Author, Stefani Dawn, and her hubby Rick getting ready to hop on a multipitch climb in Red Rock Canyon, NV. Rick's walkie talkie (Rocky Talkie) is visible in the photo.

Some essential gear for a multi-pitch climb - water, backpack, slings, cams, and a walkie talkie.

​​If you’ve ever read climbing forums you’ve probably seen threads (aka. arguments about 30-seconds away from a fist-fight) about best communication practices. You’ll read things like:
 
(a) Only use certain specific commands because they don’t share the same vowel sounds and number of syllables. Hypothetically this allows the commands to be differentiated from each other when they otherwise sound like a garbled mess in wind (for example “up rope” has two syllables with a hard “uh” and “o” sound; Or, “off belay” and “on belay” have three syllables with long “o” and “a” sounds; Or, don’t use the word “safe” because it sounds like “take” and safe is not a command telling your belayer what to do. You get the idea.)
 
(b) Then there are the “discussions” about what to do if you and your climbing partner can’t hear each other at all. Many suggest creating a convoluted rope signaling systems (one big looong tug  if … two big tugs if… tug, relax, tug tug tug, relax, if you are bonking and need time to eat a sandwich.) 
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If you climb enough multipitch, I can promise there will be a shit-ton of instances you won’t be able hear each other yelling commands (even if everyone else in the canyon or valley can hear you…). And, I can also promise that attempts at rope signaling will only result in range of emotions from befuddlement to panic. The reason why is because you can’t tell a rope tug from a climbing action. Also with enough friction you won't be able to feel tugs at all!
 
For example, there have been plenty of instances when my partner spent a long time at a difficult section of the climb trying to figure out the moves and/or the gear placement. The long delay might make me think he has arrived at the belay and is building an anchor. Then, when my partner decides to finally make the moves, the rope jerks quickly because he desperately wants to clip that piece of pro he just placed (which on my end looks like a big tug). But, he misses the clip and the rope drops fast, then he grabs the rope (out of even more desperation perhaps) and rapidly tries to clip again. This looks like another big tug. If we had agreed that two big tugs means “off belay” then my partner would be fucked.
 
Yes, there are ways to make sure you and your partner are always secure when you can’t communicate. Such as, DON’T take your partner off belay, just keep feeding rope through the belay device until the rope reaches your tie-in. Then don’t start breaking down the anchor until your end of the rope is tight, it stays tight, then gets tight again when you start to move upwards to clean the anchor. This is a really good fallback system, but it is super inefficient in a multi-pitch scenario where saving time is important too (but time is not as important as remaining secured.)
 
Frankly, the simplest way to deal with communication on a multi-pitch climb is to get a freaking walkie talkie. Not only does it make climbing more peaceful (no yelling!) and relaxed (no wondering!), it makes it waaaayyy safer. If you do enough multi-pitch climbing, unexpected shit WILL happen. If you have a walkie talkie you can easily figure out how to handle it with your partner. Let me share one small-but-not-so-small example with you.
 
My hubby Rick and I were on a trad climb that had newer bolted anchors (previously everything was tat). One of the comments in Mountain Project was that you could now rappel the route with a single 60m rope.
 
We were climbing with our twin 60s. On the last pitch while belaying Rick I noticed the halfway point of the rope went at least 10-15 feet beyond my belay device (which indicates you can’t rappel with one rope). When I made it to the top of the climb and we were setting up for the rappel, we made some decisions. Since this route was a known “rope eater,” and recalling the Mountain Project 60m-single-raps-comment, we decided to do multiple shorter raps with one rope. This reduces the risk of the rope getting caught in the rock and, if it did, we’d have a spare. I commented about the rope length, but we also noted that Rick went off route, going out left onto a face for a bit, then back right to the bolted anchor. We presumed that deviation would account for the extra rope being used.
 
Rick went first on the rappel. Then I hear these words come across my walkie talkie (actually it’s a Rocky Talkie…) “Uh Stef...I fucked up. The rope doesn’t reach the next set of anchors.” Ooops. (BTW, we ALWAYS tie knots at the ends of our rope on rappel – and rappel saddle-bag style if there is risk of the rope getting caught in cracks.)
 
So, here’s what we did:

• Rick had some gear on him, so he radioed me that he will build an anchor and get off rappel.
• Then, he radioed me when he was off and I tied the two 60s together (I had the second rope with me).
• I rappelled down to next set of bolted anchors, radioed Rick that I was off rappel.
• He got back on the rope and met me at the bolted anchors.

 
Could you imagine trying to work that out by yelling?
 
Worse yet, could you image trying to deal with that situation if you couldn’t even hear each other?
 
Plus there are so many ways this situation could’ve been more complicated. What if Rick needed more gear to build his anchor? With communication, I could’ve easily sent gear down the rope to him. What if Rick was the one with the second rope? We could have easily worked that out too. And, yes, without a radio he could’ve Prusicked his way back up, but he was near the bottom of the rope, Prusicking would’ve been exhausting and taken forever, and it was already getting dark.
 
You can do your best to plan a climb (we thought this would be SO straightforward – it’s bolted anchors for goodness sake!), but shit happens.
 
Frankly, walkie talkies should be a standard piece of gear on every multipitch climb. Not only can they help prevent major epics, they can help with little things like “I’m gonna take a while here, this piece is stuck.” Or, they can even allow you to have a little fun like “Rick, that’s me… good thing you aren’t here right now because that fart I just let out is so bad…climbing.”

A Shout Out to Rocky Talkies

Rick and I use walkie talkies a lot - both for mapping (our business is Climb-On Maps) and for climbing. We recently picked up the new Rocky Talkie system. Here's our two cents on them:

• We love that they don't beep when the communication button is pushed. The Rocky Talkies are nice and quiet. I've been on climbs where a partner had her walkie talkie in her pocket and every time she stepped up some button would get accidentally pushed and either an obnoxious alarm sound would blare across the canyon, or the pre-communication beep would blurt over my speaker making me think she was trying to say something. No beeps, yay!
• The sound is super clear. Every other walkie talkie system I have used sounds muddled or has some sort of static. I have never previously experienced how easy it is to hear the person talking to you.
• When you are talking, the radio picks it up right away - there is no delay. One of the things that drove me nuts about our old walkie talkie system was a delay between pushing the button and when you could start speaking. If you spoke too soon, it would get cut off and the person on the other end would be like, "whhaaat?" Argh! The Rocky Talkie system picks up your voice right away!
• It's small and comparatively light.
• It's very simple - in a really good way. So easy to use.
• The carabiner attachment is really robust on the Rocky Talkie and it has a backup stretch chord, which allows you to wear it in a bunch of different places on the body. For example, you could wear it on your harness and then detach and pull the device up to you to talk without fear dropping it. We prefer to keep our walkie talkies close to our face, so all you have to do is push the button, turn your head, and talk. Unhooking the device to talk is an extra step we don't care for, but you will need to experiment on what works for you. 
  • Rick and I rigged our old walkie talkies with a key ring through a small strip in back, then hooked the carabiner through that ring. That strip in the back of the walkie talkie doe not seem that secure. If the walkie talkie snagged on something and the strip broke, that was it - the walkie talkie would be gone. The Rocky Talkies attachments are robust. 
• There is one primary annoyance with the Rocky Talkie. The antenna. Although the antennae is a similar length as those on our other walkie talkies, and although the overall length of the Rocky Talkie is significantly less than our other walkie talkies, the antennae seems more in the way. I think this is because of how immobile the device is on the carabiner combined with the large carabiner size, which seems to position the antennae in annoying ways relative to the body. It's taken some time to find the perfect spot where it doesn't stab at a body part, get in the way when pulling off gear, or raise concern about poking out an eyeball in a fall. I've finally found my perfect spot for the Rocky Talkie on my gear sling and Rick had found his perfect spot on his backpack. It just took experimenting. I think we might also experiment using a smaller carabiner.
• My other concern (which has only happened once so far) is the channel changed without my realizing it. The little switch apparently got bumped. I recently learned, though, that if you hold the channel flipper forward for two seconds it locks the channel in place.
  • Channel changing has happened on other walkie talkies I've used, and it can be a problem if it changes while climbing and you don't realize it. I'd say one way to deal with this is to have a rule to always acknowledge communication, even if its an "ok" or "thank you." That way if the person doesn't respond you can yell up to check the channel (assuming they can hear you) or mention it at the next belay spot. 
• All-in-all we really dig our Rocky Talkies - which is why I decided to write up this mini-review. 

• Rocky Talkie: Meet the creators Alex and Bryce - Interview with Common Climber
• Rocky Talkie website