Mulit-Pitch Climbing Safety: Extending a Belay Away from the Anchor in an Exposed Position

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IFMGA guides Marc Chauvin and Rob Coppolillo wrote a book called The Mountain Guide Manual: The Comprehensive Reference--From Belaying to Rope Systems and Self-Rescue. I have referenced it frequently in order to brush up on my skills as I move from season to season and type of climbing to type of climbing (rock to snow to peaks, etc. as the seasons change around me). And every once in awhile, I learn something completely new from this resource. The video, today, is one of those times.

As the boys get into more climbing, they inevitably experienced more varied terrain and circumstances. It’s my job to be able to help them transport themselves through that terrain efficiently and safely while passing on the skills to let them do that themselves as they get older. Come to think of it, that’s a lot like parenting, in a nutshell, isn’t it?

But in climbing and the alpine, this is looks a lot more like guiding. And I take that responsibility seriously. One of the things guide instruction will tell guides is that they need to keep themselves safe, first, or they are in no position to keep their clients safe. Today’s technique may be an object lesson in that principle. The procedure is about keeping the lead climber (often the most experienced) safe while they position themselves to keep the second climber more safe by, first, improving line-of-sight which improves communication, and then, second, brings that second climber up to the anchor, where that second climber can go “in direct",” which is a comparatively safe position on a climb. From there, the situation pivots, again, as the leader goes on the move to either get back to the anchor, too, or to continue up the next pitch.

Keeping the leader (guide) safe, so that the second (client) can stay safe, so that the leader can be kept safe, again.

For what it’s worth, this is the same logic that is used in search-and-rescue, too. Keep the rescuers safe, first. If a rescuer gets into trouble, there is one less rescuer and there is now maybe 100% more people to rescue (if the rescue was put in place for an individual). That’s some dauting math: do twice as much work with one less person than you planned for.

Another example would be the airline masks. This is why the airline safety presentations ask you to place your oxygen mask over your own face before helping someone else.

When we go out into exposed and risky places, we have a responsibility to keep ourselves our those around us, safe. In vertical and mountain environments, that often means keeping us safe, first.