Solo top-roping is different and a little safer than solo lead climbing. Still, it can't be considered as safe as having a partner. I'll offer some thoughts here about how I treat it for myself, but I'll add a hypocritical"don't do this in your own living room" type warning. (Isn't it typical of teachers, parents, and guides — I'm all three — to scold, "do as I say, not as I do?")

	Don Mellor Don Mellor Don Mellor has been climbing, writing about climbing, and teaching climbing for more than 25 years. Meet Don Expert Answers

You describe a moving rope kind of a belay, running the rope from your harness, up through the anchors, and back to your harness, attached by a jumar or some other device. This would require taking one hand off to pull the rope through as you climbed. On the positive side, it would at least cut down the shock load on the jumar (the weak link) by transferring most of it to the anchors and splitting the rest with the rope on your harness.

Most top-roped soloing, however, uses a fixed rope, not a moving one. The rope is attached to an anchor above, and the climber ascends by sliding some kind of ascending device with him, attached to the harness. There are even some free-traveling ascenders that don't need tending.

This model has two potential areas of disaster. Pay attention.

First, the clamp might fail. Most companies who manufacture ascending devices state emphatically that they aren't intended for soloing. Climbers who ignore the warning often back up the piece with a prusik or autoblock knot above, which is pushed up by the rising ascender but ready to hold if something gives. Also remember that a small cam, such as in the jumar, will really squash the rope in a hard fall (probably near the anchors where there isn't as much shock-absorbancy as on a longer rope). This may well break a rope.

The second possible failure occurs high above where the rock"saws" though a rope while the climber bounces below. A standard moving top-rope subjects a different part of the rope sheath to this stress each time the climber falls. A fixed rope, on the other hand, rubs at exactly the same spot every time it's loaded. This is a very real danger, and it has resulted in some very broken ropes.

My method (don't tell my wife) is this:
I fix the rope atop the cliff and rappel. Once over the lip, where the likely rubbing will take place, I place a cam or chock and attach it to my rope with a prusik. Then I pull out some slack above the piece, so that all future falls will be caught by the prusik, not the top anchor. The top anchor stands ready, but the sharp lip of the crag isn't trying to abrade my rope. As I climb I can even see the prusik and I can be sure of a clean, unthreatened rope all the way. If the prusik fails, big deal. I drop two more inches and the original top anchor gets the load.

I attach myself to the rope with a product called a Rescu-scender, a Gibbs-type ascender with a large cam interface to minimize rope damage. I tie the unit to my harness power loop with webbing, instead of using a locking carabiner, which could cross load if it got hung up. Finally, I put an auto-block knot (an improved, self-tending prusik) above as a back up.

After all that, I still don't fall — too scary.

I'll state again that most gear companies don't endorse the practice. If anything fails, it's my problem, not theirs. If you decide to top-rope solo, please consider the following:

1. You must be expert in ascending, belaying, and rappelling
2. The device that grabs your rope probably wasn't designed for big loads — it could fail or it could crush the rope
3. Abrasion wherever the rope lies against the rock will cut the rope in a startlingly short time
4. If something goes wrong, you are all alone.

Good luck,
—Don

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