I am so pleased to see how many big climbers are in the comments! 330lbs here, been bouldering and top roping for over a year now. Thanks so much to you all for making this video happen. I was climbing outside near Morgantown this winter and saw Grit Stone from the outside, so very exciting to learn their leadership is cool.
As a 95kg/210 lb climber, this was super useful, thanks to everyone involved! Seeing the actual forces makes me feel better about most fall scenarios, but also reiterates that super sketchy trad gear is probably not a good idea for big folks like me.
As a 6'2, 280lb person interested in climbing it's really good to see tanner being a boss. I work next to a climbing gym and try to go, but I have given up bouldering by-the-rules because I can climb but I can't even fit in most start positions.
@@lutze5086 Key factor! I'm 6'4 and 300 and have slowly been learning to start in positions that I wasn't able to at first! It's been very rewarding improving. I'd continue to boulder by the rules as much as possible because it's really so invigorating and motivating to start what you once thought was impossible for you. I did my first v2-v3 Wednesday and I literally was shocked at how much I've improved over the last month or so of going 1-3 times a week.
6`2" 280 as well here. I started bouldering about 6 months ago, and honestly, I feel you. While my gym sets great, just a few days ago I did a boulder that had such a low start, there was no way around me not landing on my ass when going for the 1st hold after the starting match. I was about an inch above ground, and everything else would have made me squeeze together like a ball. Kinda sucks, but then again, if heavy weights like us boulder, the strength development is quite insane. So I try to do the routes "by the rules" as much as possible, but there have been two since I started that I simply couldn't do by the rule. I do like a good challenge.
Man, i don't know how to thank you enough. This felt like a video made for me, personally! (I know i wasn't the only requester of such a topic, but you might recall my comment from the other video you were talking about). You, Ryan, and everyone involved in the production of this content are awesome. Some random guy makes a comment; "what about the heavy fellows?", and as a first response you provide links to other videos containing related topics, and a few months later, you make a full-fledged video about the very matter requested. Now i have concrete evidence whenever i start doubting my climbing gear about how it's super good enough! (...and i'll be doing it with my new HowNOT2-cap from now on, even thought i've never bought any "youtube-merch". But now i decided to! Thank you!)
When I started this video, I was like OMG thats my Gym. Shout out to all the good people at Gritstone. A big focus of who they are and what they do is to build and support the climbing community in WV, and they're doing a great job. I feel that what Ryan is doing is the same thing just online. So I was very happy to see them join forces. Great video. I Had a partenr for years who was about the same size as Tanner and you do have to make adjustments in your systems. Rapelling was a bigger concern than catching falls to be honest. it would be interesting to see the difference in the force it takes to maintain control while rapelling on small and large climbers.
I was stoked to see this video since I’m a 220lb climber and I typically climb with belayers less than 150lbs using the Ohm most of the time. I was even more excited when I recognized the gym that I’ve spent a lot of time in when I am in Morgantown. Fantastic gym and a great video for us heavier climbers to have a little more piece of mind about taking lead falls. Makes me think a little more about trad climbing though...
a normal fart is .2 Newtons,so really it depends on the wind. also congratulations Ryan on getting your silver button. I honestly never thought that a highline channel I found after i got my first slackline 5 years ago.it has been awesome to see the transition. and a huge shout out to Bobby and Brent and all the other people who have helped in making this episodes.
Thank you for making this, I laughed a little in your last lead fall video when your heavy climber was around 200 lbs. I'm 235, happy to know what the upper bound is for me for forces on lead falls.
Just wanted to say I really enjoy the content from your channel. This was super informative for me because I own and operate a small tree service where I am also the climber and I tip the scales at around 290-300lbs. I am confident in my skills and equipment, but this was really informative for what kinds of forces that I actually generate while swinging around in the tree. Thank you for what you do.
This is a video that I was very excited to see. I weighed in at 304 lbs a couple of days ago after a climbing session. My wife, my belay partner, weighs around 110-130 lbs. So it is good to know the forces that we generate when we climb. I generally try to take one good whip per climbing session to keep the climbing jitters in check. However, if I am trying hard, it is not uncommon for me to take multiple falls with the last draw at my ankles or below. I am curious about gear wear now. More specifically, I am concerned with how much load capacity my gear has over time. I generally replace my gear pretty frequently, because everything from my shoes to harness to the rope start to show significant wear in fairly short time frames compared to other climbers' gear. For example, my shoes will blowout (not wear from poor form at this point) at the toes in about 6-9 months of climbing, while the harness and rope will start to show a good amount of wear at about 1.5 to 2 years.
I am the same order, I mostly climbed at ~245-250 lb. What I would be concerned with is fatigue wear on rope under those conditions. As long as you are aware of the relative strengths of your gear, and lifecycle it, then you should be fine- any indications of damage means it's NFG for further service, basically. Most of my experience has been with military style rappel, some as a FD that does low angle rescue, and both gym and real world top rope. (so far more static than dynamic rope experience). It's good to see the acknowledgement that larger climbers DO exist ! (even if gravity sucks more on us)
Thanks for getting this out funny how I emailed you a few months ago asking about this exact question. Now we just need to see how strong the ice screws are from your tests in Iceland and that will probably confirm that I should not be leading on ice anytime soon!! Super not good enough!
Im 6'2 or 6'3 and like 300lbs. This is super useful for me as I want to get into climbing but then the safety ratios you can get with a 100lbs person and 300lbs are so different. Tanner is a champ
Copy-pasting my estimates from the teaser: "Theoretical maximums for a fall factor of 1.0 for a fixed belay point are roughly 5 kN on climber, 9 kN on top draw and 3 kN on belayer. This is assuming a relatively new dynamic rope with about 7.5% static elongation and moderately low friction on the top draw. The fall factor here appears to be about 0.6, so I would estimate the maximum forces at 4 kN on climber 7 kN on draw and 2.5 kN. And that's assuming the belayer was fixed and not raised off the ground. So final guesses for the soft catch are: 3 kN on climber, 5.5 kN on draw and 1.4 kN on belayer." Compare with lines 4 and 5 from the data table at 10:43. I think this comes relatively close =)
@@HowNOT2 And to answer Tanner's question about whether the forces are exponential or linear with the climber's weight ... the answer is neither: it's a roughly square root dependence. I'll make a post/video on how to quickly estimate these forces for different climber weights and scenarios, and share the link here.
Congrats on the 100K!!!!! Earlier this year I was climbing at a new gym and during the lead test they asked me to fall from the 4th bolt. My wife (130lb) and myself (190 at the time) usually climb with an ohm and didn't have one in the system. It ended with a concussion for her :(
These fall test videos are always my favorite. As a 130lb guy I can tell you belaying anyone over 180lbs is freaking scary. The heaviest guy I've caught was 210lbs and we met each other on a rather short wall and short fall. I highly recommend using an ohm when applicable.
Hi, thanks for putting this out there. It was very interesting watching the forces created, particularly when bolting the belay to the wall. Would it be possible to build on this by measuring the forces generated on a multi pitch anchor? In a multi pitch situation, the belayer is so to speak 'bolted' to the wall, thus we have a very similar situation. I would be very interested to see what forces are generated on the gear placed, particularly mobile protection and not bolts (even though that generates more variables). Might be a really relevant video for a lot of trad climber/ mountaineers out there. Thanks for creating awesome content.
Love any research that helps bigger folks get into exercise. Most of the exercise is do is cycling to get around and rock climbing, and I'd be lying if I said I'd easily just step up and do more exercise if I were bigger and wanted to get fitter (not saying this applies to Tanner or all bigger climbers). Theres definitely a lot of stigma and misinformation for bigger people climbing and cycling and every piece of information helps fight that. Keep up the good work!
As someone who weights almost 3x as much as my would-be belayer (my daughter is trying to get me into the sport, but I’ve only gone once and our guide did the belaying for me), this was really informative….and makes me think I should only try this when my son is in town, because I’m only 1.7x his weight.
Excellent work, although one might question the use of live test subjects. I recommend you have a look at the seminal investigations of impact loads on rope done by Attaway and Weber. Their analyses are very consistent when combined with Weber's rope curves and using a little cubic equation solver in a spreadsheet (see Mark's Mech. Eng. Hansdbook). Their analysis requires knowledge of the weights (masses), lengths of rope, fall distance and rope characteristcs (for a nonlinear elastic analysis). Once you have the data for the specific rope, the rest is mechanics.
I’m old. I learned on Goldline, tying in with a bowline on a coil, and belying around the waist. I’ve caught 10’ to 15’ leader falls. It *hurt*, a LOT. Real men didn’t wear gloves. One good fall could end a day, two would very possibly retire the rope, certainly three were the end. It looks like things are better, now. 😁
Thanks for this video. very much applicable to me - I'm 125kg. When leading my son balayes me with an ohm. We find it is best to create as much of a right angle as possible through the ohm so that it creates as mich friction as possible. IE don't stand right under it! That way you're minimising the friction it can create.
I noticed that the belayers had very little slack in the rope so were not providing the current dogma of a soft catch. Would be interesting to see how this affected the forces - in theory the forces should be lower. However, with additional slack the "enbuttments" of climber/belayer would be more severe. A solution would be to anchor the belayer with slack to allow lifting but limit the height the belayer is lifted. Different ropes have different maximum impact forces - would be interesting to see how that affects the forces.
This is a great video! I would love to see a test focused the Ohm where the climbers are within the recommended weights/weight difference to see how much harder the fall is on the climber and belayer with the ohm and without the ohm. When is the Ohm necessary and is it worth the money at about $140. Testing the ohm with climbers who are close in weight up to a 40-50kg difference (if this is safe of course).
I'm 120kg, my belayers weigh in at min 80kg for lead climbing and boy let me tell you, you smash into the wall like a brick. Nothing the belayer can do about, he tries to belay as dynamically as possible (the 80kg guy is actually a climbing instructor) but there is not much you can do. For Toprope the minimum belayer was/is 60kg for me,but that is a risky thing. Normally we do not go under 70 and I have no problem with a fall then. I do not feel a significant difference for Toprope falls with or without the Ohm. One important thing nobody is telling you with lead climbing with the Ohm. First of all if your Ohm is new,you need a ton of strength to pull your rope through for clipping. It makes it so much harder, no fun there. And the second thing is you reeeeally need to watch out for the carabiner of the Ohm when lead climbing. It likes to turn and we often have had the problem that the carabiner was sideways. One thing to prevent this,if you have your own Ohm, is to take a rubber band and wrap it on both sides of the band around the carabiner. If you have more questions regarding the Ohm or big differences in weight while climbing, feel free to ask.
We have found that having the belayer stand further away from the wall helps to set the cam of the ohm. for us it is a choice between hitting the wall or the first bolt at that point. also if you go to the 8 min mark you see chris and i are about 40 kg apart which i believe is the top end range of the ohm.
Not a rock climber but tower climbing. I'm about 255lb fully dressed in work clothes, harness with basic slings and fall arrestor is probably about 20lbs, add 3 shackles to rig something 10lbs, add a pulley block ~10lbs, and then I might be carrying hardware(nuts and bolts) and tools. 300lbs IS VERY REALISTIC!
I would recommend wearing 5 point harnesses for the heavier falls. They can help prevent whiplash and pressure on your back by a large amount especially if you pull the shoulder straps very tight. Petzl has some nice ones with removable shoulder straps.
I noticed the ground anchored belay was done with a grigri, has a comparative test been done using an ATC? The ATC will allow some slippage, whereas the grigri locks nearly immediately, so that has to make *some* difference.
your a legend Jenks. i weight 270 and yea ive always known the gear will hold but its good to have someone do the sceince. my main lead partners are atleast 200lbs tho
Finally a test for a grown man! Lol jk Ryan. But us bigger guys like to climb too and I could never get a sense of how much force me and my team would put on gear... Finally the word gets out that not just 100 pound vegans do rope work lol. In all seriousness there are alot of guys built like me (6'6 250 pounds) that do military work with harnesses and carabiners and ropes. So stack our dry weight on top of all the heavy gear and weapons we use and alot of us go past this dudes weight or are right about at this weight.. We honestly do use more burley stuff for the most part, but since we get really familiar with using this stuff for work, we want to go climbing and rappeling and base jumping and most of the commercial gear is getting thinner and lighter. So we do get a little sketched out with brands that keep making stuff smaller lol... This is really rad to Finally see stuff getting used to how we would use it to see what kind of forces we were dealing with..I knew it was gonna be higher but I didn't realize just how sketchy we were being sometimes.
Tree Stand hunters would love to know what kind of forces are generated when falling off a tree stand. And what kind of safety system a climber would recommend for that situation.....
The belay being bolted to the wall is by far the most inteseresting part of the video and how much force is required. I haven't been able to find ANYTHING in the net regarding this. This is relative to multipitch climbing where the belayer is hanging on the bolts.
Yes, I actually watched to the end. Great video since I too weigh more than 1kn. Also at the end your brother reminds me of Dereck Zoolander with the way he acts LOL.
I think this is a really important video becasue when climbing outside cams fail at like 8kN as you said but additionally it is not uncommon to install an upwards cam at a trad belay anchor. On a big fall that could act like a "hard catch"
@@HowNOT2 My old climbing gym used to have tie in points on the floor; I'm not sure if I ever saw anyone use one and I'm not sure if they're still there but I always thought they were brilliant.
my last gym had daisy chains anchored to the floor for just such an occasion. Too bad I haven't seen that anywhere else. IMHO, if one constantly insists on being twice the weight of their belayer, the equipment is not the problem.
Thank you for this! I'm 300 pounds and use some climbing gear for rope bondage suspension. This reinforced my trust in my gear - my falls are nowhere near as far as this!
I reckon taking into consideration the drag/friction of the system, elasticity and the belayers weight, you'll see more force compared to a lighter climbers fall on the main rope...and the belayers will also see more force as well which won't be double due to the system alleviating a lot of it. I'd say the Belayers would see about 1-3rd more force and the climbers in ideal conditions will see an extra 0.45Kn of force per extra 50kg. I'll also say for every 75lbs over the belayers weight the Belayer will see an extra 0.25Kn of force with a factor 1 fall.
“Unless you plan on strapping your belayer to the wall” solo climbers nervously chuckling as they look at that thick mother tree waiting to be wrapped.
I wonder how the loads would look with the belay anchored with a screamer. If you can manage to talk someone into giving you a load of screamers, I think it would make an interesting addendum.
As a larger person, I would really like to know what harness Tanner was using?...I have been having a hard time finding one that actually fits larger climbers.
I just bought my first harness after sticking to rentals at the gym prior. I got a Misty Mountain Cadillac in XXXL and I am feeling really good about the fit. Not cheap, but really nice. I also spoke with the customer service there, and they are very helpful and willing to customize things if you are willing to spend a bit more (so you can go beyond the XXXL if needed)
It would be interesting to find a formula (and then write an app) that outputs the forces when you input the weights of climber and belayer and elasticity of rope (and whether using a friction device), plus height of center of mass from anchor. This video has generated great data to test the formula on :).
This is great, I’m 195lbs and my partner is like 105. People often comment about our weigh difference even when we are using an ohm. I just wish the local gyms would let us use an ohm indoors so we could lead during the winter
Really interesting video. One thing that I don't get though. He is 130kg, so gravity equal 1.3kN roughly. On the 6th fall, the force on him is 0.97kN. Why does that make him leave the ground ? It should be the case only if the maximum force was of at least 1.3kN isn't it ?
Great Video guys! Super helpful data and interesting real world testing! Love to see if you could replicate this test with trad gear? Obviously might be a good idea to use a dummy with the drop tower.
As a 6'3'' 290 lbs guy myself, this really hits home. Can anyone tell me what harness he's using? I have a hard time finding one that fits the legs well.
This was very interesting - and a little scary - for me as a solo aid climber. When you solo, you do anchor the "belayer" to the wall, and you often wear a lot of gear, making you heavier as well. And on multi-pitch climbs, you might fall with a factor pretty darn close to 2 when you start out a pitch. One thing I've been wondering is, if you start out soloing a pitch on a multi-pitch climb, and your "belayer" is the highest bolt on the belay, would it actually be safer to give out a couple of meters of slack early on rather than have the system tight? That is, would it be safer to fall longer but with a lower fall factor onto the belay, or is that just stupid and you should try to make the fall shorter, even though that means a higher fall factor? I've always thought the former and always feed out some extra slack when launching out on a new pitch, but I really don't know. (I might add I always add at least one screamer to my system as well.) Thanks for a really good video!
Thank you for this video! Unfortunately as fat guy (317) i have been looking into working towards climbing, and this eased some gear fear. Thanks again
In case of a collision between belayer and climber the belayer has to lean back so the climber hits the belayer's chest and not the head. If the belayer just keeps upright, as done in this video, you put the force on the head and the spine. Angela Eiter demonstrates this in this video of Edelrid very nicely starting at 1:50 ruclips.net/video/t6ElZtMcvpM/видео.html Otherwise: Great video!
Force=mass*acceleration In this case the acceleration is the deceleration of the climber. Forces felt are dependent on the weight differential of the climber and belayer which determines the vertical distance the belayer travels on a fall. The force calculation is a closed system. Force on the anchor is equal to the force on the belayer, the climber, the force that expands the rope and all friction on carabineers.
Some say the last 2 minutes was the best part. The data is on the blog www.hownot2.com/post/big-climbers
Check out our new store! hownot2.store/
That new shirt is super cool. Somehow Paypal didn't work for international order but cc worked 💪
Need to make a recurring segment for your bro's trolling.
@@ichwillquark Thanks! Fixed it. Wasn't linked to a business paypal account.
Savage roasts XD good humility to share! GG on 100k, thanks for all the inspiring content and hidden buttplugs
@@j2kerrigan omg i'm dying 😂
I am so pleased to see how many big climbers are in the comments! 330lbs here, been bouldering and top roping for over a year now. Thanks so much to you all for making this video happen.
I was climbing outside near Morgantown this winter and saw Grit Stone from the outside, so very exciting to learn their leadership is cool.
you need to stop in and become part of this awesome community.
Im 310 and was wondering if it was possible. I guess so.
What harness are you using? I'm also a big guy and am having trouble finding something that fits well.
@@mdrgn79 edelweiss dart is what I use. Very adjustable for us big guys.
As a 95kg/210 lb climber, this was super useful, thanks to everyone involved! Seeing the actual forces makes me feel better about most fall scenarios, but also reiterates that super sketchy trad gear is probably not a good idea for big folks like me.
250lb climber here. Completely agree!
extreamly useful for us big guys :) Thanks @HowNot2
My partner and I are 210 & 230. This was super cool to see!
I've whipped on gear for decades at 205. No worries if the gear is decent
Yeah I'm 265lbs and I loved this vid
As a 6'2, 280lb person interested in climbing it's really good to see tanner being a boss.
I work next to a climbing gym and try to go, but I have given up bouldering by-the-rules because I can climb but I can't even fit in most start positions.
Fuck “the rules” just have fun and build strength, you’ll get there eventually
Can't fit into the positions _yet_
@@lutze5086 Key factor! I'm 6'4 and 300 and have slowly been learning to start in positions that I wasn't able to at first! It's been very rewarding improving. I'd continue to boulder by the rules as much as possible because it's really so invigorating and motivating to start what you once thought was impossible for you. I did my first v2-v3 Wednesday and I literally was shocked at how much I've improved over the last month or so of going 1-3 times a week.
@@fetiv exactly bro this is the attitude 👌👌🤙🤙🤙 congrats on the progress.
6`2" 280 as well here. I started bouldering about 6 months ago, and honestly, I feel you. While my gym sets great, just a few days ago I did a boulder that had such a low start, there was no way around me not landing on my ass when going for the 1st hold after the starting match. I was about an inch above ground, and everything else would have made me squeeze together like a ball. Kinda sucks, but then again, if heavy weights like us boulder, the strength development is quite insane. So I try to do the routes "by the rules" as much as possible, but there have been two since I started that I simply couldn't do by the rule. I do like a good challenge.
Nothing better than having a brother show his love by roasting everything you do .. loved it 😂😂
Man, i don't know how to thank you enough. This felt like a video made for me, personally!
(I know i wasn't the only requester of such a topic, but you might recall my comment from the other video you were talking about).
You, Ryan, and everyone involved in the production of this content are awesome. Some random guy makes a comment; "what about the heavy fellows?", and as a first response you provide links to other videos containing related topics, and a few months later, you make a full-fledged video about the very matter requested.
Now i have concrete evidence whenever i start doubting my climbing gear about how it's super good enough! (...and i'll be doing it with my new HowNOT2-cap from now on, even thought i've never bought any "youtube-merch". But now i decided to! Thank you!)
Frog pfp being overweight irl, who would’ve thought😂
As a heavier climber. This was a great video. Thanks to everyone that helped create this video!
"if you are ever curious what the MBS of a human is - it's more than 4.44"
literally laughed out loud
When I started this video, I was like OMG thats my Gym. Shout out to all the good people at Gritstone. A big focus of who they are and what they do is to build and support the climbing community in WV, and they're doing a great job. I feel that what Ryan is doing is the same thing just online. So I was very happy to see them join forces. Great video. I Had a partenr for years who was about the same size as Tanner and you do have to make adjustments in your systems. Rapelling was a bigger concern than catching falls to be honest. it would be interesting to see the difference in the force it takes to maintain control while rapelling on small and large climbers.
I really appreciate this video as I am a 270 lb climber and it’s awesome to see the actual numbers for someone my size.
Was Ryan's MBS high enough to survive those burns at the end???
Huge props to Tanner. Smooth climbing and courageous falls👍
We love you guys. This channel is one of the best on the internet. YOU DESERVE MUCH MORE THAN 100K!!
Wish I could like this twice because the bit at the end is certainly worthy of its own like.
Thanks for doing this. Keep up the good work.
As a heavy person, this gave me so much peace of mind! Thank you!!!
I am so excited to see this test. I'm a heavy climber and generally avoid lead for this exact reason. Getting numbers offer 7Kn is insane!!
One of the most useful videos you’ve ever made, good work!
I was stoked to see this video since I’m a 220lb climber and I typically climb with belayers less than 150lbs using the Ohm most of the time. I was even more excited when I recognized the gym that I’ve spent a lot of time in when I am in Morgantown. Fantastic gym and a great video for us heavier climbers to have a little more piece of mind about taking lead falls. Makes me think a little more about trad climbing though...
a normal fart is .2 Newtons,so really it depends on the wind. also congratulations Ryan on getting your silver button. I honestly never thought that a highline channel I found after i got my first slackline 5 years ago.it has been awesome to see the transition. and a huge shout out to Bobby and Brent and all the other people who have helped in making this episodes.
Thank you for making this, I laughed a little in your last lead fall video when your heavy climber was around 200 lbs. I'm 235, happy to know what the upper bound is for me for forces on lead falls.
It's so cool to see my home gym featured in this video! Chris and the whole team at Gritstone are awesome.
Another great video, thank you to all involved. But the roast at the end had me in stitches 😆💪
Thanks Tanner for the science of climbing
much appreciated
Just wanted to say I really enjoy the content from your channel. This was super informative for me because I own and operate a small tree service where I am also the climber and I tip the scales at around 290-300lbs. I am confident in my skills and equipment, but this was really informative for what kinds of forces that I actually generate while swinging around in the tree. Thank you for what you do.
This is a video that I was very excited to see. I weighed in at 304 lbs a couple of days ago after a climbing session. My wife, my belay partner, weighs around 110-130 lbs. So it is good to know the forces that we generate when we climb. I generally try to take one good whip per climbing session to keep the climbing jitters in check. However, if I am trying hard, it is not uncommon for me to take multiple falls with the last draw at my ankles or below.
I am curious about gear wear now. More specifically, I am concerned with how much load capacity my gear has over time. I generally replace my gear pretty frequently, because everything from my shoes to harness to the rope start to show significant wear in fairly short time frames compared to other climbers' gear. For example, my shoes will blowout (not wear from poor form at this point) at the toes in about 6-9 months of climbing, while the harness and rope will start to show a good amount of wear at about 1.5 to 2 years.
I am the same order, I mostly climbed at ~245-250 lb. What I would be concerned with is fatigue wear on rope under those conditions. As long as you are aware of the relative strengths of your gear, and lifecycle it, then you should be fine- any indications of damage means it's NFG for further service, basically.
Most of my experience has been with military style rappel, some as a FD that does low angle rescue, and both gym and real world top rope. (so far more static than dynamic rope experience).
It's good to see the acknowledgement that larger climbers DO exist ! (even if gravity sucks more on us)
That big difference must be really hard on the belayer
Thanks for getting this out funny how I emailed you a few months ago asking about this exact question. Now we just need to see how strong the ice screws are from your tests in Iceland and that will probably confirm that I should not be leading on ice anytime soon!! Super not good enough!
Ice screws are bomber. It's the ice you have to be worried about.
Im 6'2 or 6'3 and like 300lbs. This is super useful for me as I want to get into climbing but then the safety ratios you can get with a 100lbs person and 300lbs are so different. Tanner is a champ
Copy-pasting my estimates from the teaser: "Theoretical maximums for a fall factor of 1.0 for a fixed belay point are roughly 5 kN on climber, 9 kN on top draw and 3 kN on belayer. This is assuming a relatively new dynamic rope with about 7.5% static elongation and moderately low friction on the top draw. The fall factor here appears to be about 0.6, so I would estimate the maximum forces at 4 kN on climber 7 kN on draw and 2.5 kN. And that's assuming the belayer was fixed and not raised off the ground. So final guesses for the soft catch are: 3 kN on climber, 5.5 kN on draw and 1.4 kN on belayer."
Compare with lines 4 and 5 from the data table at 10:43. I think this comes
relatively close =)
You were pretty close!
@@HowNOT2 And to answer Tanner's question about whether the forces are exponential or linear with the climber's weight ... the answer is neither: it's a roughly square root dependence. I'll make a post/video on how to quickly estimate these forces for different climber weights and scenarios, and share the link here.
15:35 That's some brotherly love right there XD
Congrats on the 100K!!!!! Earlier this year I was climbing at a new gym and during the lead test they asked me to fall from the 4th bolt. My wife (130lb) and myself (190 at the time) usually climb with an ohm and didn't have one in the system. It ended with a concussion for her :(
You need Tanner to do more videos. There are a lot of us that size, that climb for a living and for fun. It does make us feel better about our gear!
Gristone is the closest lead gym to me. Its a great gym and its cool to see them let this be tested. Its worth the 2hr drive each way.
These fall test videos are always my favorite. As a 130lb guy I can tell you belaying anyone over 180lbs is freaking scary. The heaviest guy I've caught was 210lbs and we met each other on a rather short wall and short fall. I highly recommend using an ohm when applicable.
Yooo this is huge!!! Congrats on the 100K!!
I've been waiting for this video.
This is the first time I have seen another climber my size (6’3 290 lbs) on a RUclips video. I am by far the largest member at my gym.
Hi, thanks for putting this out there. It was very interesting watching the forces created, particularly when bolting the belay to the wall. Would it be possible to build on this by measuring the forces generated on a multi pitch anchor? In a multi pitch situation, the belayer is so to speak 'bolted' to the wall, thus we have a very similar situation. I would be very interested to see what forces are generated on the gear placed, particularly mobile protection and not bolts (even though that generates more variables). Might be a really relevant video for a lot of trad climber/ mountaineers out there. Thanks for creating awesome content.
5:47 that dude's hand got into quickdraw... ouch
I really appreciate the Fixed Anchor testing. I do a lot of lead rope solo with a hard anchor, so it's almost exactly my normal set up.
Love any research that helps bigger folks get into exercise. Most of the exercise is do is cycling to get around and rock climbing, and I'd be lying if I said I'd easily just step up and do more exercise if I were bigger and wanted to get fitter (not saying this applies to Tanner or all bigger climbers).
Theres definitely a lot of stigma and misinformation for bigger people climbing and cycling and every piece of information helps fight that. Keep up the good work!
As someone who weights almost 3x as much as my would-be belayer (my daughter is trying to get me into the sport, but I’ve only gone once and our guide did the belaying for me), this was really informative….and makes me think I should only try this when my son is in town, because I’m only 1.7x his weight.
Excellent work, although one might question the use of live test subjects. I recommend you have a look at the seminal investigations of
impact loads on rope done by Attaway and Weber. Their analyses are very consistent when combined with Weber's rope curves and using a little cubic equation solver in a spreadsheet (see Mark's Mech. Eng. Hansdbook). Their analysis requires knowledge of the weights (masses), lengths of rope, fall distance and rope characteristcs (for a nonlinear elastic analysis). Once you have the data for the specific rope, the rest is mechanics.
Super awesome group of folks!!! Very cool data
I’m old. I learned on Goldline, tying in with a bowline on a coil, and belying around the waist. I’ve caught 10’ to 15’ leader falls. It *hurt*, a LOT. Real men didn’t wear gloves. One good fall could end a day, two would very possibly retire the rope, certainly three were the end. It looks like things are better, now. 😁
Wow I’m above 1kn too and I’m so happy you made this video really helps my confidence in my gear
I used to go to this gym daily in WV. I loved it. Gritstone in Morgantown rocks!
Thanks for this video. very much applicable to me - I'm 125kg. When leading my son balayes me with an ohm. We find it is best to create as much of a right angle as possible through the ohm so that it creates as mich friction as possible. IE don't stand right under it! That way you're minimising the friction it can create.
We found the same thing, through trial and error...
I noticed that the belayers had very little slack in the rope so were not providing the current dogma of a soft catch. Would be interesting to see how this affected the forces - in theory the forces should be lower.
However, with additional slack the "enbuttments" of climber/belayer would be more severe.
A solution would be to anchor the belayer with slack to allow lifting but limit the height the belayer is lifted.
Different ropes have different maximum impact forces - would be interesting to see how that affects the forces.
Looking at the distance he was falling soft catch maybe have decided out
As a 260lb climber this is super helpful! Also for my wife that usually belays me, she is about half of that. Thank you!
This is a great video! I would love to see a test focused the Ohm where the climbers are within the recommended weights/weight difference to see how much harder the fall is on the climber and belayer with the ohm and without the ohm. When is the Ohm necessary and is it worth the money at about $140. Testing the ohm with climbers who are close in weight up to a 40-50kg difference (if this is safe of course).
I'm 120kg, my belayers weigh in at min 80kg for lead climbing and boy let me tell you, you smash into the wall like a brick. Nothing the belayer can do about, he tries to belay as dynamically as possible (the 80kg guy is actually a climbing instructor) but there is not much you can do.
For Toprope the minimum belayer was/is 60kg for me,but that is a risky thing. Normally we do not go under 70 and I have no problem with a fall then. I do not feel a significant difference for Toprope falls with or without the Ohm.
One important thing nobody is telling you with lead climbing with the Ohm. First of all if your Ohm is new,you need a ton of strength to pull your rope through for clipping. It makes it so much harder, no fun there.
And the second thing is you reeeeally need to watch out for the carabiner of the Ohm when lead climbing. It likes to turn and we often have had the problem that the carabiner was sideways. One thing to prevent this,if you have your own Ohm, is to take a rubber band and wrap it on both sides of the band around the carabiner.
If you have more questions regarding the Ohm or big differences in weight while climbing, feel free to ask.
We have found that having the belayer stand further away from the wall helps to set the cam of the ohm. for us it is a choice between hitting the wall or the first bolt at that point. also if you go to the 8 min mark you see chris and i are about 40 kg apart which i believe is the top end range of the ohm.
1 million next, you guys deserve it
would that rope continue to be safe after seeing those kind of forces?
Not a rock climber but tower climbing. I'm about 255lb fully dressed in work clothes, harness with basic slings and fall arrestor is probably about 20lbs, add 3 shackles to rig something 10lbs, add a pulley block ~10lbs, and then I might be carrying hardware(nuts and bolts) and tools. 300lbs IS VERY REALISTIC!
I would recommend wearing 5 point harnesses for the heavier falls. They can help prevent whiplash and pressure on your back by a large amount especially if you pull the shoulder straps very tight. Petzl has some nice ones with removable shoulder straps.
Gr8 Video! What are your tipps for belaying some heavier? Ground ancor?
Have we had a video yet on how the forces change between a good soft catch and a mediocre catch with the same climber/belayer pairs?
I think hard is easy did that in his video
I noticed the ground anchored belay was done with a grigri, has a comparative test been done using an ATC? The ATC will allow some slippage, whereas the grigri locks nearly immediately, so that has to make *some* difference.
your a legend Jenks. i weight 270 and yea ive always known the gear will hold but its good to have someone do the sceince. my main lead partners are atleast 200lbs tho
Congrats on 100k!
I’m 6”6’ and 340lbs if you ever want to do another fall test, happy to throw on some weights and do some lead whippers in the gym!
I’m also a beefy climber and am super grateful for this video!
Finally a test for a grown man! Lol jk Ryan. But us bigger guys like to climb too and I could never get a sense of how much force me and my team would put on gear... Finally the word gets out that not just 100 pound vegans do rope work lol. In all seriousness there are alot of guys built like me (6'6 250 pounds) that do military work with harnesses and carabiners and ropes. So stack our dry weight on top of all the heavy gear and weapons we use and alot of us go past this dudes weight or are right about at this weight.. We honestly do use more burley stuff for the most part, but since we get really familiar with using this stuff for work, we want to go climbing and rappeling and base jumping and most of the commercial gear is getting thinner and lighter. So we do get a little sketched out with brands that keep making stuff smaller lol... This is really rad to Finally see stuff getting used to how we would use it to see what kind of forces we were dealing with..I knew it was gonna be higher but I didn't realize just how sketchy we were being sometimes.
Tree Stand hunters would love to know what kind of forces are generated when falling off a tree stand. And what kind of safety system a climber would recommend for that situation.....
The belay being bolted to the wall is by far the most inteseresting part of the video and how much force is required. I haven't been able to find ANYTHING in the net regarding this. This is relative to multipitch climbing where the belayer is hanging on the bolts.
When I got their footage I was shocked and stoked they did that. It was gold!
Yes, I actually watched to the end. Great video since I too weigh more than 1kn. Also at the end your brother reminds me of Dereck Zoolander with the way he acts LOL.
IT'S MAIN VIDEO ON THIS CHANNEL!!! And funniest one, thanks 2 brother )))
I feel like some sections are gonna be on the next Climbing Fails episode on Betaclimbers...because helmet :')
as a big guy I'm very interested in this.
I think this is a really important video becasue when climbing outside cams fail at like 8kN as you said but additionally it is not uncommon to install an upwards cam at a trad belay anchor. On a big fall that could act like a "hard catch"
Yea, it makes such a difference if you belayer is anchored in position.
@@HowNOT2 My old climbing gym used to have tie in points on the floor; I'm not sure if I ever saw anyone use one and I'm not sure if they're still there but I always thought they were brilliant.
my last gym had daisy chains anchored to the floor for just such an occasion. Too bad I haven't seen that anywhere else.
IMHO, if one constantly insists on being twice the weight of their belayer, the equipment is not the problem.
Great video, loved your brother
Thank you for this! I'm 300 pounds and use some climbing gear for rope bondage suspension. This reinforced my trust in my gear - my falls are nowhere near as far as this!
I reckon taking into consideration the drag/friction of the system, elasticity and the belayers weight, you'll see more force compared to a lighter climbers fall on the main rope...and the belayers will also see more force as well which won't be double due to the system alleviating a lot of it.
I'd say the Belayers would see about 1-3rd more force and the climbers in ideal conditions will see an extra 0.45Kn of force per extra 50kg.
I'll also say for every 75lbs over the belayers weight the Belayer will see an extra 0.25Kn of force with a factor 1 fall.
“Unless you plan on strapping your belayer to the wall” solo climbers nervously chuckling as they look at that thick mother tree waiting to be wrapped.
last 2 minutes are indeed the best part
Your brother rocks.
Love to see more on this like gear he uses I'm 250lbs
That was awesome, thanks! When do we get to see a 300lb guy taking a 20 ft whipper?
Love that you got the 100K subs!
I wonder how the loads would look with the belay anchored with a screamer. If you can manage to talk someone into giving you a load of screamers, I think it would make an interesting addendum.
As a larger person, I would really like to know what harness Tanner was using?...I have been having a hard time finding one that actually fits larger climbers.
I just bought my first harness after sticking to rentals at the gym prior. I got a Misty Mountain Cadillac in XXXL and I am feeling really good about the fit. Not cheap, but really nice. I also spoke with the customer service there, and they are very helpful and willing to customize things if you are willing to spend a bit more (so you can go beyond the XXXL if needed)
I just asked the same question. Did you ever get an answer?
Y'all are hilarious! Gotta go order a shirt.
It would be interesting to find a formula (and then write an app) that outputs the forces when you input the weights of climber and belayer and elasticity of rope (and whether using a friction device), plus height of center of mass from anchor. This video has generated great data to test the formula on :).
This is great, I’m 195lbs and my partner is like 105. People often comment about our weigh difference even when we are using an ohm.
I just wish the local gyms would let us use an ohm indoors so we could lead during the winter
That's odd that they don't allow it. At my gym they practically make you use it.
Really interesting video. One thing that I don't get though. He is 130kg, so gravity equal 1.3kN roughly. On the 6th fall, the force on him is 0.97kN. Why does that make him leave the ground ? It should be the case only if the maximum force was of at least 1.3kN isn't it ?
@5:45 is a great example of reasons to release your non-break hand off the rope when catching. Ouch! those fingers!
what about distance in freefall ? you were only a meter above the last bolt
Awesome 100K!!!!!
Great Video guys! Super helpful data and interesting real world testing! Love to see if you could replicate this test with trad gear? Obviously might be a good idea to use a dummy with the drop tower.
We have some gnarly tests for cams on the drop tower coming out in about two weeks.
As a 6'3'' 290 lbs guy myself, this really hits home. Can anyone tell me what harness he's using? I have a hard time finding one that fits the legs well.
Tanner probably comes in well under 1kn once you subtract those massive freaking balls 💪 what a bloody legend 👍
We need more "Rip-off Ryan" aka "little" brother". He's funny! (Nice tests btw)
That hard catch with just the rope stretch is pretty much the standard when you’re rope soloing.
This was very interesting - and a little scary - for me as a solo aid climber. When you solo, you do anchor the "belayer" to the wall, and you often wear a lot of gear, making you heavier as well. And on multi-pitch climbs, you might fall with a factor pretty darn close to 2 when you start out a pitch.
One thing I've been wondering is, if you start out soloing a pitch on a multi-pitch climb, and your "belayer" is the highest bolt on the belay, would it actually be safer to give out a couple of meters of slack early on rather than have the system tight? That is, would it be safer to fall longer but with a lower fall factor onto the belay, or is that just stupid and you should try to make the fall shorter, even though that means a higher fall factor? I've always thought the former and always feed out some extra slack when launching out on a new pitch, but I really don't know. (I might add I always add at least one screamer to my system as well.)
Thanks for a really good video!
Thank you for this video! Unfortunately as fat guy (317) i have been looking into working towards climbing, and this eased some gear fear. Thanks again
Now we need to figure the whip forces for big peeps... Lol
Your bother’s roast was too spot on 😂
In case of a collision between belayer and climber the belayer has to lean back so the climber hits the belayer's chest and not the head. If the belayer just keeps upright, as done in this video, you put the force on the head and the spine. Angela Eiter demonstrates this in this video of Edelrid very nicely starting at 1:50 ruclips.net/video/t6ElZtMcvpM/видео.html
Otherwise: Great video!
Yeah, or tie in to an anchor. Getting knocked out by your climbers ass isn't fun or anyone.
Force=mass*acceleration
In this case the acceleration is the deceleration of the climber. Forces felt are dependent on the weight differential of the climber and belayer which determines the vertical distance the belayer travels on a fall. The force calculation is a closed system. Force on the anchor is equal to the force on the belayer, the climber, the force that expands the rope and all friction on carabineers.
We need a 1kn Climber shirt.
Only in XL and up.
@@noohairdontcare I'm just "dense" so I only need a large.
Your brother's bit was great 😄