Illusions of safety in the mountains - rope

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MCS AlexClimb Mountain Climbing School

This article is about how safety stereotypes sometimes become not only useless, but also life-threatening.

Of course, mountaineering is a dangerous activity, here I am unlikely going beyond the banal axioms. However, there is an opinion about the relative safety of mountaineering, if certain rules are observed - I would prefer to deal with this subject in more detail.

There are a lot of illusions and misconceptions, especially among couch specialists and TV mountain sports enthusiasts. I will deliberately not use the term "extreme sports" here, since, in my deep conviction, mountaineering refers to them only in its pathological forms. A normal person, guided by common sense and a sense of self-preservation, will never cross the line of "extreme" in mountaineering, as in anything else.

In this article, I want to dispel a common myth that using a rope on the route ensures the safety of climbers.

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I am often asked why I do not always use a rope when climbing?

I will start answering the question from a little further and list the most reliable safety factors in mountaineering, and then I will go directly to the question asked about the rope.

So, the unconditional factors that increase the level of safety of people on the mountain trekking or climbing routes are:

1. All participants in the group have proven navigation skills and stable communication channels with rescue services, police and ambulances (cellular, satellite, radio channel).
2. Ideally, all members of the group should have access to these channels, and communication channels should be duplicated.
3. Availability of information for the rescue services about the route of the group, the timing of entry and exit from the route.

You probably get the idea - you should never rely on the possibility of self-rescue in the event of an accident. This is the most common misconception and the cause of many troubles in the mountains - overconfidence in one’s ability to solve problems.

The presence of various devices for ensuring safety - a rope in case of a fall, a GPS navigator in case of loss of orientation, a first aid kit in case of illness - all this is necessary. But the effectiveness of all these elements is quite low, especially if the participants do not have special technical training in the use of these tools, which, as a rule, only a very few professionals have. So, outside help will always be 1000% more effective than any self-rescue measures.

Now let's move on to the declared topic about the rope.

The following, in no way refers to difficult technical routes, and in no way is a call to climb without protection. The use of a rope is an indispensable element of protection when climbing, in case if there is a possibility of a fall - there is nothing to argue about and the classic position of safety in mountaineering is fully applicable here.

But, as soon as we move to routes of easy and medium difficulty, everything becomes not so obvious. Using a rope can become not only an ineffective measure, but even involve additional risks, the existence of which not many climbers are aware of.

Several examples and comments on them. Climbing Mount Elbrus, gentle icy slope. Moving up of the roped group without the organization of points of protection on the ice is an acceptable tactical decision, given the length of the route and weather conditions. However, in the event of fall of one participant, a fall of the entire group may occur, especially if the entire weight of the group is rather light - 2-3-4 people.

The result of using the rope is "one falls - everyone fell" Crashed, broken, no one left to call for help. All died. In this case, the rope helped only to the rescuers - all the bodies were connected with the rope and there was no need to search for them one by one.

Another example. The Ushba glacier, crevasse, a collapsed snow bridge and a pair of climbers in this crevasse with broken legs. They can’t get out, there is no radio connection, of course. They died from hypothermia. Most likely, they were not even found, since the rescuers will not be able to search all the crevasses on the glacier with all their desire. The rope did not save from fall, because in the rope of two, a common fall is the most likely result of a fall of one  - even a small pull on the rope with an equal weight of the participants pulls down the second one and there is very little chance of holding on.

I would like to talk about the dangers of an independent climbing in a roped pair separately, this is an interesting topic.

The third example is the ascent of Mont Blanc, the roped climbing team moves along the scree rocky couloir of medium steepness - the progressing is slowed down due to the inefficient interaction of the participants. Result: when passing a section prone to rockfall, the group is hit with stones, the participants are injured, one died, rescuers arrived half an hour later and took everyone to the hospital – definitely it was not the best ending of the climb. And last example.

Mount Khan Tengri, a roped group traverses the slope prone to avalanche (closed glacier) – roped as it should be according to the rules. The broking down of a small wet avalanche right on the middle member of the team. The result is that the whole group is drawn down into the avalanche, the participants, entangled in the rope, cannot dig out and die at a shallow depth under the snow until help arrives. Without a rope, they could run away, and after the avalanche stops, quickly dig out those who nevertheless get into it.

Unfortunately, every year there are more and more examples of such accidents. Every year people die because no one has explained to them, told them, taught them to think about their own safety...

One conclusion must be drawn from the above. The use of the rope must be justified and tactically weighed, the decision is far from always obvious and for its correct adoption according to the situation, experience is required. Standard solutions (such as the mandatory use of a rope at all times), in some cases, do more harm than good. When teaching mountaineering, one should pay more attention to tactical decisions than to technical ones.

For example, spending a week for an alpine climbing course teaching a novice how to organize a chain hoist to pull a partner out of a crevasse is certainly interesting, but rather pointless at the same time, and possibly dangerous. Since, in case of the fall into crevass, this beginner will most likely be with his partner, confident that he has all the necessary knowledge on how to make a double chain hoist.

The author of the text and photos - Alex Trubachev
Your professional international mountain guide and climbing coach

MCS EDIT 2024