Winter skills 4.2: bringing up a climbing partner
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- Expert tips for winter climbing. Bringing up a climbing partner.
This is one of a series of instructional films produced exclusively for BMC TV in association with AMI (the Association of Mountaineering Instructors), Lowe Alpine and DMM.
www.ami.org.uk/
lowealpine.com/
dmmclimbing.com/
We're the BMC. Climb walls, rock, hills, ice or mountains? Join us. www.thebmc.co....
Very grateful that you all put these together. Getting excited for winter here in New England!
Interesting setup. I climb in Nova Scotia Canada, and the Rock is almost uniformly choss at ice areas. Natural placements are dodgy and sparse, but our ice is quite abundant on the climbs we get. Seeing your belay setup, I have to agree with many of the commenters that it wouldn't be my first choice, though it seems like it's par for the course in your area. I would have preferred a re-directed belay as opposed to directly off of the harness, even utilizing an equalized set of axes as your master point if you were worried about the anchor pro. I seldom use guide mode in the winter, where the need to give slack is significant, but I might have chosen a hunter hitch off of an anchor point if your ropes weren't too iced up.
Still, this is a medium most of us outside of the UK won't have exposure to, and regional variations should be kept in mind when criticizing. You've presented the material well and Im enjoying the content. Cheers!
M.
why not use the atc in guide mode? seems like a lot less work than belaying off the harness...not even redirected through anchor in video
I was curious about the same exact thing.
Agree. That is a VERY dodgy belay with snowy/icy ropes - no guide or lock assist with the brake hand ABOVE the device and to her left??? With low friction and wearing gloves, I doubt very much that she could have caught her partner if he fell hard.
A direct belay can be a good option on some routes, but in this case she was building a full belay and tying in to it with the second leading through on the next pitch, so the standard multipitch belaying approach seems sensible and efficient.
The other comment that the belay isn't safe is surprising. Conventional belaying seems to work just fine in normal Scottish winter conditions in my experience. She would definitely hold a fall in that position.
Also re comment below - they are half ropes as is the custom in the UK, that is not twin ropes.
@Adrian
I'm don't profess to be a winter expert, but could she not have cloved both pieces of pro with the same rope (i.e. green), built a masterpoint in between, and taken up her second with an belay plate in guide mode from this? Switching to lead belay (whilst keeping him protected with a clove onto the masterpoint) wouldn't take that much longer and would surely be worth the added redundancy of taking him up in guide mode, would it not?
I wouldn't want to be dogmatic about 'the one true way is best', but given the context, she's showing the standard multi-pitch trad belay as taught at Plas y Brenin and Glenmore Lodge in the UK, both for winter and for summer. That's the baseline that is safe and pretty much always applicable.
A direct belay can be a great way of saving time when moving quickly, but not so advantageous when swapping leads and especially on more of a hanging belay.
Guide mode is relatively foolproof so long as you don't have to lower your second, but on the other hand, not everyone will be climbing with a guide plate.
By the way,. the plate she's using looks identical to mine and you really have to let go of the rope completely for it to not lock.
We do use guide mode at times, and indeed building a belay to a single point can allow for escaping the system easily, etc., so all options are possible.
Thanks
Why use 2 ropes?
Multiple reasons - mainly to provide redundancy, decrease rope drag on zigzag routes, and to enable abseiling using the whole length of the rope.
this is absolutely wrong!!!!!