Alternative Belaying Techniques Through Moderate Mountain Terrain
Most mountain climbing routes are not purely vertical but involve stretches of moderate broken or low-angle terrain where quick progress can be made. A key to maximizing efficiency through these sections is to avoid the time consuming tasks of setting extensive fixed anchors and belay stations. Techniques that use this type of running belay activities are widely called simulclimb or simul climbing. Intermediate quick belay techniques are considered alpine style and have a long history with mountain climbers in the European Alps. While more challenging sections will require standard belay techniques with fixed anchors, so that your climbing partner has substantial protection against falls, these more gentle sections allow other belay and safety approaches to be employed.
When proceeding without multi-point fixed anchors, you should always be ready to use your body weight and strength as a quick and efficient anchor for your partner. The legs and back can be leveraged against a strong stone or tree to improve the safety of the belay. The key is that no amount of pushing should exert any movement on the large rock or boulder. Once a solid position is attained, clip yourself in using a clove hitch and locking carabiner. Alternatively, you can use two standard carabiners that are “opposite and opposed”, which is an old school trick to provide equal or greater protection to a single locking carabiner. Make sure that your position and the gear is lined up with the climber and his fall direction below you. As he proceeds, ensure that the slack is continuously taken up. If you do not have a belay device available, you can use a munter hitch on your harness carabiner. In extreme situations or when you want to be even quicker, you can also wrap the rope around your back in what is termed a “body belay”. You should definitely practice this before you need to use it on the mountain. A key safety feature to the body belay technique is to align the forces you will experience onto the same side of your body, so you will not “unravel” yourself in the case of a fall. Here is a great video that describes this issue and proper technique.
You can also use a tree to brace yourself and be ready to wrap more around that tree to achieve additional arresting friction in the case of a potential slide or fall. If you don’t have great footing to body belay, but want to be fairly secure, you can wrap the rope 180 degrees around the tree. This method will produce substantial friction. In this circumstance, you can turn your back to the climber, and without any added equipment, you can pull in slack and directly hand-belay. You should tie a bight into the rope and clip it onto your harness as a safety fail. In the unfortunate case that the rope slips from your hands, your body weight along with the tree friction will arrest the fall.
In barren snow and ice terrain, climbers can still safely climb in simul fashion by using ice axes and seated body weight to quickly belay. These ice axes are, of course, used to arrest a fall when all climbers are roped together in a simul climb. For a belay situation, the ice axe can buried in a T-slot and packed in the snow. The leader can belay off that directly with a soft belay, a munter hitch, or set himself up with a stronger anchor point and belay off his harness. Again, the belaying leader uses his legs and back in a strong seat position to be ready to safely bring up his partner. One should also ensure that one’s body direction is in line with the forces he/she will experience.
Climbers should always practice these techniques in safe settings first and master the skills it takes to be ready for actual climbing situations. Many mountain climbing outfits offer belay and self rescue classes, which provide a great opportunity to learn these techniques and may save you or your partner’s life someday.
About the Author:
An avid outdoorsman, Carl Byington (President, PHM Design LLC in Atlanta, GA) enjoys trail running, backpacking, and mountain climbing in his free time. Carl has used these techniques during his rock and mountain climbing experiences on Mt. Rainier, in the Andes mountains, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and some of his favorite mountain crags around the Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Georgia.
Carl Byington knows the importance of this training first hand. He is forever grateful for his climbing partner, Mike Yukish.
