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Climbing Course

The harness🔗

Putting a harness on:🔗

  • there shouldn't be any twists and turns
  • equipment hooks should point downwards
  • metallic hooks should point to the outside
  • should not slide up/down the hip bone

Using figure-8 knots to tie-in🔗

Figure-8 knot tie-in:🔗

  • loop should be as big or smaller than the belay hoop
  • should pass through both upper and lower harness hoops
  • slack should be less than 10cm
  • measure rope length from left shoulder to right arm length
  • make a snowman, give him a scarf, poke him in the eye
  • with inner loop pointing to the right, follow the knot after passing the slack through the upper and lower harness hoops: OUTSIDE, OUTSIDE, INSIDE

Belaying🔗

The device:🔗

  • climber end should point upwards
  • hand end should point downwards
  • make a rope bite, pass it through the belay device, then pass carbine through the rope bite, the belay device cable and into the belay loop
  • there should be a knot near the end of the rope

The technique:🔗

  • always use full hand grips (4 fingers + thumb around)
  • thumbs always point towards the belay
  • right hand grips below the belay
  • left hand pinches rope above the belay, detects slack and gently pulls it down
  • move right hand below the device as fast as possible
  • grip with (full) left hand above the right hand
  • bring right hand to about 10cm below the belay
  • move left hand back to pinch position

Body checks🔗

Climber body check:🔗

  • compare the knot loop length to the belay loop length
  • check that the figure 8 is correctly tied (5 times 2 on up/down sides. 4 parallel lines on left/right sides)
  • check that the slack is not longer than 10cm

Belayer check:🔗

  • check that the belay device is correctly positioned and configured
  • tap the carbine to make sure it's correctly closed

Both climber + belayer body check:🔗

  • check the harness -> equipment + metallic hooks positioning
  • check the harness -> should not slide up/down the hip bone

Rope checks:🔗

  • check that the rope is the same
  • check that there are no twists and turns
  • check that there's an extra knot near the end of the rope

Signaling🔗

Before each climb:🔗

  • belayer shouts "on belay!"
  • climber shouts "climbing!"