Four to One Lower-Out While Cleaning Aid

This photo goes with the post that describes the 4:1 Lower Out.

I took this photo while soloing The Shortest Straw. First thing you need to know is that I am not leading here, I am cleaning an aid pitch.

I have my Grigri rigged up on my harness as one of my ascenders, as per usual.

On the right side of the photo, you can just see my regular handled ascender. Note that the ascender is rigged with an orange-coloured designated sling, and that this sling is attached to the ascender with a quick link to reduce the clusterf*ckage.

The top end of the rope is anchored at the top of the pitch. The bottom end is as you see it, clipped into the wide gate "backup" autolocker. You can also see that the backup autolocker is on its own designated short sewn sling. This sling is girth-hitched through my doughnut. [Canadian spelling of "donut", eh?]

It is obvious that I have just started cleaning the pitch, because you see the end of the rope clipped into the backup autolocker.

I've taken an oval crab, and attached it to the blue autolocker that is on the Grigri.

It looks as though I am lowering myself off of a sling tied through a fixed head.

So the rope starts at the backup knot, goes through the sling, down to the oval, back through the sling, and to my hand. There is plenty of friction with the sling - you do not need to put a rappel device on the free end while you lower yourself off.

The only time you would need to use a rap device would be if there were a fixed carabiner on the piece that you could not booty. This, at least for me, is extremely rare.

One thing to remember when you are lowering off of a bunch of slings - just put the rope through the best one. If there is no best one, then put on one yourself. You will come to grief as I have, if you run the rope through a bunch of slings of unequal length. When you have finished lowering out, you go to pull the rope, and the damn thing hangs up!

Be careful!