Stop yelling “Rope”

I was climbing a route at peterskill (leading) and a guide above yelled rope to drop his top rope. I hollered back that I was climbing, and he didn’t huck the rope down. No “rope” call and I woulda been nailed. Yell rope, wait a sec, then drop. So easy. 

Couldn't be bothered to read two posts down the thread to see if your comment had already been posted?

What's it to you?

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

Couldn't be bothered to read two posts down the thread to see if your comment had already been posted?

Thought we should read this again...

What a great idea! His next post will be how we should stop yelling "ROCK!"   

On another note: does anyone else say "Pebbles."? Often on an FA or just dirty climb you dislodge some and you don't want to say rock and freak out your belayer so we say "Pebbles" and it's always kind of funny.

On a whole nother note: does anyone say "Rock!"? when any random thing is dropped from a height? Like your fixing a roof and drop your hammer and yell "Rock!" just out of habit? That's also always kind of funny.

P.S. Sorry to hear about your eye Locker. And thanks for the heads up. Or should I say heads to the side?    That's good advice I'll head from now on.

Colton Schultzwrote:

Saw a guide on Insta made a post recently...

There's your first problem, you shouldn't pay attention to guides who make instructional insta posts. Unfollow, block, ignore and move on. If a guide has the time to make dumbass 'how to' videos instead of you know guiding, it should be a good indicator of their skill and knowledge.

Gloweringwrote:

What a great idea! His next post will be how we should stop yelling "ROCK!"   

On another note: does anyone else say "Pebbles."? Often on an FA or just dirty climb you dislodge some and you don't want to say rock and freak out your belayer so we say "Pebbles" and it's always kind of funny.

On a whole nother note: does anyone say "Rock!"? when any random thing is dropped from a height? Like your fixing a roof and drop your hammer and yell "Rock!" just out of habit? That's also always kind of funny.

I believe that “rock!” Is considered the correct thing to yell in all cases (other than “rope”). If you drop something there isn’t time to get specific and yelling “water bottle” or “cam” may just confuse someone. Whereas if you hear a yell of “rock!”, you should know how to respond. I.e. don’t look up, maybe change your position, though there will not be time to move much. Yelling “pebbles” may be a disservice to someone who instinctively looks up to figure out what is going on in and gets a face full of pebbles. 

Colton Schultzwrote:

Saw a guide on Insta made a post recently about how it is essentially pointless to yell “rope” when pulling the rope from the anchor.

Thoughts? Does yelling “rope” right as you pull the end of the rope  actually prevent anyone from getting nailed? Should we sensually whisper “rope” to the group next to us instead of blowing out their eardrums?

This is a larger trend of people in general.  Everyone's a goddamned expert.  Do this, don't do that, etc. etc.  I have an idea: I'll do what the fuck I want to do, and everyone else will do what the fuck they want to do, and as long as what I'm doing doesn't bother or harm everyone else, I will continue to do whatever the fuck I want to do, and as long as other people aren't doing things that harm me or anyone else, they'll continue to do whatever the fuck they want to do.  That way we can all live in harmony without an air of superiority telling other people what they *should* do.  Sounds fantastic, and I think we should all try to get back to that place that used to exist.

I have helped other people avoid being hit by my rope, and I've avoided being hit by someone else's rope using this practice of yelling "rope" *before* it comes free of the anchor, so I see no reason to stop using that practice.  

I yell rope about ten to fifteen seconds before I'm pulling it through an anchor, or ten to fifteen seconds before it will plummet and hit whoever might be standing underneath or in the area.   I don't care if the rapture comes, and Jesus refers to me as "my son" personally and asks me in his calmest, most convincing deity voice to stop yelling rope.  I don't give a fuck if John Long, Jim Bridwell, Alex Honnold, Lynn Hill and some guide on Instagram tell me not to, simultaneously, in a production musical about not yelling rope when you pull from an anchor.  I'm still going to do it and *now* I'm going to do it simply because some pontificating self-important person said not to, just out of pure spite and growing weary of everyone conflating simply having an internet connection and social media account with the authority to tell everyone to do things a certain way.  I'm pretty over it, as this post must surely allude to.  YMMV.

This is what you look like when you tell people what to do "as a guide".

Jake Joneswrote:

I'll do what the fuck I want to do, 

Go get 'em, Jake!

Some of my B-side partners yell "rope" several times as loudly as possible in every instance. I'm like, dude we can both see the ground and there's nobody down there, please stop yelling in my ears.

Yeah this “never yell rope” idea is not the way. I imagine it comes from being around a lot of noobs who (rightfully) are robotically following a bunch of rules (formal belay commands, “always yell rope at the top of your lungs, etc) in order to keep them (and others climbing nearby) safe before they have the knowledge base to make better contextual decisions.

It can be annoying when somebody ruins the peace and quiet of an empty crag (or the gym for that matter) by yelling rope at the top of their lungs as they pull the rope through the anchors of a single pitch sport climb with no other parties nearby. But I’d rather them do that than think “it’s not cool to yell rope if no one’s around” and huck a rope onto my head unannounced as I’m leading up out of sight below them on a multi pitch.

Hopefully if they stick around  they will learn to see the nuances and behave appropriately, but I don’t think that looks like never yelling rope- to me it looks like evaluating the chances of hitting someone every time you pull/toss your rope and taking appropriate action, choosing to snake/saddlebag if you can see someone below you, yelling rope if there’s a chance there’s someone you can’t see/there is someone and you are pulling through the anchors, and saying at a normal volume “just wanna give you a heads up, I’m about to pull this rope” to anyone standing near me on the ground.

How did you know the OP was a guide? Lol

Top Roperwrote:

How did you know the OP was a guide? Lol

It's from a guide's instagram account.

Not the first time he's been called out either... A few months back he falsely claimed that Petzl had "certified the micro traction as a belay device". Of course people do use it that way, and Petzl did publish some testing to show the risks and limitations of this application, but Petzl's official position remains that the the micro trax is not a belay device. I believe that post has since been deleted...

HAHAHAHA 

"Guide" meaning they passed their SPI course? 

Is there a more insufferable category of social media post than the sanctimonious proclamations of a climbing guide taking a strong, half-reasoned stance on some mundane bullshit? No, I don't have to use a quad. No, I don't have to stop saying 'rope'. No, I don't have to use your preferred rappel backup. STFU.

Top Roperwrote:

How did you know the OP was a guide? Lol

How'd you get the rope up there Top Roper? Lol

Top Roperwrote:

How did you know the OP was a guide? Lol

Am guessing this is the post the OP saw. If so, Max Lurie is an AMGA certified Rock and Alpine Guide.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChSDZl4D4ug/

I don't think anyone thinks that yelling "rope!" gives them license to drop 60m of rope onto someone else.  Suggesting that this is the case clearly exhibits what this guy thinks of most other climbers that presumably *aren't* guides.  The entire reason for yelling "rope" when a ROPE is going to come plummeting down is to avoid someone getting hit by the rope as it falls from the anchor.

There exists more than one scenario in which a rope is pulled from an anchor.  What if you're on the ground and near an arete, and you'd like to avoid people coming around the corner from getting a surprise should they come walking around the corner just as a rope is about to be pulled?  I've seen this happen at least once.

I have questions.

What if you *cannot* visually confirm that there isn't anyone beneath you?  What if you can't confirm that there isn't someone walking around the bend at a perfectly inopportune time?  What if you're single pitch cragging and you don't feel like you should have to politely tap on everyone's shoulder in a crowd of 6 people and say "uh, excuse me, but I'm about to pull this rope from the anchor and I don't want any of you to be hit by it, so kindly get clear of where the rope might fall because you're oblivious to your surroundings".  What if you're not throwing from your anchor down because you're getting ready to rap, what if you're pulling from an anchor above and there's no way you can keep the rope from falling beneath you as it comes tumbling down from the previous anchor?  Why does people yelling this annoy this guy so much?  Why does this person think that the scenarios he's in are the only ones that exist when pulling a rope?  Why is he so hopelessly obtuse and myopic?  I wonder if this gentleman goes around adjusting helmet chin straps because they're ever so slightly askew on people's chins or even worse yet *gasp* not even fastened?!  These things aren't things that should boggle this guy's mind.  Seems like *someone* just likes to feel superior and speak with an air of authority on social media.

SERIOUSLY STOP IT.  Hahahaha.  Good lord man.  

Classic case of Take Inflation.

https://twitter.com/internethippo/status/1275063421524774917

The guidefluencer really likes to make blanket statements (I'm sure it gets the post more views) and then argue with anyone disagreeing in the comments, citing "context". Seems like almost half the conmenters agree with him 100%. 

did this guide have a cheesy mustache?