Belay Devices for the Begining Rock Climber

There are several different types of belay devices. Some are much more suited for the beginner climber than others are. I hope to help you determine the best belay device that will suit your skill level and needs as a beginner climber.

Listed as follows are the major belay devices used in climbing today.

1. a figure eight
2. an ATC/tubular device
3. a Grigri or similar auto-locking device
4. The reverso by Petzl


A figure eight is a common belay device. It is commonly used for several reasons. the main reason is that a figure eight is the most common (and most practical) rappel device that there is. It can double as a belay device for the same reasons that it is a great rappel device. It puts the rope through such a tight bend, over and through the large end of the figure eight, that there is a very large amount of friction placed upon the rope as it travels through the eight as to slow the rope's progress significantly. This device added to the hip belay with a back-up belayer can, if properly used, stop a climbers fall.

One drawback is that the friction of the rope passing over the metal will damage both the rope and the metal. Letting too much rope through too fast will speed up the process and will either severely damage the rope or cut a sharp edge into the metal which will in turn cut the rope.

An ATC or tubular belay device works similarly to the figure eight. Instead of having the bend of the rope constantly in contact and being binded by the metal of the figure eight, it uses the end of the carabiner (usually 2 carabiners with the gates facing opposite directions) and a small wire or loop of metal to bind the rope. The rope is held in a tube of metal and looped through the carabiners. One drawback of this device is the tight bend that it puts the rope through. If you put a rope through too tight of a bend (bight in climbing terms) it can damage the rope.

A grigri or other semi auto-locking device is commonly used in many climbing gyms. The device will, when a load is suddenly put on the device as would happen when a fall would occur. While this action will put a significant brake on the fall of the climber, it will not stop it without the hip belay of the belayer.

There are two significant drawbacks to using this or similar devices. The first is that it breeds complacency. Using this device the belayer knows that he or she has a 'fudge' factor built into the system. Even the most attentive belayers can let their attention wander when they know that there is an automatic brake between them and the climber. the other problem is tha, while the directions for use are printed on such devices, hooking the up backwards is an easy thing to do. Backwards the device does not work.

The reverso is in many respects similar to the ATC. It requires the use of a carabiner (or two to be safe) to work. The main difference is when it is used for lead climbing. In such a situation the reverso, and similar devices, can be set up in such a way, doubling the rope through the same hole, to act as an automatic brake. In such a situation, the brake can only be let off by taking the load on to another piece of gear. While it is nearly idiot proof, it is complicated to use. It can be used with one or two ropes while keeping them from twisting.

There are other belay devices out there. I do not recommend any of them to the beginner. The Petzl stop is one of them. A good order to learn the techniques of belaying is to 1. use a figure eight. 2. use an ATC or a reverso (if you have an experienced climber with you). and 3. the grigri. After that, discuss your options with your climbing friends and professional sales staff.

A good belay device will save your life. The device, however, is no good without due diligence and appropriate technique. Both skills must be learned before you begin to belay a climber on any sort of climb. Practice and only more practice will get you to the point where you can be trusted to be a belayer for someone.

A good program to build your climbing skills can be found here.

Another good introduction to all aspects of rock climbing can be found here.

Rock Climbing gear for beginners

We've already discussed the climbing harness in a previous article. Other pieces of gear that beginner should own are a carabiner and a belay device. If you have gone to a climbing gym then you have some experience with the gear that you might have rented. If you have not been to a gym then ask your climbing partners to help you with your decision. Remember this, most people have a very limited exposure to the different types of gear available. Use the Internet to explore the different options available.



A locking carabiner is the choice for the beginner. Wire gate and other non-locking carabiners have their place in rock climbing, but not for the beginner. Locking carabiners come in different shapes and have different locking mechanisms. First we will talk about the different the different shapes that carabiner s can come in.



All carabiners will have two numbers on them. These numbers represent how much of a load that they can hold. This number is measured in kilo-newtons. One kilo-newton is equal to 22o lbs. There is a number that represents the strength of the biner while the gate is closed, and a separate number for the strength when the gate is open.



The oval shaped carabiner is a good all purpose carabiner. There are other designs that do a particular job better, but this is a good basic design. One drawback is that a load on this style of biner will be evenly spread out on both sides. So the gate side of the biner will be equally loaded as the stronger non gate side. For a beginner this is not the best choice.



The D shaped carabiner is stronger than the oval shape. The oval shaped carabiner prevents the load from shifting from the curved part of the carabiner, where it is stronger, to the long side where it is weaker. The D shaped carabiner has significant advantages over the oval shape. Strength is only one of the benefits. A D shaped biner Will be easier to clip to and is a better carabiner to use for belaying a climber.

The D shaped, or pear shaped biner is a better carabiner to belay with. As a personal note, I prefer to use a belay device other than carabiner. You can apply more friction to the rope, allowing for better control of the climbers descent.

A carabiner can have one of two types of gates. They either lock or they do not. For the beginner, get a crabiner that locks. You will be using the carabiner for belaying and to hook into a descender or belay device. Having a lock on the carabiner will help ensure that the gate does not open and cause a catastrophic accident.

There are two types of locking carabiners, manual locks and auto locks. As appealing as the automatic locking carabiner sounds, I suggest that you stay away from these carabiners. While it is convient to have the biner lock for itself, it breeds a sense of complacency. If there is one absolute danger in rock climbing it is complacency. You need to be vigilant at all times. With the auto lock, you can easily get into the habit of not checking to se if the biner actualy did lock.

One last note. There are many carabiners that are not made for climbing. Be absolutely sure that the carabiner you buy is made for climbing. Make sure that it is designed to withstand the weight and shock loads involved in climbing. Do not climb with carabiners that are designed to carry gear or those designed for non climbing purposes.

One of the most useful sites I've found is from the folks at The Climbing Harness Co.
Another useful guide to climbing can be found here

Climbing Accidents

Rock climbing is inherently dangerous. That is part of the appeal for many of its participants. Accidents can and will happen. They may happen due to overconfidence, poor judgment, and a calculated risk gone bad or just plain bad luck. It is natural for climbers to take extraordinary precautions to prevent accidents. Even when all of the precautions are taken, things still can go terribly wrong.

Either one of the latter two causes of accidents are usually out of the control of the climber. Bad luck can just happen. It is possible for all reasonable safety precautions to be taken and something still go wrong. It is unfortunate, but it can happen.

Most climbing accidents are the result of climber error in some way shape or form. It is sad to have to lay the blame on the victim, but it usually fits.

This happened just recently to two climbers in Kentucky just this past Nov. 4. The police who investigated deemed the cause of the fall to be some faulty webbing. It seems strange that two climbers in the process of descending from the climb could both fall when one piece of webbing fails. Without seeing their set-up we cannot say for certain that it was faulty, yet on the surface, something seems inherently wrong with the scenario.

Without seeing the webbing we cannot particularly lay the blame for the accident on these unfortunate souls. Yet we have to take from this incident one valid lesson. Check your gear and check it again.

I know that this preaching to the choir for most of us. For some it will fall on deaf ears. For the rest it will serve to reinforce the quiet reminder in the back of all of our heads that keeps us checking our equipment, time and time again to be sure that it will not fail us as it did the two unfortunate climbers in Kentucky just a few days ago.

A great source of information on rock climbing can be found at The Climbing Harness Co.
Another useful guide to climbing can be found here

First things first. The harness is the first piece of equipment that you need to consider. It is the first piece of gear in a series, that links you to the carabiner to the rope, if you are climbing. It is also the first piece of gear that links you to the carabiner, to the descender (usually a figure eight) to the rope if you are rappelling. The rock climbing harness needs to be fitted properly. Properly fitted, the harness transfers any force from a fall to the hip bones, one of the strongest bones in the body. If it is not properly fitted, they you can damage your internal organs or even fall out of it.

The purpose of the harness is to tie you the climber into the rope system that allows you to climb safely or to belay effectively. When you as the climber falls, the harness shifts the force of the fall to your hips. When you are belaying and the climber falls, the harness shifts the force of his fall to your hips. the other job it does is to give you a rudimentary seat to sit in while being lowered, while rappelling, or while resting.

The sport rock climbing harness has descended from a simple rope around the waist of a climber. As this was found to be ineffective, climbers developed a set of rope wrappings called a swiss seat. This proved to be more effective, but also caused some problems. First off, the rope "seat" was uncomfortable. It also posed some dangers if the knots holding the ropes slipped or your weight shifted.

The next breakthrough was to use a flat piece of high strength nylon that was anywhere from an inch to three inches in width. Now you had a more comfortable seat. You still had problems with the knots and the tension of the seat. It still had to be monitored closely otherwise it could fail. Something else was needed.

Now comes the modern sport climbing harness. This is a specialized piece of equipment. There are two types that a beginner should be interested in. The sport harness and the multipurpose harness. Of the two, the multipurpose harness will be more comfortable and probably the best buy for the true beginner. If you have some experience and know that you are going to get into sport climbing, or are going to stay away from large long term climbbs, then the sport(or gym) harness is for you.

A Sport (or gym) harness is an extremely lightweight, yet strong piece of equipment. It consists of a relatively narrow waistline and similar leg loops all made of high strength nylon. You sacrifice a good deal of padding (comfort and cushion in case of a fall) when you go with these super lightweight harnesses. These harnesses allow you as wide a rangeof movement as possible. There are no bulky pads to bind your movements. The sport harness will give you the freedom of motion to make some pretty incredible reaches.

The multipurpose harness is the best bet for a beginner. It allows the beginner a wide enough range of movement allowing them to climb in nearly any situation. It has wider waist belt and leg loops than the sport harness and they are usually padded much more effectively. This padding is great when you have new stets of sore and tired muscles. the padding is great to have when you are absorbing the your fall or belaying someone else's. Similar to the sport harness, the multipurpose harness has a belay point, but unlike a sport harness, it has several equipment loops.

There are over 100 different kinds of climbing harnesses. So which one is for you? Even with the above advice, there still is a wide selection to choose from. First off, buy new. No matter what the guy says about how his grandmother only used the harness on Sunday to get to church, you do not know for certain what that harness has been through. Even experts can be fooled as to the condition of a used harness. You do not want some small, unnoticed rip turn into a large tear while you are 80 or even 20 feet off the ground. Even worse would be to have your harness fail while belaying someone else's climb.

So how do you pick out the best harness for you? Fit. It has to fit you snugly yet comfortably. It needs to be affordable. Do you wand comfort over weight or a combination of the two? Do you want detachable leg loops (this makes bathroom breaks much easier)? When, where and how much do you plan to climb? all are important question you should ask yourself and answer to the person who is directly helping you pick out a harness. I'll answer those questions in a later blog.

Then try some on. Keep trying them on until you get a good fit. You also need to hang in them. make sure that the waist belt fits around your hip-bone and not on your belly. The harness is designs to transfer any shock and all of the weight of a climber to this, one of the strongest bones in the body. If it is around your belly, the weight will constrict the movement of your diaphragm and reduce your breathing. Not something we want to happen.

So keep trying on harnesses until you find a fit that both a qualified person and yourself find acceptable. Then buy it. Also buy a notebook.

The notebook is for keeping a record of the use that your harness receives. Document any falls and the time that the harness was in use. Later on we will discuss when to retire gear.

A Great source for rock climbing information is from the folks at The Climbing Harness Co.
Another useful guide to climbing can be found here

Two useful web sites are http://www.rockclimbing.com/ and http://climbing.about.com/

Rock Climbing from the beginning for the beginner

Rock climbing is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. Many people have taken to this sport for fun and exercise. At the beginners level it may seem a little intimidating. We see people scrambling up and down these rock faces so quickly it boggles the mind. Well you did not start off riding your bike in the Tour de France, did you? No, you started off slowly and most likely with training wheels. You did not start swimming like a dolphin right at the start either. You had to practice the movements and learn the appropriate balance to get better at riding that bike or swimming. The same holds true with rock climbing.

It is fortunate that at this level sport rock climbing you don't need a great deal of physical strength or know very much about technique. Rock climbing in the beginning is all about learning about safety the gear you will use and a few basic techniques that will make your rock climbing experience better. Rock Climbing , for the beginner is more about learning the basic concepts, the basic technique and developing your balance than it is about climbing hard routes. With just a little experience you will learn that good technique will make the physical demands of climbing easier.

We begin learning about rock climbing safety. After that we will learn about the gear needed for this sport. I will limit my discussion to top-roped (a term I'll explain later) sport climbing. This is the type of climbing you will find in every indoor climbing gym, and it a common form of outdoor rock climbing. Next we will learn about some basic techniques and tips that the beginning rock climber will find most use full, without overwhelming you with too much information at one time.
I am going to limit my discussion to sport climbing, at least for now. Sport climbing uses the natural rock to climb on. The hand holds and footholds used are natural features of the rock. Occasionally protective anchors that are permanently bolted into the rock are used so the climber carries a minimal amount of gear. This differs from traditional climbing. Here routs that are climbed require the climber to carry these anchor systems with them. Traditional climbing is usually what is seen on TV. In Sport climbing, the climber doesn't have to carry protection with him/her. This makes sport climbing easier for the beginner and is safer and faster.

Another useful guide to climbing can be found here
Also Check out The Climbing Harness Co.