Single Rope Technique
Encyclopedia
Caving
Caving—also occasionally known as spelunking in the United States and potholing in the United Kingdom—is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems...
, potholing, rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
, canyoning
Canyoning
Canyoning is traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include other outdoor activities such as walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming....
, roped access for building maintenance and by arborist
Arborist
An arborist, or arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants...
s for tree climbing
Tree climbing
Tree climbing is a recreational or functional activity consisting of ascending and moving around in the crown of trees.Use of a rope, helmet, and harness are the minimum requirements to ensure the safety of the climber. Other equipment can also be used depending on the experience and skill of the...
.
Historical Developments
In the 1930s, as caving became increasingly popular in France, several clubs in the AlpsAlps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
made vertical cave exploration an outdoor sport.
During WWII, such a team composed of Pierre Chevalier
Pierre Chevalier
Pierre Chevalier was a well-known caver and mountaineer from France, with many alpine ascents and cave explorations to his credit. Chevalier is principally known for the exploration of the Dent de Crolles cave system over a twelve-year period , which became the deepest cave in the world...
, Fernand Petzl
Fernand Petzl
Fernand Petzl was a caver and manufacturer of outdoor equipment under the brand name Petzl.Petzl lived most of his life in the village of Saint-Ismier , France at the foot of the mountain Dent De Crolles. He first went caving in Trou du Glaz in 1933, and was immediately captivated by the idea of...
, Charles Petit-Didier and others explored the Dent de Crolles
Dent de Crolles
The Dent de Crolles is a karstic mountain of the Chartreuse Mountains range, 17 km north east from Grenoble, Isère . It has a characteristic "tooth-like" profile which is well-known sight of the Isère Valley seen from the Grenoble area...
cave system near Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
, France which became the deepest explored cave in the world (-658m) at that time. The lack of available equipment during the war forced Pierre Chevalier
Pierre Chevalier
Pierre Chevalier was a well-known caver and mountaineer from France, with many alpine ascents and cave explorations to his credit. Chevalier is principally known for the exploration of the Dent de Crolles cave system over a twelve-year period , which became the deepest cave in the world...
and the rest of the team to develop their own equipment, leading to technical innovation. The first use of single rope technique with prusik and mechanical rope-ascenders (Henri Brenot's "monkeys", first used by Chevalier and Brenot in a cave in 1934) can be directly traced back to the exploration of the Dent de Crolles cave system.
American caver Bill Cuddington, known as "Vertical Bill" developed in US the single rope techniques (SRT) in the late 1950s. In 1958, two Swiss alpinists, Juesi and Marti teamed together, creating the first commercially-available rope ascender known as the Jumar
Jumar
An ascender is a mechanical device used for ascending on a rope. One such device is a Jumar, named after the Swiss factory which developed the first tool for sale in 1958. The device's name also leads to the term Jumaring for the process of using such a device...
. In 1968 Bruno Dressler asked Petzl, who worked as a metals machinist, to build a rope-ascending tool, today known as the Petzl Croll
Petzl Croll
A petzl croll is an ascending device used in caving and industrial rope access made by the French company Petzl. Its name comes from the town Crolles where Petzl's company headquarters are located but might also be a reference to the nearby cave system of the Dent de Crolles, The exploration of...
, that he had developed by adapting the Jumar
Jumar
An ascender is a mechanical device used for ascending on a rope. One such device is a Jumar, named after the Swiss factory which developed the first tool for sale in 1958. The device's name also leads to the term Jumaring for the process of using such a device...
to the specificity of Pit caving. Pursuing these developments, Fernand Petzl
Fernand Petzl
Fernand Petzl was a caver and manufacturer of outdoor equipment under the brand name Petzl.Petzl lived most of his life in the village of Saint-Ismier , France at the foot of the mountain Dent De Crolles. He first went caving in Trou du Glaz in 1933, and was immediately captivated by the idea of...
started in the 1970s a small caving equipment manufacturing company Petzl
Petzl
Petzl is a world leading manufacturer of climbing gear, caving gear, work-at-height equipment, and headlamps based in Crolles , France. The company was created by the cave explorer Fernand Petzl in the mid-1970s...
, which is today a world leader in equipment for both caving, climbing, mountaineering and at-height safety in civil engineering. The development of the rappel rack and the evolution of mechanical ascension systems, notably helped extend the practice and safety of pit exploration to a larger venue of established cavers.
Ascent
For ascent (prusiking or "jugging"), cammed devices (ascenders, JumarJumar
An ascender is a mechanical device used for ascending on a rope. One such device is a Jumar, named after the Swiss factory which developed the first tool for sale in 1958. The device's name also leads to the term Jumaring for the process of using such a device...
, Petzl Croll
Petzl Croll
A petzl croll is an ascending device used in caving and industrial rope access made by the French company Petzl. Its name comes from the town Crolles where Petzl's company headquarters are located but might also be a reference to the nearby cave system of the Dent de Crolles, The exploration of...
) are used that can be pushed up the rope but that lock and hold the user's weight when a downward force is applied; these must also be easily removable from the rope without being detached from the user. Knots such as the Prusik, Bachmann
Bachmann knot
The Bachmann is a friction hitch. It is useful when the friction hitch needs to be reset quickly/often or made to be self-tending as in crevasse and self-rescue....
and Klemheist are used to ascend ropes in emergencies in climbing
Climbing
Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations.Climbing activities include:* Bouldering: Ascending boulders or small...
and mountaineering
Mountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
; they have ceased to be the primary ascent method in SRT because they are slow in use, and ice or mud greatly reduce their efficiency.
Numerous prusik systems have been devised. Popular systems are:
- Sit-stand systems (also known as frog rig) - One ascender is at chest level attached to the sit-harness, and a second is held in the hand with a long loop of rope for the feet. Movement up the rope is by repeated moving of the foot-loop ascender up the rope, pushing up with both feet together, and sitting, supported by the chest ascender. This motion appears like a frog kick.
- Rope-walking systems - One ascender attached directly to one foot, and the second connected to the other foot by a rope with the ascender higher up to avoid clashing. Movement up the rope is by alternate stepping movements with the feet.
Descent
Abseiling
Abseiling , rappelling in American English, is the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope; climbers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection.- Slang terms :...
or rappeling) uses various forms of friction brake to control speed. The most commonly used are the Petzl Stop
Petzl Stop
A Petzl Stop is a descender used primarily in caving and industrial rope access made by the French company Petzl.-Usage:The Stop is for use with single ropes between 9 and 12 mm in diameter and is usually attached to the harness via a carabiner. The rope is then threaded through the cam and bobbin...
(self-locking) and Bobbin, and rappel racks. For safe SRT, especially on drops with complex rigging with intermediate belays, it is essential that the abseiling device can be removed from the rope without being unclipped from the harness. Modern SRT uses specialised devices for both descent and ascent, and low-stretch kernmantel rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
of 8 mm-11 mm diameter. Other essential items of a personal SRT set are a sit harness and one or more safety cords ("cows-tails") terminated in carabiners
Carabiner
A carabiner or karabiner is a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate that is used to quickly and reversibly connect components in safety-critical systems. The word comes from "Karabinerhaken", meaning "hook for a carbine" in German.-Use:...
, for temporary attachment to safety ropes at the heads of drops and used in manoeuvres at intermediate rope belays.
Rigging
How the rope is sent down a shaft has great bearing on the type of SRT used. In general, while rope-walking techniques may be very effective for climbing long unobstructed pitches, they prove less versatile in cases of awkward passages and complex rope rigging with rebelays used to avoid hazards such as loose rocks, waterfalls, and rope damage from rub points.Rigging in the southeastern USA is done from a single anchor point and pitches are rigged as a single large drop, often in excess of 100m. The rope is usually a thick abrasion resistant type and this allows the rope to go over the lip of a shaft in contact with the rock. This is sometimes pejoratively called Indestructible Rope Technique. To descend such large drops on a bobbin type descender would be difficult owing to the thickness and stiffness of the rope, and the resulting descent would be slow and jerky. The descender could also overheat and melt the surface of the rope. Since racks have a much larger heat sink capacity and offer a much smoother descent on such pitches they are preferred. To ascend the long pitch would be time consuming using the frog system so the rope walking system is preferred.
In Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
pitches are often more difficult and complex multi-pitch rigging is almost universal. Long drops are broken up into smaller pitches by rebelays and deviations are often used to direct the rope away from areas of sharp rock and from water. Where rope rub cannot be avoided rope protectors are installed. Traverses are often installed to allow the rigger to reach an area where it is possible to hang the rope with no rub. Since allowing the rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
to rub against the walls is prevented lighter ropes are used, usually 8-9mm thick. This has the advantage of being lighter and therefore more economical to carry on long or deep trips. Bobbin descenders are quicker to change over at rebelays and are also lighter to carry. Rope-walking techniques are less effective in cases of awkward passageway and for changeovers at rebelays.