Lead Belaying - Slack Management, Efficient Taking & More | Ep.11

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