Ok guys – here is part 2.1 of my learning to lead climb post. Tried to keep it short and sweet to save valuable sever space as gigabites’s aint cheap and I like typing a lot. So in this post I will try to cover what I learned and experienced learning the belaying aspect of lead climbing, and I’ll follow up with a shorter post for the lead climber and the mental aspects of that world. Lets begin!
So what most beginners think of before lead climbing - Falling. I spent 3 days contemplating what falling is, watched thousands videos of people falling off various platforms at various heights and memorized Fg=Mg and Kinematic mathematics. I locked myself in my bedroom suspended from the ceiling tied to a dynamic rope with a slipknot tied into it held by a carabiner to simulate falling. Id pull the beiner and let the dynamic rope (which I have named sapphire) catch me with all her dynamic beauty to get used to falling and let me tell you, she caught me every time. Im going to cut off a 2’ length and make a necklace out of it so I can take her where ever I go.
So now it was time to become official. I longed for a “lead” climbing tag to add to my already overly decorated harness, which holds all my gym top rope tags, my grigri, 5 locking carabiners, my phone holder, my 6 double length slings, my 7mm cordlette, my atc device, my avalanche beacon and my pouch full of cliff bars that I always wear when I auto belay or even boulder. Time to become OFFICIAL. Even Tradiban would say I look fancy.
Im kidding by the way.
Except I really did name my blue 9.9mm 60M beauty BD rope sapphire. Hate if you must.
Anyway, off I go. Disclaimer: This is made for beginner to lead climbing by a beginner to lead climbing. And its not exhaustive – I’m not a professional writer so its not super detailed or university paper grade ok. My bad. Just a “primer” if you will for someone in my shoes looking to take a lead class.
So me and my trusty partner put in a week of practice before attempting the final test. We showed up for our 2 hour “learn to fall, learn to belay” class. We had been practicing “mock leading” with sapphire while tied into the toprope for safety. Time to learn to belay on lead and feel the rush of climbing above quickdraws. As sloppy Seconds has said previously: “Pure Adventure!!” LOL
I will cover the lead belaying aspect in this post.
First, we were shown what I guess can be the basic blocks for lead belaying.
Step #1 - Choosing the belay “station” location under the climb and being aware of “body positioning” during belay. This incorporated looking what side of the route was the safest and had the best visibility of the climb to belay from below as well as what side of the climb is easiest for me to manage the rope from, if that makes sense. We were also told to stand behind our climber as they progress to the first draw to be ready to spot them as they clip into the first draw. This is not to catch the climber, just to help support the head and neck so your climber doesn’t fall in an awkward position and hit their head or injure their neck, same as bouldering.
Step #2 - The method of managing slack, knowing how much slack to have in the system, and how to “give” rope for clipping as well as climber communication while climbing. Talk about a lot of things to pay attention to at one time. Maybe I lack simple coordination and multi-tasking skills, though Im sure someone will point that out shortly. What I am not missing is coordination skills of my climbing getup as I match all blue and yellow like the Swedish flag, maybe Im meant to climb the Kebnekaise. I also only climb blue and yellow holds in the gym regardless of the grade. So we were taught a way of belaying first in which you put your finger under the “lip” on the grigri and hold the device in position while holing the brake strand in the same hand. You pull from the climber’s side rope from the grigri to give slack, and when clipping you put your thumb on the cam to stop it from engaging and quickly pull out a length of rope. In the event of a fall you just keep your hand on the brake side of the rope. This felt strange to me for some reason, and I didn’t like how it was a possibility for my thumb automatically going to the cam as if I was paying slack for a clip. (We would later move to a new gym that taught the “shovel method”. If you don’t know what I mean by these ill post links in the thread after I post it if I can find a pic/video that displays both ways). I prefer the “shovel method” and stuck with that, then switching to the “finger” way to hold the cam down and quickly pull out slack”. Just feels more natural and comfortable for me. We were also shown visually how much slack is usually acceptable to leave in the system to allow for the rope to stretch dynamically and give a soft catch which is something that you need to see to understand. Basically, never hold the rope tight like in top rope unless your partner communicates to “take” and you leave a good bend in the rope. Again you need to see a visual to kind of get the idea. You also want to stand relatively close to the wall so your not pulled into it during a fall and do the ol’ faceplant or worse into the cliffside.
Step #3 - Catching your partner when they fall. First thing is first – weight differences. I am significantly heavier than my partner (almost 50lbs) so this was a concern going into it. From what I heard its easier for the lighter climber to catch me as I automatically pull them up off the ground, but I need to do a bit more to provide a cloud-like soft catch worthy of my climbing BFF. Luckily, I posted a thread on MP in which many responded mucho helpful information, and told me to search MP for my answer because its not a climbing topic worthy of discussion on a climbing forum anymore. It has been discussed to many times they said. I instantly crossed off my next 5 questions because some genius thought to ask it first. Thanks other beginners for running my fun. Anyway, first thing was – When I caught my climbers fall I was told to jump with the force of the fall to give her a softer catch. This was tricky as it was all to do with timing, but in the end now when I feel her weight start to pull on my harness, I just roll up on my tippy toes and give a light hop and I get pulled up the wall in a smooth transition. The main thing here is to always be paying attention, that’s how you give the best catch. This aint’ toprope belaying and it’s a lot different, so there are some adjustments needed to your already perfect TR belay technique. Its pretty straight forward though – if you know your going to fall its beneficial to yell “falling” to let your belayer know when your just learning so there is no surprises, but at the beginning we would actually practice falling so we could get used to falling and get used to catching a fall. If your always watching, I find you can predict when most falls will happen and act accordingly.
I never had any fear of falling, and had a lot of confidence in my partner as well so the fear of falling was never really an issue for me. I do get nervous when above my last clip and clipping at a high point on a hard grade but the fear of falling never really held me back yet from anything. I think I am lucky in this regard as I have seen and heard of lots of climbers having a hard time adjusting to this, but I have lots of experience working at heights, being suspended etc. so I think it may have helped. Ill have to post an additional thread on this later. It takes a few sessions to feel real comfortable with this new belaying style – but it is alot of fun (though serious) and is a great experience to be that involved in the belaying of your partner.
Step #4 - Climber communication – Know your commands and for the beginning use the commands in the gym until you learn your partners rhythm and feel comfortable enough to climb while using them minimally. I was that guy in the gym yelling “FALLING, CLIPPING” and whatnot, every single time. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing these things but In a small cramped gym setting when you’ve been climbing together for a while, we stopped using the commands unless it was something like a “take” for a rest or “falling” if its an unexpected fall and you can communicate this on time. You get to know your partners after a while and can do away with them, if you so please and if you guys are confident enough. I also liked to yell “ROPE” every time I pulled my rope down through the quickdraws as well, which I still do if there is someone climbing close to us so they are aware.Honestly lead belaying it was a bit to grasp and become comfortable with but if your dedicated to lead climbing and serious about the dangers of what you are doing you should be ok. Practice makes perfect, and ask experienced climbers or gym staff to critique you while you belay at the gym for either pointers or re-assurance on anything you feel sketchy about.
In the end it was also a great experience, and I can’t explain how fun, thrilling, fulfilling, challenging and addictive lead climbing has become for me. If you’re thinking of doing it as well and feel like you’re ready, I say go for it!
I’ll have to post another on the lead climber as well as the mental battle when lead climbing as it will probably be a long post as well! Part 2.2 coming soon, the lead climber.
If I think of anything else I should have added I’ll add it with an (EDIT) marker beside it.
Thanks guys,
North Col
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