all right welcome back to belay Master
Class previously in this series I
covered every single piece of gear that
you will encounter in sport climbing
some Ninja ways to tie knots and top
rope belaying now we're ready for lead
belaying
but before I start I have to say that
just because you watch a YouTube video
doesn't mean that now you know
I know Kung Fu
show me
[Scream]
[Music]
yeah so use this video only as
supplemental information to whatever
practical training you're doing
hopefully with somebody experienced and
this video is not about how to use your
playing device I covered that very
deeply in this video so if you're
somebody new to climbing I highly
recommend to watch these two videos
first also I have to mention that there
is still debates in the climbing
community of what is the correct way of
using the belaying device and different
countries have different recommendations
one subject for disagreement is
so-called tunneling method where you're
sliding your Brig hand like this when
you're taking Slack
[Music]
and I covered this topic in this video
but my personal take is that this
sliding is not an issue if you're using
assisted delay devices and then there is
another disagreement on the proper use
of grigri official petzl recommendation
is when you're giving slack you can do
this but then if you need to give more
slack fast you can press on grigri's cam
while you have the rope with three
fingers on the rope and continue giving
slack like this however after that you
should bring your brake hand away from
the grigri however if You observe
experienced climbers you will notice
that most of them will not bring the
brake hand down and will simply keep the
hand on the grigri all the time and
there is benefits to that first you can
give more slack than this way while your
left hand is pulling up the right hand
can pull down and now you just added
extra slack second by having your break
hand here you can take the most amount
of slack because if your hand is
somewhere Midway now you are very
limited of how much slack you can take
you will need to bring the hand back if
you want to take a lot of slack so this
position naturally gives you the most
control in any situation and allows you
to micromanage the slack the drawback of
this is that in some rare cases if you
don't have a good grip on the hand the
grigri might slip so you have to be
aware of this especially if you're using
super skinny ropes but despite of that
risk you will see me keeping my hand on
the grigri most of the time because this
is my preference and you choose the
method which works for you and I go to
belay
all right so we want to lead this route
and me as a player I will be spending a
lot of time looking up and since I'm
looking up I don't have enough time to
look down what's under my feet so it's a
good idea to prepare the space so I will
not trip over something so if there are
some things you might consider moving
them I don't know what this thing is
doing here next I look into the route and
see where it goes in this case I see a
lot of chalk on the left side so that's
where the climber is going to climb and
so I want to avoid standing in his fall
zone so I will be standing a little bit
more to the right so I place my rope bag
even more to the right but in front of
me in this case if there is any Tangles
with the Rope I can see them and deal
with them easily if I would place my
rope back behind me it's more
complicated to see issues with the Rope
okay then you get a climber and before I
take him on belay I like to look into
the first bolt and estimate how much
rope he will need to clip it so in this
case it's more or less like that
I always go a little bit on the bigger
side because safer as always
safer and before he goes on the route we
obviously need to do a buddy check but
as I already mentioned in the top rope
video I don't even like to call it a
buddy check because if I would just
Chuck my body and my buddy would just
check me there is chances of failure in
particular we are not even sure if we
are on correct ends of the Rope so
instead of that this is what you do
first I check my harness to make sure
that my buckles are secure then the
Carabiner it needs to be locked then the
laying device needs to be inserted in a
correct orientation and then I start
tracing my rope you might see people
even collecting the Rope like that and
this is to ensure that we are on the
correct end of the Rope not on something
wrong and finally I check his knot and
his harness now obviously while the
belayer is checking the climber the
climber should be checking the belayer
and there is one slightly annoying thing
at least for me what some climbers do is
when the climber takes on the rope and
pulls on it to test if the belay device
is working but who likes to be pulled
around so instead of that the belayer
should do this pull test and the climber
should observe also if you are a long
hair owner it's a good idea to take care
of that because if it gets into belay
device it's really difficult to
self-rescue that's another reason for
using a helmet as a belayer because it can
keep your hair on the back side and the
same goes for the climber yo bro and
finally I highly recommend to wear shoes
as a belayer last year in Céüse we saw a
girl with sandals that don't protect the
front of the toes kicking something
really hard during the catch of the fall
and bleeding all over the place and then
the hike down is like one hour of hike
and that's a pretty sad way to end your
climbing trip and another good way to
ruin your climbing trip is by not having
the knot at the end of the Rope
that was fast yeah statistically this is
what causes the most accidents in
climbing so double check if you have a
knot before you start climbing and now
we are officially ready to climb
yay okay climbing climb on always fist
bump as well
now if the beginning of the route is
challenging consider spotting your
climber and as the climber is
approaching the first clip you can
adjust the Rope estimation so that as
soon as he Clips he's already safe to
climb and not waiting for you to just a
moment just a moment
just a moment
here is another example as the climber
is reaching the clip I notice that there
will be too much slack so I take some of
it out and as soon as he Clips he's
instantly safe to climb now while the
climber is low on the route the player
must avoid standing directly under the
climber but also if possible do not
stand directly behind that climber
because that often positions the Rope
between the legs of the climber and
risks damaging private parts the best
position usually is slightly on the side
of the climber
and since a lot of you are terrified of
faults that are low to the ground I'm
gonna make a dedicated video on how to
belay these situations
so yeah subscribe
and here is another bad example if the
climber would fall at this moment his
butt cheeks would probably hug the Rope
So to avoid that it would be better if
the belayer would be standing
somewhere in this area
and another thing you should do while
the climber is low on the route is to
help to manage the Rope here I kept the
Rope close to the wall so it's easier
for the climber to step around it
and here is me climbing where I will
need to step around this rope so my
belayer actively moves the Rope out of my
way it makes so much easier to get
around the rope and into the flow
all right next let's talk about slack
management and so that we are on the
same page of vocabulary slack is extra
rope between me and my climber so in
this case there is no tension on the
Rope but there is no slack
and here I have one hand of slack this
is how one hand of slack looks slack can
also happen at the climber's end of the
Rope especially after he just clipped
and now he's moving up or between the
quick draws this happens more often in
extremely overhanging roots
so do you want to tell what happened
here
where should we start this climate here
is uh digging a hole
to uh with the shovel there's a move
where they cut loose
and to not short rope your climber
uh there is a there is a risk that they
that they will hit the ground
So they digged in a hole
okay how much slack should you have when
you're belaying the answer is enough to
not limit any of the climbers movements
or clipping but anything more than that
is unnecessary now you might see other
coaches recommending that the Rope which
leaves the grigri shouldn't dip below
the belaying device meaning that it
shouldn't do this instead it should
leave and go up however take this advice
with caution because how this Loop looks
depends on how you hold your belaying
device it looks like this when I hold it
here but if it's it's like that it looks
completely different and also it depends
on how close you are standing to the
wall because if I stand close to the
wall and I try to avoid this Loop and
then I will end up with something like
that which is very little slack and it's
very highly likely that you will short
rope your climber now before I give you
my recommendations I have to say that
how you manage your slack while the climber
is climbing up can be completely
different from the situation where the
climber is falling or about to fall
because if the climber is falling you
have many options you can take the slack
if you think but that's necessary you
can do nothing or you can proceed with a
soft catch and I will talk about these
cases in the next video and in this one
I will focus on what you do while the
climber is simply climbing up so with
disclaimers out of the way you can
manage the slack by obviously feeding the
Rope through the billing device and by
stepping forward so if I step forward I
introduce slack if I step backwards I
reduce the amount of Slack also you can
combine these two so you can feed the
slack through belaying device while
stepping forward to give more slack and
then you can take and step backwards to
take the slack quicker in general lead
belaying can be broken down into three
phases first is when the climber is
below the quick draw in this case you
should belay the same as if the
climber would be on the top rope there
is no need for any slack
now when the climber is transitioning
from under the bolt to above the bolt
you will need to start giving Slack and
maintain a good amount of it
here my climber moved closer to the bolt
so I take out a little bit of the slack
and as my climber starts climbing up I
continue giving slack so it's a very
Dynamic process
so the way I like to think about the
good amount of slack is in terms of arms
of slack that I paid out so as my
climber is transitioning from under the
bolt to above the bolt I will want to
give about half of arm of slack and this
is gonna create this nice belly and this
is probably a good amount of slack for
majority of situations in climbing if I
would take that out this is more or less
the amount of slack I had the good
amount of slack also depends on the
speed the climber is climbing if it's
slow you can be more conservative
however if the climber is climbing
really fast and if it's very important
send attempt then you might want to have
more slack according to the situation
[Music]
And in case the climber
is climbing really fast and clipping
really Dynamic you might consider to
give about full arm of slack which would
look something like that
and a good part about having not more
than one arm of slack is that you can
always take it in one motion and this is
the amount of slack ahead
it's a little bit less than a meter of
Slack
so this amount of slack is probably the
absolute maximum you will ever need on
any climbing situation and if you would
have more than that you might risk
unnecessarily big fall and then in case
you need to take it's gonna take you
multiple actions to complete the taking
which is also unnecessary on a contrast
having too little slack is one of the
most common beginner mistakes that often
end up as a short rope or the climber
oh
of course if the climber is low to the
ground and about to fall having no slack
might be the best option
[Scream]
otherwise here is an example why in
majority of situations I recommend about
half of arm of slack my climber decided
to do some Ninja clipping from the
position where no one else Clips so I
was not expecting that luckily I had
about half of our most slack and that
was just enough to not short rope him
now normally you can anticipate when the
climber is about to clip and you will
have more time to give
enough slack for that
however beginner belayers still get in
trouble when the climber needs a lot of
rope for clipping fast and the best
strategy to deal with that is to drop
the full arm of slack and prepare to
give more and then give more as needed
and once the climber Clips you can take
out the extra with this strategy you are
giving at least two and a half arms of
slack to the climber and in 99% of the
cases this should be enough
alternatively if the clipping is really
fast you can also add a step forward
which also adds extra slack now
obviously nobody likes to be short-roped
during the clipping but same goes for
micro short roping when the Rope is
blocked just for the moment these
moments cost energy for the climber and
must be avoided if you're belaying and
short rope happens the best strategy is
to immediately step forward words while
at the same time unlocking the belaying
device the stepping forward helps to
unlock the device
so to recap while the climber is under
the bolt you will be mainly taking
the slack out and once the climber transitions
above the bolt then you will need to
give slack and maintain a good amount
usually between half to full arm of
slack works the best and anything more
than that is very very rarely beneficial
and simply asking for trouble
clipping
and independently of how great of the
belayer you are at some point you will
probably get into situation like this so
first of all you can greatly reduce the
chance of that happening if you manage
your rope well so when I carry my rope I
always always make sure to tie both ends
of my rope to the Rope bag this prevents
the chance of the not forming in a way
that I would not be able to untie it the
only knot that you can get is maybe
something like that but if that happens
you can always untie it although you
cannot get a knot in the Rope you can
still have a tangle and to minimize the
tangles it's good idea to stack your
rope nicely before you climb
and the good part that after the climb
you don't have to stack all the Rope you
just need to restack the part which you
used for the climb so all of that is
good and now I'm just gonna restack what
I already used
and one more thing that you should not
do is take rope like this
and just throw it in you will definitely
cause Tangles instead of that you want
to put the Rope on the side and re-stack
this little bit nicely
that will save you from lots of troubles
and if you're done with the climb
tie your end of the Rope
to the row rope bag
now if your rope is still causing you
problems you can find a moment when the
climber is safe and prepare some of the
Rope of course make sure to hold the
brake side of the Rope while doing so
okay pulling
okay the next problem with beginner
belayers is that they don't know how to
efficiently take the Rope
hard
going up and down up and down
okay if you want to be nice to your
climber and help him to go up easier you
want to come under the first Quick Draw
but keep sitting in the harness so that
all my weight is holding him or pulling
him up now a little trick how to take
efficiently so that I help my climber
the most so I put a little piece of tape
here and if I take efficiently this
piece of tape should not move up because
if it moves up that means that my
climber went down and he will need to
put extra effort in moving up again so
how can I take that this piece of tape
doesn't go up well I want to grab my
rope really hard and do one arm pull up
to lock this marker while taking the
slack through my billing device
however I cannot do one arm pull up
however I have legs that can help me I
can grab as hard as I can pull right
hand up while pulling left hand down and
use my legs to help me so this is how it
looks
see the marker stayed or if you want a
greater effect you can even hop up like
so I literally jumped with my legs while
taking the slack
and keep hanging while my climber is
pulling
so that helps him the most once I reach
the ground again
I can
take again and if there is an object in
front of you that you can step on and do
a little step or hop up it's even better
so if I would jump from this I can take
a lot of slack it's very easy for me
and it's very good for my climber
so this technique provides the most
assistance to the climber however if the
climber is significantly heavier than
the layer it might be hard to execute in
that case I would recommend to time the
moment when the climber is pulling on
the rope with the moment when you're
trying to take out the slack or the
moment you're trying to jump up
alternatively you can use the technique
of walking backwards it's easier for the
belayer but the further you go the less
you help your climber in fact you know
what let's test how much more efficient
it is to take under the Quick Draw
compared to going backwards so I rigged
this system where my rope goes to a
dynamometer so we can measure the force
I'm going to see how heavy Ben is let's
see how heavy Ben is if I'm hanging
directly under
Ben is heavy
0.62 kilo newtons now let's see what
happens if I start going backwards
so if I'm here it's at
0.39 let's see how much I can do it here
oh wow it's 30. let's go far
okay let's try here
come on Ben you can do better than that
how much, 21
21 he says
but I'm like pulling really hard if I'm
just like casual this is a casual like
kind of pulling casually how much is it
18 actually when you're taking if I jump
up then momentarily I deliver a huge
Force down
that peaked at one point
two three kilonewtons if I would time my
jump together with the climber he would
get propelled up yeah let's see what's
the pick if I'm just pull hard here okay
go
0.70 let's see what's my
Peak if I try to do it here
0.62
0.62 so conclusion if you want to be
nice for your climber be more under the
quick draw when you're pulling your
climber up
let's see it wasn't much the question
was from the audience does it change if
I have my feet on the ground now it's 63-64
now I have gently touching the
ground it dropped to 60. now if I'm kind
of like standing it's 50 if I'm kind of
like standing
I'm kind of hanging kind of standing
it's 45.
so only like purely hanging it goes to
full force
but this is still quite effective while
this becomes already way less effective
you you get tired less while belaying
and your climber gets stronger so this
was an introduction to belaying which is
still missing the most important part
what to do when the climber is falling
man I cannot give you a soft catch this way
and to answer that I measured hundreds
of Falls and made a mega study on soft
catches and all of that is coming in the
next video and for now huge thank you
for Mammoth and for my patrons for
supporting all of this video serious and
if you are benefiting from it a lot and
you want some Karma points I've heard
some rumors that there are Karma points
in that website
hope you enjoyed this one enjoy climbing
and see you in the next one