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donnerock
Jun 30, 2005, 11:24 AM
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Registered: Oct 28, 2004
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I recently purchased a Silent Partner and wanted to just share some of things I have learned.
First, it is ALOT better to have a real partner. Instead of paying $225, if you buy post-climbing beers at $5 a day for 45 days, that is quite a lot of partnered climbing. But, if you are like me with a partner who works 5 days a week an hour away and you still want to climb, the SP is great.
Second, you had better be good at setting anchors. The anchor you set at the bottom of the pitch (all this refers to lead climbing) is the most important since it is what keeps you from smacking the ground. Consequently, you will use a fair amount of gear setting up this anchor. Furthermore, I clove hitch the first piece of protection to keep the anchor taut without extension.
Third, the SP eats up a lot of locking biners. It requires two to attach it to your harness plus one for each looped line. To minimize the rope I'm hauling, I only loop two lines. When I use one loop, I will retie another loop to follow the second loop, etc.
Next is rope management. This is perhaps the most cumbersome part of the SP. I have only used it 6 or 7 times, but each time I have encountered a different rope management problem. You bring a lot of rope with you including the opposite end that is tied to you directly. The first times I used it, the weight of my 10.5 Edelweiss dry rope (even with the loops) would cause enough friction to tighten my clove hitch on the SP. Not good when you are about to make a move. I would frequently loosen the clove hitch and feed some slack in before making a move, but that slack will add to your fall length. I used shorter loops to reduce the weight and that helped, but required more retying of loops. I now use a 9.2 mm rope that is less than the SP recommends but it sure feeds nice and it does lock.
Remember that when using the silent partner, you do EVERYTHING with the rope yourself: checking that the SP is not locked up before you go up, pulling your own slack to clip into your pro, keeping the rope slack-free to minimize your fall, releasing loops as you approach your knot, etc. It takes me (without not really timing it) twice as long to climb a pitch including setting up the anchor at the bottom versus having a partner. So if I get one or two climbs in, I am happy.
You must plan what to do at the top of the climb. Is the climb/rope at a length that you can rappel down? If you have chains or any other preplaced anchor at the top, you can feed the rope through and clean pro on the way down, then pull the rope. If it is a walk off without an anchor, you will have to build another anchor (more gear), rappel down and clean pro, then walk back up and down to retrieve your top anchor.
The following are some rope problems I have had that I have learned from and almost all of them happened at the least opportune time:
-Once, I clipped into my first piece with one of my loops under the pro. It prevented me from climbing beyond the loop length. I had to down climb to undo the piece (remember I clove hitch the first piece) to get the loop out.
-Once, the rope that is tied directly to my harness doubled over at the bottom and became stuck side-by-side in the crack. I initially untied the rope from my harness (not the SP) and that allowed me to climb to a better place where I could recover. Fortunately, there was an anchor that I knew about the next climb over, I fed the rope through and rappelled down the single line. Fortunately, that was long enough.
-Once, I realized I clipped a piece of pro onto the wrong side of the SP (the loop side rather than the anchor side). The SP can be loaded either way, but it has to be between the SP and the anchor. Now I make it a habit to always have the anchor to the left of the SP so I am always clipping onto the same side.
-Once, with my new rope, it hadn't uncoiled enough even though it was slacked out a couple times. The coils tangled up at the bottom in a crack. When I went to rap off the top anchor, I could only pull about 10 feet of rope through the chains. I tied a knot at the end of the rope so I wouldn't accidentally fall through the end, rapped down as far as I could and was lucky enough to get the rope unstuck, pull it up and uncoil the kinks.
Probably, most of these problems could be solved by backpacking my rope. It would certainly help with the tied-in end as I wouldn't have to be pulling that up as well as the anchor end. If the rope didn't feed well out of the backpack, that would be another issue as I wear a sling with my cams on it.
Anyway, please pardon the ramble. I merely wanted to share my experiences with the SP. In summary, I very much enjoy using it, I am glad to get some climbing in when my partner can't go, and I am learning to think on my feet when things don't go exactly right.
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yetanotherdave
Jun 30, 2005, 1:36 PM
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Registered: Mar 19, 2005
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Do you use the SP for aiding at all?
I bought one for doing long mixed aid/free routes, and I like it, but most of the ppl talking about solo aiding seem to use grigris... Seems to me that a gri would be cool for harder aid, but for the free/easy aid routes I tend to solo, the SP seems like it should be faster.
Any comments from more experienced rope-solo types?
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omenbringer
Jun 30, 2005, 2:51 PM
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Registered: Sep 19, 2003
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In reply to: Next is rope management. This is perhaps the most cumbersome part of the SP. I have only used it 6 or 7 times, but each time I have encountered a different rope management problem...The first times I used it, the weight of my 10.5 Edelweiss dry rope (even with the loops) would cause enough friction to tighten my clove hitch on the SP. In reply to: Now I make it a habit to always have the anchor to the left of the SP so I am always clipping onto the same side.
I definately agree that your bottom anchor needs to be robust when leading on the SP, but I use the same amount of gear on it that I would use on any multidirectional anchor. 3 in the anticipated direction of pull (in this case up) and 1 in opposition.
Personally I love the SP, it allows me to climb when I want to, without having to worry about accomadating a partners schedule. I have found that I have fewer problems the more I use it, as long as I follow the guidelines from the manual. On a typical outing with the SP I can get in anywhere from 8 to 12 routes at the local crag (much more than when I go out with a partner).
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outsideguyzak
Jun 30, 2005, 3:30 PM
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Registered: Mar 24, 2005
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I just got my silent partner yesterday, thanks for the tips.
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donnerock
Jun 30, 2005, 3:41 PM
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Registered: Oct 28, 2004
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Thanks omenbringer,
I agree with both of your assessments. When I say I keep the anchor to one side of the SP, I am talking about the rope end of the anchor - not the physical anchor itself. All the loops I keep to the right of the SP. This way I know immediately which rope to grab for clipping in without tracing them.
And to anotherdave, no - I have not used the SP for aid climbing.
I do enjoy the Silent Partner because I can lead on it, and I am sure it will get easier as I continue using it.
Thanks for your comments.
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omenbringer
Jun 30, 2005, 4:34 PM
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Registered: Sep 19, 2003
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Donnerock, sorry I misread what you were saying. Like you, I always try to set up the SP the same way. It definately helps. It also sounds like you like to clip pro high, I do the same, unfortunately the SP can be a pain to do this with. It is definately easier to clip at your waist. The biggest problem I have noticed with the SP is finding a harness that can accomodate four locking carabiners plus a tie in knot, I know my Calidris doesn't. I have mitagated this problem slightly by using thin lockers such as the DMM Eclipse lockers to connect the SP to the harness, though I must admit I still end up cliping the backup knots to the belay loop.
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flamer
Jun 30, 2005, 4:56 PM
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Registered: Oct 22, 2002
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In reply to: though I must admit I still end up cliping the backup knots to the belay loop.
I've used the SP alot mostly on long routes.
A couple of quick things....what you said here is actually the way I've been doing it...only I tied a small loop of super tape onto my harness to back up the belay loop.
Also (from the og post) youdo not need a biner for every back up loop. 2 is plenty and you can clip more than 1 loop into each. That being said you are wasting time by only using 2 loops and retying them...try tying the entire rope into 25 ft section's...these should be "stacked" in the back up biners to allow for ease of removal....this will alos limit the length of loops below you.... thus eliminating the weight on the SP(so your clove doesn't lock-up) and make it easier to deal with ropes getting stuck/tangled...which is an inevitable problem.
I have a pretty good and fast system worked out for doing long route's....I've posted it several times...do a search if you want to see it cause I'm tired of typing!!
josh
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donnerock
Aug 29, 2005, 8:30 AM
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Registered: Oct 28, 2004
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To all,
I have started a second thread concerning Top Roping and Falling on the Silent Partner. Thanks.
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donnerock
Aug 29, 2005, 8:33 AM
Post #9 of 9
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Registered: Oct 28, 2004
Posts: 14
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To all,
I have started a second thread concerning Top Roping and Falling on the Silent Partner. Thanks.
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