Written by: Zack Mintz, Assistant Rock Guide
Lead Guide Anna Marie keeping things organized up high!
While multipitch climbing, managing the rope plays a big role in efficiency. When I go climbing, I like to keep the rope moving as much as possible. If the rope is moving, so is your team. Organizing the rope well keeps you moving.
The terrain at a belay station will often dictate how to best manage the rope. Ideally, we look to belay on big, flat ledges. We can stack the rope in a neat pile as we belay the follower. This tidiness facilitates a quick and easy belay on the next pitch with no tangles or difficulties. Here’s a shot of me last season belaying high up on Frogland, a classic 5.8 in Red Rocks. The leader chose to stop on a great ledge, so I had an easy time lead belaying them from a neat pile.
Flat, big belay ledge, rope stacked neatly off to my side. Super easy and organized lead belay!
On smaller ledges, the rope will often slide down the cliff if you try to stack it in a pile. Instead, I’ll often ask partners to stack the rope on top of their feet. Doing so creates a spot for the rope to sit neatly, and as long as they don’t move their feet, it won’t fall down the cliff. Here on Sundial Crack, this ledge is pretty good but not huge, so I had Graham and Baxter make piles in front of their feet to keep their ropes in place.
Graham and Baxter reflaking the ropes for the next pitch. To keep their ropes from sliding off the small ledge, they stack them on top of their feet!
In other spots, the terrain is simply too steep to stack a rope anywhere on the rock. In these situations, I’ll sometimes stack the rope across the belayer’s clove hitch attachment to the anchor, forming coils across their lap (called “lap coils.”) If these coils are stacked evenly, they will feed off to the belayer as they pull rope for the leader. Personally, I find lap coils kinda annoying because you have to flick coils from left to right to keep the rope below your break hand as you belay. It’s a bit more work for the belayer and can become a problem if the coils get tangled during the lead belay. But again, if they’re neat, they work fine! Here’s me rocking some lap coils at a stance in Linville Gorge!
Lap coils in Linville Gorge. Rope is stacked nice and even across my clove hitch attachment, facilitating an easy lead belay on the next pitch!
Instead of lap coiling at steep stances, I’ve been experimenting with coiling the rope on the anchor. As I belay the follower, I’ll pass coils through a sling clipped to the anchor (an alpine draw works great!). If we’re swapping pitches, I put the follower on belay once they arrive, and as they climb, I pull coils off the sling as they lead. This technique keeps the rope organized and also works well if you want to keep the rope dry (see a video here on why that works:
It’s a bit difficult to organize the rope if the follower climbs quickly because it takes a little more time to get the rope coils through the sling and make them neat. Nonetheless, this technique is super manageable when the follower moves at a reasonable pace. Here’s a shot of me keeping the rope on the anchor while climbing Hidden Crack at Table Rock!
Rope coiled in a sling on the anchor belaying from above at Table Rock. When there’s no ledge, we need to keep the rope organized somewhere, and the anchor is an easy place to manage it!
Next time you’re out multipitch climbing, pay close attention to how you and your partner choose to organize the rope. Note any advantages you might have gained from stacking it differently at a given stance, and experiment with other organization methods to gain familiarity with your options. For more tips and tricks on rope management, consider spending a day with one of our guides to learn better rope craft. After all, laser-precision rope management is the name of the game. And always remember: Look good, feel good, climb good!