RRC Archives

chriss wrote:As a heavier climber I often get belayed by people 40-50 pounds less than me. I rarely have had a problem, every once in a while I will swing hard into my belayer, but I always get a soft catch.

As one who has personally been mangled by chriss, I have learned from my mistakes. When your scrawny, don't jump, and make damn sure your under the first bolt. Also, we are climbers and I would assume naturally a little gymnastic so pay attention to what you are going to be swinging into and try to land feet first.

Yasmeen wrote:To answer your original question, though, I don't think I would have let go, since everything tensed up and I was in the brake position, but perhaps since an ATC isn't auto-locking, the weight differential would've ripped the rope through the device and given me rope burn? I've never caught someone with that large of a weight differential on an ATC when their feet were at the 2nd bolt, so I can't say exactly.

I think you probably would've held on too, but things may have been very different because some more rope slippage may have kept you closer to the ground.

My point was that if you had hit your head on a roof or something there probably wouldn't have been much you could do. Also, I'm sure there are people who probably would have let go in your scenario.

I was thinking its almost a shame that most of us have the natural instinct to hold the break line on a gri-gri even though its really not that important, you could have probably kept your body off the wall if you used your hands, but I understand why you didn't, as I probably would've done the same.

Over 180 lbs.

Sweet I'm in.

What the hell happened to you guys? I don't show up one day and everything goes to hell. Yall are screwed with my new climbing schedule.

Don't anchor if you don't have to. It dramatically increases the loads on the gear and the climber. Take a moderate fall low on the route/pitch and things will start failing. Do something different to reduce risks.

TradMike wrote:Don't anchor if you don't have to. It dramatically increases the loads on the gear and the climber. Take a moderate fall low on the route/pitch and things will start failing. Do something different to reduce risks.

Its very hard for even my fat ass to generate the kind of force needed to make anything fail when the fall factor is less than 1, as it will almost certainly be on any sport route.

I've never seen anything that would make me believe any one point of the system would have to hold more than about 8kn, which shouldn't break anything on a sport route, except maybe the rock around the bolt if its not placed well. Last time I I looked into it, you really need to have a fall factor greater than 1 to generate the kind of impact forces you'll need to break something on a sport climb.

Trad gear may be a different story, as I'm sure I could break smaller nuts if the fall factor was anywhere near 1.

Damn, knew I should have gone climbing instead of to the Co. picnic. I could have been the Shamis counterweight, instead of some dainty girl. Sorry Yas.

Andrew, its a dubious honor to be in team FA. Are you sure you can handle the responsibility. It takes alot of 12oz curls to maintain peak climbing condition.

anchoring TO the belay loop is the proper way as well as the anchor being on the SAME side as the brake hand. most harnesses will tell you not to hook to the haul loop. i have anchored belayers before without any problems. hook them in with a seperate biner, once you get to the third bolt have them unhook and your soft catch comes back. if you are worried about falling low wait until you have a heavier belay.

The problem with me being on team FA is that I am not fat, I am just a freak of nature. I am increadibly skinny, but I am so tall that I break the 180 mark. I do like beer.

I don't think I am cut out for it yet.

You probably don't whine enough either.

If you anchor in like how people have mentioned, I am sure you will create a decently high fall factor rating. The belayer being dynamic is what keeps the forces low.