Please do not carry a swiss army knife when climbing with me

Even if you want to cut some old rap slings? Or trim a ripped fingernail? Or clean your teeth with the toothpick while enjoying the view?

When you think your partner is an assassin like in the eiger sanction?

"When should the rope be chopped?"









A: When some old fart is poaching a top-rope on an 8mm line using bogarted ascenders ?????

teasing of course....

Here's a nice little story, strange but true.

The first time I ever climbed with KSolem was when he drove up to Tuolumne to climb with my wife and me. The first route we did for a warmup was Piece of Grass. I led the first pitch (mabye 10a) and got about 4 pieces of gear. Kris climbs up and asks me about the lack of pro which I just sort of passes off because the pitch was easy. My wife comes up and sits in the big grassy hole and Kris leads the 2nd pitch (crux!). After doing the hard part he starts whining about the anchors being 50 feet away with no bolts before then. I told him it only looked like 35 feet to me and to quit complaining. I followed the 2nd ptch and after discussing the poor quality of the belay bolts I started up the 3rd pitch. I get about 90 feet out with no pro (it's getting easier as the dome rounds off) Kris yells up that if I fall off he is going to cut the rope because there is no way the anchor would possibly hold a 200 foot factor 2 fall.

And that is how Kris and I started climbing together and that is when you cut the rope!

Never cut the the rope.

In 30 years I've made it a point to never carry a knife (or power drill) while climbing. Instead I practice untying bad knots with my bare hands. Knots used to tow dead cars, untangling old knotted line found on the beach, old slings used for a hundred raps, etc.

There is always another way.

If the rope gets damaged, don't you cut it there? I doubt anyone would want to climb or rappel on a rope with a core shot.

I can't imagine being in the backcountry without a knife -- for cutting webbing to length for an anchor or whatever. Climbing in Joshua Tree or Red Rock, ten minutes from your car, is another story maybe.

Cutting a rope? I usually just rip the rope apart with my bare hands....






But for those less ripped, apparently it's relatively easy to generate enough heat to cut through a rope by sawing back and forth with accessory cord. Never tried it though...

kheegster wrote:Apparently it's relatively easy to generate enough heat to cut through a rope by sawing back and forth with accessory cord. Never tried it though...

It's easy to cut a rope. Just run it over a rock on the ground with a 90 degree edge and put it under tension with your feet. Than you drop another rock (about 15 -20 pounder) on it. This will cut and fuse it all in one go. Try it for yourself and see how easy a rope under tension cuts. That is why I love to use double ropes.

But I always carry a knife because you will never know when you need one.

This is a true story.

I was climbing out in the desert with Bob and Roy. We were simul climbing a 5.11d thin crack. I was climbing last, Bob was way out front with Roy in the middle. I think Roy slipped ( this all went down in like 2 seconds ) cause I heard him yell, Bob lost his grip on the stone and fell from the lead.

Both of the climbers fell pulling me up off of my stance, they fell right past me and one of them grazed my head ( with no helmet ) knocking me out.

When I came to, I was hanging from my harness and because this 5.11d crack was severely overhanging I was sort of turning around. Looking up I realized that a #00 TCU was still in the crack above me.

When I looked down I could see Roy and Bob both hanging from the ropes tied to me. They were yelling but I could not hear what they were saying cause I was dizzy. Every time I looked up at the TCU I got sand in my eyes because it was walking back and forth in the crack.

All of this must have gotten my adrenaline pumping and I regained my scenes and finally could understand just what they were yelling.

"Cut the rope, save yourself"

I yelled "NO! I can't."

Right then the TCU slid down about 3 feet in the crack but one of the cams lobes stuck, holding all of us from crashing 700 feet to the deck.

They kept yelling "cut the rope, save yourself, pleeesssee"

So I did the hardest thing one can do climbing, I cut that cord and sent my two best friends 700 feet to the deck.

Later that day I stumbled into our deserted base camp, I was beat and needed a drink of wine.

So I broke out the trusty Swiss army knife for the second time that day and used the corkscrew to open Roy's bottle of "1968 Bordeaux, Chateau DeMuff".... it was really tasty.

GK

SpiderSavage wrote:Never cut the the rope.

In 30 years I've made it a point to never carry a knife (or power drill) while climbing. Instead I practice untying bad knots with my bare hands. Knots used to tow dead cars, untangling old knotted line found on the beach, old slings used for a hundred raps, etc.

There is always another way.

In 30 years you've never stuck a rope that you had to cut? Or taken a core shot near an end that needed the chop? Or needed to cut up some cord for bail slings? I consider a knife a basic part of my alpine rack. Also, handy for motivating the occasional slow-poke partner.

Guyzo wrote:This is a true story.

. . .

"Cut the rope, save yourself"

I yelled "NO! I can't."

. . .

They kept yelling "cut the rope, save yourself, pleeesssee"

So I did the hardest thing one can do climbing, I cut that cord and sent my two best friends 700 feet to the deck.

Oh yeah. I was there and managed to snap some photos of the incident:

Good shots!

And thanks for posting the photos of Bob and Roy........

It's to bad about Roy, I really miss him....... Looking at his photo(last one) shows just how fabulous
his sex change was going.

It was a bad day at the rocks, 4 sure.

late

Thanks for sharing your story with us Guyzo. I know how difficult it must have been for you, as I've been in that same situation myself. So ever since that day, I've kept a real corkscrew in the car. Those swiss army gadgets don't work for shit.

I've found that a knife buried in a pack is just too darned inconvenient for those emergencies requiring quick reactions. As a personal safety measure I've found one of these kept online to be far superior.

Guyzo wrote:Good shots!

And thanks for posting the photos of Bob and Roy........

It's to bad about Roy, I really miss him....... Looking at his photo(last one) shows just how fabulous
his sex change was going.

It was a bad day at the rocks, 4 sure.

late

Brilliant! I was going to say "chop the rope after you've hung yourself" but I think you've already achieved the Terry Gilliam Award for Excellence.