UKC

If you're enjoying lead climbing indoors and want to transfer your skills to rock, sport climbing can be a fantastic means of experiencing some scenic outdoor spots in the UK and beyond. 

While the basics are the same, sport climbing on rock does require some new techniques and an awareness of the risks involved. Here are some tips for making the transition to single-pitch bolted routes outdoors.

Read more

In the 9 photos included there is only 1 person with a helmet on. 'Wear a helmet if you wish' is I suppose better than not mentioning it at all. But really, UKC could push the safety element of this better.

Moan over - this is otherwise a really nice and useful article

It says a lot more than that and is actually pretty balanced with the overall recommendation to wear a helmet. I am not sure whether the photos are representative or not, but with modern light and comfortable helmets, certainly they are becoming more commonly worn for sport climbing. 

From the article: “Communicate clearly that you are 'safe!' when you attach yourself at the top before the belayer pays out any slack.”

No No No!

Climbers new to sport from trad may take the call of “safe” as an invitation to detach the belay device from the rope, as they would ready for the leader to take in. This actually happened to me leaving me clipped to the lower off bolt with no belayer. 

when you are clipped into the lower off you are definitely not safe if no longer belayed. The only calls really necessary for sport are “take” and “slack” 

As for helmets the risk of inverting can be considerable in sport climbing, especially if a foot is placed in front of the rope (no mention in article) which is more likely on the less steep climbs recommended in the article for those new to outdoor sport. I can’t think of any less steep UK sport crags that aren’t prone to rockfall. The emphasis on importance of helmets should be stronger
 

As above, calling safe at the top isn't what is taught as best practice. When I'm teaching I encourage people to know what the plan for the route is at the bottom and communicate clearly but not to over communicate (ie, slack, take, lower).

+1 you're not safe when you clip in hard to the chains. It's a temporary teether whilst you faff around rethreading. I use the call 'in hard'.

I had a pretty scary near miss when my sister (an experienced trad climber, but at the time new to sport) tookj me off belay whilst re-threading. 

Well Tom, 3 dislikes (so far) for a qualified expert with the same near death experience as mine from ambiguous climbing calls! The UKC massif never ceases to amaze me

Well I'm not a disliker but struggling a bit to see what's so dangerous about being taken off belay while clipped to the lower-off. So long as the belayer puts me back on and takes in tight before I unclip... Happy to be told how I'm dicing with death by doing this?

There isn't ever a need to be taken off, unless you are abseiling the pitch. Accidents happen when people aren't sure, or mishear someone else at the crag shouting safe, take you off belay when you don't want taking off, ie you aren't clipped to the belay. 

Even with a clear plan, mistakes happen. I actually also had this happen to me in Norway ice climbing earlier this year where were doing a mixture of abseiling and rethreading routes. Fortunately I was keeping an eye from above and spotted the mistake before leaning back. 

Imagine the lower off is two independent bolts with rings on them. A fairly common scenario. 

You get to the anchor and clip in directly with a couple linked quickdraws (what most experienced sport climbers do), or a lanyard. You are now only attached to a single bolt, sure it is not likely to fail, but these things do occasionally happen. If you are still on belay at the point, and the bolt failed you'd just fall to the last bolt. If you're not being belayed at all, you'd fall to the ground. 

Effectively you're belayed to just one bolt, which I can't imagine is something you'd do in a multi pitch situation.

Besides, why would you get your belayer to take you off when they're going to put you back on straight away anyway? It's much safer for the belayer just to pay out an arm full of rope. 

Rethreading at a lower off is pretty high consequence if you get it wrong. It's good to have a solid system and check and re check. 

You may well not be dicing with death - provided you're aware that you've been taken off belay and therefore don't attempt to start lowering until you're sure you've been put back on. But this doesn't always happen; people have fallen to the ground - having just 'leaned back' when unaware that they were no longer on belay. So, as a general rule, it's best not to suggest that people should say anything when reaching the lower-off which could be interpreted as "take me off belay".

Yeah, thinking about it after writing the above I guess most times I've actually been kept on, albeit with yards of slack at the point where I'm actually threading the rope. I've never actively asked to be taken completely off, but been happy for the belayer to let go for a minute while I sort myself out. Having said that, in the scenario you outline I'd probably have a lanyard to one bolt and put a draw on the other. What you say sounds like a good failsafe system tho.

I’m very pleased to see that the article has now been edited and reference to the climbing call ‘safe’ removed. Well done UKC!

This is surely just going to give a longer fall and an even harder catch? Isn´t the only way to soften the catch with an automatic belay device a well-timed jump upwards just before the load comes onto the rope?

 I think this is the usual misunderstanding about all this. It is not about reducing the maximum tension in the rope (it will never be dangerously or even uncomfortably high whatever the situation - the rope's elasticity takes care of that). It is about reducing the horizontal speed with which the climber might swing into the rock (a longer fall, possibly counterintuitively, reduces this speed).

​​​​​​

Three important things:

Learn to rethread anchors SAFELY! Too many accidents happen from the anchors!

Wear a helmet! Too much stuff to hit your head, eg falling quickdraws off the next route, loose rock or inverting!

DO NOT toprope through the fixed gear!

The climbing is secondary to safety! (Speaking from years of experience, a few epics of my own and lots of others epics!

Talking of which - the climber in photo #8 (the time lapse fall) has pushed off way too far; he´s really going to slam horizontally into the rock. Pushing well off is a thing you should only do in order to be sure of clearing spikes, ledges etc. in the line of fall, since the wider the curve, the bigger the horizontal component in the vector of the force of impact.

There sometimes is (belayer desperate to go for a pee, fend off an unruly crag dog, take a photo or whatever......). It is then just, as ever, a matter of clear communication.

You're probably stretching the likelihood of actually needing to there, but I'll agree again that clear communication is key.

Under "respect the crag environment" it says "don't play loud music". Please don't play any music, the crag is not the place for it. I don't want to have your dubious taste in music inflicted on me, and you certainly don't want mine. If you really must listen to music, use headphones and keep it to yourself.