In reply to UKC Articles: An ok article, but to be honest not amazing. I had hoped for something better than the normal passable rehashes of existing material or trailers for new books or DVDs we get on UKC and in the UK climbing magazines.
It just confirms that reading a book or watching a video isn't a substitute for some decent training and practice. Even in such a short article there are various trivial and not so trivial errors and omissions.
- Protecting yourself whilst rigging. The method Neil shows is certainly better than nothing but isn't ideal as two better methods exist, either tying into an end of the rigging rope or using a prussic which you adjust to keep your sling tight.
- Lateral stability. There is no mention that one of the main reasons we use multiple anchors with top and bottom ropes is to provide lateral stability. The bottom rope Neil rigs has poor lateral stability and the situation shown in the last picture with the belayer connected to a single anchor is appalling in this regard.
- Lowering Off. The hand position in the lowering off graphic is not the one I would teach. It shows the assisting (right) arm coming over the top of the rope instead of underneath. If the belayer may be pulled off his feet this is potentially dangerous as is using the same arm position in normal belaying. There is a real risk of the arm being trapped against the body by the rope in the event of a fall leading to an increased chance of dropping the climber. No mention is made of standing close into the rockface to reduce the inward forces or bracing yourself against it for extra stability.
- Using Cams as anchors for bottom ropes. Neil uses a 1 and 2 Camalot as his second anchor despite this being a poor idea where anchors will be out of sight and the text specifically advising against this.
- Use of blocks and boulders. Placing a rope or sling underneath a gritstone boulder is generally a poor and unnecessary idea even when using a wire to reduce jamming. The rope or sling can generally be brought round onto the top of the boulder quickly resulting in a more secure anchor with less chance of jamming. Given the pronounced notch in the left side of the boulder Neil uses this would clearly have been possible. Also a bowline is quicker to rig and easier to adjust than a figure-of-8.
More trivial issues:
- Belaying. In the 3rd picture the HMS is clipped to the wrong part of the rope loop and the rope is threaded through to wrong half of the belay device.
- Using clove hitches. When using clove hitches in rigging ropes I would ideally expect them to be tied off with a couple half hitches clipped back to the screwgate. This may be overkill but is a useful belt and braces measure when dealing with stiff rigging ropes.
- Lowering off graphic. The top krab is the wrong way round, the gate should be facing away from the rock as clearly shown in the video.
- Direct Belay 2 graphic. It does not seem to show the belay device correctly threaded so the rope is on the back bar side of the belay device.
- Direct Belay graphic. The artist can't draw knots correctly.