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

Freeing the rope end without loosing the rope by making a temporary tie-in.

• 

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

• 

  Tie a Figure 8 on a bight (2)

• 

  Clip it to your harness by a safebiner (3)

• 

  Inspect that both the belay loop and the Figure 8 you tied are clipped into the safebiner and that the Figure 8 properly is tied (4)

• 

  Completely untie the Figure 8 on the end of the rope (5)

• 

  You have freed the rope end while still being safely tied in

Threading the rope through the anchor

Threading the rope through the anchor rappel ring and retying to its end.

• 

  Pull the loose end of the rope through the rappel ring (6)

• 

  And tie in it by a Figure 8 (7)

• 

  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 (8)

Cleaning up

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

• 

  Detach the safebiner (9,10) and untie the Figure 8 on a bight (11), excessive slack will slide out itself (12)

• 

  Remove the two carabiners intended for the toproping (13)

• 

  Before removing your personal anchor, ask your belayer for a block (14) in order to test the setup

• 

  Inspect both the tie-in (15) and the threading of the rope through the anchor rappel ring (16)

• 

  Unscrew (17) and clean-up (18) the rest of your gear from the anchor

• 

  And get lowered by a belayer (19)

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.

• 

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

• 

  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.

• 

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

• 

  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