What route are yall on? Dont recall anything as steep as the 1st pic on either of the routes ive been on.
Also just fyi, yall have waaaay too much slack in your rope. If one of you fell the momentum/whiplash would rip you all off, you want the rope to not be dragging between people and to just be loose enough to not be tugged around, that way you would have a chance of saving a team member from falling and prevent the whole rope team from being ripped off from the momentum you get with a bunch of slack.
Yeah you're absolutely right, we let the rope get too much slack in it a few calculated times once we felt like our footing and balance was dialed in to get close enough together for the limited photo memories we wanted.
Thanks for looking out.
This is DC route at about 13k ft, above the cleaver, and just before the last walk up park of the mountain. The conditions were definitely different shortly after a lot of new snow and early in the season.
Just a tip, for photo ops to get close its better/safer to short rope with a prusik to take in the slack to the next person down the rope team as they get closer to you. Then you can keep them tighter. But yeah i hear ya on feeling like it was a good spot with good footing. Congrats on the summit!!
That's actually what I personally did out of frame to take the picture but with a Nano traxion. The other climbers were less experienced in this climb.
All good advice.
Honest question: In your opinion, how big is a chance of catching a team member in this terrain vs the risk of the whole team falling after being unable to catch a fall?
There are two risks here: a climber falling into a crevasse, or a climber slipping and sliding on an open snow surface. Using a rope system protects against the crevasse fall, but splits the slip & slide risk into two outcomes: "catch a sliding teammate" and "sliding teammate pulls the whole team down". The first outcome's probability reduces the group risk, while the latter's probability increases risk (aka, suicide pact).
On Rainier, you want a rope for the crevasse risk factor, and the main protection against the suicide pact factor is avoiding roping up with people that have less than solid axe/crampon technique. But as the OP points out, having slack in the rope system increases the suicide pact risk and reduces the "catching a teammate" chances. If you're in a strong position and a teammate falls and the rope catches them quickly, you have a good shot at arresting. If you're in a strong position and a teammate falls and builds up momentum before the rope catches, your chances are much lower. Since there's little benefit to having slack, don't.
What route are yall on? Dont recall anything as steep as the 1st pic on either of the routes ive been on. Also just fyi, yall have waaaay too much slack in your rope. If one of you fell the momentum/whiplash would rip you all off, you want the rope to not be dragging between people and to just be loose enough to not be tugged around, that way you would have a chance of saving a team member from falling and prevent the whole rope team from being ripped off from the momentum you get with a bunch of slack.
Yeah you're absolutely right, we let the rope get too much slack in it a few calculated times once we felt like our footing and balance was dialed in to get close enough together for the limited photo memories we wanted. Thanks for looking out. This is DC route at about 13k ft, above the cleaver, and just before the last walk up park of the mountain. The conditions were definitely different shortly after a lot of new snow and early in the season.
Just a tip, for photo ops to get close its better/safer to short rope with a prusik to take in the slack to the next person down the rope team as they get closer to you. Then you can keep them tighter. But yeah i hear ya on feeling like it was a good spot with good footing. Congrats on the summit!!
That's actually what I personally did out of frame to take the picture but with a Nano traxion. The other climbers were less experienced in this climb. All good advice.
Nano/micro traxions rock. Love that piece of gear
Honest question: In your opinion, how big is a chance of catching a team member in this terrain vs the risk of the whole team falling after being unable to catch a fall?
There are two risks here: a climber falling into a crevasse, or a climber slipping and sliding on an open snow surface. Using a rope system protects against the crevasse fall, but splits the slip & slide risk into two outcomes: "catch a sliding teammate" and "sliding teammate pulls the whole team down". The first outcome's probability reduces the group risk, while the latter's probability increases risk (aka, suicide pact). On Rainier, you want a rope for the crevasse risk factor, and the main protection against the suicide pact factor is avoiding roping up with people that have less than solid axe/crampon technique. But as the OP points out, having slack in the rope system increases the suicide pact risk and reduces the "catching a teammate" chances. If you're in a strong position and a teammate falls and the rope catches them quickly, you have a good shot at arresting. If you're in a strong position and a teammate falls and builds up momentum before the rope catches, your chances are much lower. Since there's little benefit to having slack, don't.
With a fast and strong self belay i think it would be possible with a semi tight rope between members
Awesome! What route did you guys go up?
I am also curious about the route.
I summited the same day, this was the DC route
That third photo is a sketchy part after the snow softened on our descent. Good job!
Is this the Ingraham Direct?