These lessons have previously taken years of climbing experience to learn (at least they did for me). Thanks for sharing them with the world so we have a better, safer, and more educated climbing community.
Seriously! This is the absolute BEST education in being a good belay partner that I've EVER seen and is normally only gained through simply being around people who are projecting and trying hard. Thank you Ben!
Something you didn't mention in this video that I'd really like to see looked at in detail is how the amount of slack you should give depends on the route you're climbing. For example, if a climber comes out from a roof and passes a lip, then it's important to give them enough slack just after the lip that if they fall they will fall entirely past the lip - in particular that they won't fall so their legs/lower body is below the lip and they hit the lip with their head :/! This situation arises on a couple of walls at my local gym, and it's made worse because the roof is long enough that the belayer cannot see the climber when they pass the lip. I would really like to see detailed information about the best way to handle this situation - and similar situations! Also, many thanks for your videos :-)! They're the best material I've found to help me become a safer/more confident climber.
Yea this is the only exceptional case where you might want more slack, but it depends on the placement of the protection, if it's hanging bellow the roof or at the very end of the roof you probably will clear the roof anyway, unless the climber will take really hard. But yea... there are a lot of nuances in catching falls - will try my best to make sense of everything.
same is the other way. On a slopy slab I'd usually give less slack, same on don't care what angle after a ledge, where you belay like the climber just left the ground.
That was a great video! I will recommend it to lead beginners from now on. There is only one thing I would have liked to see aswell: An explanation of a proper spotting technique. I might be wrong but this is my take on it: Spotting is really important, especially outdoors, because the first bolt can be a few meters up the route. In general, no matter how strong you are, you will never be able to catch a grown person thats falling more than 2m to the ground. But if the person starts to rotate in the air, because a hand hold breaks for example and the upper body starts to fall while the feet are still on rock, you can catch the falling person in a way, so they'll land on their feet. For that one needs firm footing, one foot forward, the other further backwards. As a belayer, if you stand normally, you are not gonna be able to generate the force needed to catch your climber or turn them to land on their feet mid air. To HardIsEasy and all people in the comments, let me know your experiences and opinions on spotting! Thank you for this video and the work that you do, I'm sure it helped preventing countless injuries and incidents and as a part of our climbing community, I appreciate it a lot!
Your videos are so thoughtfully made and they are so useful to the climbing community. Keep crushing it brother! Love what youre doing. As someone who has only been lead climbing for 1 year or so I am always trying to improve and be a better belayer. Feels like some people get the basics and call it a day. Personally I want the climber to feel as safe as possible while I am belaying so they send their hardest without any extra stress. I highly reccomend this video to everyone even if youve already been lead climbing for a while. You can always learn something new. I know I did!
When spotting your climber you can hook the climbers side of the line over your left thumb and belay side of the line over your right thumb. That way the second they are clipped to the first bolt you can bring your hands into the belaying position, without having to look down to find the rope. I also find that this helps me judge if I am about to short rope my climber as they approach the first bolt
I can't wait for your video on belaying near the beginning of the wall because that's where I am the most nervous I'm always afraid that my climber will fall and I won't catch them on that first draw.
Thank you so much for this! I want all my belayers to watch this! These are all techniques I have tried to teach people for ages without being a jerk. Your explanations were perfect!
I've only been climbing for two years. Having taken an introductory course on lead climbing, setting anchors, etc., I've mostly been learning the nuances of the sport as I go along. Watching this video helps me feel more confident in my skills as I already do, or know, what's being described. Additionally, I'm constantly teaching new climbers these skills, so it's nice to have a reference to send them as supplemental information. Cheers. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
This is easiky the best online course. It covers literally every little thing that I've had to build experience for, and ive come to almost identical conclusion. I can send this stuff to beginners and be confident they will become a good belayer. Perhaps the only limitation is thata performing all this stuff requires a confidence and fluidity sith the belay device that still takes hours pf practice. No amount of videos is going to make someone efficiently pay out slack while unlocking their device and walking foward in the first hour of them trying. Thats the stuff that experienced supervision is necessary for.
This is THE best video I've seen that covers all the basics of lead belaying. Great job. For any new belayers out there: be patient, the level of proficiency you see in the video will take a few years to develop.
Hi HardisEasy, really a great video! I also watch all your other videos for months/years and I really appreciate your contribution to the climbing community. I also love your explanations and how you really deep dive into the matter (like with the grigri and the full on mechanics lesson :D ). It is also super helpful to share with other climbers when you are on different opinions in regards to some belaying technique and to clean up misconseptions. I have one small comment on your phrasing tho. Somehow when listening to you on this video, one hears many references to the climber and that you have to belay "him", give "him" slack, not shortrope "him" and so on ... even when in some of your scenes it is a female climber. Now, many people try to be inclusive here and say "him or her", which is in my opinion not fully inclusive (there are non-binary people) and also is a bit more cumbersome. But in my opinion, there is a much better way. In English, there is the singular "they/them", which works every time. For non English-natives (myself included) this may seem a bit awkward in the beginning, since one thinks of the word "they" as referencing to multiple people, or some may think that this is some "new woke nonsense", but that is just not true. "They/them" was used in English for referencing singular persons for centuries already (Shakespeare did it). You can easily use it like in this sentence: "Someone forgot their belay-device at the crag, they make come later and pick it up"
Wow, didn't expect to see my comment in the video, thanks for including it! Thought I'd quickly add something to that comment as I now see it's not quite complete. The "frowning" we do on the tunnel method is for beginners to the sport, and top-roping only. This is because the Dutch Climbing Safety Association (Dutch: SVK, Stichting Veiligheid Klimsport) had put out reports that tunneling was less safe than using two hands to take in slack, and recommended the two-handed approach in beginner teaching and instruction situations for top-rope belaying. In fact, the SVK determined shortly after that comment, that for people who were only doing the daytime single climbing lesson, and not the full belay course, using tubular devices entirely was too dangerous. So both tubular devices were no longer in use for single day courses, and tunneling was banned outright. This meant that while working I had to call it out to people doing it and tell them not to tunnel (experienced climbers too) due to gym safety policy. When belaying on lead, however, it is completely normal to tunnel in Dutch gyms as well. The assumption is that lead belaying requires more skill (and an extra certification), so the people doing it will be more attentive by default, and will have been taught how to do it properly. Or so is the assumption, because that is not always the case of course, sadly. So, all in all I'm super happy your videos exist! You explain the techniques very well as well as showing the ways in which they can go wrong so people can prevent those things from happening. Thank you for doing the hard work, and thereby reaching out to more people, with more concise information and testing methodology than any single gym instructor could :)
Yay! I've been looking forward to this vid. I started learning to lead belay a couple weeks ago (from an experienced climber). I feel like there's certain things I'm not doing efficiently. I will keep an eye out for the lead belay videos coming soon. Thanks so much!
Hi Ben. Kudos for your video, i really like it. However I think your Buddy-Chek is a little chaotic. I like to teach it like this: 1. Both climber and belayer prepare themselves 2. You start at the climbers end of the rope. Belayer checks the climber (harness, knot, helmet, quickdraws, etc) 3. Then you continue along the rope to the belayer and the climber checks the belayer (belay device, harness, helmet, etc) 4. At the end you follow the rope to the end to ensure that there is a knot in the end and you have enough rope for the route
The attention of the belayer is foundamental regardless the difficulty of the route, expecially on "easy pithes" the bolt are far away and it is more likely to being hurt if you fall. But many of the "experts" climber from 7C to 8B just do not play any attention if you are climbing a "easy" route (for your level) eg if you climb the 6b or 6a to warm up often you notice that the slack is so big that in case of falling you will hit the floor or that sametimes the "rope do not come propely" ... this is because of lack of attention of the belayer.
6:45, I experienced the "not doing a knot at the end of the rope"... I climbed up, start going down taking back my quickdraws, and at 10m from the ground, fell like a rock... broke an arm, 5 vertabrae, a leg... we were overconfident. never again... :)
Don't know if you already planned it, but a video about the ohm and how to safely use it/ when it fails would be very interesting. For example I once saw a video on instagram where on the first sight it seemed that they did everything right, but the ohm nontheless failed (I believe there it was because she was standing just a little too close to the wall). Would be interesting to see your thoughts on this😊 Until then, thanks as always for your interesting and educational content!
You're probably right, since the ohm is quite dependent on the angle of the rope to the device. Have a look at the Bauer Zorro, tends to be a bit more reliable but harder to get.
I really like the series, well explained slack management. However... there's one bit that's only mentioned here very briefly: the slack introduced by the climber. Especially if they clip far above their head. (There's a bunch of such cases shown in this very video). I've witnessed cases when the climber was already getting too tired and although managed to reach the draw they ultimately failed to actually clip the rope, thus falling an extra 3-4 meters. On a constantly overhanging wall if the climber is high enough it may not be a big issue, but on more complex terrain with lips and ledges it becomes pretty crucial. I always try to discourage both myself and my climbing partner from clipping above the head.
My 2cents on this is that it's the best to clip for the best position. Sometimes routes are even bolted to clip overhead from a good jug. However if you have multiple options clipping when the draw is closer to your belly is def less easier and makes it smaller potential fall.
hmm.... The step forward/backward should normally be incorporated in lead belaying most of the times. After all, the belayer usually is not bolted to the ground. EDIT: of course, still a thumbs up, because you do a great job educating climbers how to stay alive and have fun.
impressive job here, might mention use of gloves especially with dirt at the base? Also, maybe a reminder that if the start is hard and has bad landing a stick-clip is a great idea. Otherwise super helpful for new climbers and good reminder to experienced ones.
As always a superb tutorial, now the challenge for you is to get the climber to clip at waist level and the bolter to put the bolt at the stance to clip at waist level; 😂
Well outside bolts are usually placed at the best clipping positions - sometimes you have to clip high above and that protects the next hard section where there is no way to clip. Clipping at waist level is easier done in gyms :)
Don't rely on the "pull test" on the GRIGRI. As I teach in my lead classes... I show that someone can have the GRIGRI backwards... and be stepping on the rope and the rope will come tight as if the cam has loaded. You want to ascertain that you have climber to climber picture on GRIGRI and know it's setup correctly as opposed to just relying on a pull.
The one thing he is doing and I've seen a lot of belayers NOT do, he is moving around as the climber climbs. That is a good thing. I can't tell you how many climbers I have taught and told them to watch their climber and move according to what is needed to be done. In other words: belayers need to pay attention to the climber at all times. Had a friend who almost died because his belayer was not paying attention and he fell... the only thing that stopped him from decking (from over 50 ft up) was the rope knotted up and jammed in the belay device. He stopped 4 ft off the ground. If you see your belayer not paying attention, give them one warning and then don't climb with them ... they are an accident waiting to happen. It's not worth your life if they don't care.
As a new belayer, I often made the mistake of leaving the climb to the climber while I just focused on where the clips are. Instead, study the route WITH the climber. This comes with practice, but find out how your climber wishes to clip, so you can give them slack at the right time. Make an effort to ask your climber where they would clip from, and also ask them how far they expect to go on this attempt so you can prepare for a fall. It's also just great practice to read the route too!
Hey Ben! I would love see your take and explanation skills on high vs low clipping in lead climbing. In my head: If you fall with your hand at the quickdraw on a highclip, you fall twice as much compared to a hipclip. But I get mixed information on that online and am quite confused now - sounds like the perfect topic for the belay master class 😎
@@HardIsEasy Nice! Although I think I got it now... but its honestly more a belief than actually really understanding it. Fall distance will be identical, but your landing point is different; high clip will leave you closer to the ground (or ledge) vs hip clip will keep you up the highest from the floor. But.. if that's the case, why did my guides teach me to early clip atleast the first 3 bolts? I get the flrst one.. but waist clip on the second bolt is more likely to keep me from decking than an early clip 😬
Laukiau šitų video, labai smagu matyt, kad nors baigę skirtingas mokyklas / kursus / whatever, mokom beveik identiškai, galiu drąsiai savo "mokiniam" rodyt :D Bet, kai darom (mes vadinam) check check, patikrinam ir atotampas - ar jų užtenka, ir ar ta puse susegtos į apraišus ;) O kur stovėt saugotojui, kai lipa lead'ą, tai visada sakau, kad geriausia po pirma atotampa, nes į ten temps, jei laipiotojas kris. Ne kartą yra buvę, kad stovi gal ir arti sienos, bet šone nuo pirmo taško ir tada neblogai numeta saugotoją, ypač kai dažniausiai lipam slabus :)
@@HardIsEasy I assume they mean devices like tube-style or Revo, that allow for dynamic belaying through feeding some rope / letting rope slip aside from using your body. like the guy is doing at the end of the video in the gym, around 24:23. In my training we made a difference between "body dynamic" and "device dynamic" belaying, but never really emphasized the "device dynamic" style. It seems quite sketchy to me personally and isn't really possible with assisted devices. I'm not quite sure but maybe they do this in the lead competitions.
@@HardIsEasy Nowadays mostly tubes (ATC). I am a coach for competition climbing with children (age 9-12), and we are currently discussing new guidelines in how to belay children and light athletes (especially as parents or trainer) dynamically. We started giving dedicated belaying training for parents; however, I haven't found a good online resource on this topic yet. Mostly all competition regulations (at least in Germany) require a dynamic belaying device for lead climbing - which is good. However, since belaying with these devices is not recommended for normal climbers (which is also good), there aren't many good resources online available for parents or climbers with great weight disparities. I was wondering if you would cover this topic within your master class.
@@palu_myrI see, we did tested different methods to give a soft catch, but none of my tests were done with extreme weight differences. My next video that I'm working on will Cover some info on this topic but I might need to think more for the future.
appreciate all your videos very very much. sending to my friends, we debated that last bit of efficient taking once or twice... but since I was a newer climber (half year vs their 5-10) they kinda scoffed it off and said it works fine which is kinda true but tired me the heck out.
@Hard Is Easy One thing you mentioned I think you should be careful with is "pre-giving slack" when someone is clipping. In the video the climber didn't even put the quickdraw in the wall yet before you already gave rope. Sometimes as a climber I only have energy to get the QD in the wall then I need to rest/shake out the other hand or in some situations there is no chance to do that and I might just fall before I even attempt to grab the rope to clip. Or ask to take. If you already have a lot of rope pre-given way before I even make a sign that I want to grab the rope and clip. I think that just creates unecessary risk with long falls. Or a lot more work to take again. I think in general you should wait until that last half a second where you see the climber reaching down to grab the rope and at that point be quick with giving extra slack. You can increase the slack loop slightly as they are cliping the quickdraw to buy yourself a little extra time as a belayer. But in general not pre-give rope before they actually commit to the clip. Let me know your thaughts ? :D
I have tons of slack in the system. Probably not the best. I belay with the ATC for 20 Years and due that i developed a extremly dynamic(much walking) belaying habbit. I almost always approach a "long" fall, as long as my partner agrees to it. During leadclimbing cups and the training for it we always climbed till we fall, so we belayed extremly slackheavy. As long as the climber doesnt fall onto an edge, another climber or the ground we gucci. No need to force a 20m wipper but if it happens to be 5-10m no worries even though people certaintly get freightend of seeing it.
Good video as always - I agree with almost everything. However at 3:00 you introduce your method for holding the grigri that I don’t think is recommended by Petzl. At 1:23 of Petzl’s instructional video, your brake hand ‘must return to the primary belaying position’ [ie fully gripping the dead rope]. I understand your points raised, but I’m not sure if I agree. 1) if you are concerned about taking in max slack in a fall, you can still hold the rope near the grigri, without touching the device. There is a false comparison to holding the rope midway through. 2) there is no need to micromanage slack as you can give 0.3m of excess slack in most cases. Where even +0.3m slack is unacceptable, you can either a) give slack ‘slowly’ by feeding through, b) just give slack quickly only the second before. 3) your method creates the risk of the belayer being lazy and resting their thumb on the grigri (which is explicitly declared unsafe by Petzl). This is *especially* likely when ‘micromanaging’ slack. 4) even if the belayer has the discipline to avoid thumbing the cam, they may still grab the grigri when catching an unexpected fall. (Thus disabling the cam) This is especially likely when the beginner is a novice! (Which is your target audience I believe) 5) Lastly, your method has the disadvantage of holding the rope with three fingers rather than a full grip. Whilst this is not fatal, wouldn’t it be best to minimise such risks? Three fingers requires more grip strength than squeezing with your whole hand. Again, this is especially relevant for novices - who might otherwise belay with fatigued fingers and may not be able to confidently grip with three fingers. Happy to hear from you and others why you think this is best practice for novices! Once again, thanks for the rest of the helpful videos uploaded.
surely rules are different from country to country, or even climbing gyms to gyms. what i was told about the knot on the end of the rope is: have one end of your rope always tighty with a figure 8 to your bag. thats goot to not get it tangled, and there will always be a knot at the end!
Can we get a video on Inspection of Ancher bolts and Diffrent metthods of using diffrent styles of ancher configeration for top rope or Sport climbing?
4:10 to see if there are any tangles.. well it would be better if you uncoiled the rope before you climb, so you are sure there are none, wouldn't it? making sure, the rope is available at all time is essential. + it is a nice warm-up before the climb
My motto is 0 unecessary slack. I do however have 'cowboy'-climber friends who are of the notion that after the 4th quickdraw there's no such thing as too much/unecessary slack. Personally i use the Revo when belaying, and giving slack is such a breeze that it's the least of my worries as a belayer. I guess this will be true for anyone, no matter the device, so long as one has taken the time to master the device. (Revo then is simply easy to master, and i guess I'm too lazy to master the grigri or any other assisted device =P )
Just want to re-emphasise that if you have not done any lead belaying before get some training. It's yours and your friends lives. Have someone experienced tail the rope when you're learning. Anything else is not a good idea.
I agree - but I've seen so plenty of "experienced" people tailing the rope who are looking up at the climber the whole time or tailing the rope so far behind the belayer that they wouldn't be able to do anything xD
@@crimpchimp yeah absolutely. At my local climbing gym we saw an "experienced" guy sitting on the floor belaying not even holding the rope! I cannot imagine having someone like that as a belayer. I'd always advise anyone to go and seek a qualified person even if just to check your knowledge.
just something i learned from the DAV, wenn spotting squeeze all of your fingers together including the thumb, like you are giving a high five. if the climber falls and you are not prepared anything else might lead to you breaking your fingers, which i have actually seen live and is NOT fun! ;)
If you get twists in the rope, don't shake it further down the rope. That only serves to concentrate the twists in one spot and then you may not be able to give slack at all. Instead, force the twists to go through the belay device and worry about untwisting it after you're done with the route
Can you also do a video on the climbers side? I recently saw a self taught beginner who constantly clipped wrong. I myself struggle with taking too long to clip and tiring myself out. Also you have to be more conscious of falling feet first or else you might hit yourself
5:05 also I consider bad habit "clicking" the carabiner lock to see if it secured. imagine doing that high above the ground and being unlucky.. It's better to do the check via the "screw/tighten-the-lock" motion
If you don't fist bump it's never gonna be safe. Regarding your comments on the "buddy check" I think the opposite direction is cleaner. Starting at the climber, who checks themselves while belayer also checks climber. Harness, tie-in point, knot. Then follow the rope to the belay device and either pull or belayer does it, like you showed. Then climber checks belayer while belayer also checks themselves. "4 eyes principle" rather than "while the belayer is checking the climber, the climber should be checking the belayer." Might take 30 seconds longer, but less criss-crossing.
love your videos! ecellent info im fairly experienced and still find the videos informative. at a crag near home there are some 42m meter routes where near the top say was 10m you have to have a large amount of slack out (fall is safe)rope is almost touching the ground even when using alpine draws for last 20m . maybe a video on quick draw usage and management next.
Hello everyone, I'm looking for information about climbing harnesses from the brand Xindra and was wondering if any of you have experience with them. I'm interested in learning more about their product range and how they compare to other brands in terms of comfort, durability, and features.
I am for the pulling test on gri gri ah ah ah .. when the rope is in the middle of the legs of the climber just do a big wave with the rope so you are sure he will never assume again that position zebedei pain ah ah ah ... I aways adjust the micro slack and at the beginning of the route I try to help the clip of the climber by accmpain the rope .. I always look at the climber during the ascent or if not possible feel throug the rope what he is doing.. unfortunately I find out very few people doing the same
Hey Ben, I have a specific question and I wonder whether there exists a good answer for it. My climber and I are really strong and have big beautiful muscles that everybody needs to see, so we have to climb shirtless. Recently, this has become a problem, because I have accidentally given my climbing partner rope burns while taking out slack quickly. This mostly happens when my partner is clipping a quickdraw with the arm that is on the opposite side of the body (awkward clipping positions), mostly during hard projecting. It also happens on falls on the first quickdraw (because the routes we climb are soooo hard!) some times. It is not a very common occurence, but it does happen. What should I do? I guess I should be paying even more attention, but my climbing partner's big manly muscles are just so distracting!
although this is very niche, I'd love a detour into the edelrid ohm since it seems to make it really hard for me to give a soft catch to my heavier climber.
If you move towards the wall, the angle of the rope through the ohm will be closer to 180 degrees (instead of 90 when you move backwards), this decreases the resistance in the ohm and will create a softer fall. Also, thinner rope also helps, the ohm works really nice with 9.5mm (for both pulling and braking). 10mm not so.
Thanks, and for two reasons, first to make it possible to watch as stand alone or part of Belay MasterClass playlist - which doesn't have all those additional videos. And 2nd to avoid people crying about the way I threat my belay device. Someone did not feel like it's a good idea to skip this - but you have timestamps
Gotta comment for that smooth transition at 3:26 👌🏽
Haha 😂 When you do "edutainment"
These lessons have previously taken years of climbing experience to learn (at least they did for me). Thanks for sharing them with the world so we have a better, safer, and more educated climbing community.
Seriously! This is the absolute BEST education in being a good belay partner that I've EVER seen and is normally only gained through simply being around people who are projecting and trying hard. Thank you Ben!
True
Something you didn't mention in this video that I'd really like to see looked at in detail is how the amount of slack you should give depends on the route you're climbing. For example, if a climber comes out from a roof and passes a lip, then it's important to give them enough slack just after the lip that if they fall they will fall entirely past the lip - in particular that they won't fall so their legs/lower body is below the lip and they hit the lip with their head :/! This situation arises on a couple of walls at my local gym, and it's made worse because the roof is long enough that the belayer cannot see the climber when they pass the lip. I would really like to see detailed information about the best way to handle this situation - and similar situations!
Also, many thanks for your videos :-)! They're the best material I've found to help me become a safer/more confident climber.
Yea this is the only exceptional case where you might want more slack, but it depends on the placement of the protection, if it's hanging bellow the roof or at the very end of the roof you probably will clear the roof anyway, unless the climber will take really hard.
But yea... there are a lot of nuances in catching falls - will try my best to make sense of everything.
same is the other way. On a slopy slab I'd usually give less slack, same on don't care what angle after a ledge, where you belay like the climber just left the ground.
That was a great video! I will recommend it to lead beginners from now on. There is only one thing I would have liked to see aswell: An explanation of a proper spotting technique.
I might be wrong but this is my take on it: Spotting is really important, especially outdoors, because the first bolt can be a few meters up the route. In general, no matter how strong you are, you will never be able to catch a grown person thats falling more than 2m to the ground. But if the person starts to rotate in the air, because a hand hold breaks for example and the upper body starts to fall while the feet are still on rock, you can catch the falling person in a way, so they'll land on their feet. For that one needs firm footing, one foot forward, the other further backwards. As a belayer, if you stand normally, you are not gonna be able to generate the force needed to catch your climber or turn them to land on their feet mid air.
To HardIsEasy and all people in the comments, let me know your experiences and opinions on spotting!
Thank you for this video and the work that you do, I'm sure it helped preventing countless injuries and incidents and as a part of our climbing community, I appreciate it a lot!
Your videos are so thoughtfully made and they are so useful to the climbing community. Keep crushing it brother! Love what youre doing. As someone who has only been lead climbing for 1 year or so I am always trying to improve and be a better belayer. Feels like some people get the basics and call it a day. Personally I want the climber to feel as safe as possible while I am belaying so they send their hardest without any extra stress. I highly reccomend this video to everyone even if youve already been lead climbing for a while. You can always learn something new. I know I did!
When spotting your climber you can hook the climbers side of the line over your left thumb and belay side of the line over your right thumb. That way the second they are clipped to the first bolt you can bring your hands into the belaying position, without having to look down to find the rope.
I also find that this helps me judge if I am about to short rope my climber as they approach the first bolt
That's how I've been taught, I always thought it's the default way
My favorite day of the month when I see your videos pop up. Thank you for getting me into this sport.
Oh my pleasure to read such comments! Welcome to the Sport ;)
This video editing is top tier! And all the info is very thorough
Yet another in the best series of climbing instructional videos ever created.
I can't wait for your video on belaying near the beginning of the wall because that's where I am the most nervous I'm always afraid that my climber will fall and I won't catch them on that first draw.
Thank you so much for this! I want all my belayers to watch this!
These are all techniques I have tried to teach people for ages without being a jerk. Your explanations were perfect!
I've only been climbing for two years. Having taken an introductory course on lead climbing, setting anchors, etc., I've mostly been learning the nuances of the sport as I go along.
Watching this video helps me feel more confident in my skills as I already do, or know, what's being described. Additionally, I'm constantly teaching new climbers these skills, so it's nice to have a reference to send them as supplemental information.
Cheers. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
This is easiky the best online course. It covers literally every little thing that I've had to build experience for, and ive come to almost identical conclusion. I can send this stuff to beginners and be confident they will become a good belayer.
Perhaps the only limitation is thata performing all this stuff requires a confidence and fluidity sith the belay device that still takes hours pf practice. No amount of videos is going to make someone efficiently pay out slack while unlocking their device and walking foward in the first hour of them trying. Thats the stuff that experienced supervision is necessary for.
This is THE best video I've seen that covers all the basics of lead belaying. Great job. For any new belayers out there: be patient, the level of proficiency you see in the video will take a few years to develop.
Hi HardisEasy, really a great video! I also watch all your other videos for months/years and I really appreciate your contribution to the climbing community. I also love your explanations and how you really deep dive into the matter (like with the grigri and the full on mechanics lesson :D ). It is also super helpful to share with other climbers when you are on different opinions in regards to some belaying technique and to clean up misconseptions.
I have one small comment on your phrasing tho. Somehow when listening to you on this video, one hears many references to the climber and that you have to belay "him", give "him" slack, not shortrope "him" and so on ... even when in some of your scenes it is a female climber.
Now, many people try to be inclusive here and say "him or her", which is in my opinion not fully inclusive (there are non-binary people) and also is a bit more cumbersome. But in my opinion, there is a much better way. In English, there is the singular "they/them", which works every time. For non English-natives (myself included) this may seem a bit awkward in the beginning, since one thinks of the word "they" as referencing to multiple people, or some may think that this is some "new woke nonsense", but that is just not true. "They/them" was used in English for referencing singular persons for centuries already (Shakespeare did it). You can easily use it like in this sentence: "Someone forgot their belay-device at the crag, they make come later and pick it up"
Thanks! This is going to make so many climbers safer and have more fun.
Ah thank you so much for support!
Love your vids and your vibes so much. It's both informative and relaxing. Thanks for putting in all the work on them.
Wow, didn't expect to see my comment in the video, thanks for including it!
Thought I'd quickly add something to that comment as I now see it's not quite complete.
The "frowning" we do on the tunnel method is for beginners to the sport, and top-roping only. This is because the Dutch Climbing Safety Association (Dutch: SVK, Stichting Veiligheid Klimsport) had put out reports that tunneling was less safe than using two hands to take in slack, and recommended the two-handed approach in beginner teaching and instruction situations for top-rope belaying. In fact, the SVK determined shortly after that comment, that for people who were only doing the daytime single climbing lesson, and not the full belay course, using tubular devices entirely was too dangerous. So both tubular devices were no longer in use for single day courses, and tunneling was banned outright. This meant that while working I had to call it out to people doing it and tell them not to tunnel (experienced climbers too) due to gym safety policy.
When belaying on lead, however, it is completely normal to tunnel in Dutch gyms as well. The assumption is that lead belaying requires more skill (and an extra certification), so the people doing it will be more attentive by default, and will have been taught how to do it properly. Or so is the assumption, because that is not always the case of course, sadly.
So, all in all I'm super happy your videos exist! You explain the techniques very well as well as showing the ways in which they can go wrong so people can prevent those things from happening. Thank you for doing the hard work, and thereby reaching out to more people, with more concise information and testing methodology than any single gym instructor could :)
Yay! I've been looking forward to this vid. I started learning to lead belay a couple weeks ago (from an experienced climber). I feel like there's certain things I'm not doing efficiently. I will keep an eye out for the lead belay videos coming soon. Thanks so much!
Welcome to Climbing ;)
Hi Ben. Kudos for your video, i really like it. However I think your Buddy-Chek is a little chaotic. I like to teach it like this:
1. Both climber and belayer prepare themselves
2. You start at the climbers end of the rope. Belayer checks the climber (harness, knot, helmet, quickdraws, etc)
3. Then you continue along the rope to the belayer and the climber checks the belayer (belay device, harness, helmet, etc)
4. At the end you follow the rope to the end to ensure that there is a knot in the end and you have enough rope for the route
Love these belaying courses! . Great to see the series continue..
Moving ropes out of the way while belaying, such a good advice.
As always, fantastic content. Thank you for making this series!
Thank you for saying this!
Nice edit at 3:33, man. Even knowing how to do this, I love these videos even as a refresher and filling in little technical gaps.
The attention of the belayer is foundamental regardless the difficulty of the route, expecially on "easy pithes" the bolt are far away and it is more likely to being hurt if you fall. But many of the "experts" climber from 7C to 8B just do not play any attention if you are climbing a "easy" route (for your level) eg if you climb the 6b or 6a to warm up often you notice that the slack is so big that in case of falling you will hit the floor or that sametimes the "rope do not come propely" ... this is because of lack of attention of the belayer.
6:45, I experienced the "not doing a knot at the end of the rope"... I climbed up, start going down taking back my quickdraws, and at 10m from the ground, fell like a rock... broke an arm, 5 vertabrae, a leg... we were overconfident. never again... :)
Don't know if you already planned it, but a video about the ohm and how to safely use it/ when it fails would be very interesting. For example I once saw a video on instagram where on the first sight it seemed that they did everything right, but the ohm nontheless failed (I believe there it was because she was standing just a little too close to the wall). Would be interesting to see your thoughts on this😊
Until then, thanks as always for your interesting and educational content!
Thanks and yea, it's on a list;)
You're probably right, since the ohm is quite dependent on the angle of the rope to the device. Have a look at the Bauer Zorro, tends to be a bit more reliable but harder to get.
Superb! I keep catching myself nodding :)
I nod back to you ;)
I really like the series, well explained slack management. However... there's one bit that's only mentioned here very briefly: the slack introduced by the climber. Especially if they clip far above their head. (There's a bunch of such cases shown in this very video). I've witnessed cases when the climber was already getting too tired and although managed to reach the draw they ultimately failed to actually clip the rope, thus falling an extra 3-4 meters. On a constantly overhanging wall if the climber is high enough it may not be a big issue, but on more complex terrain with lips and ledges it becomes pretty crucial. I always try to discourage both myself and my climbing partner from clipping above the head.
My 2cents on this is that it's the best to clip for the best position. Sometimes routes are even bolted to clip overhead from a good jug.
However if you have multiple options clipping when the draw is closer to your belly is def less easier and makes it smaller potential fall.
Your videos are super useful and well made, big big thanks for your work!
hmm.... The step forward/backward should normally be incorporated in lead belaying most of the times. After all, the belayer usually is not bolted to the ground. EDIT: of course, still a thumbs up, because you do a great job educating climbers how to stay alive and have fun.
impressive job here, might mention use of gloves especially with dirt at the base? Also, maybe a reminder that if the start is hard and has bad landing a stick-clip is a great idea. Otherwise super helpful for new climbers and good reminder to experienced ones.
As always a superb tutorial, now the challenge for you is to get the climber to clip at waist level and the bolter to put the bolt at the stance to clip at waist level; 😂
Well outside bolts are usually placed at the best clipping positions - sometimes you have to clip high above and that protects the next hard section where there is no way to clip.
Clipping at waist level is easier done in gyms :)
As always, great! Thanks! You're truly worth the patreon money ;) Cheers!
Ah thank you so much!
Maaaaan those transitions! Sooo smoooth 👀
Weee, weee, weee 🙂. Great content. Always a pleasure to watch and learn
Just gettingninto lead belaying - this has been extremely helpful - thank you!
Thanks for the great video! I can't wait for the soft catch video
Don't rely on the "pull test" on the GRIGRI. As I teach in my lead classes... I show that someone can have the GRIGRI backwards... and be stepping on the rope and the rope will come tight as if the cam has loaded. You want to ascertain that you have climber to climber picture on GRIGRI and know it's setup correctly as opposed to just relying on a pull.
I’ve been watching this channel for a year or so and it just struck me that you bear a strong resemblance to the lead singer from the beegees
Oh I wish I could sing :D
Need a video on cleaning overhanging routes.
Cleaning routes vid is on my List ;) Incl what todo when overhanging / traversing.
The one thing he is doing and I've seen a lot of belayers NOT do, he is moving around as the climber climbs. That is a good thing. I can't tell you how many climbers I have taught and told them to watch their climber and move according to what is needed to be done. In other words: belayers need to pay attention to the climber at all times. Had a friend who almost died because his belayer was not paying attention and he fell... the only thing that stopped him from decking (from over 50 ft up) was the rope knotted up and jammed in the belay device. He stopped 4 ft off the ground. If you see your belayer not paying attention, give them one warning and then don't climb with them ... they are an accident waiting to happen. It's not worth your life if they don't care.
As a new belayer, I often made the mistake of leaving the climb to the climber while I just focused on where the clips are. Instead, study the route WITH the climber. This comes with practice, but find out how your climber wishes to clip, so you can give them slack at the right time. Make an effort to ask your climber where they would clip from, and also ask them how far they expect to go on this attempt so you can prepare for a fall. It's also just great practice to read the route too!
Hey Ben! I would love see your take and explanation skills on high vs low clipping in lead climbing. In my head: If you fall with your hand at the quickdraw on a highclip, you fall twice as much compared to a hipclip. But I get mixed information on that online and am quite confused now - sounds like the perfect topic for the belay master class 😎
Yeap, I have video with that info on my todo list :D
@@HardIsEasy Nice! Although I think I got it now... but its honestly more a belief than actually really understanding it. Fall distance will be identical, but your landing point is different; high clip will leave you closer to the ground (or ledge) vs hip clip will keep you up the highest from the floor. But.. if that's the case, why did my guides teach me to early clip atleast the first 3 bolts? I get the flrst one.. but waist clip on the second bolt is more likely to keep me from decking than an early clip 😬
Laukiau šitų video, labai smagu matyt, kad nors baigę skirtingas mokyklas / kursus / whatever, mokom beveik identiškai, galiu drąsiai savo "mokiniam" rodyt :D
Bet, kai darom (mes vadinam) check check, patikrinam ir atotampas - ar jų užtenka, ir ar ta puse susegtos į apraišus ;)
O kur stovėt saugotojui, kai lipa lead'ą, tai visada sakau, kad geriausia po pirma atotampa, nes į ten temps, jei laipiotojas kris. Ne kartą yra buvę, kad stovi gal ir arti sienos, bet šone nuo pirmo taško ir tada neblogai numeta saugotoją, ypač kai dažniausiai lipam slabus :)
Beautiful channel! thank you for the hard work! and for bringing all this info to the community.
Brilliant, as always. Love your videos. 🎉
Will you cover dynamic belaying using dynamic belaying devices?
What is a Dynamic Belaying device in your language? :)
@@HardIsEasy I assume they mean devices like tube-style or Revo, that allow for dynamic belaying through feeding some rope / letting rope slip aside from using your body. like the guy is doing at the end of the video in the gym, around 24:23. In my training we made a difference between "body dynamic" and "device dynamic" belaying, but never really emphasized the "device dynamic" style. It seems quite sketchy to me personally and isn't really possible with assisted devices. I'm not quite sure but maybe they do this in the lead competitions.
@@HardIsEasy Nowadays mostly tubes (ATC).
I am a coach for competition climbing with children (age 9-12), and we are currently discussing new guidelines in how to belay children and light athletes (especially as parents or trainer) dynamically.
We started giving dedicated belaying training for parents; however, I haven't found a good online resource on this topic yet.
Mostly all competition regulations (at least in Germany) require a dynamic belaying device for lead climbing - which is good. However, since belaying with these devices is not recommended for normal climbers (which is also good), there aren't many good resources online available for parents or climbers with great weight disparities.
I was wondering if you would cover this topic within your master class.
@@palu_myrI see, we did tested different methods to give a soft catch, but none of my tests were done with extreme weight differences.
My next video that I'm working on will Cover some info on this topic but I might need to think more for the future.
@@HardIsEasy I'm looking forward to it.
I was waiting for this one!! Thanks!!
appreciate all your videos very very much.
sending to my friends, we debated that last bit of efficient taking once or twice... but since I was a newer climber (half year vs their 5-10) they kinda scoffed it off and said it works fine
which is kinda true but tired me the heck out.
18:01 you will also transfer sand and small stones to your rope sack, increasing wear.
Great video, where's the one on catching falls?
@Hard Is Easy
One thing you mentioned I think you should be careful with is "pre-giving slack" when someone is clipping. In the video the climber didn't even put the quickdraw in the wall yet before you already gave rope. Sometimes as a climber I only have energy to get the QD in the wall then I need to rest/shake out the other hand or in some situations there is no chance to do that and I might just fall before I even attempt to grab the rope to clip. Or ask to take.
If you already have a lot of rope pre-given way before I even make a sign that I want to grab the rope and clip. I think that just creates unecessary risk with long falls. Or a lot more work to take again.
I think in general you should wait until that last half a second where you see the climber reaching down to grab the rope and at that point be quick with giving extra slack. You can increase the slack loop slightly as they are cliping the quickdraw to buy yourself a little extra time as a belayer. But in general not pre-give rope before they actually commit to the clip.
Let me know your thaughts ? :D
Yeap giving slack only when needed is the best.
At the same time knowing the route and the climbers abilities helps to make belaying decisions.
@@HardIsEasy Ofcourse, if the climber has been on it many times or you have been there before many times. It changes everything :D
I have tons of slack in the system. Probably not the best. I belay with the ATC for 20 Years and due that i developed a extremly dynamic(much walking) belaying habbit. I almost always approach a "long" fall, as long as my partner agrees to it. During leadclimbing cups and the training for it we always climbed till we fall, so we belayed extremly slackheavy. As long as the climber doesnt fall onto an edge, another climber or the ground we gucci. No need to force a 20m wipper but if it happens to be 5-10m no worries even though people certaintly get freightend of seeing it.
Thanks so much for these videos!! I have nothing else to say, really, just commenting to help with the algorithm 😂
Good video as always - I agree with almost everything.
However at 3:00 you introduce your method for holding the grigri that I don’t think is recommended by Petzl. At 1:23 of Petzl’s instructional video, your brake hand ‘must return to the primary belaying position’ [ie fully gripping the dead rope].
I understand your points raised, but I’m not sure if I agree. 1) if you are concerned about taking in max slack in a fall, you can still hold the rope near the grigri, without touching the device. There is a false comparison to holding the rope midway through.
2) there is no need to micromanage slack as you can give 0.3m of excess slack in most cases. Where even +0.3m slack is unacceptable, you can either a) give slack ‘slowly’ by feeding through, b) just give slack quickly only the second before.
3) your method creates the risk of the belayer being lazy and resting their thumb on the grigri (which is explicitly declared unsafe by Petzl). This is *especially* likely when ‘micromanaging’ slack.
4) even if the belayer has the discipline to avoid thumbing the cam, they may still grab the grigri when catching an unexpected fall. (Thus disabling the cam) This is especially likely when the beginner is a novice! (Which is your target audience I believe)
5) Lastly, your method has the disadvantage of holding the rope with three fingers rather than a full grip. Whilst this is not fatal, wouldn’t it be best to minimise such risks? Three fingers requires more grip strength than squeezing with your whole hand. Again, this is especially relevant for novices - who might otherwise belay with fatigued fingers and may not be able to confidently grip with three fingers.
Happy to hear from you and others why you think this is best practice for novices!
Once again, thanks for the rest of the helpful videos uploaded.
I have seen your point 4 happen way too often, it is a very real risk.
surely rules are different from country to country, or even climbing gyms to gyms.
what i was told about the knot on the end of the rope is:
have one end of your rope always tighty with a figure 8 to your bag.
thats goot to not get it tangled, and there will always be a knot at the end!
Can we get a video on Inspection of Ancher bolts and Diffrent metthods of using diffrent styles of ancher configeration for top rope or Sport climbing?
Always great videos, thank you
Awesome video as always!
Very good information
Thanks for your sharing
Nothing really new for me, but very good presentation of the lead-belaying essentials!
4:10 to see if there are any tangles.. well it would be better if you uncoiled the rope before you climb, so you are sure there are none, wouldn't it? making sure, the rope is available at all time is essential. + it is a nice warm-up before the climb
My motto is 0 unecessary slack. I do however have 'cowboy'-climber friends who are of the notion that after the 4th quickdraw there's no such thing as too much/unecessary slack. Personally i use the Revo when belaying, and giving slack is such a breeze that it's the least of my worries as a belayer. I guess this will be true for anyone, no matter the device, so long as one has taken the time to master the device. (Revo then is simply easy to master, and i guess I'm too lazy to master the grigri or any other assisted device =P )
Just want to re-emphasise that if you have not done any lead belaying before get some training. It's yours and your friends lives. Have someone experienced tail the rope when you're learning. Anything else is not a good idea.
I agree - but I've seen so plenty of "experienced" people tailing the rope who are looking up at the climber the whole time or tailing the rope so far behind the belayer that they wouldn't be able to do anything xD
@@crimpchimp yeah absolutely. At my local climbing gym we saw an "experienced" guy sitting on the floor belaying not even holding the rope! I cannot imagine having someone like that as a belayer. I'd always advise anyone to go and seek a qualified person even if just to check your knowledge.
just something i learned from the DAV, wenn spotting squeeze all of your fingers together including the thumb, like you are giving a high five. if the climber falls and you are not prepared anything else might lead to you breaking your fingers, which i have actually seen live and is NOT fun! ;)
If you get twists in the rope, don't shake it further down the rope. That only serves to concentrate the twists in one spot and then you may not be able to give slack at all. Instead, force the twists to go through the belay device and worry about untwisting it after you're done with the route
Can you also do a video on the climbers side? I recently saw a self taught beginner who constantly clipped wrong. I myself struggle with taking too long to clip and tiring myself out. Also you have to be more conscious of falling feet first or else you might hit yourself
5:05 also I consider bad habit "clicking" the carabiner lock to see if it secured. imagine doing that high above the ground and being unlucky.. It's better to do the check via the "screw/tighten-the-lock" motion
If you don't fist bump it's never gonna be safe.
Regarding your comments on the "buddy check" I think the opposite direction is cleaner. Starting at the climber, who checks themselves while belayer also checks climber. Harness, tie-in point, knot. Then follow the rope to the belay device and either pull or belayer does it, like you showed. Then climber checks belayer while belayer also checks themselves. "4 eyes principle" rather than "while the belayer is checking the climber, the climber should be checking the belayer." Might take 30 seconds longer, but less criss-crossing.
Thanks!
such good info here. thanks y'all.
love your videos! ecellent info im fairly experienced and still find the videos informative. at a crag near home there are some 42m meter routes where near the top say was 10m you have to have a large amount of slack out (fall is safe)rope is almost touching the ground even when using alpine draws for last 20m . maybe a video on quick draw usage and management next.
Thank you for share!
are there links to the two videos mentioned at 8:11 and 13:25?
any idea when the next video will be out?
Seeing this video make me see how good belayer am I.
My only problem is that I weight 56kg
Great, love your videos
Hello everyone,
I'm looking for information about climbing harnesses from the brand Xindra and was wondering if any of you have experience with them. I'm interested in learning more about their product range and how they compare to other brands in terms of comfort, durability, and features.
I am for the pulling test on gri gri ah ah ah .. when the rope is in the middle of the legs of the climber just do a big wave with the rope so you are sure he will never assume again that position zebedei pain ah ah ah ... I aways adjust the micro slack and at the beginning of the route I try to help the clip of the climber by accmpain the rope .. I always look at the climber during the ascent or if not possible feel throug the rope what he is doing.. unfortunately I find out very few people doing the same
Love your videos, keep it up ❤❤❤
Thanks
Ah thank you so so much!
Hey Ben, I have a specific question and I wonder whether there exists a good answer for it. My climber and I are really strong and have big beautiful muscles that everybody needs to see, so we have to climb shirtless.
Recently, this has become a problem, because I have accidentally given my climbing partner rope burns while taking out slack quickly. This mostly happens when my partner is clipping a quickdraw with the arm that is on the opposite side of the body (awkward clipping positions), mostly during hard projecting. It also happens on falls on the first quickdraw (because the routes we climb are soooo hard!) some times. It is not a very common occurence, but it does happen.
What should I do? I guess I should be paying even more attention, but my climbing partner's big manly muscles are just so distracting!
although this is very niche, I'd love a detour into the edelrid ohm since it seems to make it really hard for me to give a soft catch to my heavier climber.
I have it on a list of videos todo :)
If you move towards the wall, the angle of the rope through the ohm will be closer to 180 degrees (instead of 90 when you move backwards), this decreases the resistance in the ohm and will create a softer fall. Also, thinner rope also helps, the ohm works really nice with 9.5mm (for both pulling and braking). 10mm not so.
"whee... whee... whee..."
!!!! hahaha 20:52
I would add that using a stick clip in 2023 is a great idea.
New video is cause for celebration!
✨weee ✨ hahah thanks for the video!
Gates in...monster! j/k! 😆
é impressão minha ou escutei um portuguesinho basico aos 14:38 minutos de video?
Did anyone else see the quickdraw clipped the wrong way at 14:55 ?
Ačiū 🙂
Prasom ;)
21:50 and by that, it means Ben is 63 kg.
Its more, the force is reduced due to friction on the quickdraws.
where is this crag? looks verry cool ;-)
It's multiple places on the planet :D
👍👍🙏🙏
Didn't really watched the whole thing but good stuff!
great video ! but why 9 min of already seen topics in yout others videos instead of jumping directly to the title topics
Thanks, and for two reasons, first to make it possible to watch as stand alone or part of Belay MasterClass playlist - which doesn't have all those additional videos.
And 2nd to avoid people crying about the way I threat my belay device.
Someone did not feel like it's a good idea to skip this - but you have timestamps
Quick note: if you have a long beard (especially women), like me, you have to take into consideration while belaying or repelling.
long beard women should def be careful
Climer no b the same as climing no b :) goggle the phonetics of the word "Climber" the b is silent.