Does the first climber do it bit by bit until those behind have a decent distance to climb? In my head they’re climbing using a rope that’s anchored 20 feet above them. If so, how does it get there?
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National Geographic special: The Last Tepui.
Free Solo guy Alex Honnold and Nat Geo climbers climb a rock feature in South America that’s never been climbed by scientists. I think it may have never been climbed by people, but I don’t recall. It’s a nice documentary that cites some of the perils of climbing something for the first time.
The 1st climber is the “leader” and they are “lead climbing”. The rope is attached to their harness, and is not anchored above.
The leader climbs up and if they fall immediately they hit the ground. If the leader is skillful enough not to fall immediately, they take some protective gear from a loop on their harness and place it into a crack in the rock. Then a quickdraw (two caribiners linked by short length of cord is attached to the protective gear, then they clip the rope into the quickdraw. Assuming the gear is securely placed, the leader is now safe.
They then continues to climb up. Of course now the leader is above his gear and a fall would send him some way down past the previously placed piece of gear (if you are 5 metres above your gear, you will fall 10 metres plus rope slack, plus rope stretch). The leader must judge how far they can go before a fall becomes dangerous (i.e. might hit the floor) and must place another piece of gear and repeat the cycle all the way to the top, or until there is no more rope.
At the top, the leader places at least two pieces of gear, but ideally 3, to create a safe anchor, and now his belayer… or “second” can follow up safely. The second retrieves the gear from the rock as they go.
As you can imagine, leading is far more stressful and far riskier than seconding. But that’s how its done.
They don’t. You put a hook, climb few meters above you and put another one. In case of a fall you use a dynamic rope (not sure if this is proper English name) that stretches and absorbs their fall energy. Anyway – you can fall few meters before you stop. If lucky, you won’t injure yourself to much in the process.
The first climber, the lead climber, places protective gear into the wall as they climb. If they fall, they will fall until the rope becomes tight between them, the protective piece, and the follower climber who has the other side of the rope. They will fall past their top piece of protective gear before the rope becomes tight.
When the leader gets to the top of that particular section, they place many pieces and build an anchor, bring up the rest of the rope, and put the follower on belay. The follower will pick up, or clean, all the protective gear and give it to the leader at the top. Then the leader will have all the gear and can lead the next section, or “pitch”.
For sport climbing if the first anchor is high up, the lead climber can use a stick to clip in.
Typically you use a bow and arrow, with the latter attached to the rope.
Wait no that’s tomb raider. Never mind.
“Top roping” is when you use gear/protection (“pro”) that is already in place.
If you are “setting a line”, you don’t have pro ahead of you. You put it in as you go. You do it in a way so that if you fall, you only for five or 6 feet.
If there’s no anchors on the wall, then you need to bring your own “protection” and anchor them to the wall as you climb. You reach up, attach it to the rock, and clip the rope in.
But then you need to climb past that anchor, so there are times where you are above your anchor point. If you’re 5 feet above your highest anchor, you’ll fall 10 feet before the rope catches you. So obviously the further apart your anchors are, the riskier it is.
And of course anchors sometimes fail. So you might fall past two anchors, which would be very dangerous.
To hell with the gym and its rock wall. Likewise top roping. You are climbing a wall. You are on lead. Your partner is below you and ready to protect you against a life ending fall. When you begin you say “on belay.” He responds “belay on.” This way each of you knows that you are about to begin climbing and his job is to secure the rope if you pop loose.
The art of climbing involves controlled risk. As you go vertical you set bits of protection (“pro”) in the wall. You connect the rope to the pro using some sort of loop and a carabiner. You thread the rope through the carabiner. As you proceed you are confident that the maximum fall you may sustain is equal to twice the distance between you and the last piece of pro.
It is also true that ropes will be categorized as static or dynamic. Go for dynamic. Because they are designed to stretch a bit if you fall. Static ropes will not stretch, and you will hate life if the rope arrests your fall and your body bends in half to absorb the impact.
The difference between top roping, or gym climbing, and real climbing is that the protection usually is not waiting for you. Popular climbing routes, including state or federal routes, may have protection set by the park service or other climbers. Trust that protection at your own risk.
Me? Retired SAR sergeant and rigger, SD County Sheriff Department
This is a bit complex because there’s different types of climbing, but I’ll try my best to ELI5… There’s “top rope,” “sport,” and “trad”.
For top rope you either hike up to the top, set up an anchor around a tree, large boulder, etc., and feed the rope through to the bottom, walk down (or rappel) and climb, or you start at the top and build your anchor and rappel down and climb back up.
For sport climbing you climb a route with things called “bolts” (ring/bracket things) set along it, and a pre-made anchor bolted at the top. As you climb, you use clips called “quickdraws” and put them through the bolts, then put the rope through the quickdraw. This means if you fall you will only fall the distance between you and the bolt, plus rope stretch.
For trad climbing you use things called “cams” which are basically a special quickdraw you place into a crack in the rock which expands so it doesn’t come out. You place these along the route as you go.
Then there’s multi-pitch climbing which means you climb a route much longer than the length of your rope, so you have to go in sections (pitches). I’ve never done multi-pitch but I think it’s mostly all climbed with trad gear. Basically the first person climbs it using cams, then sets up an anchor and the second person climbs up on top rope, removing the gear as they climb. Then you repeat until you’re at the top. I believe you would typically hike down from this type of climbing.
If you’ve never done it, you should totally go try climbing! It’s an excellent workout and mentally engaging because it’s like a puzzle figuring out how to get to the top. A climbing gym is a great way to give it a go without spending too much money, and it’s a great way to meet new people. In general I have found it to be a very welcoming and friendly community of people!
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