Sweet Gear Review: Tag Lines and Haul Bags

Many people associate haul bags with aid climbing, Yosemite, and El Capitan. But I think that haul bags are just as useful for free climbers, especially when you are trying to add a bit of comfort or climb closer to your limit. When climbing multi-pitch routes, you are often going for hours at a time and the weight of all of that food and water really adds up. Typically climbers split this up into backpacks but they can become quite heavy. A few extra pounds may make the difference between sending the crux pitch, or following a pitch clean. Having a haul bag (of the right size) can allow a team to bring more stuff (jacket, water, etc.) without causing the follower to suffer. Hauling is especially efficient if you are already planning on bringing a second rope to rappel the route.

Large assortment of Haul Bags

The big variables for choosing a bag are durability and size. At first I tried hauling small back packs that I had but these instantly sprouted holes. Even the Metolius Porta-a-cord, which seems to be designed as a lighter weight haul bag, failed me. After these unsuccessful attempts, I bought a Metolius Zodiac haul pack.

The Zodiac is the smallest “haul pack” that Metolius makes, at 16 liters. At the time I was unsure of what size I would need and found this one at a good price. It has no waist band, which can be annoying, but is super durable and can fit  three Nalgene water bottles and a few jackets. Unlike the rest of the Metolius haul bags, the shoulder straps on the Zodiac  do not store away in the pack and can catch on features when hauling.

The Zodiac haul pack on the Rainbow Wall in Red Rocks

After six months of use, I wanted to be able to bring more stuff and purchased the Metolius Shield. This “pack” is much bigger (31 vs 16 liters) and has a removable waist belt and stowable pack straps. The Shield is a little large to wear when climbing but it fit two pairs of approach shoes in addition to water and jackets. It’s large enough that I even brought it on the El Capitan as a sub-bag. One missing item is a sternum strap which could add some comfort when hiking and climbing.

Rappelling with the Metolius Shield

For big wall and aid climbing I have a Metolius Half Dome, 125 Liters, and the A5 Grade 7 bag, a massive 180 liters. (seen in the first photo) The Half Dome has better suspension (with a sternum strap!) but does not have enough room for more than 2 days on the wall. When I climbed the Salathe we used the A5 as our main bag with more frequently used items and food in the Shield. Hauling two bags gives both climbers a bag to carry on the way down. This worked well enough but the loads were lopsided (31 liters vs 180 liters)… Since then I’ve purchased the Metolius Quarter Dome. This is more reasonable size for a second bag at 69 liters and could be even be paired with the Half Dome instead of using the monstrous A5 bag.

Haul bags a plenty on El Cap Spire

One thing I’ve learned is you almost always want a bigger haul bag. I often bring the Shield instead of the Zodiac on free routes to make packing easier.  This is especially true when at hanging belays or on El Capitan. The one counter point is that it is nearly impossible to get to the bottom of huge bags like Metolius El Cap, Half Dome or the Grade 7 A5 bag. Either way you want to be able to get at food and water easily so you consume enough during the inevitable long days. I find that sorting your gear into mesh bags (with clip in loops) will help you stay organized and prevent you from dropping anything. It would really suck to drop your approach shoes off of El Cap!

Gear Recommendation:

For multipitch free routes like Astroman, The Rostrum, Rainbow Wall, Sheer Lunacy and Moonlight Buttress, I would suggest the Metolius Mescalito, Shield, or Express. For Black Diamond, the Stubby also works (it’s the same size as the Shield). Anything larger would be overkill. These packs will fit your approach shoes in addition to 3-5 liters of water, food and jackets.

Tag Lines and Hauling

One of the big down sides of having a haul bag is getting it up the wall.  I’ve had haul bags that weighed as much as me, which made hauling no small chore. For the most part I’ll to talk about hauling on free routes, which is much simpler since complex pulley systems are unnecessary.

Roberto trailing our 5mm haul line on the Rainbow Wall

Since the whole idea of having a haul bag is to climb with less stuff you want to make sure you have the right kind of haul/tag line. For most climbs I use either a 5 or 6mm cord unless I plan on doing a lot of rappelling. The 6mm is compatible with the Petzl Mini-Traxion which is great for hauling loads under 50 pounds.  My 5mm line is 40 meters long which is adequate for many free climbs. I use this with a DMM revolver or just pull up the bag hand over hand. I purchased it based on “half” pitches which are usually 30 or 35 meters.  My 6mm line is a full 60 meters which allows me to haul a bag on longer pitches like the Enduro Corner on Astroman.

When I’m climbing at the Incredible Hulk, I tend to rappel instead of walking off. This is best executed with two 70m ropes and I use a 8.2mm x 70m Petzl Dragonfly. This is a dynamic rope that I sometime use as a double. As a haul line it feeds like butter through the Mini-Traxion and is not too heavy. It is much bulkier than the 5 or 6mm lines and takes up much more room in your pack, so I usually trail it. Anything in the 7.x-8.x mm range will work well as a rappel line. They can usually be found by searching for a Twin or Double rope.

The process of hauling a small bag is fairly simple when it weighs less than 50 pounds. I put the mini-traxion on the anchor (as high as possible), and then pull up the slack through by hand (no ascender required). My usual technique is to have one hand on each side of the mini-traxion so that I’m pulling both up on the weighted side and down on the free side. This works best for lighter loads. The bag can get stuck so I generally haul while the second is climbing. This way your follower can help free the bag. This requires the use of an auto-locking belay device, like an ATC-Guide or Reverso.

One trick that I have found with smaller diameter cord is that it is worthwhile to switch ends after each haul. Thin cords get easily twisted and you don’t want to lose time having to re-flake the rope at each belay. Thus like climbers swapping leads, I flake the line when hauling the pack, and then re-attach the haul bag at the other end. This makes the rope much less likely to snag when the leader is climbing.

For free-climbing with light bags I also tend to add a sling and biner to the haul bag so it is easy to dock it to the anchor. When big wall climbing a munter mule is much better so that you can lower out the bag when you are hauling.

If you are bringing a haul line that is shorter than your rope, you will have situations where you can’t haul the bag. In case of emergency you can use your haul line as a pull cord to allow for longer rappels. This is especially important when climbing big routes, or dealing with fickle weather. Having a second rope can be the difference between getting down safe and calling for a rescue.

Overall I find that climbing without a pack increases my enjoyment on climbs more than the effort required to haul a bag. Logistics and rope management are more important with the additional gear but the small weight difference may help you send that route of your dreams! It is also nice for the leader to haul up the bag and be able to put on a jacket in colder weather.

Time to relax and enjoy the climbing!

- Luke