Leading cracks: rope between legs?

When leading a vertical crack, as you climb above your last piece, do you let the rope run between your legs like this:

But if you had to choose, go with photo 1 

Cool crack. Is it adjustable width?

Stiles wrote: Cool crack. Is it adjustable width?

Yep

I like to trap the rope between the crack edge and my shoes, cursing loudly as I short-rope myself.

Artem Vasilyev wrote: Neither...

...Look at the lower foot on the second photo - and now do exactly that with the upper foot.

So like this?  Definitely feels a bit unnatural as a sequence at first, there's quite a lot of focus needed to make this happen correctly.  Hopefully it gets easier with practice.

Toss this in the bucket with all the things you shouldn't worry about because you have bigger problems to focus on.

Just keep the rope in front of your legs and you probably won't die. Duh.

I dunno, of the number of weekend whippers that happened on crack climbs, how many of them DIDN’T invert?  He’s smart to think of this, as it is especially awkward to avoid back stepping when you’re placing your feet so close to the protection. The first one is probably the most intuitive for most people and also guaranteed to cause an invert...

Ted Pinson wrote: I dunno, of the number of weekend whippers that happened on crack climbs, how many of them DIDN’T invert?  He’s smart to think of this, as it is especially awkward to avoid back stepping when you’re placing your feet so close to the protection. The first one is probably the most intuitive for most people and also guaranteed to cause an invert...

Uhhh, weekend whippers are selected precisely because of how gnarly they are.  Not exactly a representative sample set.

Ted Pinson wrote: I dunno, of the number of weekend whippers that happened on crack climbs, how many of them DIDN’T invert?  He’s smart to think of this, as it is especially awkward to avoid back stepping when you’re placing your feet so close to the protection.

OK. What do you mean by backstepping?

I never had this problem BITD when using a swami belt . First  noticed  it when I bought a harness

Ted Pinson wrote: I dunno, of the number of weekend whippers that happened on crack climbs, how many of them DIDN’T invert?  He’s smart to think of this, as it is especially awkward to avoid back stepping when you’re placing your feet so close to the protection. The first one is probably the most intuitive for most people and also guaranteed to cause an invert...

He needs to learn how to fall. 

Here's a tip:

If you feel insecure, be aware of where the rope is and how your body will react to foot slip or dry fire. Imagine it happening while climbing and adjust accordingly. 

The shit is real, dont be a victim, especially on video.

Marc801 C wrote: OK. What do you mean by backstepping?

Placing your foot between the rope and the wall.

Ted Pinson wrote:

Placing your foot between the rope and the wall.

Yeah. That’s not what backstepping means. 

check out that knee contact. Ouch

Marc801 C wrote:

Yeah. That’s not what backstepping means. 

I've heard "backstepping" used very, very frequently to describe precisely what Ted has in the context of gym lead tests.

Ted's definition might not be your's (likely with "backstepping" as a movement/technique?) but that doesn't mean it's wholesale incorrect.

Jack C wrote:

I've heard "backstepping" used very, very frequently to describe precisely what Ted has in the context of gym lead tests.

Ted's definition might not be your's (likely with "backstepping" as a movement/technique?) but that doesn't mean it's wholesale incorrect.

It's not my definition - it *is* the definition. One thing that really burns me about gyms is their propensity, and by extension their members, to redefine existing climbing terms. A backstep is a specific kind of movement and technique, just like hand jams, chicken wings, hand stacking, and the rose move. It's not some gym BS about where you put your foot relative to the rope.

Marc801 C wrote:

Yeah. That’s not what backstepping means. 

The most recent Enormocast brought this up-- some gym employee was going over rules of the belay test to Bisharet, and was like "and no backstepping!"  AB was like, "uhh, ok, you're telling me what beta I have to use?"  The employee meant "no getting the rope behind your foot."

The factor most at play for inverting is which appendages blow out first and your current center of gravity....If you blow your hands with your feet well stuck in the crack, it’s not gonna matter much where your rope is running