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Backstory: A few months ago, I experienced the following situation: We (two people) were climbing the last pitch of a multi-pitch route. Near the end, there was a cave-like chimney. Basically a ch...
#2: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2020-04-17T23:01:34Z (about 4 years ago)
Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/9519 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#1: Initial revision
by
anderas
·
2020-04-17T23:01:34Z (about 4 years ago)
<h2>Backstory:</h2> <p>A few months ago, I experienced the following situation: We (two people) were climbing the last pitch of a multi-pitch route. Near the end, there was a cave-like chimney. Basically a chimney where the opening was narrower than the chimney itself, and the whole thing getting narrower towards the top.</p> <p>When I lead that pitch, I had no problem going up, noticing that I had to leave the chimney because the top opening was too narrow for my helmet, downclimbing a meter and continuing on the outside. When I was belaying the second, she got stuck inside the "cave" because of her backpack with no way of going up, down or out. The whole situation looked a bit like this (left: side view, right: front view):</p> <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wecd0.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wecd0.png" alt="Situation"></a></p> <p>Our problem in that situation was that we absolutely couldn't communicate (cave roof between us, open sea to the back, so no echo), and I had no way of knowing what was happening down there. She finally solved the situation by letting go, falling for at most half a meter and then (with great difficulty) wiggling out of the cave. If I had known that she needed to be lowered like 1-2 m, the whole situation would have been solved in a minute, but like this, it took like 15. </p> <h2>Question:</h2> <p>While it worked out fine in our situation, what is the generally recommended way of handling a situation where the second seems stuck and absolutely no communication is possible? Also, what would have been the appropriate reaction of she hadn't been able to move?</p> <p>This is mainly about how to handle such a situation if you haven't prepared specifically. However, recommendations about preparing for the case of such a situation are also welcome, if this doesn't make my question too broad!</p>