With the man behind, in continuous climbing, we are less concerned. If he is of equal strength, he can be left to himself. Yet we have to remember where the checks of difficulty or bad holds occurred that broke our own rhythm, and we must allow for them in turn by slackening our pace slightly when instinct tells us that the man following is approaching these check-points. If a party is moving well in tune, we shall know without looking round when the next man will probably be checking or when he will be forced to drop his coils of rope for better hold. We shall therefore be prepared for a check, or even a jerk to our rope should a blunder occur. If the man behind is distinctly less expert, some allowance in pace and attention has to be made at such times; and it is as well, without necessarily stopping or turning round, to feel backwards with one hand, and discover if the rope is advancing freely. The hand can even take up a coil or so of the rope behind, and hold it together with the coils it holds of the rope in front. We then have some margin of rope to let go in case it is checked from behind on such expected places. A weaker man behind may be expected to check where his predecessor passed without pause; and to take up a loop or so of his rope, bringing it taut in the act, keeps us in touch with his movements, and ready to help him if needed, without forcing us to take our eyes off our leader or our attention off our own progress. If the man behind is a novice, it is best always to adopt this plan, and leave him free to use his hands, while we ourselves hold the loose coils which normally would be his care. This throws a double task on the middle man, who thus has two ropes to manage; but a good centre will be able to keep all his eyes for his leader and yet discern all he needs to know about the progress of his rear man from the feel of the rope.
The Rope while Moving Singly.
In steep climbing, where the party moves one at a time, the rope is used for direct protection and not merely as a precautionary link. The rope is for safety; it is not for assistance. Above all, there is no magic in its use. It does not or cannot level up the powers of an unequal party to the standard of its best members. In so far as members of a rope find it necessary to have recourse to it as direct aid, they are drawing upon the reserve of strength and security which the party pools, and thus diminishing the margin which is required for their feats in the lead by the more expert members. They are depriving the party of its rhythm, and the leader of the sense of a safe collective capacity behind him, which is the impetus that makes for his success. This warning is not unneeded at the present time. It has become the custom for a group of first-class leaders to conduct various assortments of less capable climbers up the most difficult climbs in our islands. For them it is only a friendly effort. The climbs are short; the reserve of a good leader is sufficient for such ‘one-man’ climbs, which are climbed ‘one at a time.’ But the harm for the individuals who follow may be great. They are depriving themselves of any chance to develop their own balance and confidence. They are confusing their judgment as to their own unaided capacity, and are spoiling their taste by sensations they cannot digest. They may be getting into careless habits of trusting to the rope as an auxiliary engine whenever their wind or power fails. When these methods and ill-assorted companionships are transferred to the Alps, the results are lamentable. With difficulties magnified a hundredfold in length, upon climbs which can only be expected to yield in a whole day to the attack of combined efficiency, and with far longer hours of easy climbing to face, of a kind to demand the utmost individual precision for its timely passage, such methods make impossible demands upon the margin of power and security that the ablest of leaders has over for the common ‘pool’ of his party. There follow late returns, and exhaustion, and ill-temper, and nights out, if no worse. In this respect British climbing may be the very reverse of a preparation for the Alps. The rope can be abused until it becomes a danger.
There is no harm in taking an occasional pull from the man above; some rock passages are more difficult for certain types of figure, others for others. The hour and the weather may on occasion make it better not to waste the time of the party. But any man who has habitually to give ‘trunk calls’ is climbing with a leader and on a class of climb beyond his capacity. He is delaying the party and injuring his own climbing permanently. If it is only practice he lacks, he should insist upon better opportunity for real practice and a slower pace. If this does not relieve him from the necessity of ‘rope-riding,’ he will do himself more good by working for a period on easier rock with a humbler rope. If, on the other hand, he finds that as his technique improves he can manage unaided all that his leader sets him, he should insist on being given his share of leading.
Following and Leading.
This will be the more necessary if he begins to find himself in doubt whether he could lead places over which he knows he can follow capably. He has clearly then been neglecting a most important side of his climbing education, his self-knowledge and confidence. It is a fact that any moderate climber who has not sacrificed his own sound training and the education of his nerve to the exactions of too rapid a party, climbs twenty per cent better, when he is leading, than he ever does when he is following. There have been plenty of cases of men who for years remained average climbers behind some dominating leader, and who, when placed by some chance reluctantly in the lead, suddenly developed powers beyond all expectation, and retained them. They had merely to add self-knowledge and confidence to their technically thorough training.
Conversely, it is a fact that a man who has been accustomed only to lead climbs some twenty per cent worse when he has on occasion to follow. The habit of imitation, the instinct for rope management, and the necessity of taking and not setting the rhythm are all novel to him. To this defect in education is in part due the disappointing performances of some excellent rock climbers when they first mountaineer in the Alps. Men always accustomed to lead at home never climb at their best behind a guide. And men who have always followed have never acquired confidence or self-dependence sufficient to meet new circumstances happily. For these reasons every habitual leader should accustom himself to follow at home; he will be far more efficient when he starts to learn his business behind professionals in the Alps, or when, with a guideless party, he has to alter the order, and follow himself, as is sometimes necessary for greater safety. Again, every one upon whom circumstances force the position of generally following, either on British rocks or in the Alps, should insist upon his share of leading where he feels that it is within his physical powers.
Stances.
The extent to which the rope is now used as a general assistance or as a decoration on easy passages is apt to contribute to a neglect of the study of positions proper to its secure use in places where its protection is really needed. It is as vital for a leader to know what character of stance he requires in order to bring up his following safely, as to get up a passage himself. Many old climbers are frankly inept in their choice of stance and of attitude upon it. It would seem simple enough for a man to think out from what direction a pull will come upon him, and how he can best place his body to meet it. But many minds can never get beyond the sense of a comfortable attitude of body at the moment, and quail before the further step of considering how that attitude is suited to a pull from a particular direction. It brings a shudder to remember occasions when we have arrived at a platform after a severe struggle and found our anchor man carefully jammed in a position that could not have resisted the faintest pull from the only important direction! And behind the possible doubt in many a man’s mind, so placed, seems always to be the dangerous feeling: “Anyhow, it’s only for a moment, and old So-and-so won’t slip.” Perhaps So-and-so half-way up calls out, “Can you give me a little pull?” For So-and-so has been climbing probably with something of the same sort of feeling: “I’ll have a shot; and anyhow, there’s always old Such-and-such up there with the rope!” At the call comes further doubt above, and even that ominous “Wait a second!” while the upper man hastily tries to alter his position. This is as common an event as it is unpardonable.
The ‘Wait a second’ man may be a perilous goose; but even he is not so bad as the ‘All right! come along!’ man in like situation. A leader—and I am not writing without knowing of instances—who under any circumstances of excitement or difficulty says he is all right to hold when he knows or even suspects that he is not, and who allows his next man to enter on a doubtful passage on this false understanding, is guilty of constructive manslaughter, only partially redeemed by the possibility that it may be also constructive suicide.