This coming from a guy that couldn't find his ass with a headlamp and both hands. Stop bringing irrelevant political rants into climbing discussions every time someone from the US points out you're an idiot.

...I'm not that old yet, but remember when half the people you climbed with had stitchplates, almost everone could whip together a biner break, and a GriGri was something no-one had ever heard of. It is truely a shame that because a lot of people thought that these devices were a 'short cut' to good belaying such controversy over their use seems to be a daily topic. This especially when the real problem has been a lax approach to belaying in general by many. Belaying is one of the most important parts of the climbing system, but unfortunatly seems to recive far less respect than it is due...

Perhaps that explains why so many posters have basically said "oh well, that could happen to anybody." Don't people actually know how to belay anymore?

Curt

[..]

Hmm, unless and until you figure out how and why she dropped you, I wouldn't make any assumptions. I wonder if it's more your shock, pain, and perhaps a little anger that's talking here. You're beating up on both yourself and your belayer. Knowing what you know now, is there anything that you actually would do differently? If not, you really have only three logical choices: 1 - Accept the possibility that this could happen again without warning with you as either climber or belayer, 2 - dig a little deeper to find out what happened, or 3 - stop taking lead falls.
[..]

Daniel, I will ask her today, document her responses and post later this evening. With each passing day, I remember more things; I think I remember thinking that she was too far from the wall. I don't know if that is true, the only way I will know is to:
1) Ask her
2) Get up to the top of the climb and look down while my belayer moves to the spot I saw her in.

There was one other witness (she was standing next to my belayer). I haven't had a chance to talk with her.

Actually, I was concerned about my belayer. I knew that she had climbed for a few hours and that she was tired. My gut told me "no" but I climbed anyways. So, I guess I will add:

5) Listen to your gut.

Also, my other lessons, "cull the herd", "keep your circle small" are still valid, for me anyways. You see I do a LOT of coaching and I act as a guinea pig for many new belayers (with back up). I will no longer be a guinea pig.

I've been dropped by my belayer once (just ten feet, with no harm whatsoever). Who's fault? Easy to blame him, but it was mine. And only mine. I taught him and forgot to tell him the "keep your fingers outa the belay" secret. Could have been as well a 30 footer with a different outcome.

I recently introduced a friend to climbing, and went over belaying briefly before the weather turned. I think he has the potential to be a good climber and belayer. How does he get from a to b without being a less-than optimal belayer?

See a pattern? That's why people are getting dropped right and left. In 1985 when I took my first climbing lesson we spent the entire morning learning to belay. Today the typical climber gets maybe 15 minutes of instruction in the gym.

Jay

Thanks for sharing this
My opinion is that routine is the single most dangerous habit in climbing
Will use the lessons learned by your story to renew the attention of all belayes I know (including myself)

In 1985 when I took my first climbing lesson we spent the entire morning learning to belay. Today the typical climber gets maybe 15 minutes of instruction in the gym.

See a pattern? That's why people are getting dropped right and left. In 1985 when I took my first climbing lesson we spent the entire morning learning to belay. Today the typical climber gets maybe 15 minutes of instruction in the gym.

While I agree with the basic premise that some people take a lackadaisical approach to teaching belaying, it's not hard to do if you really know what you're doing, and it doesn't need to take that long. In a one-on-one setting, I can teach a complete novice how to safely TR belay with an ATC in 15 minutes. I have taught literally hundreds of people, and to the best of my knowledge, none have ever dropped anyone (and I follow a number of their climbing careers).

GO

While I agree with the basic premise that some people take a lackadaisical approach to teaching belaying, it's not hard to do if you really know what you're doing, and it doesn't need to take that long. In a one-on-one setting, I can teach a complete novice how to safely TR belay with an ATC in 15 minutes. I have taught literally hundreds of people, and to the best of my knowledge, none have ever dropped anyone (and I follow a number of their climbing careers).

GO

You're right, and I should have mentioned the following: After that 15 minutes, I often had the ability to keep an eye on them for the next month, as they only climbed at my gym, with me as a supervisor. Most of them only needed a very occasional tip, but there were a few of them that required a lot of remedial attention, though they did eventually all become excellent belayers.

olderic,

I suspect you are alone on this Valentine's Day.

olderic,
I suspect you are alone on this Valentine's Day.

highly doubt it.. even if his wife pushes him away Flash will always love him

So, really, then, in 15 min. you are teaching just enough so that they can belay under tightly controlled circumstances with supervision. Imagine, instead, that they would immediately be belaying you, unsupervised, while seconding you on a multi-pitch route. Furthermore, after they leave you that day, you expect them to be able to competently belay anybody on a multi-pitch route.

Belayers today rarely get this level of instruction. They get 10 or 15 min. of instruction at the gym, and maybe another 10 min. when they start "lead belaying." They rarely know how much slack to keep in the rope for top-roping, never mind leading. They don't know when, why, or how to anchor in. They aren't taught the concept of fall factor, and hence, have no idea that without gloves and both hands on the brake side of the rope they may not be able to control a worst-case-scenario fall. Ask them when they should take in rope to shorten a fall, and you'll inevitably get one of two responses, both wrong: a blank stare or the comment that they try to shorten every fall.

And that's if they're using an ATC. Those that have learned on grigris have all of the above problems, combined with the more basic problem that they rarely use the device correctly, and have little if any understanding of how to avoid mistakes that lead to accidents with the device.

/rant

Jay

I think this whole concept of taking practice whippers kind of silly (and plenty of females do it in my primary gym too - maybe it's a gender thing) in fact i think Arno's whole thing is kind of silly (although I know that will be viewed at blasphamey on this site - and it certainly has been lucrative for him). Maybe you shoul just concentrate on climbing in the future and the falls will take care of themselves.