bonner : climbing: I'm riding solo, riding solo....

Yesterday I popped up to Fairy Cave Quarry for a bit of soloing, as Brad had twisted his ankle on a decent in the Lakes.

The day started out pretty wet, but it had at least stopped raining by the time I got to the quarry.

I placed my gear at the bottom of 'Back to Basics' - a VDiff I've done before - intending to solo the route later once it had dried off a bit.

After wandering round the quarry and chatting to another couple of climbers (who left quite sharply it seemed) I decided to scramble up the 'Alpine Ridge' and place a top rope on Balch's Slide and see how wet it was!

Very it turned out. I only got half way up and decided to rap' off again.

I then had some lunch and thought about soloing this route.

I wanted to try a new technique using the Black Diamond ATC Guide, which is oriented in guide mode and clipped to a chest harness. In the event of a fall it should lock up just like it was being used in guide mode.

After climbing about a third of the way up, I down climbed again. The drag on the rope running through the belay device was very off putting.

I then reverted back to using the clove hitch method, which I had used at Swanage the other weekend. This got me to the top! I then setup a belay, rapped back down and retrieved my gear and climbed back up using my ascender. Climbed back down the Alpine Ridge and called it a day!

Job done.

Now that I've tried a few methods for rope soloing, I think I've settled with the clove hitch method. The only thing safer in my mind is actually tying in to your harness every few meters - which is time consuming, but does the job. With the clove hitch method, the knot is always tied and you can use two screwgates back to back for added security (plus a backup knot of course!). Feeding the rope through can be done fairly quickly with one hand, after a little practice.

With Brad out of action for a bit, looks like I might be doing some more soloing!