Clipping quickdraws

Climbing / Popular

Clip efficiently and avoid back-clipping and Z-clipping.

What coaches agree on

  • Clip the quickdraw's loose, straight-gate end to the bolt, and thread your rope through the other end, which stays fixed in place by a bent gate or rubber retainer.
  • Turn the quickdraw so its gate faces away from the direction you're about to climb, so the rope rests on the carabiner's spine instead of across the gate.
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  • Practice the clipping motion on the ground with both hands and with the gate facing each way until it feels automatic, before you trust it on a real route.

Common mistakes

  • Back-clipping — feeding the rope in backwards so it exits behind the carabiner instead of in front of it — lets the rope push the gate open and unclip if you fall.
  • Slipping a finger into the gate opening while clipping — coaches warn that falling in that instant can trap and injure the finger.
  • Z-clipping — grabbing rope from below your last draw instead of from your tie-in knot — puts a Z-shaped kink in the rope that adds drag and can leave the lower bolt doing nothing.
How to Clip Quickdraws
Beginner

How to Clip Quickdraws

Coach's take: The one to send a new leader. Complete, correct, and it covers how it goes wrong.

4.0
Rock & Sun - Clipping
Intermediate

Rock & Sun - Clipping

Coach's take: Explains the mechanics behind why back-clipping kills you, not just that it does -- that's what makes this stick.

3.7
How to clip QuickDraws
Beginner

How to clip QuickDraws

Coach's take: Concrete hand mechanics for both gate directions -- this is technique you can actually copy.

3.6
How to clip quickdraws
Beginner

How to clip quickdraws

Coach's take: Two clean named techniques plus a real practice progression -- just look past the rambling.

3.5
Clipping
Beginner

Clipping

Coach's take: Short, dense, and correct - the 'wall, carabiner, me' cue is a keeper.

3.5
Clipping Quickdraws
Beginner

Clipping Quickdraws

Coach's take: Correct and efficient, from someone who has clipped a lot of hard draws. Missing drills and the Z-clip talk.

3.5
Back Clipping
Beginner

Back Clipping

Coach's take: Rough around the edges but the twisted-dogbone tip is genuinely useful - that's how people back-clip without realizing it.

2.9
How to - clip your quickdraws
Beginner

How to - clip your quickdraws

Coach's take: The technique's right, but you'll have to work to follow along — not the clearest teacher.

2.5