I am sorry, majid, I usually have patience with you. But...this is a rediculous poll. Your question does not match your poll choices. Your poll choices are entirely situational. The #1 priority in a fall is to make sure your climber doesn't hit anything, whether that means the ground or a ledge or a tree. SO in other words, catch the damn fall. Sometimes this means taking up slack quickly, which in turn could harden the fall. You know what's worse than not getting a soft catch? Hitting the ground!

The way you belay depends on the situation. It's dictated by the angle of the climb, how much rope is out/how high the climber is, whether there are any obstacles in the way, whether you are able to move as a belayer, whether you are using an atc or autolocking device, the weight of the climber, and many other factors. NOt to mention, although i have no proof of this, the alignment of the moon in relation the all the planets.

This poll is bogus! No offense.

Josh

Catch the damn fall! If you fail to do this one thing, then the belay was a complete and total failure.

damn, i cant imagine how many fishing trophies Majid has in his den....


Oh, look! theres another one!

A belay device is not rope manament device like an ABS on a car that is skidding on ICE. You guys are taking a simple question and adding attachment to it. A belay device is designed to stop a falling climber. If this statement is correct and people (climbers) agree on it , then a belayer’s first priority is to arrest the falling leader at any cost.

My, aren't you going to look silly out deep water soloing.

What?

That's not how the game is played: you're supposed to take what was said out of context.

If you say that again I will hunt you down!

DMT

I didn't even say it once; I typed it.

The answer (to the poll options) is...

It depends.

(As usual.)

One of the factors involved in the "it depends" answer shows up as an erroneous part of the second poll question. In that option, letting out slack is equated with reducing the load. For most of the falls one encounters (leader does not fall past the belayer), introducing additional slack before the fall impact is felt by the belayer will increase the load to protection and the falling leader, not reduce it.

On overhanging rock, extra slack is sometimes introduced anyway in order to create a longer pendulum arm and so reduce the impact at the end of the pendulum, but this reduced impact to the leader's ankles comes at the expense of a higher load to the protection, and is usually of no use on less than vertical rock

I think the disagreement comes from the different interpretation of "letting some rope out" as either letting out slack, which, as rgold correctly pointed out, increases the fall factor in most cases* or letting some rope to controllably run through the belay device before locking it , which provides a more dynamic and softer fall arrest.
That said, I completely agree with what rgold has written.

* See Jay's math demonstration in this post

You walk in to any climbing institution (guide, gyms etc) to learn how to belay, they primarily teach you to lock the rope.

when one of the option is to manage amount of slack it is only a natural assumption that there is no slack in the system.

One of the factors involved in the "it depends" answer shows up as an erroneous part of the second poll question. In that option, letting out slack is equated with reducing the load. For most of the falls one encounters (leader does not fall past the belayer), introducing additional slack before the fall impact is felt by the belayer will increase the load to protection and the falling leader, not reduce it.

if there was a simple rule that worked in every case, belaying wouldn't be so hard. everyone would learn that rule and nobody would hit the wall or deck. unfortunately that's not the case and every fall situation requires some judgment. Your first priority as a belayer is your climber's safety, sometimes that means paying out, sometimes it means locking off right away.

Can you explain how you got this ?
Thanks.