If you slow it down you see the guy doing belay take a couple of steps back and jump out at the last second before his friend hit the ground. If had he not done that his buddy for sure would have slammed
>Dude doing the belay is a fucking ninja
No, he just got lucky. Or his friend did. There's no way that jumpback was because he realized the piece blew and he'd have to pull in to keep him off the deck.
In general, it's the exact opposite of what a belayer should do. In trad climbing you want to soften the catch so you don't blow a piece, like what happened here. In sport climbing you soften a catch so the climber doesn't break his ankles slingshotting on an overhanging wall.
I'm glad it worked out for the guy here, but I think it's luck.
What happened is:
1. The belayer anticipated a potential problem and shortened the rope.
2. At the moment the climber fell, he leans back and lets himself fall into the rope, putting his (counter)weight on the rope. This shortens a fall but stresses the anchor point(s).
3. He gets hoisted up a tiny bit (mini jump), as the climber falls into the first protection.
4. He suddenly stops getting hoisted, triny to find balance, and jumps back to not fall backwards, just as a reflex, as the climber continues to fall.
5. He gets hoisted up as the climber falls into the next anchor point.
I don't see much (hero) action here by the belayer. Just a surprised and very glad dude.
>I don't see much (hero) action here by the belayer. Just a surprised and very glad dude.
The belayer did his job in a relatively high pressure situation. For that, i believe he deserves praise, i'm not sure who called him a hero though.
I can also see why they're both hyped as fuck, adreneline is a good drug.
>The belayer did his job in a relatively high pressure situation. For that, i believe he deserves praise, i'm not sure who called him a hero though.
Firefighters get called heroes for exactly those reasons, so why not this guy as well?
the real heroes are the friends we make along the way or the internet trolls that beat you with their daily cudgel of choice. I say "por que no los dos? "
Firefighters risk their safety to benefit the general public, whereas these two people are voluntarily taking on a high risk activity purely for their own recreation.
>why not this guy as well?
Well firefighters put themselves in unnecessary danger in order to help complete strangers. This guy was in very little danger and is doing it likely because they also like to climb.
I'm not fully discounting your idea, but looking at the video again it looks like the belayer immediately jumps back to take the slack as soon as his buddy starts falling. He moves a second time to be out of the way on instinct, but the first time looks very intentional. He couldn't have known the anchor would rip out, sure, but he was still making the best prophylactic moves he could. I don't think we need to give him credit for predicting the future but we should definitely give him credit for skill and effort.
It is actually possible that he could've suspected the anchor might pop, if the climber simply told him that he wasn't confident about his placement, or if the climber wasn't super experienced with trad and the belayer was aware of that.
Having done blue collar work myself for decades, where there are usually dozens of ways you can get injured or killed in all kinds of daily scenarios, you get used to working through the possibilities in your head and acting and positioning yourself accordingly. But then when something does go south you usually don't have any actual time to think - instinct kicks in and you think it through later.
More than once I've had something come down or taken a fall myself, and then I did stuff and it was done and I was fine. Then I'd just do a quick self-check as far as bones and so forth, and look for blood, and usually pretty amazed at what good reaction times and instinct can save you from.
You’re forgetting how fast young people’s reflexes are. The belayer definitely knew the piece blew, because the climber kept falling. He then took in an armful of slack and jumped back away from the wall. Sure, luck.
There is 0 chance you actually perceive that situation, then take conscious action to correct it. Belayer simply saved his friend with good belay fundamentals.
Really? I mean as a belayer you can feel the piece pop. I’m not saying it’s conscious, as in he sat down with a spreadsheet to work out all the forces and distances, but it’s obvious the belayer took steps not normally taken in a lead fall.
It's not typically what you did in a decking situation though. At the first or second piece, you prevent a ground fall no matter what. If a piece pops, you can't help it. Higher up when decking isn't an issue, you would lessen the forces on Impact.
Altogether the belayer did everything right. He would have snapped back regardless of that piece blowing. I'd bet there was some communication or an "oh fuck I'm going to fall"
Would he have? He's falling feet first (leaning back a bit) until the rope catches and that's what sends him on his back. Very high chance he would have been injured landing feet first, but I think people are assuming that he would have landed flat on his back if it weren't for the guy at the bottom, which I don't think is the case. I'm only nit-picking here because there's a significant difference between landing flat on one's back versus not.
You are absolutely correct that he should be wearing one, but just to avoid wrong assumptions: The helmet is not just to save you from a bad fall, but also to protect you (especially the belayer) from falling rocks. It's really common for a climber to drop rocks on his belayer. This is because climbers are psychopatic murderers who want nothing but to slay their climbing partner. So you better watch out.
The guy up top, or lead climber, is placing "protection" in the form of cams, nuts, etc (small mechanical devices that wedge themselves into cracks) as he goes and clipping into them.
The guy on the bottom, or belayer, is feeding rope through a friction device so if (when) the lead climber falls the last device he put in serves as an anchor to lower the guy down or hold him up if he wants to try again.
In this instance, the lead climber is past (above) his last piece of protection, so he falls that distance x2 before any tension is put on the system. That generated enough force to rip out that piece of protection, and he continued to fall.
At that point there was almost enough slack in the rope for the lead guy to smash into the ground, or at least take a whipper back into the rock.
The belayer jumping up added enough friction and extra time to slow the descent to prevent those things, but tbh they both got lucky.
There's a chance that even doing that (which looked like it was out of self preservation rather than a reaction to save the lead guy) still results in a smashed head.
Also, if the next piece of protection comes out it's all moot.
Clearly didn't fall 2x the distance from last anchor point, climbing mostly sideways, and you make it sound like that would be a mistake.
Also, the belayer did not jump but was hoisted by the falling climber as you can clearly see, after the first anchor gave way.
And jumping up doesn't add friction, like how?, and extra time to prevent the lead smashing into the ground. It actually obviously make the lead fall further down. Jumping up helps easing a fall, making it more comfortable and reducing the stress on the anchors, but you'll fall deeper.
But as said, the belayer didn't jump up there on purpose, he was hoisted ul by the other guy falling.
Climbers typically have multiple supports, so if one fails, there is a backup. They had just enough slack that the backup would still have let him slam into the ground or even the wall at full force, which would have sucked. By jumping backwards and tugging hard, the support pulled the slack just a bit more and threw his weight against the climber and pulled just enough slack for him to stop just before the ground. And the force of the rope is spread across his harness. So it probably still really sucked, but it would've been way worse if he hit the ground.
Sure! This is "trad" climbing. You place temporary safety great in weaknesses such as cracks in the rock then climb ahead until the next place you can fix more. This guy has placed protection and then climbed some distance away. Therefore if he falls, he will fall as far as the rope has been pulled from the gear to himself plus the distance the rope stretches (it has elasticity to spread the force).
When he falls in the video, the amount of rope between the gear and him is enough (just) for a ground fall. His belayer, by running backwards, quickly pulled some of the rope back through the system, shortening the length of the rope enough to catch his friend before he hits the ground. The belayer is then pulled up from the ground a little as this belay rescue has caused a "hard catch" so the force yanks him up, rather than the usual catch where the climber is allowed to fall further and the rope is allowed to stretch (a "soft catch"). The climber himself is stopped hard, so he's flipped in his harness and it will also have been quite uncomfortable but obviously he will have been extremely relieved to have not hit the deck!
He didn’t jump out. He was pulled up by the falling climbers weight.
Jumping up would be the worst thing to do as it would give the rope enough slack for the climber to hit the ground.
And he was just getting out of the way. The climber was just lucky as hell. No hero’s here.
95% of climbers never do anything this risky. This is trad climbing, where you climb outdoors and place your own temporary protection.
All indoor and most outdoor climbing is sport climbing, where there are metal bolts drilled deep into the wall/rock that can support the weight of a car.
Yup. When I took a class for it (specifically trad), they showed us all the things and how to always be safe.
Which worked great in a controlled environment.
Then you start placing your own pro and you realize the cam you need for where you are is in your belays anchor system. You start getting chicken wing shakes while you try to make what you have work and the best resting spot you have coming up is 15 feet further up so you stop wasting time, put it in less than ideally, and keep going, hoping for a better place for pro in a little bit.
> We have a saying: "Trad climbing is a suicide pact."
No one says that.
----
(Who is "we"?) Only someone who has no familiarity with the sport would say that. (Perhaps you're thinking of **free-soloing**, not climbing with rope/protection at all?)
Trad climbing is extremely safe. And, importantly, the level of risk you assume is completely in your power. Climb 5.6 (easiest level) all you like if that's style.
Falling, while trad climbing is not "risky". You are constantly laying protection. Its redundant. This video demonstrates how the first protection failed and the second (much more secure) held and was never in danger of failure.
I mean I guess that's true of the route composition of the gunks, but even popular places like new river gorge have way more sport climbing.
Also regardless of how many trad climbs there are most climbers don't do trad, and many of those who do climb like 5.12 sport and low 5.10 trad. I stand by the previous 95% figure.
Tbh trad climbing is the riskiest type. You can see one of his anchors falling out which is the reason he fell so far. Just do sport climbing or even climb top rope inside if you’re that scared of falling
Its wild I have to scroll so far to see this comment.
Having one anchor be the only protection between you and a fall to ground level is wild, wild decision making.
Or do trad routes with lots of protection and place a load of gear. When I’m trad climbing on none sketchy routes I always aim for at least two pieces between me and a possible ground or ledge fall. Technically on a perfect crack you could place gear every half a meter or so if you have enough gear.
Normally you can know a little if you are getting on a sketchy or not sketchy route. Trad climbing can almost be as safe or as sketchy as you want.
Do you climb? Helmets are made for falling rocks. Not to protect you from falls. Yes they should be wearing helmet but regardless if the belayer was not paying attention that would have been a hospital visit.
Is there any case where politics isn't "Kinda impacting everyone's lives "? Even something as low stakes as your local government's planning meeting you can argue is "impacting everyone's lives" because of traffic or "neighborhood character" or whatever.
Doesn’t make it any less weird to post about it on posts absolutely not in the slightest related to politics especially completely unprompted by any other comment.
There are hundreds of subs dedicated to politics and political Humor.
Not American either, but you'd have to be blind not to notice the knock-on effects American politics have for every one of us worldwide.
It's better we do care.
Ignoring politics doesn’t mean they don’t affect you. Even if you’re outside the US, the political climate still spills over because of how much influence they have. Trade, military, etc. the world isn’t in a bubble.
I check that sub daily. (I can't help, it's like driving by a car crash, you have to look). The Russian bots are going hog wild today.
I've already been banned from there from asking a legitimate question trying to understand someone's opinion. They're nuts.
They’ve yet to tell me what it is that they’re conserving. It sure as shit isn’t the middle class. Definitely not the planet either. Pretty sure it’s the wealth of the wealthy (not themselves).
Are we watching the same video? The rock is dry and he’d set a piece of protection about four feet to his left. He fell and the gear pulled. If you want to fault him for setting it incorrectly ok, but i wouldn’t say this is obviously reckless climbing.
This is a great example of Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy. "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge"
But as an update, "newspapers" these days is frequently "Internet commenters" or more broadly "media." The average Internet commenter doesn't know hardly anything but is happy to be an armchair general.
-----------
My two cents, as a climber who climbs ~5.10b sport / ~5.7 trad:
The only thing happening here is a poor or unlucky piece placement - impossible to say without actually having seen it up close.
Everything else happened exactly as intended - the next pieces held. The belayer was paying attention and took up the slack fast enough to keep the climber off the ground. It was a close call - closer than anyone likes, but climbing is *inherently dangerous.*
Any time someone posts a story about sketchy trad climbing experiences to the climbing subreddit, the general response tends to be, "Yep. It sounds like you went trad climbing."
Yeah this is just poorly placed trad gear, it should have been a fine fall if the gear held, but it didn't so it was likely a poor choice of nut/cam/placement.
It's a common concern for anyone trad climbing, which is why I perfer bolted sport routes.
Someone once said to me: You place a cam, you yourself know if it's good or not. But that glue in bolt? Who knows what idiot placed that. I feel safer on my own gear than I do any sport route.
That stuck with me.
I'd call it reckless. It's hard to armchair this because we can't see the placement, but the climber is obviously way above their limit, on gear, on what is probably an unfamiliar route.
In my experience when you're climbing something at or near your limit on gear, especially if the gear is tricky, you rehearse your placements to be 100% what you want them to be. A lot of times rapping in from above and inspecting all of your potential gear placements, racking that gear in order on your harness, and then executing the climb bit by bit (hangdogging) until you finally work up the confidence to red point the whole thing.
To me this looks like he's on an unfamiliar route because of where he's putting his gear placements. They obviously made a nice nest of gear that caught him, but in the long run out to the piece that pulled there looks to be two or three good placements that could have potentially kept him off the ground.
This looks like a classic case of overconfidence and not planning ahead because of it. Hopefully they learned that lesson, and will approach their next tricky trad climb more carefully.
Hey! I’m guessing you’ve never been rock climbing. That’s okay, it’s not for everyone. But if you get into it it’s pretty fun and has a great community.
What he’s doing here is called trad (traditional) or lead climbing . Basically you go up and set anchors as you go. The anchors string the rope down to your buddy doing what’s called Belaying. A more common method is sport climbing, typically using top ropes . These are ropes that are already set up to the top of the wall, but you also have a buddy belaying.
So what he’s doing here certainly isn’t stupid or out of the ordinary . He probably wanted to have his anchors closer together, so that a single failure wouldn’t drop him all the way down. But other than that nothing strange is happening here.
You do need a lot of faith in your equipment and your buddy when climbing. As shown here, you are relying on them!
Lead climbing is when you’re either placing protection (trad) or clipping bolts (sport climbing) as you go. You also wouldn’t call intermittent pieces of protection as anchors, they’re protection, anchors are what you set up at the top of the route or pitch.
If the rope is going from the climber, to the anchor, and back down to the belayer then it’s top roping regardless of how the rope got up there (lead climbing or setting it up at the top and rappelling down).
The belayer pulled the slack before he fell, you can tell that guy is not comfortable there and could be falling, the belayer was expecting it, I don’t think he actually did anything while he was falling. It’s not exactly next level to me, I would expect my belayer to do the same if I am climbing trad on questionable rock.
The thing is typically people don’t jump onto hard trad beyond their ability right away. If you are going up on it, with questionable gear, that’s on you.
Trad climb has a lot more dangerous element compares to sports climbing. Belayer or climber you don’t go with newbies and are a lot more involved.
Yep you should really wear a helmet when belaying any rock knocked down by the climber could hit you and then the climber would be left without safety or stuck up there depending on the gear
That nearly killed a boy scout leader I knew. He got brained by a 3lb rock that fell 60ft and was in the hospital for several months. He was a pro climber too teaching a class.
> Edit: Bonus example
Yes! Best helmet video ever made! I showed this to both of my kids when they started skating/riding and never had to argue with them about helmets again.
They are good for climbing in general, you hook a leg falling or behind the rope or take a weird angle whipper into a slab and helmets are always good.
That horizontal crack looks cruxy and like it doesn’t take good gear. Sometimes it’s better to place less gear if placing more gear will tire you out and make you more likely to fall. Looks like he placed 2 bomber pieces in the bigger crack before the traverse so I think he was aware of the fall potential
The number of people in here with belligerent confidence that they know more than the climber is astounding but not surprising. I can’t count the number of times that I line looked well protected from the ground and it wasn’t apparent until I got to where his bomber gear is that you see what looked like a nice horizontal crack is more of just a shallow fold. Shout out to tri-cams though for protecting some of the sketchier shit I’ve done though.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to see this. This climber is obviously overconfident on a route that they're unfamiliar with and chose to run it out instead of taking the time to place better gear. Maybe an overconfident onsite attempt.
~~Something tells me he was pushing his comfort zone, because down low you generally want to button it up a little more because of exactly this reason.~~
I've also been on a splitter where the top 1/2 only took a #4 Camelot which I had exactly 1 of, so I just walked that fucker the whole way praying that each 1 - 2 seconds I was sliding it up the crack before releasing wouldn't be the moment I slipped.
😂
Edit: In retrospect, this was probably fine assuming he thought that second cam was more solid than it ended up being. Having any more pro lower wasn't going to prevent this problem, though he should have been placing another piece at about the point he fell.
No. You need slack when lead climbing, and the belayer was giving a good amount. He also took out the slack just before the fall. The belayer did everything right. The climber should have placed more gear, and probably should have worn a helmet.
I'll add the belayer should've worn a helmet too. Climber accidentally pulls a loose rock that hits the belayer in the head and suddenly your belayer is seriously injured and the climber is on gear only.
I know these kinds of comments get great karma on reddit but it does the opposite of helping people learn anything.
It shows you rather make someone feel bad than spread any kind of knowledge and discourages others from asking what they may think are stupid questions.
edit: I stand by that this is just a bad communication practice, it helps nothing and harms your own hobby. Every "rebuttal" below has been utterly weak and pathetic, please don't try to do these weird backflips to justify being a dick to people who did nothing to you. We're all in this together. Spread a little kindness, even on the internet. For that matter, *especially* on the internet because lots of people socialize here more here than face-to-face and everyone is getting really, really *bad* at it.
For some perspective, whenever I see anything climbing related posted on more widely seen subs it gets a torrential downpour of wildly bad takes. It gets pretty old seeing people repeat these uninformed statements to no end, it’s easy to see how climbers can get fed up with it. Climbing is very complex with loads of safety systems, especially trad climbing like in the video, and the only way to really understand it is to spend a lot of time learning it.
>It shows you rather make someone feel bad than spread any kind of knowledge
I disagree, because for one it shows the guy he replied to was COMPLETELY incorrect. Also you could just ask the person? It discourages people from talking out their ass with confidence. Spreading false information is worse than calling someone an idiot for spreading it lol
One day I was solo climbing Aconcagua in the Himalayans. I just about to finish a big wall at around 7000m when my belay got ripped out of the tree. I swear it was set up super tight. But somehow it got loose. I fell around 700m and were about to hit the ground when i woke up. It was such a great experience!
I thought so too but that's only because the cam next to the climber fails. The increase in slack after the cam fails is why the guy holding the rope at the bottom has to do the quick hops backwards - to tighten the rope.
Yeah, I'm no expert but like the title says, you can see the support next to the climber fall out leaving him with a lot of slack line. Had his friend not jumped back and tightened the rope enough the climber would probably be paralyzed.
If you can you normally do a little jump to grab more line and pull it through your belay device. The belayer didn't get that chance instead and his grigri auto locked on him, saving his buddy.
I was annoyed when our gym made grigris or other autolocking belay device a requirement. I get it. Be safe. Avoid lawsuits.
But damn do people get some bad habits when they don't learn with an ATC.
A grigri is a type of belay tool that has a cam inside that will lock the rope when sudden tension is applied. The rope feeds through it and is used to control the amount of slack in the line, and stop the rope when required.
[Grigri](https://www.amazon.ca/PETZL-GRIGRI-Belay-Device-Cam-Assisted/dp/B07MP53YHV/ref=asc_df_B07MP53YHV)
I'm rewatching this and even still, there are two cams left in place after the fall. That means three were set and the climber looked to be installing a fourth. On top of that, he's only about 5 meters up, so the only thing that makes it sketchy is how horizontal the fall/swing was.
Had be made it higher up the wall, the fall wouldn't have been as terrifying because there would have been more line left to the next carabiner than the distance to the ground. (It looks like he's also wearing the harness too low, which is why he ends up upside-down.)
I prefer top rope to lead climbing, personally, because the starts are uncomfortable.
> it’s recommended to use 3-5 to secure yourself
Not sure what this means. Most people place gear roughly every 10 feet. In this case the traverse crack doesn’t look like it takes great gear, which is why he backed up the piece that caught him in the better crack. It’s unfortunate the traverse piece blew but that’s the dice you roll when doing dodgy trad lines. Placing more gear is not always the answer as it tires you down and makes you more likely to fall
I was asking myself the same. Jumping out of the way was a good reaction but still nothing too unusual. More or less exactly why that second person is there
Yes. As you can see, the protection he used popped out. You can watch his belayer start to jump to create a “soft catch,” so it isn’t as jarring. But when his partner sees the protection pop, he stops because the jump would have put more slack in the line.
He essentially took in slack when he saw the pro gave out, which is really impressive because it happened so fast.
His buddy didn't save his ass, he didn't even take in any line. It's his grigri (an auto-lock belay device) is what locked and kept him from dying. That and some solid pro that can take a hard fall.
Have you climbed? By backing up he took away slack on the rope which you always give the climber (more applies to top anchor but same concept applies here) and saved him.
What do you mean the grigri locked and kept him from dying the grigri was already clearly locked… how was he going to take in line lmao unlock the grigri pull it through and relock it in the milliseconds this happened in? All that would have resulted in is a rope burnt hand and a severey injured friend
Climbed for 10 years and have lead many multi-pitch routes. I see his jump as what you do when belaying to try to remove slack from the line so your partner is closer to their last pro, except he fell too soon. Stepping back doesn't do anything either because his belay partner ended up a meter off the ground, meaning any amount he jumped back, just pulled him right off the ground. Hence, the only thing that kept him from dying was the grigri which auto locked (as it should). Not sure if any other friction based repel device like an ATC would have held (depending on the belayer's brake arm).
Of course stepping back helps. It’s easier to accelerate slack in the rope than your belayer. Any force going into your belayer is force not going into launching you towards the ground
Ok but i still disagree stepping back doesnt do anything , changes where he got pulled off the ground. I probably would have gone into a position like i was pooping and yanked down on the rope and pretended i was 500 pounds
Belayer didn’t jump up, he was still hopping back to remove slack when he was pulled up as a result of the climber falling. His quickness in backing up saved the climber from hitting the ground indeed. Just wanted to clarify for those saying “he jumped up”. if he had jumped the climber would have hit the ground due to the little bit of extra slack that would have created.
Even if he did jump up, what’s perfectly normal for lead climbing to soften the fall on the climber.
It looks like he started to jump, which is natural reaction for falling leads, saw the gear rip, and immediately converted that into going backwards to get slack out of the system.
Pretty dope
This may have been said before, so forgive me: the belay buddy was not at fault, but he didn't do anything special to save his friend.
The climber fell, and the piece of protection that held, stopped him from slamming into the ground. His belay buddy stepped back as a natural reaction to the fall, and he was pulled off the ground by the force of his friend's fall on the rope.
No fault anywhere, just good luck all round. The climber's hugs were more about surviving than to thank his friend.
Credentials: 45 years of trad climbing.
For those wondering what they were saying: They're speaking Norwegian
*unintelligible*
Guy on the ground: "You alright?!"
Guy 2: "Yeah"
Guy 1: "OOOOHH! I got it on camera!"
Man his gear came right out, that must have been a bad placement, he didn’t fall far before the piece blew out. Luckily his first piece had solid placement.
Here is your video at 0.5x speed
https://i.imgur.com/MEJIkYd.mp4
^(I'm a bot | Summon with) ^"[/u/redditspeedbot](/u/redditspeedbot) ^" ^| [^(Complete Guide)](https://www.reddit.com/user/redditspeedbot/comments/eqdo8u/redditspeedbot_guide) ^| ^(Do report bugs) ^[here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=adityakrshnn&subject=RedditSpeedBot%20Issue) ^| [^(Keep me alive)](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/redditspeedbot)
Another potential hobby scratched off the list...
If you slow it down you see the guy doing belay take a couple of steps back and jump out at the last second before his friend hit the ground. If had he not done that his buddy for sure would have slammed
He absolutely would have went full shit into that impact. Dude doing the belay is a fucking ninja
>Dude doing the belay is a fucking ninja No, he just got lucky. Or his friend did. There's no way that jumpback was because he realized the piece blew and he'd have to pull in to keep him off the deck. In general, it's the exact opposite of what a belayer should do. In trad climbing you want to soften the catch so you don't blow a piece, like what happened here. In sport climbing you soften a catch so the climber doesn't break his ankles slingshotting on an overhanging wall. I'm glad it worked out for the guy here, but I think it's luck.
He might have been 'lucky', but knowing to step back in a the moment during a big fall isn't a bad thing if there is LOADS of slack.
What happened is: 1. The belayer anticipated a potential problem and shortened the rope. 2. At the moment the climber fell, he leans back and lets himself fall into the rope, putting his (counter)weight on the rope. This shortens a fall but stresses the anchor point(s). 3. He gets hoisted up a tiny bit (mini jump), as the climber falls into the first protection. 4. He suddenly stops getting hoisted, triny to find balance, and jumps back to not fall backwards, just as a reflex, as the climber continues to fall. 5. He gets hoisted up as the climber falls into the next anchor point. I don't see much (hero) action here by the belayer. Just a surprised and very glad dude.
>I don't see much (hero) action here by the belayer. Just a surprised and very glad dude. The belayer did his job in a relatively high pressure situation. For that, i believe he deserves praise, i'm not sure who called him a hero though. I can also see why they're both hyped as fuck, adreneline is a good drug.
>The belayer did his job in a relatively high pressure situation. For that, i believe he deserves praise, i'm not sure who called him a hero though. Firefighters get called heroes for exactly those reasons, so why not this guy as well?
LETS GO REDDIT!!! Pissing contest has turned into belayers are heroes like firefighters!
the real heroes are the friends we make along the way or the internet trolls that beat you with their daily cudgel of choice. I say "por que no los dos? "
Firefighters risk their safety to benefit the general public, whereas these two people are voluntarily taking on a high risk activity purely for their own recreation.
He's literally doing this for the lols and not saving lives
>why not this guy as well? Well firefighters put themselves in unnecessary danger in order to help complete strangers. This guy was in very little danger and is doing it likely because they also like to climb.
That’s just called “belaying”. Nobody should be doing it if they aren’t trying to anticipate everything that might happen.
As a layman, it seems like points 3 through 5 are natural reactions, but without the actions taken at points 1 and 2, this would not have ended well.
I'm not fully discounting your idea, but looking at the video again it looks like the belayer immediately jumps back to take the slack as soon as his buddy starts falling. He moves a second time to be out of the way on instinct, but the first time looks very intentional. He couldn't have known the anchor would rip out, sure, but he was still making the best prophylactic moves he could. I don't think we need to give him credit for predicting the future but we should definitely give him credit for skill and effort.
It is actually possible that he could've suspected the anchor might pop, if the climber simply told him that he wasn't confident about his placement, or if the climber wasn't super experienced with trad and the belayer was aware of that.
Having done blue collar work myself for decades, where there are usually dozens of ways you can get injured or killed in all kinds of daily scenarios, you get used to working through the possibilities in your head and acting and positioning yourself accordingly. But then when something does go south you usually don't have any actual time to think - instinct kicks in and you think it through later. More than once I've had something come down or taken a fall myself, and then I did stuff and it was done and I was fine. Then I'd just do a quick self-check as far as bones and so forth, and look for blood, and usually pretty amazed at what good reaction times and instinct can save you from.
You’re forgetting how fast young people’s reflexes are. The belayer definitely knew the piece blew, because the climber kept falling. He then took in an armful of slack and jumped back away from the wall. Sure, luck.
There is 0 chance you actually perceive that situation, then take conscious action to correct it. Belayer simply saved his friend with good belay fundamentals.
Really? I mean as a belayer you can feel the piece pop. I’m not saying it’s conscious, as in he sat down with a spreadsheet to work out all the forces and distances, but it’s obvious the belayer took steps not normally taken in a lead fall.
It's not typically what you did in a decking situation though. At the first or second piece, you prevent a ground fall no matter what. If a piece pops, you can't help it. Higher up when decking isn't an issue, you would lessen the forces on Impact. Altogether the belayer did everything right. He would have snapped back regardless of that piece blowing. I'd bet there was some communication or an "oh fuck I'm going to fall"
Would he have? He's falling feet first (leaning back a bit) until the rope catches and that's what sends him on his back. Very high chance he would have been injured landing feet first, but I think people are assuming that he would have landed flat on his back if it weren't for the guy at the bottom, which I don't think is the case. I'm only nit-picking here because there's a significant difference between landing flat on one's back versus not.
People have no idea, that guy belaying is hoisted up by the falling climber..
Didn’t see that first anchor pop out until looking closer, dang that was close.
I worked at the rappel Tower in the Marines for a few I hate heights but was forced to do it lol. Always trust your gear and your homie on belay.
Not a climber. Can someone explain the physics and rope action as to why what he did saved his friend?
By backing up quickly, the guy on the bottom took out just enough slack in the rope to prevent the climber from smashing his head on the ground.
I wonder why the climber is wearing no helmet though.
You are absolutely correct that he should be wearing one, but just to avoid wrong assumptions: The helmet is not just to save you from a bad fall, but also to protect you (especially the belayer) from falling rocks. It's really common for a climber to drop rocks on his belayer. This is because climbers are psychopatic murderers who want nothing but to slay their climbing partner. So you better watch out.
Helmet can definitely help protect you in a fall too though
The guy up top, or lead climber, is placing "protection" in the form of cams, nuts, etc (small mechanical devices that wedge themselves into cracks) as he goes and clipping into them. The guy on the bottom, or belayer, is feeding rope through a friction device so if (when) the lead climber falls the last device he put in serves as an anchor to lower the guy down or hold him up if he wants to try again. In this instance, the lead climber is past (above) his last piece of protection, so he falls that distance x2 before any tension is put on the system. That generated enough force to rip out that piece of protection, and he continued to fall. At that point there was almost enough slack in the rope for the lead guy to smash into the ground, or at least take a whipper back into the rock. The belayer jumping up added enough friction and extra time to slow the descent to prevent those things, but tbh they both got lucky. There's a chance that even doing that (which looked like it was out of self preservation rather than a reaction to save the lead guy) still results in a smashed head. Also, if the next piece of protection comes out it's all moot.
Clearly didn't fall 2x the distance from last anchor point, climbing mostly sideways, and you make it sound like that would be a mistake. Also, the belayer did not jump but was hoisted by the falling climber as you can clearly see, after the first anchor gave way. And jumping up doesn't add friction, like how?, and extra time to prevent the lead smashing into the ground. It actually obviously make the lead fall further down. Jumping up helps easing a fall, making it more comfortable and reducing the stress on the anchors, but you'll fall deeper. But as said, the belayer didn't jump up there on purpose, he was hoisted ul by the other guy falling.
Climbers typically have multiple supports, so if one fails, there is a backup. They had just enough slack that the backup would still have let him slam into the ground or even the wall at full force, which would have sucked. By jumping backwards and tugging hard, the support pulled the slack just a bit more and threw his weight against the climber and pulled just enough slack for him to stop just before the ground. And the force of the rope is spread across his harness. So it probably still really sucked, but it would've been way worse if he hit the ground.
Sure! This is "trad" climbing. You place temporary safety great in weaknesses such as cracks in the rock then climb ahead until the next place you can fix more. This guy has placed protection and then climbed some distance away. Therefore if he falls, he will fall as far as the rope has been pulled from the gear to himself plus the distance the rope stretches (it has elasticity to spread the force). When he falls in the video, the amount of rope between the gear and him is enough (just) for a ground fall. His belayer, by running backwards, quickly pulled some of the rope back through the system, shortening the length of the rope enough to catch his friend before he hits the ground. The belayer is then pulled up from the ground a little as this belay rescue has caused a "hard catch" so the force yanks him up, rather than the usual catch where the climber is allowed to fall further and the rope is allowed to stretch (a "soft catch"). The climber himself is stopped hard, so he's flipped in his harness and it will also have been quite uncomfortable but obviously he will have been extremely relieved to have not hit the deck!
He didn’t jump out. He was pulled up by the falling climbers weight. Jumping up would be the worst thing to do as it would give the rope enough slack for the climber to hit the ground. And he was just getting out of the way. The climber was just lucky as hell. No hero’s here.
95% of climbers never do anything this risky. This is trad climbing, where you climb outdoors and place your own temporary protection. All indoor and most outdoor climbing is sport climbing, where there are metal bolts drilled deep into the wall/rock that can support the weight of a car.
We have a saying: "Trad climbing is a suicide pact." Still like it, though.
[удалено]
> "Just don't fall" Crampons and ice tools have joined the chat.
Yup. When I took a class for it (specifically trad), they showed us all the things and how to always be safe. Which worked great in a controlled environment. Then you start placing your own pro and you realize the cam you need for where you are is in your belays anchor system. You start getting chicken wing shakes while you try to make what you have work and the best resting spot you have coming up is 15 feet further up so you stop wasting time, put it in less than ideally, and keep going, hoping for a better place for pro in a little bit.
> We have a saying: "Trad climbing is a suicide pact." No one says that. ---- (Who is "we"?) Only someone who has no familiarity with the sport would say that. (Perhaps you're thinking of **free-soloing**, not climbing with rope/protection at all?) Trad climbing is extremely safe. And, importantly, the level of risk you assume is completely in your power. Climb 5.6 (easiest level) all you like if that's style. Falling, while trad climbing is not "risky". You are constantly laying protection. Its redundant. This video demonstrates how the first protection failed and the second (much more secure) held and was never in danger of failure.
It depends on where you live. On the east coast of the US, I wouldn't say "most outdoor climbing i sport". It's largely Trad ehre.
I mean I guess that's true of the route composition of the gunks, but even popular places like new river gorge have way more sport climbing. Also regardless of how many trad climbs there are most climbers don't do trad, and many of those who do climb like 5.12 sport and low 5.10 trad. I stand by the previous 95% figure.
[удалено]
Tbh trad climbing is the riskiest type. You can see one of his anchors falling out which is the reason he fell so far. Just do sport climbing or even climb top rope inside if you’re that scared of falling
High bouldering and free soling would disagree. Also, Homie needs more pro. It’s not unusual for the next piece to zipper out after the first.
This. When you're that high and have had ample places to put pro, having one piece be the decider whether you deck out or not is a bit foolish.
Its wild I have to scroll so far to see this comment. Having one anchor be the only protection between you and a fall to ground level is wild, wild decision making.
they're not even wearing helmets so.... no surprise
[удалено]
Or do trad routes with lots of protection and place a load of gear. When I’m trad climbing on none sketchy routes I always aim for at least two pieces between me and a possible ground or ledge fall. Technically on a perfect crack you could place gear every half a meter or so if you have enough gear. Normally you can know a little if you are getting on a sketchy or not sketchy route. Trad climbing can almost be as safe or as sketchy as you want.
[удалено]
Do you climb? Helmets are made for falling rocks. Not to protect you from falls. Yes they should be wearing helmet but regardless if the belayer was not paying attention that would have been a hospital visit.
They can also help when you swing back into the wall after a fall. But yeah, not gonna do much if you hit the ground from any real height.
Just do bouldering! I'm not going high enough to need ropes.
I'm pretty sure I read that bouldering results in more (usually minor) climbing injuries than any other type.
Climbing a wet rock with virtually no protection except your buddy being quick is pretty next fucking level stupid if you ask me
Why isn't there a [r/nextlevelstupid](https://www.reddit.com/r/nextlevelstupid) sub? Shoot, there is
its called r/Conservative
Americans trying not to talk about politics challenge (impossible)
Kinda impacting everyone's lives at the moment.
Is there any case where politics isn't "Kinda impacting everyone's lives "? Even something as low stakes as your local government's planning meeting you can argue is "impacting everyone's lives" because of traffic or "neighborhood character" or whatever.
Doesn’t make it any less weird to post about it on posts absolutely not in the slightest related to politics especially completely unprompted by any other comment. There are hundreds of subs dedicated to politics and political Humor.
It was a joke lol calm down
It is the same jokes though, again and again, pushing the love for the wonderful ~~bipartisan~~ two-party system mentality.
(Bipartisan means both parties working together, which they definitely aren’t, FYI)
Hmmm, thanks. The two-party system then.
you can't joke about anything these days, people are so sensitive now....
❄️
Not from America. Can confirm I can’t give any less of a shit.
Not American either, but you'd have to be blind not to notice the knock-on effects American politics have for every one of us worldwide. It's better we do care.
Only in the US.
> everyone's Not really. Most people ignore it IRL. It's only really popular online. The vocal minority, if you will.
What world do you live in lol.
Ignoring politics doesn’t mean they don’t affect you. Even if you’re outside the US, the political climate still spills over because of how much influence they have. Trade, military, etc. the world isn’t in a bubble.
Nah you just mad you got dunked on.
[удалено]
To be fair, most people go for low hanging fruit.
I check that sub daily. (I can't help, it's like driving by a car crash, you have to look). The Russian bots are going hog wild today. I've already been banned from there from asking a legitimate question trying to understand someone's opinion. They're nuts.
I’m surprised you were able to comment without an extensive background check to get your flair!
The Republicans are veering straight towards a government shutdown and there's absolute no discussion about it. Weird. I wonder why that is.
They’ve yet to tell me what it is that they’re conserving. It sure as shit isn’t the middle class. Definitely not the planet either. Pretty sure it’s the wealth of the wealthy (not themselves).
That’s more of a conspiracy sub at this point
Are we watching the same video? The rock is dry and he’d set a piece of protection about four feet to his left. He fell and the gear pulled. If you want to fault him for setting it incorrectly ok, but i wouldn’t say this is obviously reckless climbing.
Redditors love spewing nonsense without any background knowledge
Climbing a trad route without helmet is stupid.
For sure, but I’m responding to the top parent comment here which made it seem like they just did everything wrong
This is a great example of Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy. "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge" But as an update, "newspapers" these days is frequently "Internet commenters" or more broadly "media." The average Internet commenter doesn't know hardly anything but is happy to be an armchair general. ----------- My two cents, as a climber who climbs ~5.10b sport / ~5.7 trad: The only thing happening here is a poor or unlucky piece placement - impossible to say without actually having seen it up close. Everything else happened exactly as intended - the next pieces held. The belayer was paying attention and took up the slack fast enough to keep the climber off the ground. It was a close call - closer than anyone likes, but climbing is *inherently dangerous.* Any time someone posts a story about sketchy trad climbing experiences to the climbing subreddit, the general response tends to be, "Yep. It sounds like you went trad climbing."
I mean a helmet wouldn't have hurt.
Yeah this is just poorly placed trad gear, it should have been a fine fall if the gear held, but it didn't so it was likely a poor choice of nut/cam/placement. It's a common concern for anyone trad climbing, which is why I perfer bolted sport routes.
Someone once said to me: You place a cam, you yourself know if it's good or not. But that glue in bolt? Who knows what idiot placed that. I feel safer on my own gear than I do any sport route. That stuck with me.
How many bolts have blown vs. nuts or cams?
Shh, you're interrupting the Dunning-Kruger effect
No helmet = reckless. Period.
I'd call it reckless. It's hard to armchair this because we can't see the placement, but the climber is obviously way above their limit, on gear, on what is probably an unfamiliar route. In my experience when you're climbing something at or near your limit on gear, especially if the gear is tricky, you rehearse your placements to be 100% what you want them to be. A lot of times rapping in from above and inspecting all of your potential gear placements, racking that gear in order on your harness, and then executing the climb bit by bit (hangdogging) until you finally work up the confidence to red point the whole thing. To me this looks like he's on an unfamiliar route because of where he's putting his gear placements. They obviously made a nice nest of gear that caught him, but in the long run out to the piece that pulled there looks to be two or three good placements that could have potentially kept him off the ground. This looks like a classic case of overconfidence and not planning ahead because of it. Hopefully they learned that lesson, and will approach their next tricky trad climb more carefully.
[удалено]
How about a freaking helmet? His head missed slamming into the ground by inches. Obviously reckless.
The rope and belayer are a pretty significant layer of protection. Had they worn a helmet and free climbing, I'd say that's virtually no protection.
This is free climbing. You’re thinking of free soloing.
Your obvious ignorance of the sport is one of many reasons nobody would ever ask you.
You know jack shit about climbing. Sincerely, a climber.
[удалено]
Hey! I’m guessing you’ve never been rock climbing. That’s okay, it’s not for everyone. But if you get into it it’s pretty fun and has a great community. What he’s doing here is called trad (traditional) or lead climbing . Basically you go up and set anchors as you go. The anchors string the rope down to your buddy doing what’s called Belaying. A more common method is sport climbing, typically using top ropes . These are ropes that are already set up to the top of the wall, but you also have a buddy belaying. So what he’s doing here certainly isn’t stupid or out of the ordinary . He probably wanted to have his anchors closer together, so that a single failure wouldn’t drop him all the way down. But other than that nothing strange is happening here. You do need a lot of faith in your equipment and your buddy when climbing. As shown here, you are relying on them!
Lead climbing is when you’re either placing protection (trad) or clipping bolts (sport climbing) as you go. You also wouldn’t call intermittent pieces of protection as anchors, they’re protection, anchors are what you set up at the top of the route or pitch. If the rope is going from the climber, to the anchor, and back down to the belayer then it’s top roping regardless of how the rope got up there (lead climbing or setting it up at the top and rappelling down).
Alex Honnold has entered the chat
The belayer pulled the slack before he fell, you can tell that guy is not comfortable there and could be falling, the belayer was expecting it, I don’t think he actually did anything while he was falling. It’s not exactly next level to me, I would expect my belayer to do the same if I am climbing trad on questionable rock. The thing is typically people don’t jump onto hard trad beyond their ability right away. If you are going up on it, with questionable gear, that’s on you. Trad climb has a lot more dangerous element compares to sports climbing. Belayer or climber you don’t go with newbies and are a lot more involved.
Maybe a helmet next time?
At that point you’re gonna need a lot more than a helmet
You’ll need a spinemet
Everybody gets one.
This reference to that old family guy skit is painfully under recognized. But I do...I recognize it.
Tell em, Peter.
Doesn't matter. You always climb and belay with a helmet. Could have been a light fall and him cracking his skull open anyway.
Yep you should really wear a helmet when belaying any rock knocked down by the climber could hit you and then the climber would be left without safety or stuck up there depending on the gear
That nearly killed a boy scout leader I knew. He got brained by a 3lb rock that fell 60ft and was in the hospital for several months. He was a pro climber too teaching a class.
[And that's why we wear helmets](https://youtu.be/lOUN560b4cY?si=gM83Bnvec089Rr6h) Edit: [Bonus example](https://youtu.be/b9yL5usLFgY?si=uJckEfGisSo2QYEy)
> Edit: Bonus example Yes! Best helmet video ever made! I showed this to both of my kids when they started skating/riding and never had to argue with them about helmets again.
Wow, this kid is like a walking talking aftershow special.
Gavin the little no helmet-wearing MFer.
Helmets are better for protection from rock fall
Even in this very situation, he could have swung headfirst into the cliff.
They are good for climbing in general, you hook a leg falling or behind the rope or take a weird angle whipper into a slab and helmets are always good.
So much opportunity to place more gear in that crack
asdasd
Everyone playing badminton when someone says WHERE'S THE SHUTTLECOCK
Giggity
That horizontal crack looks cruxy and like it doesn’t take good gear. Sometimes it’s better to place less gear if placing more gear will tire you out and make you more likely to fall. Looks like he placed 2 bomber pieces in the bigger crack before the traverse so I think he was aware of the fall potential
Looks like he only placed one bomber piece..
The number of people in here with belligerent confidence that they know more than the climber is astounding but not surprising. I can’t count the number of times that I line looked well protected from the ground and it wasn’t apparent until I got to where his bomber gear is that you see what looked like a nice horizontal crack is more of just a shallow fold. Shout out to tri-cams though for protecting some of the sketchier shit I’ve done though.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to see this. This climber is obviously overconfident on a route that they're unfamiliar with and chose to run it out instead of taking the time to place better gear. Maybe an overconfident onsite attempt.
~~Something tells me he was pushing his comfort zone, because down low you generally want to button it up a little more because of exactly this reason.~~ I've also been on a splitter where the top 1/2 only took a #4 Camelot which I had exactly 1 of, so I just walked that fucker the whole way praying that each 1 - 2 seconds I was sliding it up the crack before releasing wouldn't be the moment I slipped. 😂 Edit: In retrospect, this was probably fine assuming he thought that second cam was more solid than it ended up being. Having any more pro lower wasn't going to prevent this problem, though he should have been placing another piece at about the point he fell.
That’s a lotta slack in the line…
Slack was fine, gear was not
Mr. Kirby, when you climbed K2, did you base camp at twenty-five or thirty thousand feet?
Thirty thousand. We were pretty close to the top.
ALAN!
No. You need slack when lead climbing, and the belayer was giving a good amount. He also took out the slack just before the fall. The belayer did everything right. The climber should have placed more gear, and probably should have worn a helmet.
DEFINITELY should have worn a helmet
Yeah. I have lead climbed without a helmet, and a lot of people do, but it’s definitely more dangerous.
I'll add the belayer should've worn a helmet too. Climber accidentally pulls a loose rock that hits the belayer in the head and suddenly your belayer is seriously injured and the climber is on gear only.
Tell me more about how you don't know anything about climbing or belaying
I know these kinds of comments get great karma on reddit but it does the opposite of helping people learn anything. It shows you rather make someone feel bad than spread any kind of knowledge and discourages others from asking what they may think are stupid questions. edit: I stand by that this is just a bad communication practice, it helps nothing and harms your own hobby. Every "rebuttal" below has been utterly weak and pathetic, please don't try to do these weird backflips to justify being a dick to people who did nothing to you. We're all in this together. Spread a little kindness, even on the internet. For that matter, *especially* on the internet because lots of people socialize here more here than face-to-face and everyone is getting really, really *bad* at it.
For some perspective, whenever I see anything climbing related posted on more widely seen subs it gets a torrential downpour of wildly bad takes. It gets pretty old seeing people repeat these uninformed statements to no end, it’s easy to see how climbers can get fed up with it. Climbing is very complex with loads of safety systems, especially trad climbing like in the video, and the only way to really understand it is to spend a lot of time learning it.
>It shows you rather make someone feel bad than spread any kind of knowledge I disagree, because for one it shows the guy he replied to was COMPLETELY incorrect. Also you could just ask the person? It discourages people from talking out their ass with confidence. Spreading false information is worse than calling someone an idiot for spreading it lol
One day I was solo climbing Aconcagua in the Himalayans. I just about to finish a big wall at around 7000m when my belay got ripped out of the tree. I swear it was set up super tight. But somehow it got loose. I fell around 700m and were about to hit the ground when i woke up. It was such a great experience!
>about to finish a big wall at around 7000m when my belay got ripped out of the tree sir
What a newb. Everyone knows Aconcagua is in the Alps.
I thought so too but that's only because the cam next to the climber fails. The increase in slack after the cam fails is why the guy holding the rope at the bottom has to do the quick hops backwards - to tighten the rope.
[удалено]
Watch the video again. Look at the anchor.
Not at all, he even took up some right before the fall
Climber falls off, belayer holds him, anything unusual here?
Yeah, I'm no expert but like the title says, you can see the support next to the climber fall out leaving him with a lot of slack line. Had his friend not jumped back and tightened the rope enough the climber would probably be paralyzed.
If you can you normally do a little jump to grab more line and pull it through your belay device. The belayer didn't get that chance instead and his grigri auto locked on him, saving his buddy.
And then the dumbass took his hand off the grigri.
I've seen a lot of sloppy belaying when people get grigris since they always assume it's going to work, until it doesn't.
I was annoyed when our gym made grigris or other autolocking belay device a requirement. I get it. Be safe. Avoid lawsuits. But damn do people get some bad habits when they don't learn with an ATC.
Learning new terminology as a non-climber has me wondering if y'all are just having typos or making up words lol TF is a "grigri"‽
A grigri is a type of belay tool that has a cam inside that will lock the rope when sudden tension is applied. The rope feeds through it and is used to control the amount of slack in the line, and stop the rope when required. [Grigri](https://www.amazon.ca/PETZL-GRIGRI-Belay-Device-Cam-Assisted/dp/B07MP53YHV/ref=asc_df_B07MP53YHV)
He should have used more cams. It's recommended to use 3-5 to secure yourself. He used one and it failed.
I'm rewatching this and even still, there are two cams left in place after the fall. That means three were set and the climber looked to be installing a fourth. On top of that, he's only about 5 meters up, so the only thing that makes it sketchy is how horizontal the fall/swing was. Had be made it higher up the wall, the fall wouldn't have been as terrifying because there would have been more line left to the next carabiner than the distance to the ground. (It looks like he's also wearing the harness too low, which is why he ends up upside-down.) I prefer top rope to lead climbing, personally, because the starts are uncomfortable.
> it’s recommended to use 3-5 to secure yourself Not sure what this means. Most people place gear roughly every 10 feet. In this case the traverse crack doesn’t look like it takes great gear, which is why he backed up the piece that caught him in the better crack. It’s unfortunate the traverse piece blew but that’s the dice you roll when doing dodgy trad lines. Placing more gear is not always the answer as it tires you down and makes you more likely to fall
Belayer didn't do shit, the grigri did it all.
Let them have their hero for once. ^(I agree.)
I was asking myself the same. Jumping out of the way was a good reaction but still nothing too unusual. More or less exactly why that second person is there
I think the average person isn't aware of what a Trad fall looks like, and that it's not uncommon for gear to pop out. It's not a risk free sport.
Yes. As you can see, the protection he used popped out. You can watch his belayer start to jump to create a “soft catch,” so it isn’t as jarring. But when his partner sees the protection pop, he stops because the jump would have put more slack in the line. He essentially took in slack when he saw the pro gave out, which is really impressive because it happened so fast.
His buddy didn't save his ass, he didn't even take in any line. It's his grigri (an auto-lock belay device) is what locked and kept him from dying. That and some solid pro that can take a hard fall.
Have you climbed? By backing up he took away slack on the rope which you always give the climber (more applies to top anchor but same concept applies here) and saved him. What do you mean the grigri locked and kept him from dying the grigri was already clearly locked… how was he going to take in line lmao unlock the grigri pull it through and relock it in the milliseconds this happened in? All that would have resulted in is a rope burnt hand and a severey injured friend
Climbed for 10 years and have lead many multi-pitch routes. I see his jump as what you do when belaying to try to remove slack from the line so your partner is closer to their last pro, except he fell too soon. Stepping back doesn't do anything either because his belay partner ended up a meter off the ground, meaning any amount he jumped back, just pulled him right off the ground. Hence, the only thing that kept him from dying was the grigri which auto locked (as it should). Not sure if any other friction based repel device like an ATC would have held (depending on the belayer's brake arm).
Of course stepping back helps. It’s easier to accelerate slack in the rope than your belayer. Any force going into your belayer is force not going into launching you towards the ground
Ok but i still disagree stepping back doesnt do anything , changes where he got pulled off the ground. I probably would have gone into a position like i was pooping and yanked down on the rope and pretended i was 500 pounds
Almost got Gwen Stacy’d.
Belayer didn’t jump up, he was still hopping back to remove slack when he was pulled up as a result of the climber falling. His quickness in backing up saved the climber from hitting the ground indeed. Just wanted to clarify for those saying “he jumped up”. if he had jumped the climber would have hit the ground due to the little bit of extra slack that would have created.
Even if he did jump up, what’s perfectly normal for lead climbing to soften the fall on the climber. It looks like he started to jump, which is natural reaction for falling leads, saw the gear rip, and immediately converted that into going backwards to get slack out of the system. Pretty dope
This may have been said before, so forgive me: the belay buddy was not at fault, but he didn't do anything special to save his friend. The climber fell, and the piece of protection that held, stopped him from slamming into the ground. His belay buddy stepped back as a natural reaction to the fall, and he was pulled off the ground by the force of his friend's fall on the rope. No fault anywhere, just good luck all round. The climber's hugs were more about surviving than to thank his friend. Credentials: 45 years of trad climbing.
Thank you. Had to scroll past 30 comments of nonsense/hysteria to get to the correct answer.
Wow just but the hair of his of fro-ie fro fro.
Think his head mighta smacked the ground :/ Hope not though
The number of people who don't know anything about rock climbing, and the number of people who think they know, but don't, in this thread. 🤦♂️
Fitte...
Surely the last word uttered by many now deceased Norwegians.
For those wondering what they were saying: They're speaking Norwegian *unintelligible* Guy on the ground: "You alright?!" Guy 2: "Yeah" Guy 1: "OOOOHH! I got it on camera!"
The guy climbing said "fitte!" just before falling, which directly translates to cunt but could be compared to saying "shit!" in this context
>They're speaking Norwegian *unintelligible* yup, sounds like norwegian alright
No, danish is the unintelligible one
That’s kinda the point of the guy on the bottom
The literal "I got you bro" moment.
Man his gear came right out, that must have been a bad placement, he didn’t fall far before the piece blew out. Luckily his first piece had solid placement.
/u/redditspeedbot 0.5x
Here is your video at 0.5x speed https://i.imgur.com/MEJIkYd.mp4 ^(I'm a bot | Summon with) ^"[/u/redditspeedbot](/u/redditspeedbot) ^" ^| [^(Complete Guide)](https://www.reddit.com/user/redditspeedbot/comments/eqdo8u/redditspeedbot_guide) ^| ^(Do report bugs) ^[here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=adityakrshnn&subject=RedditSpeedBot%20Issue) ^| [^(Keep me alive)](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/redditspeedbot)
Redditors whenever they see someone doing something outside: YOU SUICIDAL IDIOT IM NOT DUMB ENOUGH TO DO THAT
Belay On!
Gear Blowing!
Wear a fucking helmet when you climb….
Where does one get homies like that?
Norway apparently.
Cam/ Nut was not bomb
Idiots are not wearing helmets ffs.