5 Mistakes You MUST Avoid When Trad Climbing

The last part where you talk about placing gear, do you mean that it would be advised to know the route beforehand? If I am first time on the route, how do I know the top part might be really sketchy to realise to place extra gear before heading to it, if it looks better than it really is? I can see there why someone might place 3 pieces of gear on that kind of a route, thinking it's medium or bad thus placing 3, but thinking he is soon going to get more gear in, but when he realises he can't, it is too late to go back and add.

What's the blue windproof/waterproof looking jacket Mari is wearing at the start of the video?

I'd love to find one

Good points!

How about equalizing multiple pieces using sliding X? Haven't seen that very often, but I think it should make the cluster of sketchy-ish pro safer than just individual pieces. Or is it just not worth the extra work?

Fascinating sport. Question: how do you determine the amount of nuts, cams etc to take up a mountain.

Lesson learned. On the other hand though if i f#$ked up i wont get hurt too bad. I'll fall onto and into a mountain of my own poo.

I'm surprised you didn't cover zippering. People have been hurt putting in nuts in a crack (especially as their pro at the start) and then when they fall and the rope tightens the direction of pull is changed to an upward pull and the nuts pop out, from the bottom up, resulting in no protection and a grounder. Putting in a cam at the start is safer, IMHO. I agree with using two ropes. Once you use two ropes a few times you won't go back to singles, especially on trad climbs that meander around (the Sierra), or have long rappels (The Needles).

Another tendency is to naively trust the guidebook grade. VS's can be HVS and HVS's can be up to 2 grades higher.

99th comment = Awesome content again mr Pete !!

You've really got to do away with thesw clickbait titles. They really lower your credibility and alot of people who have developed a strong aversion to clickbait (myself included) won't watch them

the fact that you went right into the list resulted in me subscribing

1. RUNNERS! Better to fall a little longer that going past your gear and it pulling out. Or the longer the runner the less the piece will move. And, of course, rope drag. 2. Be smooth when clipping the rope. If you jerk the rope up after setting the piece the belayer will put out more rope to anticipate you pulling the rope and this will be worse when you are out of sight. Nobody likes to short rope a leader but you can't have it both ways.

Another important reason for using double rope for trad is the maximum shock load (sorry don't know the exact English term) it has. This means the extra elasticity it has will reduce the load on a piece, guaranteed under the maximum load of that piece. For instance, a double rope has a max shock of 5kN whilst your cams take 7kN. Thus reducing the risk of ripping a piece significantly.

I'm an American and I have to agree with you totally on using double ropes. At first it seemed like it was just more faffing but the abseiling/rappelling difference is *huge*, and using them to reduce fall distance has kept me off a serious groundfall at least twice that I can recall.

Which was the route in Sweden?

Double ropes…once you try using them, you will never want to use a single rope again! They allow so many safer alternatives when clipping gear and there is never the question of “Is my rope long enough?” when rapelling. Price is the only drawback that I can see!

I just love how the video goes straight into the information.

Great advice. I learned the value of jamming on a trad route that i had only toproped before and never used the jams. Of course, when it came time to lead it I was more scared so i looked for any additional security and I found that in a bomber fist jam. Such a wonderful feeling.

Great video! Regarding double ropes - Isn't rope stretch usually higher on double compared to single ropes? This reduces max. stress on placed gear in case of a fall.

Would you have any thoughts on rope soloing with a double rope please Pete? Device/setup etc.
Probably be a lot going on, simpler and safer single rope 🤔

What kind of double roup do you use?(Brand, diameter)

I think this is the most serious I've ever seen Pete

Nah nah nah, I want to use a single rope

Nice video. Hard work to condense all that info in to such a short piece and you made some great points. I learned some things. You've got a new subscriber.

Double ropes you mean half ropes.

This is the first time I have ever heard of using double rope

i would say number 1 should be always check your gear fully before a climb

Great advice!

So ima 220lb former body builder in my early 40s. I can climb 5.9 comfortably indoors and 5.7 outdoors. My son is a 5.12 lead so think its safe for me to trad top rope follow or aid after him on easy multipitch?

Excellent discussion. At 70+ I'm pretty much a retired (trad) climber. I started my climbing in Yosemite in the early 70s, so I saw and participated in the introduction of nuts, sticky rubber and eventually camming devices. Indeed, it is cams that lead to mistake number one. Just too easy. Sometimes you see videos of pitches where the climber isn't carrying a single nut and the crack has all these superb hex and stopper opportunities.

Just stay at home, it's dangerous!

really enjoyed the flow of this video!

There's something to be said about placing upward pull anchors on an anchor. If one gets ripped up catching a fall, it can cause the anchoring system to be displaced.

I don't see the playlist you're referencing at the end of the video

On. Multi pithch, always (unless you have no option) set up your belay so that all the foces are directly to the anchor and not to your body. If your partner is incapacitated, you will need to be able to escape the belay easily.

Your absolutely right about double, twin twin ropes. The route dictates what system you use.
Twin ropes are not for beginners.
There's a lot of nuances to learn when using twins. Eg feeding out slack while bringing in slack at the same time

Place gear to protect the belayer from being pulled up

On many trad runout routes you need to take rope in.

Thanks, useful info!

the only mistake of trad climbing I see is not using bolts instead)))

every times i see double ropes at the Gunks i think to myself. fuck the monarchy this is America!

Popped into my recommended. How about "Not wearing a helmet when belaying"? :)