Anyone know about mountain climbing?

[OldTinHat]

A question I've always wondered about.

When you see people on TV who are mountain climbing or mountain rescue, obviously lots of ropes are involved. I'm just watching SOS Extreme Rescues on iPlayer and on one episode, the rescuer throws up a rope to the casualty to tie around a rock to enable her to climb up, rescue him and both come back down. What happens to the rope that was tied at the top? Is it just left there?

Likewise, the thingies put in cracks to anchor ropes to, are they just left behind?

I'm about as likely to go mountain climbing to find out as I am to drive an F1 car, but I do wonder about these things!

And the ladders on Everest. Are they just left behind?

And who goes first on mountains to put all these doodibs in place?

Ropes will generally be removed as will anchors. Although some climbers put anchors in with a black and decker drill and these normally remain in place.

Ladders on everest are resited by the sherpas every spring and moved /maintained as necessary throughout the climbing season.

I used to rockclimb a lot. Do generally someone leads a route putting gear in to secure the rope. They get to the top and make an anchor and the second person comes up on a tightish rope and removes the gear as they come up. Most routes in the U.K. you then walk off taking your rope with you.

i can’t imagine anyone leaving a rope behind not even during a rescue. You’d be more likely to put a sling round something and put the rope through the sling and leave a sling behind. I’ve never been in that situation.

Thank you @helpfulperson @CormorantStrikesBack .

That makes sense.

It's always bothered me (I know, I know...) about how it works. That someone is always first and someone is always last. And what happens to the climbing equipment.

I'm still not intending to try it out myself. My stairs are like Everest some days! 😆

Just in so much admiration of these adventurous people.

I watched a film on Disney+ this weekend called Free Solo about the climber Alex Hornold solo free climbing a 2,000 feet sheer rock wall.

Never had any interest in climbing before but the story was incredible. I'm not sure how I feel about what he put his family through but nevertheless, incredible skill and dedication.

He repeatedly climbed it with ropes, practicing and learning every single move he would have to make off by heart and then one morning just got up and free climbed. One wrong move and he would have been killed. Foolhardy in the extreme but the moves and strength were amazing. It will stay with me for a long time.

You're all amazing!