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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Jun 22, 2015 - 03:58am PT
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I belay off the anchor to bring up the 2nd about 95% of the tine. i would never belay a leader off the anchor...
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jun 22, 2015 - 09:23am PT
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Belaying the leader directly off the anchor hasn't caught on at all in the US---I've never seen anyone do it. Having properly situated solid bolted anchors is probably a prerequisite for even grudging acceptance, and we are a long way from that in most of our climbing areas. But as I said, there are plenty of folks doing it on multipitch sport climbs in Europe, typically in conjunction with a Munter hitch, which does add a dynamic element to the belay.
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CCT
Trad climber
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Jun 22, 2015 - 10:39am PT
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Belaying the leader directly off the anchor? How does that work? I could have used that technique this weekend.
3 pitches in, the crack above us is surprisingly straight up and the crux is only 12 ft off the belay. My climber put in 3 pieces in that 12 ft, but there is still no friction on the rope because it's running straight up and down.
Before committing to the hard move, my climber shouts, "Take!" and leans back on the rope. Oh man, this guy is 70 lbs heavier than me, and the rope is straight up! Just holding his weight is a little tough. I don't want to scare him, but down below I'm busy rearranging the rope so it goes under my leg to add a little friction to the system. If my right hand fails, my left hand holding the rope under my leg is the back-up. I can't give him a loose belay, because he'll hit the blocky belay ledge. I don't dare look up to watch him make the move, because I know he'll whack into me if he does fall. And come to realize later, we didn't even set up the anchor to protect against an upward pull.
A moment later, he goes for it. And sticks the move! Phew!
So yeah. Belaying directly off the anchor would be a great technique in that situation. In this case, we didn't expect the third pitch to be what it was, and we didn't have a gri-gri. Luckily it all worked out, but a kick to the face and rope burn for me and a potentially dropped climber with a broken ankle or worse were very real possibilities.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Jun 23, 2015 - 09:45am PT
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I would not use a munter to belay a leader either. Not much breaking power INMOP.
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JimT
climber
Munich
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Jun 23, 2015 - 11:29am PT
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I would not use a munter to belay a leader either. Not much breaking power INMOP.
Itīs consistently one of the most powerful performers when tested against conventional devices.
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