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"Howell’s belayer let go of the brake strand of the rope, a careless mistake." As a climber, I really dislike how this phrasing minimises the belayer's error.

"Howell’s belayer let go of the brake strand of the rope, a careless mistake." As a climber, I really dislike how this phrasing minimises the belayer's error. It's a sure sign of improper belaying technique. Bad belaying is life-threatening and quite common, and it makes me angry (having witnessed several such accidents). A belayer who actually knows how to belay never, ever, takes off their brake hand unless the rope is tied off. It's a bit like saying "the driver ran the red light going 20 miles per hour over the speed limit and hit a pedestrian, a careless mistake"

BaseballPhysics 3y ago
Yeah, unfortunately belaying is one of those things where it's incredibly easy to lose focus, and when you do the consequences can be catastrophic. Unfortunately, climbing in general can be like this. Maybe you get reckless and space out your pro too far. Or you forget to tie a knot in the end of your belay line. The more competent you get, the easier it is to get too comfortable and to make a truly catastrophic mistake.
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  Indeed, complacency kills. But I think most of the "dropped by belayer" incidents are caused by belayers who were taught improper technique, or never taught at all. I've seen lots of youtube "how to belay" videos that involve switching hands and other dangerous practices which involve taking the brake hand off. Just slip slap slide, people.
teolandon 3y ago
Another thing that bothers me is how people brush off improper belaying technique when the pro climbers do it. There are numerous videos of Adam Ondra, Dave Graham, etc just belaying with their hand off the brake strand, or their finger fully pushing on the cam of a GriGri while not paying out slack, and when people criticize them, other people just perform an appeal to authority and say "he climbs more than you, he knows what he's doing".
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  That's a good point. So actually when I said "A belayer who actually knows how to belay never, ever, takes off their brake hand" above I was wrong. Pros often do it, and they're setting a bad example which I think is pretty inexcusable. It's not like there's ever a good reason; it's just lazy.
  - carabiner 3y ago
    Yeah there's a good reason like if a pack unclipped itself at an alpine belay and belayer wants to secure it. I hope my belayer lets go for 10 sec to fix that rather than drop our tent and all of our food and water.
    - foobarbecue 3y ago
      Hm. That's a bit of a stretch, but sorta plausible scenario I guess, if somebody screwed up securing the pack. If you were belaying me, I would expect you to at least warn me if you're gonna do that -- risking my life to save some food or equipment isn't ok. And preferably tie off the belay -- that should only take a few seconds.
- pcthrowaway 3y ago
  I agree that poor belaying technique in general shouldn't be accepted, if for no other reason than that it sets a bad example. That being said, the pro climbers can probably catch the non-brake strand of rope with their bare hands (they're strong enough to grip the rope with their full weight on it), so if they have a hand on the rope at all, they're probably fine whether or not the belay device is catching the fall. There's a famous situation (https://archive.is/tHQh0 https://archive.is/tHQh0) where Alex Honnold and Emily Harrington (another pro climber) were starting a simulclimb (a type of climbing where two people climb at the same time). Emily Harrington was on the wall and getting to the point where Alex would start climbing. The rope was going through his Grigri (auto-locking belay device). But Emily fell far above her last piece of protection, and the rope started to pool on the ground next to Alex's feet. Normally a climber would fall at least double the distance between them and their last piece of protection, so if you are 2 meters above your last piece, you may fall anywhere from 4-7 meters before stopping (rope stretch and the amount of rope and slack in the system are additional factors) When you fall, the rope also falls, until you get to your protection and continue falling, after which it pulls the rope back up. The fact that Alex was able to react to the rope pooling suggests she was falling a pretty incredible distance, I suspect at least 5-6 meters, before reaching her piece. Had Alex caught her with the brake strand, she may have fallen up to 3 times as far, possibly hitting the ground and sustaining much worse injuries or death. Instead, he plucked the rope out of the air so she fell a much shorter distance, and caught the fall with his grip strength and body weight alone.

BaseballPhysics 3y ago

Yeah, unfortunately belaying is one of those things where it's incredibly easy to lose focus, and when you do the consequences can be catastrophic. Unfortunately, climbing in general can be like this. Maybe you get reckless and space out your pro too far. Or you forget to tie a knot in the end of your belay line. The more competent you get, the easier it is to get too comfortable and to make a truly catastrophic mistake.

foobarbecue 3y ago
Indeed, complacency kills. But I think most of the "dropped by belayer" incidents are caused by belayers who were taught improper technique, or never taught at all. I've seen lots of youtube "how to belay" videos that involve switching hands and other dangerous practices which involve taking the brake hand off. Just slip slap slide, people.

teolandon 3y ago

Another thing that bothers me is how people brush off improper belaying technique when the pro climbers do it. There are numerous videos of Adam Ondra, Dave Graham, etc just belaying with their hand off the brake strand, or their finger fully pushing on the cam of a GriGri while not paying out slack, and when people criticize them, other people just perform an appeal to authority and say "he climbs more than you, he knows what he's doing".

foobarbecue 3y ago
That's a good point. So actually when I said "A belayer who actually knows how to belay never, ever, takes off their brake hand" above I was wrong. Pros often do it, and they're setting a bad example which I think is pretty inexcusable. It's not like there's ever a good reason; it's just lazy.
- carabiner 3y ago
  Yeah there's a good reason like if a pack unclipped itself at an alpine belay and belayer wants to secure it. I hope my belayer lets go for 10 sec to fix that rather than drop our tent and all of our food and water.
  - foobarbecue 3y ago
    Hm. That's a bit of a stretch, but sorta plausible scenario I guess, if somebody screwed up securing the pack. If you were belaying me, I would expect you to at least warn me if you're gonna do that -- risking my life to save some food or equipment isn't ok. And preferably tie off the belay -- that should only take a few seconds.
pcthrowaway 3y ago
I agree that poor belaying technique in general shouldn't be accepted, if for no other reason than that it sets a bad example. That being said, the pro climbers can probably catch the non-brake strand of rope with their bare hands (they're strong enough to grip the rope with their full weight on it), so if they have a hand on the rope at all, they're probably fine whether or not the belay device is catching the fall. There's a famous situation (https://archive.is/tHQh0 https://archive.is/tHQh0) where Alex Honnold and Emily Harrington (another pro climber) were starting a simulclimb (a type of climbing where two people climb at the same time). Emily Harrington was on the wall and getting to the point where Alex would start climbing. The rope was going through his Grigri (auto-locking belay device). But Emily fell far above her last piece of protection, and the rope started to pool on the ground next to Alex's feet. Normally a climber would fall at least double the distance between them and their last piece of protection, so if you are 2 meters above your last piece, you may fall anywhere from 4-7 meters before stopping (rope stretch and the amount of rope and slack in the system are additional factors) When you fall, the rope also falls, until you get to your protection and continue falling, after which it pulls the rope back up. The fact that Alex was able to react to the rope pooling suggests she was falling a pretty incredible distance, I suspect at least 5-6 meters, before reaching her piece. Had Alex caught her with the brake strand, she may have fallen up to 3 times as far, possibly hitting the ground and sustaining much worse injuries or death. Instead, he plucked the rope out of the air so she fell a much shorter distance, and caught the fall with his grip strength and body weight alone.