I must repeat that, however easy the place or good the climbers, a man who calls for the rope, or a pull from the rope, should always be helped at once. Inexperienced climbers are incurably prone to argue that the rope is not really needed. Some accidents have been caused in this way. The rope should be put on before rather than when it is really wanted.
The rope of a man descending to our stance, especially of a man descending last, demands no discernment between subtler strains; but it requires even more adroit handling. It must never be jerked or tightened, which may pull him off his balance holds. If it appears to be catching on intervening points, it must be loosened with the lightest of flicks: a strong flick will run up the rope and jerk him like the crack of a heavy whip. It must never be left loose to drag or catch close to his feet, where it will get in the way of his foothold or get round his feet or legs. If he has a long rope out, the weight alone of the rope, if we hold it anything like taut from below, will drag on him. It is best in such case to keep it sliding gently down the rock towards us. As the climber moves down, a very slight motion of our hand will just free it, without taking its weight off the rock.
Our eye should never for an instant leave a man so descending to, or ascending from, our stance, so that if he finds it necessary to reascend or redescend a few inches in order to better his holds or position for the next movement, we may at once be ready to relax or take in the extra coil he requires or releases. If he is out of our sight while descending towards us, we watch the rope, which tells us as much as the sight of the man. If he is out of sight while ascending above us, our feel of the rope as it tautens or slackens will tell us almost as much as sight or speech. But a man ascending or descending out of sight below us will have to tell us what he wants, if it is anything more than the usual steady playing, out or in, of the taut rope.
If, as often happens in the case of a man who is just climbing up off our stance, the rope, owing to his having tied his waist-knot in front, or crossed the rope, makes a spiral round his leg, he should be warned at once, and we must hold the rope ready to swing it from under his foot as he raises it for the purpose. This sometimes also happens if a man is descending quickly on to our stance. In neither case must the rope be jerked or swung, to release it, without his knowledge or the signal of his lifted foot. Similarly, if a man is starting to descend from our stance, and has his rope knotted in front, as he turns face inward the rope makes a spiral round his neck or arm. A warning, and a light sway of the rope may prevent him from anticipating fate.
In climbing with beginners it is always worth while seeing, before they leave our stance, that the knot of their waist-loop is secure, and pulled round well to the side, under the arm. For ascending, the rope should run up straight from the knot, in front of the shoulder; for descending, in front of or behind the shoulder, as balance and the angle of the rock suggest.
A very risky practice, common with beginners, is that of using the active rope as a handhold in difficulties, to pull themselves up by. Unless they can reach a balanced position in one pull, they are forced then to keep hold of the rope for their balance, and to take yet a second and higher hold upon it for their next movement. They are thus accumulating a quantity of slack between their point of dependence from the rope and its noose on their waist. And a slack rope is full of dangers. If their grip fails, they fall all the length of the slack, and the rope may break. If it does not, the man above will be subjected to a most unfair jerk, of whose possibility he may be all the time unconscious. In any case, the climber is depriving himself of the steady help and protection of a rope, pulled in taut from above, on just the passages where he has found himself least capable to cope with the difficulties unaided. No climber should use the rope as handhold without full warning to the man above, and without making certain that he can in a single pull reach a balanced stance, where the rope can be again drawn taut upon him.
With Stones.
To avoid sending down stones with the rope is a sure test of expert climbing. A climber’s responsibility in this respect extends the whole length of the rope between him and the companion whose progress he is superintending. In the case of a man above us, we have a personal interest in seeing that his rope does not drag over loose pebbles or catch on disintegrating points. In that of the man below us, our personal interest may be less, but it will be no less appreciated. It must be remembered that the rope as it comes in taut will touch and dislodge much that seemed out of its range when we selected its line of pull-in. An inspection should be made to discover if there are any pebbles lurking just over or on the edges over which it will pass. These last are a special danger in couloirs or British gullies, which consist largely of steep pitches surmounted by accumulations of loose scree. It is often safer and more tempting to move up to the top of these scree spits and not to anchor on the immediate lip of the pitch. Great care has then to be taken to remove all loose stones from the line of the rope; for the rope when taut will drag over the edge of the pitch, and even apparently firmly embedded stones may work loose under its friction when it is too late to move them into safety.
If a rope length has been allowed to sag against the rock, it must not be pulled in or jerked free hurriedly, unless we can see that there is nothing it might loosen. Over surface visibly friable or pasturing stray stones the rope must be kept from touching at all—a delicate task in continuous going.
When men are all moving together, and our hand, while seeking for its holds, is also charged with loose coils and the task of freeing the rope, it is often difficult to combine an attention to all the loose stones that may be caught by the swinging coils with a simultaneous precaution against possible loose stones under our feet or hands. Of course we give warning if one gets loose in spite of our care. But I must add that it is considered no valid excuse among mountaineers to plead that a stone was dislodged by the rope.