The old switcheroo

One of the comments on my blog about climbing as a three asked:

I seem to climb multi-pitch trad as a three quite a bit. The one lead / two follow method works well. My question is: is there an efficient way to switch leads? Is untying and retying the best way?

One of the fastest and smoothest ways to run a team of three — keeping changeovers quick and ropes tidy — is this: when both seconds arrive, the new leader takes the two rope ends the seconds just climbed on. The two new seconds (who will follow the next pitch) take the former leader’s rope ends.

If you’re swapping properly, the safest method is to tie in and out using bowlines. They’re quick to tie and easy to untie after loading. While doing this, stay attached to the belay at all times. Use a sling or daisy to keep yourself clipped in. It also keeps the rope separate from the anchor while you sort the swap.

An alternative is to use two small screwgates (back to back) clipped to a figure-of-eight, which is then clipped directly into your harness belay loop. Each climber has two lockers on their belay loop — not two per rope. Don’t worry about the belay loop; it’s the strongest part of the harness.

Two lockers are better than one. If a leader falls, the load can come across the gate and cross-load it. Modern screwgates are strong, but redundancy is cheap insurance. The advantage of clipping rather than untying is speed. On a 15-pitch alpine route, repeated tying and untying adds up. More importantly, constant retying increases the chance of a poorly dressed knot — or worse, not being tied in at all.

Another way to reduce faff is to lead in blocks. Let one climber take two or three pitches before swapping. Fewer transitions, fewer mistakes.

The good thing about climbing as a three is that you have three minds to solve a problem.

Of course, that can also mean three opinions.