I first learned of the “Backside of the Clove Hitch” in 2017 while reading The Mountain Guide Manual and soon after attended a clinic on its use given by Marc Chauvin, one of the authors of this impressive tome of knowledge. Adding this tool to your repertoire will give you more options and problem solving capacity while climbing, especially during transitions. From my experience while many guides use this tool it has been slower to catch on in the greater recreational climbing circles. This post hopes to bring more general awareness of this useful technique.
The rope in the above video is the Mammut Crag Dry Duodess 9.5mm 60m Rope. <- Loving this rope and will have a detailed review soon!
While the most common way to use this technique is to transition from climbing to rappelling it actually can be quite efficient in reverse. Last week my climbing partner and I rappelled down to a semi-hanging belay stance where we needed to pull the rope, then lead back out to the top of the cliff. There are a few ways to do this but utilizing the backside of the clove hitch technique had some real advantages.
One of the biggest advantages with this and the associated “Backside Rappel Feed” is that one of the two climbers can always stay tied in to one end of the rope. This ensures that the party will never drop their rope, and if a middle mark is at the anchor it eliminates the need for a “stopper” knot in the other free end of the rope. The free end will be less likely to get caught somewhere with out a stopper knot, and there is no need to remember to remove the stopper knot.
While the middle mark and being tied in to one end will prevent the potential for rappelling off the end of your rope, pre-rigging the second person to rappel will add even another layer of redundancy. In the avoidable instance where your middle mark is incorrect and you manage to rappel off the free end of your rope, with a pre-rigged partner at the anchor, you will essentially have just gone from a double strand rappel to a single strand rappel. Disaster avoided, but let’s make sure correct middle marks are used instead ok?
In its simplest form, the backside of the clove hitch technique is just using the climbing rope from “behind” the first climber’s clove hitch as a full strength completely adjustable tether. You would do the same thing with a simple overhand on a bight on that strand but the clove hitch allows you to custom the length of the attachment often leading to a more comfortable stance. I can recall many cramped rappel stations where had I known about this technique I would have quickly and easily secured my climbing partner a few feet away from me so we would not be uncomfortably on top of each other at the station.
One very important difference between using the backside of the clove hitch and the more traditional individual “tether” climbers often use is the security of the second climber relies on both clove hitches. The second climber needs to be secured by a different manner before the first climber removes their clove hitch. In the more common situation of transitioning to rappel this is simply done by the second climber pre-rigging themselves on rappel above the first climbers rappel device. Once both climbers are rigged to rappel and checks have been made, all clove hitches can be removed and the first climber can start rappelling (staying tied in on the harness to one of the rope ends).
The steps we took in the below video were intentional since we new that Bob would be leading the pitch and I was familiar with the rappel to get us on route. The most logical option in this situation was for us to set up a pretty standard single rope double strand retrievable rappel, but I would tie in with a retraced figure of eight to one end of the climbing rope and rappel first. The other free end of the rope did not need a stopper knot which reduces the chance of snags (or forgetting to remove it before pulling the rope).
I rappelled down to the belay station, built a quick anchor, and clove hitched myself to the anchor with the climbing rope. After I came off rappel and signaled to Bob he could start descending I tied another clove hitch on the strand “behind” by clove hitch and had a locking carabiner all ready to go to Bob’s belay loop when he arrived. Once he was clipped into that locker he could take himself off rappel, we could pull the free unknotted end of the rope through the top rappel anchor, stacking our rope as we pulled, and when we had the free end in hand Bob only needed to tie-in and get ready to start leading out from our station.
Summary
In recreational climbing it is beneficial to do more with less. A lot of climbers, myself included, use tools like the Petzl Connect Adjust or a sling to tether into the an anchor during a transition. Using the backside of your clove hitch to quicky create a super strong and fully adjustable tether for your parter is a solid skill to have in your tool kit. I hope this post has clearly explained the process and demonstrated some of the benefits of the technique. If you have any questions please share them below!
See you in the mountains,
Northeast Alpine Start
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