from the morning when the snow was hard and then as it warms up, the 101'st track breaks through into the void.
38. Glacier has calm flat surface - Don't underestimate the risk. Proper tie in for all glacier travel is a must.
39. Tying together? - Also a risk that you pull you partner into a hole. Use a chest and sit harness and tie in with proper rope. 3 to 4 people on a rope is appropriate because the capability of 3 people to hold a fourth who has fallen into a crevasse is much greater. If you are only two on a rope, you should knot your rope as described next
40. Spaced Safety Knots - Tying knots at regular intervals in a rope is an effective trick to provide a catch that could save someone falling into a crevasse. For example tie one figure 8's or overhand on a byte 3 m away from the climber, then tie additional knots at 1.5 m intervals in between. Then if one of the climbers falls into a crevasse, the knots can catch as the rope cuts into the edge of the crevasse.
41. Tie In - Glacier travel requires different tie in methods for climbers at the ends and in the middle of the rope. Assuming that a chest harness will be worn for glacier travel, climbers should tie in directly to the rope at the ends with the knot above the chest harness. For the middle climber, connecting the chest and sit harness with a piece of webbing and tying a know in the webbing between the two harnesses as well as above it adds some redundance in case one knot comes undone. The rope is then often connected to the sling with a locking carabiner - preferably two opposing. Tying in directly with the rope reduces the failure points but is not always convenient when tying in the middle.
42. The Knife - Is a knife to cut a rope ever appropriate. The DAV book tells an interesting account of a climber that fell in a crevasse and was so positioned that the rope was cutting off his breath and circulation. Cutting this climber free sent him to a ledge in the ice further down but restored his breath with was more life threatening at the time. He was later rescued. Use common sense.

Hard Snow Slopes

Hard snow with slopes even as little as 25 degrees can be a sliding board with no stopping. The danger of climbers roped together pulling each other down the slope when one falls is significant. (D: Mitreissen am Seil)
43. Should you tie in? - Tying together only makes sense if you are going to place anchors and belay. The risk of climbing simultaneously without intermediate protection is not far different from climbing an ice slope. When one falls the other will not be able to hold the fall.

Position of Climber Standing - side pull Standing - front pull Walking - side pull Walking - front pull

Force required to pull climber over 0.3 kN (~30 kPa) 0.4 kN (~40 kPa) 0.05 - 0.2 kN (5-20 kPa) 0.05 - 0.5 kN (5-50 kPa)

44. Avoiding being pulled down - Make anchors and belay points using ice screws or T-Belay anchors. Use a short rope between climbers (2m max between followers). Leader goes up and sets anchor, then brings up rest.
45. Loosing Travel Time? - Belaying on what appears a walk up slope takes time. Accidents and rescues take much more time and you'll never make it to the summit if you need a rescue. Get up a little earlier and climb safer.
46. Simultaneous Climbing - To reduce risk you have a few options. 1) Don't use a rope. Risk is reduce to one person per fall. 2) Rope up short (1.5 to 2 m separation). This increases chances of catching someone before they start sliding. Once someone starts sliding, stopping them is unlikely. 3) Use running belays. A reasonable compromise if your anchors are good.
47. Climbing without a rope? - This is reasonable if climbers are equally competent. Self arrest if more likely to be successful. There is no mitreissgefahr (pull down danger). BUT -
48. Responsibility (D: Garantenstellung) - In Europe, the climber with more experience takes responsibility and must "guarantee" the safety of the lesser. The experience is obligated to make the lesser feel safe by use of rope (therefore short rope and/or belays - loops of rope in hand to "catch" a fall so that fall does not directly load body.) Only proper anchors are a real safety. Very experience guides leading their clients on a short rope have been lost.
49. Self Arrest - Assuming you are not attached to a rope that could pull you down a slope, virtually every fall can be stopped if Self Arrest technique is immediately implemented! This takes practice. Must have axe in hand and ready. Hold axe with adze (point) toward the back of your hand and the scoop between the thumb and forefinger. Fast Reaction is critical. People have been seen flying down slopes making no attempt to stop until someone yells to them to break. Practice! Step on the brakes. Must be habitual and natural reaction not requiring special thought.

Mountain Rescue - Bergrettung - Bergwacht

50. Injuries can Increase - Rescue efforts are not without risk. Rescuers can also become injured.

Concluding thoughts

• Who is in control? - Do we put our trust in ourselves or in our maker? When we climb, we are responsible and must take great care. There is also one who cares for us even more then we do. His guidance and protection is promised and available just by calling on Him. Even Jesus Christ said, "of my own self, I can do nothing." He was totally dependent on His Father for all He did. Are you willing to be led by the ultimate guide on your climbs?
  
  He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91
  Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
  
  
• Mountaineering is not one of the more dangerous sports - Probability of death by mountain climbing lies in the "null komma promille bereich" (one in 10,000)? Which is not higher risk then other sports.
  See also
  http://www.wilderdom.com/risk/RiskOutdoorRiskStatistics.html
  http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

Physics

Fall Forces