After learning more about dry tooling, I wondered if it was safe to fall while on a route. I did some research and wrote the following guide.
So, can you fall while dry tooling? Yes, it is okay to fall while dry tooling. They are less damaging than ice climbing falls, although they are still dangerous.
Dry tooling falls are somewhere in between rock climbing and ice climbing. When climbing on rock, you can essentially fall whenever you want, mostly without fear of injury. With ice climbing, you need to do everything in your power to avoid taking a fall, and should ideally go your entire life without falling once. Dry tool falls are somewhere in between; they’re acceptable, but a little more dangerous than rock climbing falls.
Falling While Dry Tooling
Falling while dry tooling is something that happens fairly frequently. Similarly to rock climbing, you’re able to push the limits of your ability on lead routes and know that, if you fall, you’re most likely going to be okay.
However, there’s still more risk involved in dry tooling falls than there is in rock climbing. Because of that, I would advise that you do many, many laps on top rope before you start leading.
Doing these laps gives you a couple of advantages. First of all, it gives you more skill at dry tooling, which means there’s less of a chance that you’ll fall in the first place. Secondly, falling multiple times on top rope gives you some experience as to how your body feels when you fall, so you’ll be better able to position yourself when it does happen.
So, while you don’t need to avoid falling at all costs, I would hesitate to lead a dry-tooling route before you have a decent amount of familiarity with the sport.
Dangers
Now that we know that dry tooling is a little more dangerous, let’s talk about what some of the dangers actually are.
Awkward Positioning
One of the main issues with dry tooling is that your falls are a lot uglier than they will be while rock climbing.
Anyone who’s ever lead before knows how clean rock-climbing falls can be. You feel yourself getting pumped, or a hand slips, and you simply push back from the wall and fall with all four limbs in front of you.
In the same way, most people have probably taken a few scary falls. You slip while off-balance or halfway through some difficult move. You pendulum sideways, your body goes spinning, and for a second you’re terrified that you’re going to smack into the wall.
When dry tooling, falls tend to look a lot more like the latter category. Because you’re using tools that give you extra leverage and reach, you often find yourself in different positions than you would have been in had you simply been rock climbing.
Furthermore, with the tips of your picks and crampons jammed into the rock, you often don’t let go as ‘cleanly’ as you do during rock climbing. One of your tools might stick in place for a fraction of a second, which can throw your body off balance.
Because of this, dry tooling falls tend to be more out-of-control than ice climbing falls are. This creates more chance that you’re spun back into the wall at high speeds, or what you fall in an awkward way and injure yourself.
For this reason, I would recommend always wearing a helmet while you dry tool, and making sure that you have lots of repetitions lead climbing on rock under your belt before you try to lead dry tooling. The more comfortable you are with falling, the more you’ll be able to handle and control a dry tooling fall.
Tools
Similarly to ice climbing, there’s an inherent danger involved in dry tooling falls: you have ice picks in your hands and twelve miniature knives strapped to your feet.
Axes and crampons are sharp, folks. They’re designed for driving into thick, frozen ice with enough support to hang your body off of. They’re sharp enough to cut through rock when dry tooling, so you better believe that they’re sharp enough to cut you if one of them goes errant.
When falling, it’s not always that easy to keep your body where you want it. Sometimes instinct takes over and we move without thinking, putting your hands or feet where they shouldn’t be.
Now, if you’re rock climbing, this isn’t a huge deal. You might accidentally hit yourself, but all that’s going to do is damage your ego.
Dry tooling, however, is a completely different ballgame. Not only are your hands now sharper than you’re used to; they’re also about a foot longer. The movements that usually feel familiar might no longer be safe, because you have a sharp extension added to your body.
Say you naturally drop your hands to your side when you fall, or gab at your figure 8 knot. This is pretty standard climbing practice. When dry tooling, however, it can be disastrous. If you drop your hands towards your lap on instinct, you can impale yourself with one of your axes.
Again, falling multiple times on top rope can be a good way to prevent this from happening, as it will allow you to retrain your body to move in the way that you need it to.
Damage to Your Belayer
Finally, you need to be extra careful about where your belayer stands during the first 3-5 meters of a dry tooling route.
Anyone who’s taken a few whippers while climbing has hit their belayer before, as the belayer is lifted off the ground by the force of your fall. Again, while rock climbing, this usually isn’t a huge deal.
Like we just talked about, though, dry tooling is different because of the very sharp things that you have strapped to your body. If you fall, you need to be sure that you’re not going to impale your belayer with an axe or a crampon on the way down. This can have disastrous results for both parties involved.
Minimizing the Impact of a Fall
So, now that we know about the dangers of a fall, let’s talk a little bit more about how to minimize the impact caused by them.
Now, obviously, the best way to do this is to simply not fall in the first place, but I know that’s not going to happen. Once again, dry tooling isn’t ice climbing. It’s a sport where you can (and should) push your limits, and doing so means being comfortable with the occasional fall.
Terrain
One of the easiest ways to minimize the damage of your falls while dry tooling is to watch the type of terrain that you’re climbing on.
Remember above, when I said that one of the issues with dry tooling is that your tools won’t all pop off at the same time, and some of them might get got? Well, a good rule of thumb is that the more overhanging terrain is, the lower risk there is of this happening.
If you’re climbing on a 45-degree overhang, you can almost be positive that all of your tools will cut loose together. Even if they don’t, the fall will be a lot safer, because there’s less chance of you penduluming.
On less-than-vertical routes, however, this isn’t the case. There’s a good chance that your crampons will get stuck on the way down. Remember, the bottom of the crampons is made out of serrated metal that’s designed to dig into ice. If you go sliding down a slabby piece of rock, these metal points are going to what they’re designed to do; they’re going to dig into the surface and stick there.
This can lead to an array of nasty injuries: broken tibia, twisted ankles, torn knee ligaments, and more. It will also throw off your balance and may send you spinning head-over heels down the route, increasing your chance of skull or neck injuries.
The more overhanging a route is, the more safe it is to climb. The less overhung a route, the less ‘clean’ a fall is going to be, and the more chance you hurt something on the way down.
Dry toolers know this, obviously, and most of the routes you find are going to be on vertical or more-than-vertical walls. Sticking to these routes is a good way to ensure your safety.
If you’re training for alpine climbing, however (or you just happen to be one of those psychopaths who enjoys slab climbing), you may need to venture onto non-vertical rock. Do so with extreme caution, and be aware of the consequences that come with a fall.
Don’t Wear Leashes
Leashes, while being great in some scenarios, can actually make your falls more dangerous. In fact, the advent of dry-tooling and cave ice climbing, where falls were more common, was one of the factors that lead to the decrease in their usage.
Leashes are great on tall multi-pitch routes, where dropping a tool could seriously endanger your safety. When dry tooling, however, they’re not really necessary, and they tend to increase your danger.
Now, your first instinct when you fall should be to hold on to your tools. You don’t want to damage them by dropping them tens of meters, and you don’t want to risk it hitting your belayer below.
If you are going to drop them, however, it’s actually best to not have a leash attached. Leashes tend to be elastic. If you drop a tool while falling, it might stretch down the length of the leash and then rebound back up at you because of the elasticity. This can pose a host of problem if you’re trying to take a clean fall.
Furthermore, if you fall and leave one of your tools attached to the rock while it’s hooked to a leash, it’s going to make the situation a lot worse. This will pull you massively off balance, completely ruining any chance you had of taking a clean fall.
Then, once you’ve put enough weight on the rope to cause the tool to come loose, it’s going to snap towards you with a lot of speed. That is something that you definitely want to avoid.
In summary, leave the leashes off when dry tooling.
Knowing Your Limits
Although it’s fun to push yourself while dry tooling, there is something to be said about pushing yourself too hard, especially when you’re first getting into the sport.
Again, because of how ugly dry tooling falls tend to be, you want to make sure you’re not too far out of your comfort zone when climbing. The more falls you take, and the more times you fall in awkward, uncomfortable positions, the higher the chance there is of you injuring yourself.
Push yourself, but do it within reasonable boundaries.
Proper Equipment
Having the right tools to go dry tooling with is another important way to minimize the impact of the fall.
First and foremost: wear a helmet.
Believe me, I know the feelings that a lot of rock climbers have towards helmets. Trust me, I understand. I’m a 21-year-old guy. I like to feel cool when I rock climb. I like to have cool pictures that I can post so that other people know that I rock climb. I’m fully aware that my Half-Dome makes me look like a bobble-head. I get that safety isn’t cool.
With dry tooling, however, a helmet is a must. I mentioned above about the lack of ‘clean’ falls and the increased chance that you’re going to be spinning out of control. Added on to that, there’s the tools in your hand than can come loose suddenly and smack you in the face.
On top of that, make sure your belayer is also wearing a helmet. Remember, your life is firmly in their hands.
The next thing to be aware of is your footwear. For a lot of people, alpine boots and crampons are all they have, so that’s what they’re going to wear. However, this doesn’t always need to be the case.
If you’re serious about dry tooling, you could consider investing in a lightweight pair of fruit-boots, which are specially modified shoes that only have crampon points along the toe. They’re specifically designed for dry tooling, and they minimize the chance of you accidentally stabbing someone with your crampons.
If not, you can also consider simply wearing your rock climbing shoes while dry tooling. Approach boots will work as well. This might not give you as good purchase on some routes, because you won’t have crampon points to stick into miniscule points, but it’ll lower the chance of a crampon point catching on something.
Proper Training
Finally, as with most things, the best way to keep yourself safe is to practice. As I said, make sure you do enough laps on top rope to get the feel as to what dry tooling is and how your body moves when you’re dry tooling.
Get some experience falling off on top-rope, too. If you need, you can have your belayer keep the rope a little loose, which will allow you to have a brief second of real falling before you get caught. Practice holding onto your tools and re-aligning your body to make the fall as ‘clean’ as possible.
I know the instinct a lot of times is to get out there and climb as hard as possible, but you need to make sure you’re also keeping safety in the back of your mind.
As always, stay safe and have fun!