Belay On? On Belay…
I've been wall climbing at a local gym for about 9 months. Most of that 9 months has involved 2 to 3 visits to the gym each week using the auto-belaying system on routes as well as being belayed by a core group of friends. Climbing has become part of my overall mantra of "taking care of myself" in retirement. I never thought about learning how to belay until about 3 months ago when my wife started climbing. We would go to the gym on the weekend, a busier time to be climbing, and have to wait patiently to share the auto-belay routes with the mass of people who, like us, did not know how to Top Rope Belay. We would look at the people belaying each other and think, "One of these days, we need to get our Top Rope certification so we can open up more opportunities, in the gym, to ourselves." About a month ago, after having to wait what seemed like an eternity to access just a few auto-belay routes, my wife and I finally decided to sign up for the Introduction to Top Rope Belaying class. The next available class was February 14th, Valentine's Day. Perfect. What better way to spend the day with a loved one.
We arrived at the gym a few minutes early. Six other individuals had signed up; a total of eight participants. We signed in, met the two instructors, made small talk with some of the other participants, and waited.
The class started a few minutes late as we waited for a few of the participants to arrive. No worries. We didn't have anything else to do. The instructors introduced themselves, gave a broad stroke outline of what the class would entail, then we were on our way.
The first thing we did was introduce ourselves to the group. Then we showed the instructors we could properly put our harness on. We also talked about how to identify that a harness has reached its end of life. The general rule is that if it is five years old or showing faults anywhere; it's time to get a new one. We learned about how rope is structured; specifically the interior core and the exterior, braided sheath. We learned how to tell when a rope is nearing or reached its end of life. One sign that your rope is ready to be replaced is that you can see the core through the sheath. We learned, as the climber, how to tie the figure 8 knot. We learned about the gear that the belayer uses; specifically the ATC (Air Traffic Controller), the grigri, and the carabiner. We learned about how to tell when this equipment has reached its end of life. Wear and tear or faulty parts are a clear sign that this equipment is ready to be retired. It's important to understand when equipment has reached its end of life because you do NOT want to use faulty equipment when climbing and/or belaying. We learned the belaying method used; it's called PBUS which stands for Pull, Brake, Under, Slide. We learned the commands that climber and belayer need to use. We learned which rope is meant for the climber (the one closet to the wall) and which rope is meant for the belayer (the one furthest away from the wall). Next came the fun part; practice!
We were assigned a route and provided time to practice...
1. Climber tying the figure 8 knot.
2. Belayer setting up the ATC and clipping into her harness via the carabiner.
3. Climber and belayer practicing the commands while climbing.
4. Climber and belayer practicing an announced fall and unannounced fall.
Our initial practice was all done on the 25 foot walls, on the second floor of the gym. We then moved downstairs to the 45 foot walls and practiced more. The class ended by discussing what the test would involve. We were given a study sheet and told, as per the gym we belong to, the test could not be taken on the same day as the class. We could however come back to the gym the following day to test. My wife and I decided on that; test the very next day while all of the content and reps with the PBUS method were fresh in our minds.
We got up the next morning, had a cup of coffee, got ready to go, and arrived a the gym 15 minutes after it opened. One of our favorite staffers administered the test to both of us. My wife went first and passed with flying colors. She took to everything covered in the class the day before, like a natural. I on the other hand was a bit nervous as the PBUS method, at first, proved a bit difficult to pick up. I got much better as the class went on and was hopeful I would be able to "show what I know" when it mattered most. Long story short, I nailed it. We were assigned our Top Rope badges and on our way.
We immediately went upstairs to practice on a 5.7 route. It's an easy route to climb and we thought it would be a great route to begin our climber/belayer journey together. It was so much fun! Words cannot describe how we felt climbing and belaying with each other; especially when the auto-belay routes started getting busy with climbers not yet Top Rope certified. I look forward to honing my belaying skills while sharing the experience with my wife and eventually, my friends.
