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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Feb 18, 2018 - 04:00pm PT
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Back in 1978 BVB and I did our first Grade V, The Happy Hooker on Trono Blanco in Canon Tajo. Second day, 3rd to last pitch I think it was, is an unprotected traversing pitch (maybe 5.8 but the traversing part isn't that hard) which goes at an upward angle just above a sizable jelly roll roof. Bob was all anxious and launched off with just a couple nuts so he could place one at the very start and run it out to the belay. Following, I have the pack with the bivy gear on my back, the teardrop pack with the second rope and the entire rack on kangaroo style, and since I'd dropped one shoe in Watusi's driveway on the way out of town, my right foot was sporting rotting gum soled burlap surfer shoe with my sock sticking out the bottom at the ball.
If I come off I'll swing sideways and over the jellyroll roof, so I'm pretty anxious and careful, all the while pretty irritated to be left with all the gear. Bob of course had no gear when he got to the belay, so he used my chalk bag sling, sewn on my mother's 1939 Sears cabinet sewing machine with cotton tread, girth hitched around a small long dead tree as the sole belay point. I was a little perturbed, if I had fallen it would have really ended badly.
Of course, it was all moot because on the next pitch, while tugging to get the rope out from under a flake, it came right out of my harness since I hadn't even finished tying my figure 8 on the large ledge two pitches below. I suppose that's a different thread though...
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Feb 19, 2018 - 09:17am PT
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Now that was an excellent story!
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Feb 19, 2018 - 04:29pm PT
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Ron, I have had a few of the kind of belays you speak of over the years but felt it might be more fun to tell the stories of the ones we created for ourselfs......
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Feb 19, 2018 - 04:55pm PT
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I was following a strong but sketchy friend up the 3/4th pitch of Lucky Streaks. The rope seemed to wander off route (5.9 variation?) and when I got to the belay I was horrified to see him hanging from 2 opposed RP's under a vague, knobby flake-like feature. I stood there for a few seconds trying comprehend how it was holding his weight.
I had cleaned the pitch and trailed a rope to my brother and another friend. Without much explanation I told the folks below to tie off the trail rope
( for all the good that would have done), demanded the rest of the rack from my bewildered belayer and yelled down I was leading the next pitch. This brought on a lot of quuestions that I had no time or patience to answer.
I did manage to get back on route and finish the next pitch, anchoring mister funky belay so he could bring up the rest of our merry band. When my brother got to the lower belay I could hear him laughing hysterically.
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Scole
Trad climber
Zapopan
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Feb 28, 2018 - 09:15am PT
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Long ago I was climbing at the Pie Shop near Tahoe with a well known hard-core climber. My girlfriend was with us. Lydia had an impressive body, and was wearing a v neck t-shirt.
While top roping a very thin, insecure crack, I looked down and noticed that my belayer's eyes were fixed on Lydia's cleavage, and not on me. I whipped, and hit the slab hard, dropped to the ground. It felt like I had been split in half like a ripe peach.
I can understand being distracted by beauty, but not dropping my partner because I was staring at his girlfriends tits. Never climbed with the guy again.
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L Kap
climber
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Mar 15, 2018 - 02:19pm PT
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Here's a True Life cautionary tale that happened to me. It was a weird convergence of circumstances, but definitely a situation I'll be alert to in the future. Spoiler, I didn't die, but not for lack of potential.
My partner led the 2nd pitch of a stout-for-me climb in Eldorado Canyon CO. After he went over a roof and around a corner, no communication was possible between us. When he set up his belay, he expected to need to haul in some slack, based on the beta in the book about the length of the pitch. In reality, he'd gone further than he thought and was just about exactly at rope's end.
Me at the bottom of the pitch, I am oblivious to my partner's calculations. I just keep belaying until I'm out of rope, shouting up to my leader (which I don't know he can't hear) as he's getting close to the end. I am relieved when the rope stops moving and I assume my partner has made an anchor. I feel my partner start tugging the rope at regular intervals, as one does when belaying up a follower. I take him off belay and wait about 5 minutes to let him know he's got all the slack he's going to get. Then I unbuild the anchor as I scramble up a foot. He takes in the slack. Another foot, and the rope moves with me. So I start climbing, with the slack disappearing very reassuringly. I vividly remember having trouble at the roof about 20 feet off the deck and consider sitting back, but I decide to go for it and am rather pleased with myself for firing up the move.
My smiling face pops over the roof, my partner nearly has a heart attack, and he finally puts me on belay. He had thought I was slowly working out a knot or something back at the anchor and that he was still pulling in the initial slack. He was also a bit distracted, talking to another climber on a nearby ledge.
We did a post-mortem on the incident once we were safely on the ground. We had only done a few outdoor climbs together prior to this, but both of us had climbed a ton with other partners. He had assumed that if we couldn't communicate, I'd do 3 long slow tugs on the rope to indicate "belay off" and "climbing". I have never had much faith in relying on rope tugs (too easily missed if there is rope drag, too much chance of pulling your leader down if they're not yet anchored, too easy to get confused about whether you're seeing communication tugs or a climber who is backing down and trying a dynamic move a couple of times, etc) and my previous partners had always taken a precautionary approach to feeding slack through the belay if there was uncertainty.
We both agreed to be more attentive in the future, at least try rope tugs if appropriate, and when in doubt, err on the side of keeping your partner on belay. Better tired arms than splattered partner.
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L Kap
climber
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Mar 15, 2018 - 02:27pm PT
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Shorter story, this one secondhand. A friend of mine saw a man die from a combination of bad belaying and poor leader judgement. It was a strong climber on a single-pitch sport route. His belayer was a lot lighter, not anchored, standing too far back from the base of the climb, with too much slack out. The climber clipped the last bolt, wandered off route, couldn't find the anchor, and peeled off high above the last bolt. His belayer had no chance. Climber hit the deck. Didn't make it. RIP.
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brinton
Trad climber
pasadena, ca
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Mar 15, 2018 - 03:11pm PT
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Wanted to do laps on a short climbing wall at a YMCA in Hazleton, PA.
"You must be belayed by trained YMCA (for a small fee)"
Fine. The trained staff member secured me with a Grigri
Did a few laps. Near the top I asked to be lowered.
Dropped me like a stone to the floor. Oops. No damage.
?
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Braunini
Big Wall climber
cupertino
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Mar 15, 2018 - 03:56pm PT
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Mixed climb in Estes Park in the 80's, I take the first lead, flared crack in questionable rock, super shallow pro, so I throw in a lot. Fairly new partner, but we had done some stuff before. I peel on the the last move of the pitch, and as I'm watching the rock go by I'm thinking, "dude's a pro, gonna be a nice soft catch". At which point the rope instantly goes tight and and pieces start zippering out. At least I'm slowing down, kinda. I end up about 3 feet off the ground right next to the belay and my partner is completely white and his eyes are REAL wide. I look at his belay device and the rope is kinked around his thumb somehow and his thumb is jammed up tight against the sticht plate. Wasn't paying attention, made no conscious effort to catch me. We figure I went about 70 feet. Quiet hike out.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Mar 15, 2018 - 05:03pm PT
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I went climbing on the Squamish Apron with a guy I had just met in the lot.
He leads the first pitch, I climb up to the belay.
Yes there were 2 bolts but he had looped a single biner over the chain connecting the bolts and this was his only tie in.
I fix and say "I'm doing all the leading from here".
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Portland Oregon
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Mar 15, 2018 - 05:44pm PT
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Was there evidence he was better at belaying?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mar 15, 2018 - 08:30pm PT
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Mt. Watkins approach slabs. Pack strap came loose, #5 stopper went wiggling on down the rope ...
But E had my back (to his back)
Leader however, never laybacks & never falls. All good & Dude: that's totally pipe !!!
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AE
climber
Boulder, CO
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Mar 16, 2018 - 12:51pm PT
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Noted earlier re: ambiguous thread title. It should be Bad Belayers, belaying badly, rather than bad (read poor, insubstantial) belay anchors.
That said, once watched a group of ROTC guys showing their girlfriends how to rock climb on easy fourth class terrain about fifty feet high. They were taking turns rappelling, when one young woman got stuck halfway down. They were using GI tactics like the belay where one on the ground simply pulls on the rap rope, increasing tension and slowing or stopping the rappeller even if they let go. Also, they used the single carabiner wrap technique, just spiralling the rope one whole turn into the biner for friction. As I watched I realized she was stuck because the gate had been flipped, so the wrap was wedged halfway unclipping itself from the biner - as the person on the ground was about to pull even harder, which could have popped the rope free to let her drop the last thirty feet to the ground!
Fortunately she was at a ledge and another in the group soloed up and corrected the issue before she was lost - but I got the hell out of there as soon as I knew she was safe for the time being.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mar 16, 2018 - 12:55pm PT
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I've also heard that technique referred to as the fireman's belay.
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Mar 19, 2018 - 06:47pm PT
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This guy, Floyd, stands by his ATC direct from the anchor belay (7:20) Has belayed and lowered 100's this way. Also has a nice hand-wrap technique(7:50)He's not budging on his expertise and safety. 7:51 we hear his son " I trust my dad. He's not going to lie to me and send me down the wrong path." I'm not liking Floyd right now.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
I think I made them pull the video
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Mar 19, 2018 - 07:09pm PT
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Tied in with a biner? (:44) bad idea in general, really bad to do that with a child.
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Mar 19, 2018 - 07:28pm PT
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I had to be mean to him. Some men, you just can't reach.
Any relation to Beck's Rock?
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