Red Flag Phrases

"I'll call you when I get to Oakdale."

Nic Gravleywrote:

I don’t understand this “in direct” confusion. It literally means you are directly connected to a fixed anchor. This can be a bolt on a sport route, an anchor, or a piece of trad gear. Depending on the situation your belayer can act accordingly.  What is the issue with this? I feel like it’s a pretty useful and widely applicable command. 

Useful, just not useful at a single pitch anchor.  As a belayer, hearing my climber say it at the anchor doesn’t help me.  It’s just extra noise.  (There are exceptions, like doing shenanigans).

My climber:  “ in direct”

Me belaying:  “Okay!?”

I’ve climbed with a bunch of guys who’ve been climbing a long time and their always telling me how to do things……

At least he said it on mammoth terraces where it’s a fuck of a lot easier to bail than the shield roof!

amariuswrote:

As to WTF this meant - I have no idea. But, I think, this thread is about red flags, and hearing someone espouse this belief is most assuredly  a red flag.

Sounds like someone should brush up on reading comprehension.

All I’m trying to say is that people who say in direct fall into one of two groups. Those that actually send hard and know what they’re doing and those that are the sketchiest people at the crag using it wrong. Until I’ve hung around long enough to decide who’s who it’s a red flag to me.

My suggestion is that the phrase in direct is unnecessary and can be replaced with slack.

Half the time in direct is a status update no one needs to hear. AKA extra noise. The other half the time, what you really want is slack so you can hang on your project draw or thread an anchor to clean. So just say so. Slack.

Does that spell it out enough for you?

Red flag sentences I've encountered:

1. Can I have your partner's phone number? (HELLNO!)

2. I don't mind leading all the pitches. (you're gonna die anyway)

3. Climb the obvious dihedral.

4. I got the first bolt in, here's the drill, see if you can get the next one in!

5. Eddie Joe said this one is a bit runnout.

6. Its not far, now.

"He said Off belay, right?"

Context: At a noisy crag, a nearby belayer took her leader (out of sight) off belay and then proceeded to ask this question. No one ever heard what the leader had yelled. This happened for real.

bishop triphosphatewrote:

"let's use rope tugs to communicate"

“Rope tugs don’t work”. Yeah. Def a red flag. 

“Take”

Another vote for in direct. It's not a command, it doesn't mean anything

Yes, saying "In direct" is a status update. It tells your belayer that you no longer need the tension of the rope and that you are probably going to be taking a rest for more than a few seconds. They can then do what they choose with this information. When I'm the belayer I like to give a minimal amount of slack to relieve the tug on my harness and possibly sit down if I'm tired. I generally appreciate that my partner has allowed me to make this decision by courteously keeping me informed. I've considered chastising them for polluting the air with their extra three syllables, but I'm actually a generally functional human being who tries to get along with other human beings.

Owner of gri-gri demonstrates, “look, it locks up, so its 100% safe”. 

"As a guide ..."

;-) (posting as a former guide who still has many guide friends)

Alex C wrote:

What’s worse is the UK version: “safe.” It’s supposed to mean “off belay” but people often use it when they actually mean “I have reached the top of the climb and will now build an anchor” or (perhaps even worse) to mean something like “in direct” at the top of a sport climb. Particularly misused in international venues (like here in Kenya) where climbers come from various climbing cultures.

The worst part of the "Safe!" command is that with a little bit of background noise, it can easily sound the same as "Take!" (same number of syllables and same vowels). No problem there. But if someone yells "Take!" and the belayer hears "Safe!", things can quickly get a lot more "interesting".

“On belay!” “Belay on!” “Climbing!”, “Climb on!”.

"Did you hear about that Alex Honnlove guy free climbing El Cap?!?!?!?"

The two times that I've heard this from a group of people, one instance someone was cratered from third bolt.  The other, the climber took a fall, the belayer yarded on the rope and the climber slapped hard into a sharp arete and gashed their arm badly enough to require a firm pressure dressing.

Are the utterances of things like this correlative to the events that occur within these groups?  Who knows.

Alex C wrote:

What’s worse is the UK version: “safe.” It’s supposed to mean “off belay” but people often use it when they actually mean “I have reached the top of the climb and will now build an anchor” or (perhaps even worse) to mean something like “in direct” at the top of a sport climb. Particularly misused in international venues (like here in Kenya) where climbers come from various climbing cultures.

To be fair, “safe“ is inherently vague. Because of confusions like these, I have made it a habit to define commands with a new partner before leaving the ground, wherever I am in the world.

I personally prefer to yell “secure” rather than “off belay.”  Saying off belay sounds close to on belay, and I understand that practically there’s not really a situation where they could get mixed up, I just prefer having different sounding commands. But as you say, most important thing is making sure you’re on the same page as your partner before leaving the ground.

My red flag is when someone refers to free soloing as free climbing. Maybe more of a pet peeve but it’s a hint that they might lack attention to detail if they can’t see the difference…

"Layton Kor was the FA"

i.e. Get ready to be scared for the next couple hours

but it’s a hint

It's more than. a hint, brother. <gate_keeping_mode> Its the sound of a door slamming shut. </gate_keeping_mode>

"Hey I forgot my carabiner can I borrow yours?"

"Uh.. yeah here you go"

"Where is the bit you put the rope through?"

"Do you mean 'Belay Device'!?"

"Yeah that's it! Thanks, on belay"

grug gwrote:

"He's never done that before!" Talking about their dog. 

Visible red flags: 

Bunch of things clipped to the outside of their pack swinging around like a pendulum as they hike. 

Carrying the rope to the crag in their hands.

No rope mat or bag - just puts their stuff right in the dirt. 

My only personal exception to this is shoes. If I put my shoes in my bag they can’t air out and will get smelly. I let them breathe on the way back the car by hanging them on my pack; it’s completely solved my smelly shoe problem.