Some Tips on Sport Climbing

Introduction

 

This represents a small number of tips among a vast knowledge base you need to lead sport climb and is no means a substitute for learning this hands-on with an experienced instructor. Brian Phillips

 

Lowering/Rappelling and Top-Roping Off of Top Anchors ("Cleaning an Anchor")

     There are two ways to get down from a single-pitch sport route. One is to be lowered off the anchor by your belayer and the other is to rappel. Almost everwhere the accepted and preferred method is to be lowered by your belayer,as it is safer. Whatever you are going to do make sure you communicate that to your belayer. Top-roping off fixed anchors is prohibited in all areas as it has a sawing effect that quickly wears out the fixed biners (as shown below). If you are going to top-rope the climb after the lead then leave draws (as shown below) that the last person up cleans the draws off the anchor.


Some of the anchor chain configurations you will encounter at various crags.


Not all sport climbs are going to equipped with steel carabineers like an indoor climbing gym. Many top anchors will have closed steel rings, quicklinks, or chain links. The safest method is to lower off the fixed gear.  The American Alpine Club (AAC) method (below) is the safest.The well intentioned rationale for rapping is usually to avoid putting wear and tear on the anchors, but the AAC calls this “. . . misplaced sense of stewardship that seeks to preserve anchor hardware.” Modern anchor hardware is extremely robust, and ideally meant to be easily replaced.

1.      The second climber climbs the route, cleaning gear as needed.

2.      The second climber arrives at the anchor, the FIRST thing you do is to clip in with a sling, qickdraw, or PAS from their belay loop to a solid part of the anchor.

3.      Remaining on belay, the second pulls up a large bight of rope, and feeds it through the anchor hardware meant for lowering.

4.      The second ties a figure 8 loop onto the bight, and clips it to their belay loop with a locking carabiner.

5.      The second then unties their main tie in knot from their harness, and pulls the tail of the rope through the chains.

6.      The second cleans the leader's draws from the bolts.

7.      The second calls for tension from the belayer, tests that the system looks right and is holding, removes their quickdraw/sling/PAS, and lowers to the ground.




Sometimes, you won’t be able to push a bight of rope through the anchor. This depends on the thickness of your rope and the type of anchor. In this case, you must use a slightly different method. As with the previous method you will remain on belay’ during the whole setup.


 

If the anchor has chains and if they are long enough to place draws that will take the weight of the rope and if the plan is to top-rope the climb then the leader can and should set up the top-rope so it can be cleaned with just removing the draws/biners. For example:

Clipping Biners


Some methods of clipping  

Back Clipping
     Back clipping is a common mistake of inexperienced climbers.  The rope should always be clipped so it runs from the rock out of the biner toward the leader. 

 

 

Illustration of how an incorrectly “back clipped” biner can become unclipped and how to correctly clip.

Spine Towards the Line
     Additionally the biner/rope should always be positioned so that it will hit the solid axis of the biner versus the gate during a fall.  This can be is caused by the climber traversing at an angle above the biner.  To avoid this make sure the gate is facing the opposite direction that you are traversing. Remember to face the spine of the carabineer towards the line of the route. "Spine towards the Line."  Even if there isn't a traverse in the route and you are climbing to the right or left of the bolt the spine of the biner should be facing you so the rope hits the spine and not the gate in a fall.  This is widely not understood and misapplied by many experienced sport climbers.


The gate should be facing the opposite direction of the traverse or to the right or left of the climber to prevent the potential for unclipping.

Z Clipping


Don't do this!  When the clips are close together you can mistakenly reach down below your last clip and clip the rope to the next clip.  This is called Z-clipping.  You will notice it immediately with the rope drag.  Usually the easiest way to escape the situation is to reach down and unclip the rope from the lower draw. 

Clipping At Waist Level
     When you clip can be as important as how you clip. If you are below the first bolt you can reach up as high as you can above your head to clip the first bolt (if you didn't already clip it with a stick-clip). The next few bolts should be clipped when they are at waist level instead of reaching way above your head. You do this to minimize the amount of slack you have in the rope should you fall when clipping. A full arm length of rope out near the ground could result in ground fall. All this is dependent on sound judgement. Sometimes you have a huge jug to hang off well below the bolt and it is better to clip here than trying to hold on to a small crimper when the bolt is at waist level.

Rope Mangement     
    The rope should never be running behind a leg as this can cause you to flip upside down in a fall.



Stopper Knots
      If you are not postively sure of the route length then tie stopper knots in the end of the rope so you do not accidently lower the leader off the end of the rope. Some routes are designed for 70 meter ropes. A realtively too common accident is sport climbers getting lowered off the end of the rope because the rope was too short for the climb. This is particularly common with using gym length ropes outside. Tie a stopper knot in the end of the belayer side of the rope so that it will jam in the belay device and this accident can't happen.

Belaying and Providing a "Soft Catch"

Anchor the belayer?
     Unlike trad climbing, most of the time sport climbers do not anchor on the first pitch (ground).  This facilitates moving around to be in the best position to belay the leader. The only exception is if the leader outweighs the belayer by a considerable amount. If your belayer is not anchored you want them belaying close in to the cliff so that, in the case of a leader fall, they are not dragged off their feet into the wall dropping you in the process.

A soft catch is one of the most misunterstood and misapplied techniques in sport climbing. Many climbing gyms teach how to give a soft catch and it is a valuable skill on an overhanging lead wall. However, it only translates to the outside on overhanging routes. A soft catch is where the belayer has some slack in the rope and/or gives a dynamic catch by jumping or moving in toward the wall when the leader falls. The object of a soft catch on an overhanging route is so that the climber falls straight down (in air) and does not swing in to hit the wall spraining/breaking his ankles. A soft catch should only be used on overhanging routes or dead vertical routes where there are no ledges.  The majority of routes (both sport and trad) outside are slabby to vertical.  Giving a soft catch on a slabby route will only increase the distance that the leader skids down the slab losing skin along the way.  On a vertical route a soft catch will increase the distance that the leader falls and increase the chance that they will catch a foot on a hold or hit a ledge and break an ankle. So, unless it is an overhanging route the shorter the fall the better.  I have seen many belayers standing ten feet away from the cliff with a big loop of rope to the leader who is only 15 feet off the ground. That is not a soft catch. That is ground fall. Dynamic belays require a lot of practice. If in doubt it is better to keep the rope to the leader tight than to have it too loose and risk having them hit a ledge or ground fall. Make sure to stand close to the first bolt clipped but not directly under the climber. When the climber reaches the second or third bolt where he/she is safe from hitting the ground, then you can step back to watch the climber from a distance where they are more visible. The best way to give a soft catch is to wait until the rope comes taut onto the last clip and then jump. Jumping will make the fall as gentle as possible. This requires a lot of practice to do correctly and being an attentive belayer.  Recent studies have shown that having slack in the rope does nothing to reduce the arc and swing into the cliff.  


Example of a bad belay with way too much slack in the rope and the belayer way too far from the wall.

 


Gear

Draws: Quickdraws are used for sport climbing. They are designed so that one biner is clipped through the smaller hole and sits tightly on the draw and one hole is larger allowing the biner to rotate. The tighter non-rotating biner is always the bottom biner to facilitate easier clipping and avoid dangerous cross loading on the hanger. Also by always clipping the same biner to the hanger any rough dings it may get from repeated falls are on the hanger side and not on the biner your rope is running through. Many quickdraws come with two different colored biners to facilitate always clipping the same one and many will have a bent-gate biner on the bottom for easier clipping.  


The carabiners on quickdraws should face the same direction.  All quickdraw manufacturers (BD, Petzl, Camp, DMM, Mad Rock) orient the biners this way now.  If you have some older draws switch the biners around.  Black Diamond did studies that show how a draw can come unclipped from the hanger with opposing biners on a draw.


If you are primarily a trad climber with a bunch of two foot runners they can be shortened to the length of a quick draw for sport climbing. However, they are not as good as a quickdraw as they tend to flop around and can orient the biner the wrong way.  Sport climbers should carry a one or two of these to extend under an overhang to reduce rope drag. 


Method used to shorten 2 ft sling to make a “quickdraw.”

Belay Devices

In sport climbing an assisted braking belay device such as a Petzl GriGri is what every climber should learn to use competently. In multiple studies assisted braking belay devices have been shown to be considerably safer than a tube style device like an ATC.