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by Carlo Gabasio, UIAGM Mountain Guide Tike Saab.
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Crags, bolts, safety – a successful triad thanks to which more and more people have become attracted to sports climbing. But does safety necessarily mean complete absence of danger? Unfortunately not. Testament to this are the numerous accidents that still occur at crags due to climbers simply being distracted or because they make basic mistakes when carrying out rope manoeuvres. For although the crag environment requires relatively few rope manoeuvres, these must be carried out perfectly.
If we analyse a pitch we can distinguish between two different types of technique: the first refers to the actual movements of the climber, how he or she proceeds up the climb, the second refers to the rope manoeuvres. This second technique can be analysed further and broken down into various chronological stages: how to put on a harness, how to tie-in, how to belay, how to clip the quickdraws and then how to prepare the lower-off.
This article analyses the final stage, the lower-off, and what you must do should you find yourself at the top of the single-pitch with a lower-off carabiner that does not open, a ring, maillon rapide etc.
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1- Reach the chain and make safe by clipping a quickdraw from the harness belay loop to the ring, located in the V of the lower-off. (Fig. 1).
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2- Take about 1m of rope and thread this through the ring before tying a figure-of-eight. (Fig. 2).
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 Click images to enlarge
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| 3- Clip the loop from the figure-of-eight to the harness belay loop with a screwgate carabiner. (Fig. 3) |
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| 4- Check that all stages have been carried out properly, untie the end of the rope from the harness and unthread it through the ring. (Fig. 4) |
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5- Check everything once more, signal to the second to take in all the slack rope, and then unclip the quickdraw from the ring, ready to be lowered off.
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1 quickdraw
