Over 30 years ago my wife took a leader fall in the Gunks on Miss Bailey. She should only have fallen about 15 feet, but was dropped an extra 60 feet by belay error. What happened was the belayer was using a stich plate and tried to stop the fall in the position where most people are taught to "match hands" on. This is the position of minimum friction. The rope runs very freely in this position and burns the hands of the belayer. When the belayer finally let go of the rope, the device locked up and stopped my wife upside down 1 foot from the ground. She was unhurt because it was a completely freefall. The belayers hands were severely burnt.
Because of this, I have always disliked how most people are taught to belay. I believe the thumb of the brake hand should point toward the belay device and the hands never match. In this position, the device is always locked off. If you google "How to belay", the first link will show a picture of how I believe you should NOT belay.

Greg, I believe in your post has been a problem for some time -- where you bring your brake hand up to your guide hand and match strands so as to slide your brake hand back down. Man, I just saw this the other day, where the belayer kept holding both strands straight up until the climber made a move (with his f'n guide hand no less) -- no way to catch a lead fall.

Would you agree that the Slip, Slap, & Slide belay method would have prevented this error?

I can't find anything online depicting a visual of this method -- the brake hand maintains a lateral position to the device with the guide hand always working independantly & outside of the brake hand's ability to slide along the rope.


Thanks also to Rich for offering the amount of information on RMRG. I hope I never see you guys, but am glad & grateful to know organizations like yours will be there, if needed.

Climbings website shows the proper way to belay at:
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttsport225/index.html

When I was teaching/guiding years ago, I would on occasion have a bad-actor who just couldn't seem to learn to keep the brake-hand on. I would on such occasion use athletic tape to tape their brake hand closed into a fist over the brake end (thumb towards the device, BTW) and then take them out of the belay when the bad habits were broken and I believed that they could keep their hand on the rope reliably. The work hand had to do all the switching & they did learn fast because they were FORCED not to repeat and reinforce bad habits.

Thanks, Greg. Yup, that's it. The name of the method has evolved a little bit, instead of a "switch", the "slap" is used as a term -- but it's the same method.

I think this method is effective in eliminating belay error due to rope management.

Leaving communication & impact force as the factors I see to cause an incident from the belay. I believe communication error should be 100% preventable; leaving impact force; which can be somewhat mitigated through a dynamic belay. But if there's too much force, I don't see how an incident from the belay can be prevented.

If you use a mitten belay, wrapping the rope around the brake hand as a mitten-wearing ice climber does, I don't see how impact would free the rope from the brake hand. You'd have to crush the hand and suck it through the device. Seems unlikely to me.
I feel better with a hard lock-off than I do trying to go dynamic with the belay, so with a fall < factor 1, I don't even try to go dynamic with a shift of hands- I let the rope provide that. I lock off with the mitten belay behind my butt and let my hand be dragged forward toward the device a little, but nothing more. I am pulling away and down the whole time. I do sit lightly down on my feet and let the impact pick me up a little, but I don't feel like I should be focusing on anything more with my brake hand except for pulling back against the device.
Seems to be doing just fine. I recently had a professional climber tell me how soft & comfortable that catch was the on multiple 20-30 foot falls he took. After years of trying various things, I've settled in on that method because people seem to report being very comfortable with it and I feel my odds of loosing control are the lowest.

Tony, your "mitten belay" sounds interesting. Do you find that you can quickly and adequately feed out rope to your leader? Could you post a picture of how exactly it's used?

I don't have a digital camera, but I'll ask someone to take some pics some time and maybe post them. Here's the basic though- you have the rope running through your hand at your side. The thumb is pointing up at the device and the palm is inward. Your hand should be back by your hip; this is very comfortable and anatomical.

Wrap the rope around the back of the hand, back forward through the thumb and forefinger, and then down through the closed palm- such that you are now clasping a coil of rope- 2 strands in the closed palm, one encircling the back of the hand. It will probably cross itself in your palm, and the end will still come out across the hypothenal eminence. Close your hand on it. Pull on the other end- you will see this is NOT slipping even with a light grip, so long as your hand remains closed. I suppose that if you got hit hard without flexing the muscles in the hand that this could injure you like a crushing handshake. But no worse than burning the hands to the bone, and your partner will survive too.

To take in rope, you slide the hand up the rope and the coil around the hand will become slack, then you use the work hand to pull the tail tight again. To let out slack, you lighten the grip, hold the guide hand on the upper rope (to your partner) and slide your hand down. I always keep at least a foot or two of slack in the rope between my hand and the belay device such that if I want to pull out slack fast I can. Also, if a surprise fall happens, I am locked off "Way back" from the device and my brake hand is pulled forward, providing a little dynamic action.

With time, you may decide that quickly shuffling the brake hand is effective for minor rope adjustments too. I'm able to spend a vast majority with my hands in this configuration without a problem, but there are always exceptions.

The links that Greg posted is the way I have always taught it and always do it. I taught climbing at Paradise Rock Gym for 3 years and always had better results using this method. Visually it is easier for the beginner to separate the strands of rope when providing a top rope belay. Plus, the transition happens in the lock-off position and not with both ropes extended away from the belay device.

Bringing the brake hand up to grab the lead strand always seemed dangerous for me. What happens if the leader falls exactly at that moment? The belayer has absolutely no friction preventing that rope from ripping through his hands.

I also believe this is now the AMGA-certified way of belaying.

Michael,
That is reassuring to know.
I remember going to a rock gym some years ago and taking the belay test and the "instructor" was very confused about my belaying. I informed him why his method was flawed, and eventually I was passed. I had been climbing over 30 years at the time and he probably a LOT less. I posted this information because I see so many people belaying the "old" way and thought a discussion about it would be good. I was shocked when I googled "How to belay" and saw their method. I just submitted a response to their website and gave them the Climbing website link. It will be interesting to see if I ever get a response.

In talking with a couple of friends about our discussion on belay methods, I wonder if some of our posts would be more appropriate in another category such a General Climbing or Beginning Climbing instead of a forum discussing an incident.

It seems there is some interest in how we each view the belay dynamics perspective & proper use of gear. I would say about 3 other people I had a discussion with also agree/indicate that the gri-gri is an advanced device and should be used accordingly.

Do we agree that we should be better serving those of interest by moving our posts on belay discussion to a different forum? If so, how do we go about doing that?