Adventure locomotives Kaarel Kuslap and Rene Ollino recently tested how it works in Sardinia portaledge'every* night on the rocks. How to haul equipment weighing several dozen kilos to heights and what it feels like to sleep on a platform attached to a rock with ropes - Kaarel shared his impressions with us.

* - portaledge is the English name for a portable hanging platform that is attached to a vertical cliff. It is used on very long rock climbs, where the route cannot be climbed in one day. If you also attach a top cover to the platform, it is like a hanging tent. portaledge' does not yet have an Estonian name.

preparations

While on a climbing trip in Sardinia at the end of March, the men had the idea of trying to climb a 2-day multi-pitch with an overnight stay in the middle. portaledge's. Although Rene had set it up once before, the men thought it would be wise to try it out at a lower altitude before spending the night in it. To have a solid understanding of how everything else works - sleeping, cooking, going to the bathroom, etc.

To do this, they found a secluded rock with no other climbers. It was on the private property of a local farm, which, after successful negotiations, they managed to "rent" for several days. What a luxury, isn't it?

portaledgeThey had two of them with them on the island - a single and a double. The double was heavy and a bit older, suitable for harsh weather conditions. You can't carry it on your back while climbing - you have to build a block system when you get to the top and pull the suspension base to it. The lighter one, the single, is much lighter, packs down small and can therefore be transported to the cliff in a backpack. It's so new that they only started producing them a year ago. But it would have been too small for two men, so they decided to go with the bigger one.

portaledge'for fixing, a wall with a slope of +15…-15 degrees is required. On a wall with a more positive or negative slope, the base will not remain stable enough and may turn over. The wall should also not have many curves and bumps, because the rear base peg must be properly against the wall.

The whole activity looked like this - Kaarel climbed up, placing various climbing tools he had brought with him in a rock crevice for safety. About 20 meters above the ground, he built a station with the same climbing tools and secured Rene, who brought the climbing tools with him from the road. Rene dragged a thin rope along his tail (tagline), at the other end of which was a rope to hoist portaledge. At the station, the men built a 3:1 block system (you can learn this in the basic mountaineering training course 😉) and used it to hoist the equipment. Since the tent had to stay up for the Crag Express trip starting in a few days, it was attached to the wall using 5 crampons (usually a station is built with 3).

Kaarel recommends using older ropes for rigging equipment, as the rope can get damaged when running along a cliff. That's what happened to them - one of the ropes cut into a cliff and had to be cut shorter at the point of the cut.

like in a regular tent - or is it...?

portaledge's movement is quite complicated - if two people stand on one side, it can turn upside down. That's why you had to maintain strong discipline while using it and think through every move. And that's why everything had to be secured - pillows, sleeping bags, and even a gas burner were tied to the tent with rope.

You also have to secure yourself with a safety harness while sleeping. This means that you climb into the sleeping bag with a climbing harness and attach yourself to the tent ceiling at the anchor point. According to Kaarli, sleeping with a climbing harness was not particularly uncomfortable, but you do have to take the safety harness longer than usual - otherwise you won't be able to close the sleeping bag and it will get cold.

Once the tent was up and the tarp was rolled up, we could enjoy the sunset with a view of the Sardinian fields. It was fantastic. Plus, at the same time, we could eat a delicious meal from a freeze-dried food package - just like on a real hike!

Surely, one thought is on everyone's mind now - how to go belay? It is not polite to go down over the edge towards other climbers. Since it was planned to conduct training with group members on this rock later, to go belay we went down along the rope, put away our things in the nearby bushes and then climbed back up along the support rope to the tent. Yes, you can learn that too in mountaineering training!

How was your night?

*portaledge*'s overnight stay - you don't know where exactly you're staying.

Although it wasn't really necessary, the men also put a roof on the hanging base for testing purposes. It was a dark top cover, designed for the harsh and cold conditions of Patagonia, and it lacked any doors or windows. You can guess what that meant - the tent became very stuffy... Oxygen didn't get through well (even though they put things between the edges of the cover to let oxygen in), which meant that the quality of sleep suffered and the men woke up with a headache in the morning. Spending the night in an oxygen-poor environment also lengthens the time the body needs to rest. According to Kaarli, they went to bed at 23 p.m. and woke up at 13 p.m. the next day... Today's portal edges are undoubtedly better designed and more suitable for warm climates.

However, when you put on the blanket and lay down in your sleeping bag, you couldn't tell if you were at an RMK campfire site in the Estonian forest or perched on a 20-meter-high cliff.

In the morning, we packed up our personal belongings and went downstairs. portaledge was left up so that other friends could try it out in the coming days. Unfortunately, a storm arose a few days later, which portaledge'i thoroughly shredded it and sacrificed the mattress left in it forever to the rock gods. There's nothing to be done - the weather in the mountains is full of surprises...

Recommendations

Kaarel was generally satisfied with the experience and would definitely recommend this interesting experience to others. It's just worth considering which portaledge to take with you. If you are going to a warm climate, it is not wise to carry a winter and storm-proof dark base with you. Instead, take a lighter and thinner option.

Also, if the weather is nice and there is no risk of rain at night, it is not wise to put a cover on at all.

And most importantly - be sure to practice before going on the big wall portaledge's assembly a few times in "more relaxed" conditions. First on the ground, then hanging a little higher indoors, and only then go outside. When you start inventing right away on the wall, it's easy to get confused because there are so many distracting factors (weather, cold, ropes getting knotted, etc.).

Author: Kelli Saar