Climbing the Ravine Rope

[NardoLoopa]

Is there a best way to climb the long Ravine rope?  I went down pretty prepared.  Rather light (~22kg).  85% on the Fatigue meter (eyeball).  Slug down some coffee.  Started climbing.  Made it to the ledge.  Stuck around a bit: eyeball was empty.  Wasn't sure how long before I recovered my stamina (sprint circle).  A strong wind started.  So, I grabbed the rope again to find I had 3/4 of my stamina.  Thought that should be good enough.

But almost as soon as I started to climb, I got a "Whoa, whoa" something.  Stamina circle turned red.  I hopped back on the ledge.  I'd brought the injector as backup, so I used that.  Grabbed the rope.  Then hustled to the cave.

Other than maybe stripping some clothes, and going down ultra-light (15kg?), I'm not sure how I could have done better.

Is there a way do to this without the injector?  Do people camp overnight on the ledge?

[ajb1978]

If you start the climb up at 100% stamina, take a break on the ledge until your climb bar is back to 100%, then finish the climb, you should be able to make it easily.  I'm not sure what problem you encountered, but I've never had an issue climbing out of the ravine.

[Doc Feral]

Same for me. Once I figured out there was a ledge to rest on I managed to climb it with no pharmaceutical enhancement. And I didn't even have a bedroll, I just rested in the natural "bed" in the cave just before climbing and made some instant crafting on the ledge (reishi, rosehip or lichen).

[Vince 49]

As both @ajb1978 and @Doc Feral said, the key is being near 100% stamina before you climb back up.  The easiest way is to rest in the cave.  Just follow the frozen creek and the cave will be on your right.

[TheEldritchGod]

The problem was how much fatigue you had. The stamina circle might be how much time you have to climb, but how much of your eye is filled in determines how fast you climb. Not enough rest, you can't climb fast enough to outpace stamina loss.

[NardoLoopa]

OKay, thanks for the advice, folks.  I spotted the natural bed.  Figured at 85% + coffee I wouldn't need to top-up.  Apparently, not.

Does anyone know what the red-circle experience (whoa whoa) was?  Was that my fatigue dropping my carry weight below encumbrance?  I checked before ascending the second part, but maybe my fatigue dropped lower once I started to climb again.

Anyway, at least it wasn't deadly . . . this time.

[ajb1978]

So that this makes more sense, when I say "fatigue" I mean the eye icon that recovers through sleep, and when I say "stamina" I mean the bar that depletes rapidly with sprinting or climbing, and that recovers quickly by just standing around.

Your level of fatigue will reduce your carry weight if it gets below 50%.  It's a parabolic function, meaning your carry weight limit reduces slightly from 50% to 40%, but it drops sharply from 10% to 0%.  As long as you're not carrying more gear than your weight limit, you can climb a rope, and your stamina bar will stay white.  Say you're carrying 29kg of equipment and your limit is 30kg...everything is fine.  You're carrying less than your limit, so you can climb just fine.  But while climbing, both your fatigue and stamina decrease rapidly.  If your fatigue decreases to the point that your carry weight limit becomes less than what you are actually carrying, this should prevent you from climbing.  As a result, your stamina bar turns red.  While this would prevent you from starting a climb, if you're already in the middle of climbing you can continue until you either successfully reach the top (or bottom, depending on which way you're going), or run out of stamina and fall.

Since your weight limit only drops when your fatigue is below 50%, and fatigue drops quickly while you're climbing, it's best to start a climb when you're as fully-rested as you can be.  This will prevent you from a situation where you're stuck on a ledge carrying more than you can climb with.

[MarrowStone]

7 hours ago, NardoLoopa said:

Does anyone know what the red-circle experience (whoa whoa) was?

If your character slipped a little or stopped climbing while saying "woah" you usually have a few seconds before you just fall the entire distance down and either wake up severely injured... or you don't and find yourself entering the Long Dark...

Stamina is important for climbing, but just as important than that is fatigue. If your fatigue drops to 0, your stamina will jump to 0 as well. This makes it impossible to sprint and climb when youre exhausted. Always carry a bedroll with you so you can rest up before a climb and/or take a nap on a ledge to keep your fatigue above 0.

[NardoLoopa]

29 minutes ago, MarrowStone said:

If your character slipped a little or stopped climbing while saying "woah" you usually have a few seconds before you just fall the entire distance down and either wake up severely injured... or you don't and find yourself entering the Long Dark...

Yes, fortunately it gave me a couple of seconds to hop back on the ledge -- saving me from the gravity elevator.

Thanks for the explanations folks.

[Spakerman]

I had a similar experience the other day on my first visit down into the ravine. Almost fell on the climb up and had to spend the night down below. I also missed that there was a cave and almost froze to death in the train before desperately looking for more firewood and found the cave in a blizzard durin the night. Was down to 2% condition before stabilizing. 

Next day climbed to the ledge, popped a stim and climbed the rest of the way. I’ve no need to go back down there anytime soon. 

[dead frozen dude]

I didn't knew, so they put a lichen "bed" like those in Wintermute in the cave down there? Now, that's quite a bit of hand-holding. Anyhow, yeah, R.I.P. for all poor saps who found their demise in that gulch, being unable to climb up, back in the day...