What is the current record for climbing The Rave car back to the car? Anybody been brave enough to rope-solo it?

Marijus and myself have done it in 3.5 hrs on our first time on the route, this is by no means a quick time and we would like to try and better it. I rope-soloed it in 5,5 hrs.

Well it seems no one is interested in doing speed ascents of the rave. To spice things up a bit Orca in the City Rock climbing gym will offer a spot prize to anyone beating 3.5 hrs car to car. NO CHANCERS!!

I have never heard of anyone rope soloing the rave. What gear did you use and how did you do it?

what's rope-solo?

Latest i heard Don smashed his old record and has it down to four and half hours

Rope soloing can be done in many ways, it basically means using some type of system to self belay. It is fairly labourios in that you have to rap down and clean each pitch and then either jug or re-climb that pitch.

thanks Don! Sounds exhausting. All the best for when you give it a shot Leo!

Out of interest what rope solo device did Donovan Burls use on The Rave? Feel sorry for anyone not using the Silent Partner Anyone out there using modified gri-gri's or Soloists. R2000 is alot of money, but the time saved and peace of mind makes the overall enjoment better and worth it(if you solo quite alot that is)

Don used a GriGri for the climb. Check out the article on the home page “GriGri as a solo device”

I did use a gri-gri, it has been modified to use with a chest harness i found it alot easier, but still a little limiting. The beauty of the gri-gri is that you can basically climb, rap and jug with-out ever taking it off the rope

Does the gri-gri allow for overhanging climbing(upside down falls). Is it neccessary to use back-up knots with the gri-gri variation?

I would definitely recommend using a back-up knot. Fortunately i have not had to test if the gri-gri will hold an upsidedown fall my feeling is that it will,but it would be dependent on the body position.

For a self belay aid climbing, if that is what you're talking about, the gri-gri, is great. For $70 (US) the gri-gri is a safe, reliable, and more to the point tried and proven to catch those ball cinching falls. I wear it on my belay loop along with an extra locker. Once I set my anchor off the the ground and I get 3 or 4 meters up I'll take as much rope as I'm comfortable with (rodeo slack, yee-haw) and tie a bite on the rope in front of the gri-gri, i.e. the rope your feeding, and then clip that to your extra locking biner Now assuming you don't rip marginal aid gear or generally f*ck up you're self belayed and backed-up.