A climber has to think out exactly how the pull on the rope will come, and what hold he has about him to help him to meet it. Our object is to stay in balance on the feet as long as possible, so as to be able to pivot on our legs and meet the strains, if and as they come. To sit down is an all too vulgar error. On steep sloping ledges where we stay the heels against rock or herbage, or astride of a ridge, or jammed in a crack or chimney, we may have to sit down; but our position is weak. We are out of balance and out of the true line of the rope, which almost of necessity will be fraying over some edge, interrupting our information as to how the invisible man below us is getting on, and not improbably loosening stones on to him.
Whenever the stance permits we stand in free balance on the feet, with our outside or firm leg in line with the pull of the moving rope. The body inclines inward, ready to take the pull, if it comes, down the thrust of our rigid leg. If the ledge is narrow, we rest against the rock with shoulder or our inside knee, but still keep a free poise of the body to meet any slight alterations in the direction of strain. If the ledge is too narrow to allow us to lean back and so take the strain down through our leg to the rock, or if the stance does not even allow of balancing without handholds, then we must look out for a belay or anchor, any knob or split corner of rock, round which to pass the rope as extra security.
With Belays.
We make the distinction between an ‘anchor,’ the loop of inactive rope with which a stationary climber secures himself to a rock point, in order to protect himself and the rest of the party while somebody else is climbing, and a ‘belay,’ which is the rock-and-rope attachment by which the active rope of a moving man is protected while it is running out or being pulled in.
We distinguish again between a ‘direct belay,’ where the rope in action connects directly on to or round rock, and an ‘indirect belay,’ where some form of human spring is interposed between the active rope and the solid rock.
The anchor should not be made with a section of the rope momentarily in action. The man on the stance takes a loop of the inactive rope between himself and the next stationary climber and puts it over a point. He can either hold it there looped, or secure it by putting on a second coil, which will confirm it by friction. An anchor is not much good unless it is quite close to or vertically above us. The farther off it is, the more open it becomes to all our objections to a direct belay. Its object is to assure the balance of a stationary climber while he is managing the rope of a moving climber, and safeguard the rest of the party in case of the fall of both. The same point of rock may have to serve for both anchor and belay, but their affixing should be quite independent. If a leader, wearing necessarily only the one rope, the active rope to his second man, wishes to secure an anchor, he must divide his anchor loop from that portion of his active rope which he is using to belay his second man by very secure friction coils round the rock. If there is no place for both anchor and belay, the anchor must be sacrificed, and the belay then made as indirect as ingenuity can devise.
The direct belay is unsound to protect a leader. If the rope is playing round rock, it may at any second jerk him, a fatal fault. If he falls with a long rope out, the rope will, or ought to, break, when the jerk comes directly upon a solid point, and very often a point with sharp edges. If he falls on a short rope, similarly attached directly to rock, the chance of its snapping is only slightly less. For a long rope may take up much jerk in its elastic spring, but a short rope cannot. This should be more widely known. Many leaders think they will be safe in trying a risky passage if they can find a direct belaying-point which only leaves a short run-out. They either use it like a ‘peg,’ passing the rope behind it and taking out enough slack to let them do the passage, or they bring up their second men on to bad stances to hold the rope over it. Neither course lessens the risks of the direct belay. Some preventable accidents have been due to this dangerous misconception.
An exception would appear to be the case of the leader ‘threading the rope,’ behind a jammed stone, in order to protect himself in attempting a bad bit from a stance not good enough for him to bring his second up to. This ‘threading’ is only sound if, firstly, the run-out above it is only to be for a few feet; and, secondly, if the rope will run freely behind the stone so that the second man below can play it and turn it into an indirect belay, to some extent, in case of a slip. Otherwise threading is really only a brittle reed of moral reassurance for a leader who is uncertain about his standard of the day.
As a protection to a man following us up rock the direct belay is almost equally unsound. To drag the moving rope round rock frays it, and runs the risk of there being a hitch or some slack rope to complicate matters if he slips or needs a pull. Few knobs can be trusted to retain a travelling rope unless the hands keep it in position. A rope dragged round a point, also, rolls against the lay of the strands, and may roll up and off a rounded knob unexpectedly. Again, a rope may play easily round a splinter while it is loose, but when a strain comes upon it it will jam in the crack behind, and the sudden stopping of the ‘give’ in the rope pinches and may snap it. In one-at-a-time climbing it should rarely be necessary to take a direct belay to protect a man following. It is our business not to use a stance unless we can render its belay in some way indirect. Only in continuous climbing do we content ourselves sometimes with cursory direct belays, generally in descending. Then they are simply a passing precaution, not a definite protection; and they are sound because the easy character of the climbing will permit us, at need, instantly to convert them into indirect belays or anchors. Otherwise direct belays are more often used in laziness or ignorance than from any dire climbing necessity.
For the indirect belay we loop the active rope of the man climbing round a convenient point, and then make it our business to interpose our hands, arms, legs, shoulders, or any part of us which may prevent a jerk of his rope from coming uninterruptedly on to the solid rock. If we have fair room to balance, we play the rope entirely free with our arms and the spring of our body, using only an anchor to the rock if we need it. If we have not room, and especially if we are protecting a leader, whose fall would jerk us off most positions of free balance, we put the rope over the point and play it round with both hands, ready to grip and spring it upon our arms if a jerk comes. Or we pass the active rope round our forearm or over the thigh or across the shoulder, on its way to the belay-point.