Freesnake Fix and Follow

Written by: Christian Black

August 2023

Hayden Wyatt freesnaking while following the crux pitch of Riders on the Storm, Cirque of the Unclimbables, Canada

Fix and Follow (aka "Freesnaking") has grown in popularity among multipitch climbers over the last few years. To my knowledge, Josh Wharton was the earliest adopter of the Fix and Follow for long free climbing routes and other high end professionals like Mikey Schaefer almost exclusively use this system on long free climbing routes. My climbing partners and I have adopted this system and have used it extensively over the last 4 years, adding some tweaks for different scenarios and have had great success. There are many different flavors to this system, but the gist is always the same: The leader fixes the rope and the follower self-belays on a top-rope solo setup. Aside from easy rope management, it also helps the leader save energy by not belaying and allows them time to eat, drink, take photos or haul a day pack if needed. That being said, this is an advanced system and is best only for the very experienced multipitch climbing parties in certain scenarios. Below I'll outline our most recent form of the system. For other references, see Josh Wharton's article and Mikey Schaefer's Nugget Podcast talking about fix and follow.

The Basic Setup: Leader

For the Leader, the system is pretty simple. The leader is belayed like normal, and upon reaching the anchor simply fixes the rope to the anchor without pulling up any slack. My preferred method is to clove-hitch to the anchor like normal, take a couple of feet of slack behind the clove and fix the rope again to a second knot, usually an alpine butterfly because it's the easiest to untie when weighted or jugged on. The second knot adds a level of redundancy and also allows slack for the leader to adjust their clove hitch length later on if needed. At this point, the leader yells "off belay, rope is fixed!" and can relax, eat or drink, take photos, etc. This is also a great opportunity for the leader to haul a daypack if the climbing is hard enough to warrant not climbing with the pack.

Leader: Daypack Hauling

While the follower is top-rope soloing, the leader can haul a daypack on a thin tagline. My go-to is the Petzl Pur-line because of its weight and durability. The setup is simple; the leader uses a small progress capture like a Petzl Nanotraxion to haul the bag up. Having a foot-haul method can be helpful to save energy in your arms for the climbing. For foot-hauling, a second progress capture is clipped to the haul side of the tagline with a sling as a foot loop, allowing the leader to push their leg downward on the slack side of the haul line to bring the bag up. Alternatively, there is typically enough friction to achieve the same effect by just wrapping the tagline around your foot and pushing down. It is slightly less ergonomic, but also saves you from having to carry a second device and the setup is simpler. Play around with which system you prefer!

Taglines are notoriously annoying to manage at the belay because they are so thin, so it's good to have a strategy to make sure it doesn't add any cluster or inefficiency to your system. I've experimented with two main ways to manage the tagline.

Coil-as-you-haul method: With the haul device clipped high on the anchor, I use an extended alpine draw clipped to itself below on the anchor to coil the tagline onto it as I haul, stopping every so often while hauling to stack the tagline nicely. I like to start with small coils and slowly make them longer until the bag reaches the anchor. Once I dock the bag, I simply roll the tagline in the sling so the short coils are on top and the tagline is ready to feed out nicely for the next leader. This is the exact same way I haul bags while bigwall climbing, and it's probably my preferred system. Slightly more organizing work for the leader but more efficient overall.
Freesnake the tagline method: An alternative method is to simply haul the bag and let the free end of the tagline dangle lower and lower without a knot in the end until the bag reaches the anchor. At that point, the haul line should be freesnaking in a single strand below the anchor. The follower needs to use one of their microtraxions to hold the tagline weight and feed the leader tagline as they climb the next pitch. This system is less work for the leader and more for the follower. It is best used on clean faces where tangly taglines can't loop around themselves and create knots (low-angle ledge systems etc.) The caveat is that the follower will have to manage the tagline slack and lead rope slack while belaying the leader if combining with a fix and follow system.

The Basic Setup: Follower

Once the leader is off belay and the rope is fixed, the follower simply has to install their top-rope solo system and start climbing. The end of the climbing rope hangs below them without a knot in the end which typically provides enough weight below so that the devices feed effortlessly off the belay. The standard method is to use two progress capture devices to provide a level of redundancy. I personally prefer two microtraxions for rock climbing, as they slide up the rope the easiest. However, with icy or snowy ropes Josh Wharton suggests a Camp Lift is better as one of the devices.

For the top-rope solo setup, I have made some tweaks that I think improve the efficiency and ease of use. The setup is fairly simple; the lower device is clipped to the belay loop with a locker (autolocker is nice), while the upper device sits extended above the belay loop on a secondary masterpoint. I like to use a 120cm dyneema sling girth-hitched through the harness hard points (keep the bar tack as close as possible to the girth hitch), and tie an alpine butterfly in the sling just above the belay loop. The upper device is clipped to the alpine butterfly masterpoint and a neck bungee is clipped to it to orient the device upright and separate it from the lower device. The tail of the sling is also available to use as a built-in personal tether for anchoring in. I prefer to girth-hitch a small locker to the end to keep the system tidy.

120cm sling with alpine butterfly extended masterpoint and built-in personal tether

Neck bungee that stays around neck at all times and is easy to clip and unclip from the system

Built-in personal tether for anchoring at the belay

The personal tether can be easily shortened for comfort by using a quickdraw from the alpine butterfly to the anchor

As shown from the photos above, the 120cm sling serves many purposes. Additional benefits include:

Easy transition to rappelling: If working a section of a route and you need to rappel down, simply take up slack on the upper microtraxion only, leaving the belay loop device free to swap out with a grigri. Then take up on the grigri and the upper device will be slack and easy to remove. Rappel as needed.
Doubles as a rappel extension: A secondary added benefit is that this is the exact same rappel extension setup I use when multipitch rappelling, covered in depth here (article coming soon). Simply put your ATC on the alpine butterfly, third-hand backup on the belay loop, and you are ready to rappel with your rappel extension and personal tether built into one system.

Keenan top-rope soloing during a fix-and-follow ascent of Lotus Flower Tower in a day, while I eat snacks and take photos

At the Belay

Once the follower is at the belay, they will first tether into the anchor with their built-in personal anchor and then take off their microtraxions. With one of the microtraxions they will re-install it on the rope hanging below such that it now holds the rope weight and clip the micro high on the anchor. The follower can then pull a loop of slack through the device and put the leader on belay. The belayer continues to pull slack as needed through the microtraxion to feed to the leader as they belay. If needed they can do the same with the tagline if it is also freesnaking.

You can see this system in action on the photo on the left. The microtraxion on top is holding the weight of the entire lead line below. A loop of slack comes out of the microtraxion into the belayers grigri. The lead rope is incrementally pulled up as the belayer gives out slack. Once the leader is off belay, the belayer can leave the rest of the rope hanging, install their top-rope solo setup and start climbing. It's a beautiful thing climbing thousands of feet and not coiling a single inch of rope!

Caveats: When NOT to use this system

There are plenty of scenarios where this system is not appropriate. Below are considerations I take into account when deciding whether fix and follow is the best choice:

New climbers - this system requires a robust understanding of the gear used and all potential drawbacks. Learn to be a proficient multipitch climber with standard systems before experimenting with advanced systems.
Other parties on route below - it is generally annoying to lead a pitch having a rope dangling in front of your face. Be considerate of other parties and don't use fix and follow if the rope hanging below will be in their way.
Traversing pitches - Fix and follow is not the best choice for pitches or climbs that traverse a lot or require a down-climb, as the rope weight below will tug on the follower and can make the climbing more difficult. In this case it's best to switch to a normal top-belay for those pitches.
Strong wind - With the rope freesnaking below, strong wind can throw the rope around a corner or get stuck in flakes/features off-route. It could require a rappel or a cut rope to fix. In this case, it's best to use a normal top-belay.
Potential for loose rock to be pulled off - If there is any significant likelihood of the follower pulling off loose rock, you do not want your climbing rope below to be exposed to rock falling on it and damaging or cutting the rope. Use a traditional top-belay for pitches where very loose rock is encountered.
Long rope-stretch pitches - Because the belayer is not tied into the rope, they must be VERY aware of the end of the rope. If the end of the rope gets within 15 meters of the anchor I will pull it up and tie it to the anchor or tie-in to close the system and avoid the possibility of the end of the rope passing through the the grigri and causing catastrophic system failure.
Swinging Leads - Fix and follow is best used block-leading to minimize transitions from leading to top-rope soloing. Block leading is typically a more efficient system for long or difficult routes anyways.

Variations

Over the years I have developed a few variations to this system for certain scenarios, some covered in separate articles below.

Bigwall Freesnake - a system that uses a freesnaking lead and haul line to improve rope management and efficiency on bigwall terrain (article in the works)
Short-fix and follow - short-fixing on big walls, the leader simply pulls up slack to self-belay before fixing the rope. Typically used with aid climbing but could be combined with free climbing.
Party of 3 fix and follow - two followers can top-rope solo on a single rope, separating themselves by about 10 meters, provided the route is fairly straight with minimal traversing. Ensure there are adequate directional pieces for all followers. Best used on moderate terrain where follower falls are unlikely. A two-rope system could also be used with each follower on their own rope.
Party of 3 short-fix and follow - the same system as above, except the leader pulls up all slack rope except that needed for the followers to climb before fixing the rope. The first follower to reach the anchor then puts the leader on belay and has ample slack to belay the leader while the second follower is still climbing to reach the anchor. Great for moderate climbs as a party of 3 on a single rope. The leader may need to hang out if they run out of slack while waiting for the second follower to reach the anchor.

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