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Blue Mountains - male climber injured after fall 8-Nov-2013 At 5:12:46 PM JohnK

Message

On 8/11/2013 kieranl wrote:
>On 8/11/2013 bigfish wrote:
>>I think we as a climbing community should all learn from this and what
>>to do and not to do when on a multi pitch in regard to top belaying.
>
>>I have always believed that belaying off your harness for second is not
>>the best practise, maybe it was back in the day with the limited devices
>>available, but now with our reverso's and guide devices there is no need
>>to.
>What do you do if the only good anchors are at foot level when standing
>on the belay ledge? I would (and do) sit down and belay from my belay loop.
>This may not happen on bolted routes but it's fairly common on trad routes.
>I'd be concerned about climbing with someone who wasn't competent to belay
>a second from their harness.

Exactly - climbing requires creating various solutions to problems depending on the situation - you should be able to belay from your harness OR anchors as required in a particular situation (as long as the direction of pull aligns with the way the anchor is set up).

You should also be able to belay safely with various devices including gri gri's, stitch plates and in fact even a locking biner if required using an Italian hitch.

Also you should know how to escape the system if required in case of a need for rescuing the second etc and or need to escape the system.