Climbing
Multi-pitch efficiency: speed is a safety system
On a long route, the thing most likely to hurt you is not the climbing. It is being on the wall at six in the evening when you expected to be down by two.
New multi-pitch climbers work on their climbing. Experienced ones work on everything between the climbing, because that is where the hours go.
A party climbing at a grade well within their ability can still get benighted, caught in a storm, or forced into a rappel in the dark. Almost always the cause is accumulated minutes at belays rather than difficulty on the rock.
The transition is the whole game
Time the changeover at a belay and it is routinely five to ten minutes for an inexperienced party and under two for a practised one. Across fifteen pitches that is an hour or more, which is often the entire difference between finishing in daylight and not.
What takes the time: rope stacked badly and needing untangling, gear passed piece by piece, the anchor built from scratch with too many components, the leader re-racking while standing on a ledge, and conversation about what happens next that should have happened in the car.
Stack the rope properly, every time
As the second climbs, the belayer takes in rope and it has to go somewhere. Stacked in loose coils on a ledge, in a rope bag, or over a sling in tidy butterfly loops with the first-out end on top.
Get this wrong and the leader is stopped mid-pitch by a knot in a pile, which costs far more than the thirty seconds saved.
Swinging leads versus blocks
Swinging leads — alternating who leads — means the second arrives at the belay with the rack and is already on the correct end of the rope. Fastest transition available, and the natural default.
Leading in blocks — one person leads several pitches in a row — requires the rope to be restacked and the rack passed, but it is better when one climber is much stronger, or when the second is slower and benefits from not leading.
Decide which you are doing before you leave the ground and stick to it, because the confusion of switching mid-route costs more than either method.
Rack in the same order every time
Small to large, front to back, same side each time, on the same gear loops. Then the leader can find a piece by feel while pumped, and the handover at the belay is a single motion rather than an inventory.
Both climbers racking identically means either can lead without reorganising.
Build simpler anchors
On two good bolts: two quickdraws or two locking carabiners and the rope, done in twenty seconds. There is no need to construct a cordelette masterpiece on a bolted belay, and doing so is the single most common source of wasted time on modern multi-pitch routes.
On gear, a well-chosen set of two or three pieces tied off with the rope is fast and strong. Save the elaborate constructions for genuinely marginal stances where they earn their minutes.
Belay from the harness where appropriate
Belaying a second directly off the anchor with a device in guide mode is usually faster and safer for a hanging or awkward stance, and it means you can go hands-off to sort the rope while they climb. It also allows the belayer to eat, drink and put on a jacket, which matters on a long day.
Belaying the leader is a different job and belongs on the harness or off the anchor depending on the situation and the risk of factor-two loading.
Communicate less
Wind removes voice communication at exactly the distances involved, and shouting into it wastes minutes and energy. Agree rope signals before you start: a number of firm tugs meaning off belay, on belay, climbing.
Better, agree the whole plan in advance. If both climbers know that the second climbs as soon as the rope comes tight and stops moving, and that the leader will always build at the obvious station, most communication becomes unnecessary.
Manage the small stuff proactively
Layers on and off at the belay, not mid-pitch. Eat and drink at every stance, on a schedule, before you feel like it — a climber who bonks on pitch eleven is now a slow climber for the rest of the route, and slow is the actual hazard.
Sun cream, headtorch accessible, phone charged and in an inside pocket. Know the descent before you start climbing, because the descent is where parties lose the most time and get into the most trouble.
Start earlier than feels necessary
The cheapest safety margin in mountain climbing. An hour of daylight at the start is worth several hours of urgency at the end, and afternoon weather is worse than morning weather almost everywhere.
Alpine starts feel absurd in the car park at three in the morning and entirely reasonable at four in the afternoon when you are drinking tea rather than rappelling by torchlight.
Practise on easy ground
The way to get fast is to do a route several grades below your limit and treat the transitions as the exercise. Time them. Do the same route again a week later and see whether the number has come down.
It is unglamorous training and it is the thing that lets you attempt long routes safely, which is the point of it.
