the sharpest end

Here’s how to set up the tyrolean for the ICC Horsethief outing.

Author: Bill Booth
with the help of Doug Sanders
Detailed pictures can be found HERE.

NOTE: Be sure to make safety your #1 priority here! People think this is all fun, but it’s very dangerous if you’re not tied in at all times and you have students practice being tied in at all times, with people checking their work.

Gear needed:

• A few really comprehensive trad racks, with stoppers, small cams, lots of slings, and more cams
• The black 200-meter static line (BOEALPS owns this)
• Two ascenders, with bieners to clip through the ‘safety hole’ in each one (to keep them on the rope if the teeth disengage)
• a small piece of carpet to pad the rope from abraison at the high strength tie off anchor
• stuff to make the sitting more manageable for instructors: some pads to sit on, green tea, the superbowl on DVR..
• two instructors, with a third to assist on the opposite side of the ravine.

There are three anchors:

• The high-strength tie-off (I’ll call it the HST)
• The huge main anchor
• The backup/tensionining anchor (another pic)

Before you build any of these anchors, check the rock first to see if it shifted around or got chossy. It changes from year to year. For the HST, just get 4-6 loops of static line around the big pinnacle rock on the adjacent side of the ravine. just clip the rope back to itself when you’re done wrapping.

You don’t have to really do more than 5 loops here. It’s extremely strong when built like the above picture. Note the abraision of the rope on the right side of the pinnacle here. Just keep an eye on it as students traverse the line and make pad it if it starts gnawing at the static line.

The Main Anchor

For the HUGE main anchor, this is the fun part. Get another instructor, both your racks and maybe even another rack and go to town on the anchor! Some tips:

• This anchor is build for vertical loading, not lateral. So don’t pay attention to dynamic equalization side to side. Up and down, yes.
• The power point needs to be large enough to have about 5 or 6 lockers clipped into it.
• The power point needs to be pointing toward the HST when you load it.
• Pair up two pieces at a time and reduce them with a sliding-x down to the main power point. It’s a quick way of making two pieces into one.
• Notice when you set up the prusiks how far out they are. Keep them in close enough over the rock so you can actually clip the ascenders past them without leaning over the void!

Now, let’s use this picture for reference.

Notice the static line goes from the HST (not pictured above), across the ravine, to the two yellow prusiks here on the power point, through a locker on the power point, and up to the secondary anchor. In the past, we’ve used a BIG pulley in place of this locker to run the rope through. That’s your choice. I like just using a big locker because it’s less engineering.  Note that when a student is loading this system, the two prusiks should be taking all the load.

The backup anchor

The backup anchor is just that, a backup. It’s also used to tension the system and lower scared students to the ravine floor if they trip out in the middle of the traverse. This has happened before and we have the smarts to do it. So there you go.

Notice how the static line runs from the HST, across the ravine, through the main anchor, and up to the backup. Also note that we make a 3-to-1 here with the rest of the static line. Build this one with as many pieces as you can reasonably get in without wasting time. I used 3-5 pieces. When you aren’t using the static line, keep it coiled and ready below/around the 3-to-1 anchor here so students don’t step on it or trip.

As students show up here, have them use the 3-to-1 anchor and static line to the main anchor as a hand rail. They can even clip to it and slide along it as they walk to the main anchor launch point.

Sending students across the traverse

This is the funny part. Watching students freak out and/or have a great time on this.

1. Get The two ascenders and put them on the line just past the prusiks.
2. Clip bieners through the ascenders to keep them safe on the line! (pic)
3. The student clips a locker to their belay loop and then clips that to the static line. They will slide across on this locker, so make sure it’s not twisted.
4. The outermost ascender is just free, not tied to anything
5. The innermost ascender has a locker on it, with a big sling going back through the student’s locker (on their harness) and to a foot loop. see the pictures. The sling can be the instructors’ and just stay with the ascender at this station.

When they arrive, have them clipped into the anchor before ANYTHING else happens. Then you can chat about the setup.  Take care to eliminate any loose clothing or hair that might get tangled in the ascenders too! Have them clip their locker from their belay loop to the static line first. Then configure the ascenders so they have their safety bieners clipped and are pointed the right direction. They get the foot loop threaded through their main locker and lean back gingerly, putting all their weight on the anchor. And off they go.

On the opposite side of the ravine, have them clip into the anchor, reconfigure the ascenders, and come back.

Adjusting the tension

Remember, this tyrolean is going from one anchor to another at a 180-degree angle. This is very nasty because the closer you get to 180, the more force you get on the anchors and the line. You can mitigate this by having some sag in the tyrolean. It should NOT be pulled tight with the 3-to-1! If you do this, it will be WAY too tight.