r/tradclimbing • u/intentia • 13d ago
Improving speed on multipitch routes
Just finished leading my first multipitch. It was 6 pitches, and it took about 6hrs of climbing. That's pretty slow, and we ended up rapping in the dark. All around not too bad, but I would love tips on how to speed up.
I noticed that I lost the most time routefinding and placing gear. I especially hated running out of gear on the taller pitches, and not anticipating what gear I'd use for the anchor. On pitch 5 I built with 3 okayish nuts and a .3 because I saved the wrong pieces (a 4 lol, a 3, and I think a 2?)
Any advice would be so appreciated.
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u/saltytarheel 13d ago edited 13d ago
I personally don’t necessarily mind if a pitch is led slowly since there’s route-finding, marginal gear, moves being tricky, and wanting a safe anchor. Conservatively, I’ll budget an hour per pitch when I think about daylight.
That said there’s no reason for transitions at belays and rappels to take a long time and climbing with people who are inefficient in those aspects can make me fussy over the course of the day.
For transitions, if you can swing leads that makes things go significantly faster since you don’t need to reflake rope at every belay. Managing rope (especially lap coils on hanging belays) can save time and as soon as the follower is tethered to the anchor I want them to either start clipping gear to me or I’ll start clipping gear to them depending on who’s leading the pitch.
For rappelling, once I rappel to the anchors I’ll re-tie a new stopper knot (I use a j-loop) so I can untie the old one and start threading the rope through the rings so it can be pulled as soon as the follower arrives. Having one person pull rope while the other threads and flakes makes things go faster. Taking a second to look at which way the rope is flaked and which direction it makes sense to feed things can also save time dealing with tangles later
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u/avtman802 13d ago
My partner doesn't do much leading, so I've come to love having a pair of Edelrid's Tillit bags with us. While belaying at the top of the pitch I stay tied into the rope end coming out the bottom of the bag and flake the rope into the open top. When my partner arrives we flip the bag and she can belay me out of the other end with no tangles while I take the second empty bag up the next pitch with me.
A very handy bit of light weight kit that easily saves 5 minutes over dealing with tangles from flipping a stack of lap coils.
https://edelrid.com/us-en/sport/backpacks-and-rope-bags-shop/tillit
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u/intentia 13d ago
Can you please explain the stopper knot thing a little more? I usually will finish the rap, clip in, pull up one strand, undo the knot, then thread it through the rings, tie a new knot, then flake after my follower comes down
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u/saltytarheel 13d ago edited 13d ago
Once you’re tethered to the anchor take up a good bit of rope from below, tie an overhand or figure-8, then clip it to the anchor bolt on a quickdraw. This leaves a j-shaped loop of rope beneath you.
A couple benefits is keeps the ends secure if it’s windy. If you’re fixing a rope with a knot/carabiner block and doing a single-strand rappel it keeps your follower from dying if they inexplicably set up their device on the pull strand. It also stops knot migration if you’re using two ropes of significantly different diameters.
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u/Beginning_March_9717 13d ago
ya don't save time on the climb, save time on the transition. You can practice placing gear by going to an crag with lots of ground cracks and only place gear without climbing
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u/No-Living6127 13d ago
In my experience, efficient rope management saves the most time and poor rope management wastes time the most
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u/murderoustoast 13d ago
Route finding is a tricky subject to offer advice on. Moving through the mountains requires a sort of "mountain sense" (what my buddy and I call it) such that you can look ahead and be able to determine where you're going, and what the best way to get there is. I liken it to driving directions - some folks need the turn-by-turn, while others can simply be told where the destination is, and make decision on how to get there in real time. Your best bet for improving this skill is to religiously study topos and route descriptions before setting off, and of course to simply spend more time in the mountains.
Familiarize yourself with major landmarks on the route - large open book corners, stopper ceilings, black varnish plates, anything that will be loud and proud in your field of view.
Have a solid understanding of the character of the pitch you're about to climb. If the route description says "splitter hand crack on solid rock trending right" and you're trending left on rotten slab, you're going the wrong way.
Don't be afraid of consulting the topo mid route, I've even pulled it out mid pitch if the terrain is easy enough. With the tools we have available to us these days you can have mountain project photos all downloaded, and pictures of the guide book, all saved in your phone before you set off. Just don't drop your phone!
The biggest time sink is usually transitions, so if you've got those dialed then it's time to practice your mountain sense. Keep a birds eye view of the whole formation you're climbing in your mind. Envision the line from base to summit. Know the landmarks for the route. Keep a few key words in mind for each pitch. Then as you move up the wall, picture yourself tracing the topo line on the birds eye view - does the route summit to the right or left of the base, or is it a plumb line? Have you been moving in that direction the whole time? Is the rock character and quality in line with what you expected? Does the difficulty feel right for the pitch you're on? If you're supposed to be on a 5.6 slab walk and you're gripped on overhanging finger cracks, you've gone the wrong way.
Don't find yourself 80 feet up the wrong pitch, you're gonna have a hell of a time down climbing (and back cleaning) all the way to the wrong turn. Study study study those topos and descriptions, and eventually you'll find yourself setting off with less and less info to hold onto. Mountain sense is as critical a skill as safety systems and climbing ability!
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u/alextp 13d ago
1 hour per pitch is normal for me if I'm climbing near my limit or the pitches are long. Maybe just start earlier in the day? Otherwise mostly mileage will get you faster, specially mileage below your limit so you can get more comfortable placing less gear and building anchors quickly and climbing above gear.
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u/intentia 13d ago
There were some sections on the upper pitches where I wandered a bit much, ran it out like 30ft, then got scared of slicing the rope if I took a whipper.
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u/serenading_ur_father 13d ago
An hour per pitch isn't bad.
Honestly we can't help you. It's all common sense at this point.
Faffing around with a poorly remembered best practice is usually slow.
Do it more. After your 100th if you still need us post up specific questions.
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u/bmw051 13d ago edited 13d ago
OP, likely most of us have been there. I didn’t tackle a long multi pitch until I was semi-comfortable placing gear. I’ve seen plenty of YouTube vids where the leader tries 3-4 pcs in 1 spot. Not saying thats you, but 6 pitches of that would be an eternity. You can get faster at placing gear simply by doing any routes. Why do 6 pitches, unless it’s the only route at your crag. Everyone else has good advice.
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u/Climbontop115 13d ago
An hour per pitch is a decent baseline if the pitches are long and reasonably hard for the leader. You'll naturally get more efficient with experience but I wouldn't focus on going fast for a while
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u/getdownheavy 13d ago
Practice makes perfect, you'll get better with time. You identified weak areas already: routefinding is hard (do your homework looking at photos & topos!)
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u/slappywhite1111 13d ago
Efficiency in every area makes the difference.
- Route-finding: buy a guidebook, study the route, know where people tend to get lost. Have a relevant photos on your phone.
- Gear: buy a book like Climbing Anchors, take a course, hire a guide, or spend time aid climbing single pitches with cams and stoppers to teach yourself what a solid piece is. This will help you become faster at placing gear and building anchors. 30 seconds for each piece of gear might equal 5 minutes per pitch. If you take 2 minutes per piece that’s automatically 15 extra minutes per pitch. The same for how long it takes to build your anchor.
Belay Stand: make a plan at your belay for where your anchor needs to be, how you will exit the the belay, where you will stand, where your follower will stand, where and how you will coil the rope, where you will hang gear. Get an idea of all of this before you start building your anchor, then again after you finish. Transitions are a huge time suck if not managed well.
Follower: teach your follower efficient methods of cleaning gear, avoid placing pieces that will be hard to remove, rehearse gear and belay changeovers at the belay stand.
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u/KalciumVululu 13d ago
1 hr per pitch is great for first multipitch. Don’t beat yourself up.
At this stage I would say bring a bigger rack so that you don’t worry about running out of gear as often.
Climb with different partners, especially ones who are more experienced to learn new tricks of getting more efficient.
When following, unless you don’t trust the leader/their anchor, don’t overthink when moving. You can often afford to climb slightly riskier and therefore faster since you’re on TR.
I disagree about framing it as solely a system issue. It’s also climbing skill issue. As you get stronger and better at climbing, you will be able to move faster and place less gear while still maintaining safety. That will come with training and mileage - don’t force it, but also don’t ignore it. At least do some gym bouldering even you are not into performance climbing.
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u/NorthernHippieFart 13d ago
Tl;dr
My best advice is a pretied baby quad for belays, best and fast and most efficient anchor. https://northeastalpinestart.com/2017/11/02/tech-tip-the-mini-quad/
Like other people have said, belays and transitions are the easiest/obvious places to save time. I have a couple tips that really sped up my multipitch game this past summer:
Placing gear:
cams are much fast. Period. Faster to place, clean, and rerack. Nuts are kind of specialized at this point, good for belays, comfortable stances where you can throw em in quickly, and for really finnicky to protect routes.
Anchor:
pretied baby quad made from a 120mm dyneema sling with one locker and non-locker, its so fast and the best equalization.
If you have space gear at your belay, extend them with alpine draws to get everything close enough for the baby quad to work. I also carry at 120mm sling shouldered for girth hitching tree belays.
Building belays:
general thought is 2 cams and a nut, but definitely not a rule. On easy terrain, 2 bomber biggish cams is adequate (#2 and #3 camalot for example).
A friend brings a full, personal rack of tricams for anchors alone, saving the other gear for leading, love it.
At the belay:
lots here to speed up. Flaking the rope on the ground is faster than coiling. Rack the gear for your partner while theyre following if youre swapping leads. If you top belay off your harness with a redirect, then the follower is already on belay to lead the next pitch. All in all, making sure your partner is not waiting for you for anything, besides the moments you’re building the belay and pulling rope up.
While climbing:
5.11 is always going to be slower moving than 5.6, dont worry about taking a long time on hard stuff. If it really bugs you, start french-freeing if you cant immediately figure out the moves, save the clean all free ascent for the sport crag.
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u/Senor_del_Sol 13d ago
I don’t think 6 hours for your first 6 pitches that were long isn’t bad. I think you should have started earlier for this one. Acknowledge you’re still learning and you need the time.
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u/Julsjjlsjuls 12d ago
be thoughtful about how you’re placing gear, so it’s save AND easy to clean. I’ve easily spent 5+ minutes on some nuts or stuck cams that were placed too deep or overcam’d
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u/KDs4thBurner 13d ago
As you belay from above, snack, drink and clip all the gear onto the shelf of the anchor so the changeover is fast.
While I’m leading I like placing gear to protect a move, and if it’s easy above, recycling that gear. Leaving fewer pieces in means they have to be good, but you get the best of both worlds IMO: moves are protected, but you prolong your gear.
As a follower make yourself safe immediately, rack all the gear, check that the belay has been shifted to partner’s harness and then get going.
I like to carry enough trad gear that I’m comfortable. It speeds me up. Others might disagree, citing weight, but personally I’m happy to carry a bit extra.
Also, planning ahead and extending pieces judiciously means you save energy by not fighting drag, and often you can link pitches.
Another basic tip is to make sure you have a copy of the route description on you and refresh your member of it every so often. Staying on route saves heaps of time and avoids a lot of sketchy situations.
Also, yell out fewer communications, and keep them simple and clear. Extending belays to where you can see and hear is usually worth the extra twenty seconds also.
You don’t really need to climb faster, just become more efficient.