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This feature article was snagged from Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down: Kathy's Views On Anchoring
the Belayer for an Upward Pull (WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: Complete
knowledge of standard climbing equipment, techniques and
practices is assumed. The following is NOT to be used or
construed as instruction in how to climb or how to belay. Seek
professional, expert instruction before using these
techniques.) Many rock climbing schools and
instructors teach their students that a belayer must always be
tied down against the upward pull of a fall. This is
especially emphasized when there is a big weight difference
between the belayer and the climber, as is often the case for
us gals. If this is true, why does virtually
everyone break this rule so often? At top-rope sites, how
often do you see the belayer tied down, unless it's a class
situation? On one pitch sport climbs, why do belayers rarely
tie themselves down? On multi-pitch climbs, is the belayer
always protected against an upward pull? Is this another one
of those ways we humans defy our own good sense when it
doesn't suit us, similar to bike helmets, seat belts, smoking,
safe sex and the like? Probably, to some extent it is.
Part of the problem is that when a rule is introduced as
pretty much universal and absolute, and then in practice is
not uniformly obeyed, it loses credibility in our minds as an
important rule. This has been the fate of the injunction to
wear a climbing helmet. When we begin climbing we are told to
always wear helmets, but then at the local sport crag almost
no one does. What are we to think? That helmets might increase
safety, but they're not "cool"? That the danger isn't great
enough to warrant the hassle? There are obviously good reasons to
wear helmets, and there are often good reasons to tie down the
belayer, but these reasons are complex and change in relevance
and relative importance from one circumstance to another. For
instance, though it's hard to make a case for when you should
not wear a helmet, there actually are common situations where
tying down a belayer entails problems and introduces hazards,
and times when it is not as necessary or important as other
times. Not wanting to address all this complexity in a
beginner class, most instructors lay down a blanket rule that
defies actual practice and even sometimes common sense, but
that gets their students in the habit of using the safety
measure in question on a regular basis. This is understandable
and desirable, but beyond the beginning climbing class, most
aspiring climbers could use more guidance in where, when, how
and why we do these things, as well as when we don't. This
involves "judgment", i.e. identification and assessment of
hazards, weighing of alternatives, and analysis of benefits
and costs. That's what I'll try to help with here. First, a moment to clarify what I
mean by the term "anchor". There is the thing that keeps the
whole party on the cliff during a multi-pitch climb, which
keeps the whole heap from hitting the ground if the leader
falls before placing any intermediate protection, or if all
her intermediate protection should pull out. That's what I
call the "belay anchor". This is virtually always present when
the party is away from the ground (one or more pitches up),
but is usually dispensed with while the belayer is still on
the ground. Then there is the "belayer tie-down", which may or
may not be needed in addition to the "belay anchor". You can
think of this as a type of directional, keeping the belayer
below the belay anchor, protecting her from injury, helping
her keep control of her belay, and possibly protecting the
belay anchor from an upward pull should the belayer be pulled
past it by force of the leader's fall. This directional will
be more, or less, critical depending on the situation. In this
discussion I address mostly the costs and benefits of this
last type of anchor, the "belayer tie-down". So, why do we need to tie down a
belayer? Is it always equally important to do so? You already know the answer to
this, if you have done much "slingshot" belaying at a top-rope
site, and also have belayed a leader taking a fall. Having
held both leader falls and the weight of a top-roped climber,
it's pretty obvious that the upward pull on you is vastly
different in the two cases. While holding the fall of a leader
even of the same or less weight than yourself can easily
launch you off your feet, on a top-rope you can hold someone
even much heavier than yourself easily, if you stay in near
the rock and brace yourself. So, the likelihood of the belayer
getting yanked off her feet changes in different situations.
As far as consequences goes: is it always equally undesirable
to get "launched"? Obviously, the answer is no. How about when
a really dynamic belay is needed, say in certain sport
climbing situations? Here, a too static belay makes the
leader's fall more violent, swinging her into the rock with
great force and making it hard for her to control her landing,
while a more dynamic belay gives her a gentler, more
controllable impact. It is very difficult to make a belay
dynamic and controlled, just by means of letting rope through
our device. So, unless the belayer is in danger of being
pulled into a roof or other dangerous obstacle, it is actually
safer NOT to tie her down in this situation. There certainly are situations when
tying down the belayer introduces other dangers. Maybe the
belayer needs freedom of movement to duck out of the way if
there is loose rock coming down, or maybe there are a lot of
other climbers around and the risk of them dropping objects is
real. I don't want anyone to think I
advocate deliberately setting the belayer up for an elevator
ride, for no reason at all. At the very least, the surprise
and fear of that experience makes an effective belay pretty
hard to maintain, so especially for beginning climbers the
risks are greater. But my goal here is to introduce the idea
of cost/benefit analysis to the subject. As with most safety measures, tying
down the belayer has both benefits and costs. The benefits are
first and foremost belayer protection and keeping control of
the belay, to a lesser extent protecting the belay anchor
against an upward pull, and also minimizing the potential
distance the leader will fall. The costs entail time, complexity,
energy, sometimes extra gear, perhaps other hazards or
problems. The cost is often small compared with the benefit,
but nevertheless the decision always entails a trade-off, and
should be done in context, consciously and deliberately, not
blindly or dogmatically. This is true of all our decisions in
climbing. On the benefit side: There are
times when getting yanked off your feet is extremely
dangerous: for instance, when you would be slammed into a
roof, or other dangerous obstacle. When you are much smaller
and lighter than your leader, and could be pulled a long way.
When a strong upward pull on the belay anchor would result,
and compromise that anchor. Any time when loss of control of
the belay or an injury to the belayer would be likely.
There may be other times when the
consequences are not so dire, and/or the likelihood is very
low (top-ropes, leader fall extremely unlikely, leader much
lighter than belayer, belay anchor good for an upward pull,
and no obstacles to injure the belayer, etc.). Finally, as we
saw with the sport climbing example, there are times when the
danger is actually greater if the belayer is tied down, this
mostly being in cases where a dynamic brake is
needed. On the costs side, there are times
when it is very fast and easy to tie the belayer down, and
other times when it entails a lot of time or difficulty, or
compromises some other safety value. If tying the belayer down
forces her to be in an undesirable position, either very
uncomfortable; or exposed to other hazards such as rock fall
or other climbers; or if it takes half an hour to figure out
where and how to tie the belayer down; or doing so puts an
outward pull on the belay anchor or first pieces of
intermediate protection: then it may not be worth it and could
even be a bad idea. At the very least it is necessary to
recognize and deal with the problems it raises. Again, the
risks of not doing it (benefits) have to be weighed against
these problems (costs). We should think about these things,
look at each pitch or situation individually, and make our
decision accordingly, every time we belay. To just hold
ourselves to a rigid rule, ignoring the circumstances, will
work for awhile but will eventually lead us into error and
expose us to risks we might not even be aware of. Ways to protect the belayer and
the belay On a more practical level, for many
less experienced climbers, the problem of how to protect the
belayer can often seem pretty formidable. The gear is new to
us, we have little practice placing protection or evaluating
placements. Is there any way to simplify all this? Yes, I
think so. First of all, you don't always have
to worry too much about building your belay anchor for an
upward pull. By tying the belayer down below the belay anchor,
you automatically prevent her from being pulled past it, so an
upward pull need never happen. In this sense, to protect the
belayer is to protect the anchor, while the opposite is not
necessarily true: protecting the anchor for an upward pull
doesn't necessarily protect the belayer from injury. It also
happens to be much simpler in most cases to tie the belayer
down than to make a belay anchor good for an upward pull.
So, if in addition to your belay
anchor you have a multi-directional "thing" to tie your
belayer down to, such as a rock horn, tree or heavy boulder,
then it's pretty simple for you to throw a runner, cordelette
or the rope itself around it, tie your belayer to it and she's
protected from an upward pull. If you are climbing as a group
of 3 climbers, you may be able to use her companion on the
ledge as a belayer tie-down. Using their additional body
weight as a tie-down works well and is very fast. Another thing that helps simplify
the problem, is that the actual force of the upward pull on
the belayer tie-down is usually not that great. By the time
the belayer leaves the ground, most of the force of the leader
fall has been dissipated by friction, rope stretch, and
overcoming the inertia of the belayer's body going into
motion. So while you would never (well, almost never) consider
a single wedge or cam a sufficient belay anchor, a single
well-placed piece can be perfectly sufficient for a belayer
tie-down. Finally, protecting the belayer
doesn't always necessarily mean tying her down. The reduced
force of the upward pull also means that often a good, solid
seated body position and bracing with straight legs, can be
sufficient protection without being tied down. In conclusion, I return to my main
point here: that it is not enough to apply a rule uniformly in
all circumstances, or to hold to a practice because it's some
sort of "golden rule". Risks vary in climbing. They are not
always easy to identify, or to prioritize in terms of
likelihood or severity. The process of developing skill and
judgement as a climber, is the process of learning to identify
and assess these risks, of acquiring adequate tools for
managing the risks, and of learning to weigh the costs and
benefits entailed by all our choices. Our best piece of safety equipment
is our brain. Fortunately for us, we already know how to use
it. Happy Climbing! - Kathy
.
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