Quickdraw upside down to reach the bolt

(The picture shows a quickdraw being clipped in the wrong way which is dangerous. Please read the whole article to understand when this method could be used for a safety reason).

A quickdraw normally has one straight carabiner, which you clip into the bolt hanger, and one bent carabiner where you clip in the rope. Between the two carabiners, there is a webbing, which is often fixed to the lower carabiner while the upper carabiner is loose. The reasons for this is that it is easier to clip in the rope to a fixed carabiner, while you do not want a fixed webbing to the upper carabiner as this could make the carabiner rotate, which is bad for safety reasons.

Short climbers sometimes face situations where they cannot reach to clip the quickdraw to the bolt from the best safe position. On the market, there are very long quickdraws with fixed webbing so you can reach like 20 cm higher. Another, on-the-run, alternative is to just turn the quick draw upside down and clip into the bolt with the bent carabiner fixed to the webbing. This will in most cases make it possible to extend your clipping reach by some 3-5 centimeters.

However, remember that a fixed webbing on the carabiner that is clipped into the bolt can make it rotate which should be avoided for safety reasons.

Remember that once you have clipped in. Do not continue to climb but stop and arrange so the quick draw is clipped in the right and secure way.