Complete Guide into Belay Devices - Differences and Efficient Usage | Ep.6

Belaying devices.

There are so many different
belaying devices

nowadays on the market and in my hands.

And after this video you will be able

to pick any of them.

Not from my hands.

And you will know how it works
and how to use it.

So first of all, a belaying device
is simply a mechanism

which allows to control

the friction between your hand

and the climber.

Alright.

So here I hang and here I have almost

60 kilograms of force pulling
on this strand of the rope.

However for me to hold that

I'm only using about 6 to 7
kilograms of force

on the brake side of the rope.

However if I would start raising

my brake hand up

the force needed to hold that

goes to 9 kilograms of force...

10...

12...

15...

So my max was around 25 kilograms of force

with two hands in this position.

That means that in this position
at this angle

I can not even hold my own weight
with two hands.

There is no even talking about one hand.

So now let's see how much
assistance I will get

if my rope strands are completely
parallel to each other.

So I will start pulling up

as hard as i can.

And so the answer is almost nothing.

Now to explain how that works

since there is so many
different belaying devices

I'm gonna group all of them
into different categories.

First one is tubular style devices.

That many mistakenly call them reverso.

Which is only this device -
Petzl Reverso.

Or ATC which is this Black Diamond ATC.

While Mammut calls this
Alpine Belaying Device. Simple.

So with tubes the more
I move my brake hand down

the more it squeezes the rope between
the carabiner and belaying device.

And also tubes have
a little groove in front of them.

Which even further pinches on the rope.

Plus as I pull down on the rope
it tilts the device

which creates extra angles
and extra friction.

So as we saw in my previous experiment

if my hand is at the
level of the belaying device or higher

the device creates very little friction.

So if the climber would fall

while my hand is
in this position or higher

there is a high chance
that my hand would simply

get sucked into the belaying device.

I got my hand pinched...

And then maybe I will hurt my hand

And let go off the rope.

So if you want to see how my hand is

getting sucked into belaying device

I already made a video about that.

Also worth mentioning is that
rope thickness or diameter

has a huge effect on how easily

the rope will go through belaying device.

And every belaying device has a

recommended range of rope thicknesses

which you can find
somewhere in the manuals

or sometimes on the device itself.

And this brings us to advantages

of tubular style devices.

First of all they work better with
wider range of rope diameters.

All the way from super thick gym ropes

to ultra skinny twin ropes.

On contrast if you would take a GriGri

it says that it's optimized to work

from 8.9 to 10.5 millimeters ropes.

But from my experience

anything from 10 millimeters and above

doesn't work that well anymore.

Yeah, there is this older GriGri
which works better with thicker ropes.

But that one doesn't work well
with thin ropes.

Next, tubes are super lightweight.

And they allow you to belay with two ropes

either double ropes or twin ropes.

And if you don't know
what's a double or twin rope

you should watch
my master class on the ropes.

Also with tubes you can make a soft catch

without moving yourself.

By allowing the rope
to slip through the device.

And in general tubes don't catch as hard

because there is always
a little bit of slippage

which reduces the peak forces.

Which might be very beneficial
for trad climbers.

Since it reduces the chance

that the pieces of the gear will fall out.

And finally tubes have
this loop at the top.

And that allows you
to set this device in a guide mode

in which you can even belay
two following climbers

coming up on top rope simultaneously

simon... simultaneously.

And all of that are the reasons

why tubes are still very commonly used

in traditional or alpine
or multi-pitch scenarios.

However none of that is really useful

if you're just doing
single pitch sport climbing.

And the biggest disadvantage of tubes

is of course that they don't lock

meaning if you would let go the rope.

Which by the way brings us

to the main rule of belaying.

If you are in need of number two

and you have a choice to poop your pants

or to let go the brake side of the rope -

you poop your pants!

Meaning in no circumstances
you're allowed to lose control

of the brake side of the rope.

And that's by the way also equally true

for assisted belaying devices
but we are gonna talk next.

So assisted devices
have an ability to lock

in case the climber falls.

Which obviously adds a lot of safety.

For example if you would
knock a rock while you're climbing

and that rock would
fall on your belayer's head...

And that's why we wear a helmet!

So first of all your belayer would
really like to have a helmet.

But you as a climber
would really love that

there would be one of these
assisted devices down there.

And in fact my own skin
was once saved by this guy.

When I did a little fall

and my belayer did not notice

that there was a rock next to her leg.

And while she was flying forward,

her leg got stuck, and she spun around,

and hit her back to the wall.

And let both of the hands go.

So this guy is basically a reason why
I'm still here.

And making these videos.

Now super important that number two rule

is also applicable for these guys.

After all they are called assisted.

So don't treat them as fully automatic.

Because there are cases
where they will not lock.

Apart from safety this locking is also

super useful in long belays

If your climber is hanging
on the rope a lot

and projecting some hard moves.

So if we compare this to the tube

even in the most mechanically
advantaged position

you will still need to hold on the rope.

And in very long belays
this will get tiring.

While with assisted devices
it's pretty chill.

You are literally just
sitting in your harness.

OK, so the first group of
assisted belaying devices

is called assisted tubers.

That's because they look like tubes

and they work similarly to regular tubes

where we squeeze the rope

between the carabiner and the device.

Except that they have a shape

that shifts the carabiner in position

where it squeezes on the rope so hard

that it completely locks it off.

A little disadvantage of assisted tubes

is that once in locked position

you cannot quickly
feed slack to the climber.

You need a special action
to unlock the device

before you can feed the rope.

For example with Click Up.

It even clicks.

And now I cannot do anything.

I literally need to unclick it.

And now I can continue belaying.

Now one really important thing

that not many know about assisted tubers.

That they suffer from the same problem

as regular tubes

meaning that
if your hand is in up position

the device will not lock.

As you can see it's not locking

And if the climber would take a fall

the rope would just slide from my hand

and burn it. Oh, it's already burning.

However unlike regular tubes

where you can get your hands sucked

even at very big angles

most assisted tubers

will only fail at the angles

that are very extremely high up.

And some actually don't fail at all.

I'm actually gonna make a separate video

where I was experimenting

at which angles which devices lock.

So stay tuned for that.

I can't put everything
into one video because

I need you to subscribe.

But independently of which
belaying device you're using

just develop a habit of keeping
your brake hand down.

Also good to know for people
who climb with two ropes

is that there are assisted tubers

that work with two ropes.

In case you go on a multi-pitch

and you want extra safety

you have some options.

All right let's move on to
cam assisted devices.

I'm sure everybody knows GriGri.

But there are more devices like

Trango Vergo and Birdie and others.

And the way they work is

that they have a camming
mechanism inside

which pinches on the rope.

Now in the case of GriGri

the cam is spring-loaded
meaning that as soon as

there is no more load
on the climber's end of the rope

the cam will disengage.

And you can belay normally.

While in the case of Vergo

it doesn't have a spring.

And you need to position the device

in a certain way

to be able to feed the slack.

All right back to GriGri.

If you press on GriGri's cam

but you ignore the rule number two

and you don't hold
the break side of the rope

this can happen...

Also if you ignore rule number two

and your GriGri gets trapped
in the first piece of gear

this can happen...

Many of you asked

if this problem of
trapping in the first bolt

where it disengages the cam

is also applicable for assisted tubers.

So with most assisted devices

the answer is unlikely.

Since there is no cam that i could press

to disengage this locking.

Only if i would press on this end

it kind of slips a bit but still

stays locked.

This Click Up

doesn't even lock
if i don't hold the rope.

Amazing. Number two rule. Hold the rope.

Yeah.

There's no way I can unlock this

in this manner.

So no assisted tubers
don't have this risk.

Now this is a little future me

after I was editing this part
that you just seen.

And I saw this I realized that

I was using a wrong carabiner.

Turns out Click Ups need
their own specific carabiners

And that's a reason why
you should read the manual.

So that's the carabiner
you should use for a Click Up.

Let's see if it locks.

No difference.

So number two rule.

And read the manual

because some of
the assisted belaying devices

require you a specific belaying carabiner.

I don't know if it's just marketing

or the shape of the carabiner
is slightly different.

Just use what the manufacturers recommend.

And finally there is this guy.

It's a Revo from Wild Country.

It's an inertia based mechanism.

Which will lock once the climber starts

falling faster than 4 meters per second.

So if i pull slowly it doesn't lock.

I need to pull really fast
in order for it to lock.

So my goal of this video

is not to compare all
of the belaying devices

on the market and
tell you which one to buy.

Sorry for that.

Every device have its own
pros and cons, haters and lovers.

Full internet of that.

However if you would want such comparison

let me know in the comments and maybe

I will make a separate video on that.

OK now I have a tip for you

that will make your life
a little bit easier.

And maybe will even save your ass

on a multi-pitch one day.

Humans,

we have two hands normally.

And handling more than
two objects in two hands

is not ideal.

What I often see that people
take their belaying device,

their carabiner, the rope...

That's already three objects by the way.

And they try to connect everything

in space

like so...

Ready to belay.

So doing this

will greatly increase the chance

that one day you will drop something.

You will be trying to connect something

and then suddenly whoops...

Your belaying device flies down.

If you're not on a multi-pitch

if you're standing on the ground

that's not a big deal.

However if you drop your belaying device

on a multi-pitch

you are in big trouble.

So this is what you do to avoid that.

Normally your belaying device

will live with your carabiner

somewhere on the harness.

So step one.

You take both of them
together as one unit.

So I'm carrying only one unit.

And you immediately connect it
to belaying loop.

So you cannot drop anything right now,

everything is safe.

Step two. You take a bite of rope

and you insert into your belaying device.

Keep in mind of
the orientation of the rope

which end has to go to the climber

which end is your break hand.

If you're not sure

every belaying device has an image

on the side of it.

Which will remind you that.

And next. Open your carabiner

and hook your rope together

with the belaying device.

So at no point there was a chance for me

to drop anything.

And once you're done belaying

you simply reverse the process.

Where you open the carabiner,

you unhook the rope.

But you hook the belaying device.

And then you simply can
just pull out the rope.

And your belaying device stays
on your harness with the carabiner.

If you want to put it somewhere else
you put it somewhere else.

And the same works with assisted tubers.

So step one.

Connect your belaying device
to your harness,

take a bite of rope,

put that bite of rope
into belaying device,

open the carabiner and hook the rope
and belaying device together.

Now in case of the GriGri
it's slightly different.

So as always step one

clip your belaying device
to your belay loop.

So you cannot drop anything.

Now if you're not on a multi-pitch

and dropping your GriGri
is not a big deal

you simply take off your grigri,

open it in this cool way,

insert the rope, and clip it back. Simple.

Now if you are on a multi-pitch

there is a technique.

So this is what you do.

You open your carabiner

and hook only half of the GriGri together.

Then you can open the GriGri.

And it's connected to your carabiner.

You cannot drop it.

You insert the rope.

You close it.

And then you open your carabiner again

and hook the GriGri back.

So this is as safe as you can do
with the grigri

on a multi-pitch.

And obviously once you're done

it's just simply reversing the process of

doing this

and doing that.

OK so I hope that by now

I gave you enough examples

how not to use belaying devices.

And now i'm gonna show you
proper techniques.

The good part is that

no matter what belaying device you use

good belaying techniques don't change.

There are slight differences
that i'm gonna mention.

But for majority it's the same.

All right.

So I hope that by now

number two rule is
strongly embedded into you.

However if for some reason

you really need to go hands-free

you can tie a backup knot

at your brake end. Like so.

And this is totally fine.

In case something happens and the rope

would slip all the way

the GriGri will lock.

However in the case of tube

it's slightly different.

If you would just simply

tie a knot here.

And the climber would fall.

There is a chance that

this knot will get jammed

in your belaying device so hard

that you will have trouble to unjam it.

Let's use a slightly different carabiner

so it's easier for you
to see what's happening.

So in the case of tube

you take a bite of rope

and then you take another bite of rope

and put through the first one

and you make it tight.

And make sure that
this loop is long enough.

Like so.

This will hold but this is not enough.

To make it extra safe

you tie in back up knot here.

So now i can go hands-free.

And in case my climber takes a fall

this will hold him.

And if i want to release all of that

hold the brake side of the rope,

untie the top backup knot,

and start pulling the rope

until you have a little loop left.

At this point inform your climber that

he might

feel a little bump

and tug fast.

Like so. If you do this correctly

your climber will not go down at all.

Now if you're not familiar
with slip slap slap...

this technique - good .

You can safely
ignore my next sentence.

However if you're using that technique

I would strongly advise you to reconsider.

Because in the case of the fall

your hand might get sucked

into the bellying device

faster than you might think.

So as a good rule of thumb keep

your break hand always down.

And do any hand swapping or sliding there.

So now a little disclaimer.

I'm gonna show you

three different techniques
of taking slack.

And depending on
where you are on the planet

some of them

might be not considered as acceptable.

So stick with me

I'm gonna explain.

Because i went really deep
in this rabbit hole.

So all the techniques start the same.

Your left hand reaches up

and pulls down on the rope.

While at the same time your break hand

pushes forward and locks it down.

And now at this point you need to bring

your right hand up the rope.

And there are
three different ways to do so.

The first one.

It's more popular in Europe.

And it's called hand over hand

or V to the knee.

So you simply take your left hand

and go over your right hand

and then right hand goes

over your left hand.

That's why it's called hand over hand.

So you take, .... hand over hand,

you take, ... hand over hand.

So I find myself using this technique

when the climber wants me
to take really hard

as he's moving up the rope.

Because you're always

pulling down on the rope.

You can...

It kind of feels like

climbing up the rope.

Very comfortable.

So the problem with this technique is

that when people get really good

and can do it really fast

they start letting go the brake hand

before the left hand goes
into the locking position.

So we do this.

We take this, let go already,

and then go into locking position.

If the climber would fall

in the moment where you let go this

and you don't lock the hand down

you probably know what would happen.

So obviously a simple solution -

lock,

and then in the locking position

do any hand swapping.

And another thing you need to be aware of

that sometimes if the

climber drops a bunch of slack

your belaying device falls down.

And here you need to be careful

to not take your left

hand over the belaying device.

Otherwise if you do so

and the climber falls

your hand gets into this awkward position.

So instead you reach
under your belaying device

and you grab the rope.

And now if the climber would fall

everything would be fine.

All right. Next technique is called PBUS.

Which is more commonly used in America.

Which means Pull, Break...

So basically the same stuff, as before.

But now instead of taking over the hand

you take Under and Slide.

So Pull, Brake, Under, Slide.

Pull Brake Under Slide.

So the benefit of this technique

is your strong hand never leaves the rope.

A little drawback of this technique

is when you have weight on the rope,

and you're trying to take hard,

now sliding up this hand

is not as comfortable as

in hand over hand technique.

So at some point

as you will be practicing
your p-bus technique

you will realize

that you don't actually need

to bring your left hand down there

in order to bring your break hand up.

You can simply slide it up.

And this is a third technique

which is called a tunnel technique.

And since your left hand

never leaves this rope

it's the most efficient technique.

Because you can always switch between

taking slack and giving slack instantly.

So no matter in which

moment of taking slack I am

I can always give slack.

And contrary any other technique where

my left hand leaves

now it needs to go back

in order for me to give slack

so it's an extra action.

Also tunnel technique is the best for

taking small amounts of slack.

If I would try to take
a small amount of slack

continuously with any other technique

it's a lot of hand movements.

While the tunnel technique
it's very relaxed.

And that's why it's the
most efficient technique.

However you might know

or maybe you don't

this technique is actually not considered

acceptable in some parts of the planet.

With the argument that during the moment

where you slide the hand up

you don't have a firm grip
on the brake hand.

And during the fall maybe you will

not be able to catch the fall.

To which here is my arguments.

First of all if you use

any assisted belaying device

you don't even need any

hard grip on the brake side of the rope.

Any light tug will make the device lock.

So this is not an issue immediately.

Now if you are using a tube

I actually went out

and did an experiment on this.

Where I asked inexperienced belayers

to keep moving the hand up and down

while I was distracting them

and the climber was

taking unexpected falls for them.

So stay tuned for that

it's gonna be really crazy

and really interesting episode.

But in general when sliding the hand up

don't make a big tunnel.

I don't like that this technique

is actually called a tunnel method.

It shouldn't be a tunnel.

You're barely opening the hand just

barely enough for it to slide up the rope.

And if you are a beginner

it's really good idea

to start practicing with PBUS technique.

Because you will be sliding
your hand up the rope a lot

with the backup of your other hand.

And you will learn the feeling of the

rope going through your hand.

So start with this

and once you get

really comfortable with this

not bringing the left hand down and just

doing this will feel very natural.

By that point.

And just to make sure

that I'm not missing something

in regards of safety
of these three techniques

I wrote an email to about

25 different climbing safety related

organizations and associations.

And asked them
to comment on these techniques.

Not all of them replied, unfortunately.

However out of those who replied

none of them said anything against of

any particular technique.

So as long as you follow the

basic guidelines of proper belaying

you will be fine.

Maybe with an exception

if you're in the US and you need

to take a delaying exam.

Then you might be forced to use the PBUS.

And few more mistakes that people do

when they're taking slack.

First of all they take the slack like this

or like this...

So unless you are using

a assisted belaying device

and you're guaranteed

that that device will lock at this angle

which I will make a separate video on that

you might be in trouble.

Second mistake is people hold

both strands of the rope
with the left hand.

They do something like this.

The reason why they do this

is to prevent the belaying device

from falling down there.

However to fix that you don't need

to hold both strands of the rope.

You can just simply

hold one strand of the rope.

And you will have

exactly the same result.

OK that's a lot of talking
about taking slack.

I just felt that that's
the most important part.

And the rest will be much more simple.

So to give slack you simply
reverse the tunneling technique.

Where your left hand pulls up
while your right hand assists.

Then the left hand goes down.

And you slide the break hand down.

And you repeat.

And the same technique works with most

of assisted belaying devices.

While with some of assisted devices

you will need a special action.

With assisted tubers it's common

to push them up

while you're giving slack.

Now in case of the GriGri you can either

use that standard way of giving slack.

Or you can press on GriGri's cam

and pull the rope.

Just don't forget the rule number two.

The rope stays in the hand all the time.

Now in case you need to give
a lot of slack quickly.

Like if the climber is about to clip.

You take your left hand

close to belaying device

and your break hand
far from belaying device.

This is important. Only then you can give

a lot of slack quickly.

If your left hand is somewhere up

you will be limited by it

how far up you can raise this hand.

Equally if your break hand is close

you will be limited by that hand

how fast you can give slack

and then you will need to

do more actions.

So left hand close,

right hand far. Anticipate.

And you can give a lot of slack quickly.

And if things go wrong

you can take all of
that slack quickly back.

Now when you need to lower the climber

you take both of the hands

on the brake side of the rope.

And you use one hand

to feed the rope to the other hand.

That's one way or if you're comfortable

you can let the rope slide
through both of your hands.

The risk here is however
if you go too fast

the rope will go so fast

through both of your hands

that it can burn both of them.

And then you will probably
drop your climber.

So simply don't go fast.

There is absolutely no point
of lowering a climber fast.

There is nothing cool about that.

It heats your equipment way more,

wears down your equipment, it's expensive.

And go in a controlled manner.

And if you're not sure you can always

feed the rope like so.

And in case your climber takes a fall

just hold on the brake side of the rope

even if you have number two in your pants.

Hold it. Never let go.

And as soon as your climber
will regain the ground

and unload the rope
most of the belaying devices

will unlock themselves.

And you're ready to continue belaying.

While with some devices like Click Up

once it locks you need a special action

to unlock it to continue belaying.

So as i already said

it's a good idea to look into the manual

of your belaying device

to know all these little nuances
that there might be.

Now if you are teaching beginners

or you are a beginner yourself

practice using belaying device

on the ground, without a climber.

And only once you're
completely comfortable

and you're ready to go
and actually belay somebody

then make sure to have somebody

experienced backing up,

holding on the break side of the rope,

and giving you guidance,
assistance on your technique.

This is really important.

I actually once saved a climber

when inexperienced belayer
was using a GriGri

I was backing up the rope.

And actually I was the one
who caught the fall.

And the full story

if you're interested is

in this video about GriGri.

And of course don't take this video

as a complete guide into belaying.

There is way more things you need to know.

From proper slack management

to soft catches, to belayer movement,

to good communication with your climber.

And all of that is coming in the
future episodes of belay master class.

That's a lot of effort to make
these videos to be honest.

And this video was

brought to you by Mammut

and by all the people

who are supporting me

by visiting my website.

So huge thank you for everyone.

And see you in the next episode.