steep4me wrote:... to address the people who have held onto the cam instead of the brake and allowed climbers to deck this way. I have seen it 4 times and know of countless other instances.
to these same people-i think you're totally hot and to die for. pm me.
Last night at the climbing gym I realized that all this talk about belaying, especially under the circumstances, has made me a nervous belayer. Time to process. . . subconciously.
It is a good idea to keep a hand on the brake at all times. That being said, I don’t always follow this rule. I do a lot of solo top roping on business trips that are near climbing areas. I’ll go out to the crag and hike to the top and drop a single line down. I’ll then rappel down to the bottom or 200ft down if the cliff is large and climb back up using a gri-gri taking out slack as I go. Granted I use a 10.5 rope but I have fallen on the gri-gri thousands of times without a brake hand. The device has worked flawlessly every time by itself. Not that I am advocating that the brake hand isn’t important, it is. I am just saying the gri-gri will more than likely work without a brake hand as long as something doesn’t stop the cam from engaging like a hand or the first bolt or something. In climbing it is always a game of assessing risks. How safe you are is based on how well you can analyze the situation, anticipate all possible scenarios, react quickly and sometimes luck.
Thats the way I've always done it and it works very well. Never had a problem with gri gri's slipping, but i've always used a 10mm or thicker rope.
I did have an accident where I was climbing and a gri gri was threaded backwards. I got to a ledge, went in direct and the belayer flipped it. Should have checked more carefully.
moonbeam wrote:Another thing to consider, especially when belaying at a noisy cliff...
If you hear the words "off belay", don't assume it's your climber that said it. Get confirmation before taking action.
Sound silly to say, but it happened.
I always try to yell out the climber/belayer's name with the command or information... "Julie, I am off belay!" or "Pole-gargler, take it up!". You know, just so there's no confusion with the other groups around me.
