What would you do if you got dropped?

Asking for a friend.

You and your girlfriend are semi-noobie outdoor sport climbers. You've climbed probably 200-300 single-pitch routes together, but you have invested significantly more time in climbing knowledge and climbed another 150-200 pitches with other people than her. You've taken indoor lead tests at 2 gyms, she has never indoor lead or belayed (but belayed outdoors). You walk into a gym you've been together 6is times and decide to take a lead test. Your third and her first. You both pass with flying colors. Yay. You both lead 1 route immediately after this. All is well. You climb another route and get 1/2 way up and fall, and ask to be lowered. You get lowered 10' and then suddenly start to near free fall for another 15', then you come to a stop. She brings you to the ground, rope burn on her hands. You immediately know that she opened the lever on the gri gri too far and tried to lower with the break strand too much, couldn't hold it, and tried too grip it even harder as you are dropped. Luckily she caught you before you impacted and everything is okay. You have told her that this can happen with a regular gri gri and she must control the rope with the lever and not her break strand. She has a gri gri 2 which wont allow you to open the cam too far, but you were using your regular gri gri for this day. What do you do? You have already told her this before, do you remind her of this and move on? What if it is something else next time that you told her and she forgets? Since nobody was hurt, are you over reacting?  

Trying to help my friend out. 

Ask Alex Honnold.

this post is really cringe, I won't lie

talk to your girlfriend, dude. tell her how you feel and ask her how she feels

good grief

Gumby King27wrote:

Asking for a friend.

You and your girlfriend are semi-noobie outdoor sport climbers. You've climbed probably 200-300 single-pitch routes together, but you have invested significantly more time in climbing knowledge and climbed another 150-200 pitches with other people than her. You've taken indoor lead tests at 2 gyms, she has never indoor lead or belayed (but belayed outdoors). You walk into a gym you've been together 6is times and decide to take a lead test. Your third and her first. You both pass with flying colors. Yay. You both lead 1 route immediately after this. All is well. You climb another route and get 1/2 way up and fall, and ask to be lowered. You get lowered 10' and then suddenly start to near free fall for another 15', then you come to a stop. She brings you to the ground, rope burn on her hands. You immediately know that she opened the lever on the gri gri too far and tried to lower with the break strand too much, couldn't hold it, and tried too grip it even harder as you are dropped. Luckily she caught you before you impacted and everything is okay. You have told her that this can happen with a regular gri gri and she must control the rope with the lever and not her break strand. She has a gri gri 2 which wont allow you to open the cam too far, but you were using your regular gri gri for this day. What do you do? You have already told her this before, do you remind her of this and move on? What if it is something else next time that you told her and she forgets? Since nobody was hurt, are you over reacting?  

Trying to help my friend out. 

Incorrect, Gri Gri 2 doesn't lock when fully open.

My answer might depend on how many times she has lowered with that device previously. If she has never used it before, or very little, I give her a pass. There is less friction in the gym, so a lot more of the climber's weight is on the belayer. She kept him off the ground in a novel scenario, which means she figured it out on the fly and did what was needed. I like that in a partner. 

 tried to lower with the break strand too much, couldn't hold it, and tried too grip it even harder as you are dropped. Luckily she caught you before you impacted and everything is okay. You have told her that this can happen with a regular gri gri and she must control the rope with the lever and not her break strand

Tell her to use the "brake" not "break" strand - I think that is your problem

Next time you are belaying her, drop her 15 feet and call it even.

Lee Chandlerwrote:

Next time you are belaying her, drop her 15 feet and call it even.

LOL 

When I lower with my Vergo, I redirect the brake strand through a carabiner on my leg loop for added friction and control. This is when belaying from the ground. Also applies to lowering with a GrIgri from the ground.

Try it.

Let your GF know she is no longer the beneficiary on you life insurance policy and climb on. 

Gumby King27wrote:

Asking for a friend.

You and your girlfriend are semi-noobie outdoor sport climbers. You've climbed probably 200-300 single-pitch routes together, but you have invested significantly more time in climbing knowledge and climbed another 150-200 pitches with other people than her. You've taken indoor lead tests at 2 gyms, she has never indoor lead or belayed (but belayed outdoors). You walk into a gym you've been together 6is times and decide to take a lead test. Your third and her first. You both pass with flying colors. Yay. You both lead 1 route immediately after this. All is well. You climb another route and get 1/2 way up and fall, and ask to be lowered. You get lowered 10' and then suddenly start to near free fall for another 15', then you come to a stop. She brings you to the ground, rope burn on her hands. You immediately know that she opened the lever on the gri gri too far and tried to lower with the break strand too much, couldn't hold it, and tried too grip it even harder as you are dropped. Luckily she caught you before you impacted and everything is okay. You have told her that this can happen with a regular gri gri and she must control the rope with the lever and not her break strand. She has a gri gri 2 which wont allow you to open the cam too far, but you were using your regular gri gri for this day. What do you do? You have already told her this before, do you remind her of this and move on? What if it is something else next time that you told her and she forgets? Since nobody was hurt, are you over reacting?  

Trying to help my friend out. 

1) "Your friend" shouldn't move on until she has had ample practice. Practice lowering, practice catching falls, etc. Problems don't just disappear if we ignore them. 

2) 2 things that can make it harder to control the brake are the climber/belayer weight difference and rope diameter. These two things together can be jarring. Now add in inexperience with a belay device, and you are looking for trouble. Gloves can help to mitigate both of those issues.

Josh

I think the best way to teach her the lesson is to withhold sex from her for a week. She will surely learn and never do that again.

She made a mistake. I bet she feels horrible. Glad nobody got hurt.

If your “friend” and his girlfriend have any chance at partnership, climbing or life, they will TOGETHER analyze what happened, and will figure out how/what to practice to avoid the repeat in the future.

If your friend thinks that “reprimand her snd move on” is a valid option, I would suggest that he moves on by breaking up with this girl, so they both can find better future partners. 

Lena chitawrote:

She made a mistake. I bet she feels horrible. Glad nobody got hurt.

If your “friend” and his girlfriend have any chance at partnership, climbing or life, they will TOGETHER analyze what happened, and will figure out how/what to practice to avoid the repeat in the future.

If your friend thinks that “reprimand her snd move on” is a valid option, I would suggest that he moves on by breaking up with this girl, so they both can find better future partners. 

Very well said. If you are dating someone, and climb with them often, you need to learn how to navigate situations like this with the approach that Lena describes, or your relationship will most likely fail. 

Things like this are going to happen. It boils down to being an adult and talking to your partner about uncomfortable situations.

Pretty sure the belayer in question is gonna know they feck'd up. In fact sounds like she came off worse, after all you, sorry your friend, didn't deck deck and she got the rope burns. 

So if it was me I'd ask her what she thinks as its highly unlikly she wants to repeat the event.

I would say this probably warrants sleeping with her mom. 

I'd likely make an MP post about it, showcasing that I'm incapable of communication like an adult with even those that I love and trust most, but I'd also probably tie it to my real, personal account as forewarning to anybody who may think to want to climb with me at some point in the future. Then I'd rub salt in her rope burns and and absolve myself from the situation in any way possible.

But that's just one man's (boy's) advice.

They make a specific carabiner to go with the gri gri, that provides additional friction. My teenage daughter uses such a carabiner when belaying my big ass. Your girl just needs practice. She probably won’t kill you, but then again, it is an imperfect world.

Don't ask to be lowered!!!

I personally Would never let someone who dropped me, belay me again. Its  belaying not rocket science 

Jesse Quandtwrote:

Things like this are going to happen. It boils down to being an adult and talking to your partner about uncomfortable situations.

Easy now. We’re climbers, we didn’t get into this to have to act like adults. 

I've been in nearly this exact same situation in a past life. I got dropped from the anchor to just about 1.5m off the ground, until the grigri caught when they finally freaked out and let go of the whole system and smacked against the wall and me into them.  While I get the whole "communication" thing, I personally found it really hard to trust myself in the hands of that person ever again in a climbing setting.  I never really got over it and that it led to the end of climbing with them.

So yeah, I get communication, I get being an adult.  But I get the fact that your body and mind can just refuse to forget nearly hitting the deck.