garage gym: Petzel Mini Traxion

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Petzel Mini Traxion

Petzel Mini Traxion changed my life. I have a very limited amount of time to climb and my few trusted climbing partners are also busy with their careers and families. In order for me to get in enough cragging time to be comfortable in the backcountry, I started top-rope soloing with the Petzel Mini Traxion or “mini-T” as it’s better known. The top rope soloing “movement” has really gained traction in the past few years and it’s not uncommon to see two or three climbers top rope soloing at Snowshed Wall (one of my local Donner Summit crags) on any given day. In the instructions for use that came with the device, Petzel calls it a “Swing sided self-jamming pulley” and list three modes of operations; hauling, self-belay and horizontal progression or Tyrolian traverse. I really liked the graphic of a climber getting her hair stuck in the cam. Yikes!

When I decided to checkout TR soloing for myself I went to talk to local climbing ace Max at the Sports Exchange in Truckee. Max spends a lot of time in the Yosemite racing up big walls and is always up on the latest techniques. As he ran me threw the various systems being used, I couldn’t help but notice how often he said “bomber” but ultimately, I would be the judge of the systems safety. While some people use a Tibloc as a back up, I decided to go with a system utilizing two mini-Ts in locking karabiners that limit side loading and a chest harness. So on a cool April day in ‘09 I headed up to Donner to try it out. I choose a short 5.9 crack, clipped in and climbed up about five feet and hung to check it out. I dropped about six inches before the top cam engaged (more on this later). I then climbed the pitch and felt completely comfortable with the system. I rappelled back down and moved the top mini-T from the chest harness to my sit harness. Then I connected a sling from the chest harness to the top mini-T to keep it under tension and take any slack out of the system. I made some other slight adjustment and did another lap. I was hooked.

Since I’ve been climbing at Donner Summit for thirty years I quickly developed several circuits that allowed me to climb as many pitches as possible in the shortest amount of time. But in the end I realized that once you take the partner(s) and belaying out of the equation, you have plenty of time. It really made me realize how much time is wasted talking shit, trying to figure out what to climb next and avoiding annoying locals and dogs. Lately I’ve fine tuned my system by using a 130’ 10mm static line and my old FISH zebra-stripped gear sling instead of the chest harness to hold the top mini-T up and avoid the sagging I talked about earlier. Since I have a lot of weights around my house I double slung a 5# plate to attach to the bottom of the rope. Other climbers use some gear on a sling or a water bottle to keep the rope taunt and allow the Mini-T to slide freely.

It’s beyond the scope of this blog to give too many details on systems for top rope soloing. What is described above is my system being applied to routes I have wired. It may not work for you. I would encourage you to Google top rope soloing or search the supertopo forum for more information. A better idea is to ask some one you trust and then experiment with few different techniques. I’ve seen other climbers using different devices such as a Trango Cinch or a Grigri like Leo Houlding and Jason Pickles in the movie P2yche to “top-rope” their route The Prophet on El Cap! Top rope soloing is a lot like ascending a fixed line without aiders or tying in short. The whole process is a little more engaging than going out for a TR session with your buddies. YOU ARE SOLOING! IF YOU FUCK UP, YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELF TO BLAME.

2 comments:

JP WilliamsJuly 4, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Mark,

Love the site and your attitudes.

I also use a double Mini-Trax system, basically the same as yours. I also use a water-knotted piece of tube webbing as a doubled belay loop for one last piece of "redundancy." For those who are new to the system (you're clearly not), I find that a one and a half length runner crossed around the shoulders with a locker works perfectly for keeping the upper trax "tight." A second tip I use (rather than carry a 5lb weight) is to butterfly coil the extra slack in the rope and tie it up so it's a couple feet off the ground. I also clip my shoes and daypack (with water, etc) to this self-weight, and when I'm done at the top, I can just pull up the rope, my shoes, and my pack for the hike down.

Question, do you notice a difference between a static line and a dynamic line?

Jonathan
(bay area radiology resident envious of your proximity to the crags)
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Mike Davis RNJuly 4, 2011 at 2:59 PM
JP, thanks for the comments, some of my friends use the same set up as you. I usually set up at the top of the crag where I leave my pack, water and snacks. The static line seems to slide thru the mini-t easier and of course the is no strech. Also, I just like the 5# plate. Thanks again, Mike D.
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Introduction

garage gym

I’ve always been a gym rat. I like to workout. In particular I’ve always been interested in strength and conditioning as a means to improve climbing performance. Bachar ladders, home made fingerboards, pull up bars, and crack machines have over the years littered my garages and lawns. In my thirty years of climbing I have almost always had access to a commercial gym. I have also accumulated a small library of books and articles on fitness and climbing performance. These include a dog-eared, twenty-year-old copy of Bill Pearl’s Strength Training, to my recently purchased copy of Eric Horst’s Maximum Climbing. After an extended lay off due to illness and pursuing other interests, in the fall of 2009 I began to train again.

After a few workouts at a local gym I began to question if it (a machine based circuit) was actually helping me. I was going through the motions. It was boring as hell. A few days later I stumbled upon an article in Outside magazine on GYM JONES the Salt Lake City based gym owned by famed alpinist Mark Twight. Since I’ve always admired Twight’s climbing, writing, and taste in music, I quickly drank the kool aid. The Gym Jones web site was a revelation. A short time later I discovered Mountain Athlete.com, Climbstrong.com and Cross fit. I soon realized that I had been wasting my time, and perhaps I had never really trained with any meaningful level of intensity. In Twight’s book Kiss or Kill Confessions of a Serial Climber he says, “…know the difference between working out and training”.

Since family, career, and other interests take up a lot of my time, I decided I needed the ability to train at home. Fortunately I have a large garage. I started with a pull up bar, fingerboard and a few dumbbells. Later I added kettlebells, a medicine ball, gymnast rings, a small climbing wall, and an Air dyne bike. The information age made it easy for me to find the books, websites, and videos by Paval Tsatouline, Dan John, Neil Gresham and others. Yet none of these training philosophies addressed the specific needs of my friends and myself, i.e. forty-something’s who climb Yosemite’s long hard free climbs and big walls in a day. High Sierra car-to-car, dawn-to-dark missions that combine ultra running/hiking with multi-pitch rock climbs and high ridge traverses (my personal favorite). We also skate ski, backcountry ski, as well as ride mountain and road bikes. Our training combines all these influences into a potent brew. The process is always evolving. We’ll try anything. Then we’ll evaluate it, modify it, keep it, or chuck it. Then try something else. The results speak for themselves.

Mike Davis RN

Truckee, California

Spring 2010