Lowering a lead climber from an anchor

This method is used for removing gear from a sport anchor, with a subsequent lowering of the lead climber. An alternative is to abseil from an anchor. For routes with no fixed protection at the anchor point (trad), you have either to leave some gear behind, or where it is appropriate and reasonably safe, use for example abseil with an equivocation hitch.

Lowering from a pre-built sport anchor

Steps:

• Freeing the rope end without loosing the rope (temporary tie-in)
• Threading the rope through the anchor and retying to its end
• Removing the temporary tie-in, safety checks, cleaning up

Freeing the rope end without loosing the rope (temporary tie-in)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step1.png

  Pull approximately two meters of slack (1), tie a Figure 8 on a bight on it and clip it to your harness belay loop

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step2.png

  Completely untie the Figure 8 which is directly at your harness (2)

Not clear? Go to the detailed description.

Threading the rope through the anchor and retying to its end

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step3.png

  Pull the loose rope strand through the rappel ring of the anchor (3) and attach it back to your harness by tying in by a Figure 8

Not clear? Go to the detailed description.

Removing the temporary tie-in, safety checks, cleaning up

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step4.png

  Remove the carabiner at your harness (4,5), untie the Figure 8 on a bight (6), remove the toprope carabiners (7) and ask your belayer for a block while lifting yourself slightly towards the anchor (8)

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step9.png

  Before committing to the system, check that you really can hang in the rope (your personal anchor should be loose and the rope tight) and visually inspect both the tie in and the threading through the rappel ring (9)

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step10.png

  After you inspected and tested that the setup is safe, you can remove the rest of the gear from the anchor (10)

• File:Prebuilt lowering quick step11.png

  And you are safe to get lowered (11)

Not clear? Go to the detailed description.

Lowering from a pre-built sport anchor - quick method

See the separate page with the quick method description.

Lowering from bolts with maillons

Lowering from maillons is analogous to the lowering from a pre-built sport anchor, except that you thread the rope through the maillons instead of the rappel ring. To ensure redundancy, you must thread the rope through both maillons, as there is no chain connecting the bolts. The quick method can be used only if the maillons are big enough, othewise it quickly becomes cumbersome.

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  Thread the rope through the maillons. Both maillons should be threaded in the same way - either in->out, or out->in

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  Once the maillons are threaded, you continue as in the method with the rappel ring by tying in by a Figure 8, the rest of the steps is analogous

Lowering directly from bolts or fixed ring

This method is forbidden by climbing associations in some countries and places. The ban is due to an increased bolts and fixed rings abrasion which leads to unnecessary and undesired shortening of the material replacement cycles. For example at traditional sandstone routes which are (due to a tradition) almost exclusively equipped with fixed rings, it would mean additional drilling into a rock which is often protected by a law due to nature preservation for further generations. In addition, this method cannot be used for lowering directly from hanger plates as the friction over the plates edges would severely damage the rope.

The method is very similar to the method with maillons, only the rope is in this case threaded directly through the bolts.

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  Thread the rope through the bolts in a way that it wont get easily tangled during lowering.

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  Once the bolts are threaded, you continue as in the method with the rappel ring by tying in by a Figure 8, the rest of the steps is analogous

Step by step detailed descriptions

Lowering from a pre-built sport anchor - detailed description

Freeing the rope end without loosing the rope (temporary tie-in)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step1.png

  Pull approximately two arm lengths (two meters) of slack (1)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step2.png

  Tie a Figure 8 on a bight (2)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step3.png

  Clip it to your harness belay loop by a carabiner (3) and screw its gate (4)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step4.png

  Undo the Figure 8 by which you were originally tied-in (5)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step5.png

  And completely untie it (6)

Threading the rope through the anchor and retying to its end

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step6.png

  Pull the loose end of the rope through the rappel ring (7)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step7.png

  And tie in it by a Figure 8 (8)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step8.png

  You will get lowered on this knot, so inspect that its properly tied and that the loop goes through both of the harness tie-in loops (9)

Removing the temporary tie-in, safety checks, cleaning up

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step9.png

  Unscrew the carabiner (10), detach it from your haness (11) and untie the Figure 8 on a bight (12), excessive extra slack will slide out (13)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step14.png

  Remove the two carabiners intended for the toproping (14)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step15.png

  To test the setup, ask belayer for a block (15) before removing your personal anchor

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step16.png

  Inspect both the tie-in (16) and the threading of the rope through the anchor rappel ring (17)

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step18.png

  Unscrew (18) and clean-up (19) the rest of your gear from the anchor

• File:Prebuilt lowering detailed step20.png

  And get lowered (20) by a belayer