{"id":11742,"date":"2016-08-14T19:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T09:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/?p=11742"},"modified":"2020-08-05T19:54:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T09:54:57","slug":"the-most-dangerous-part-of-sport-climbing-cleaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/14\/the-most-dangerous-part-of-sport-climbing-cleaning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Dangerous Part Of Sport Climbing: Cleaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have seen too many close calls, and heard of many serious accidents because of the infamous mix up of \u201cis my climber abseiling or being lowered off?\u201d. Climbers have been taken off belay and fallen from the top of their climb because of this simple mistake. As this post aims to teach, this mix up is very easily avoided with a few simple rules, and really just vigilance and communication.<\/p>\n<p>As you may know, when cleaning a sport climb you can either<br \/>\n1. Stay on belay, tie yourself to a bite, untie original knot, thread end through bolts, re-tie the rope to yourself and be lowered off through the bolts, or<br \/>\n2. You can be taken off belay, pull up half the rope through the bolts and then abseil off double strand.<\/p>\n<p>The dangerous mix up happens when a climber who wanted to be lowered off, is taken off belay because the belayer thought they were abseiling. The climber then takes off their own safety (assuming they are on belay) and falls.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my rules to maximise your safety and minimise the possibility of this happening:<\/p>\n<p>Everyone<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Try to ALWAYS LOWER. I know abseiling does mean less wear on the bolts, however if everyone knows everyone is always lowering there will be no mix up. Also I feel lowering is safer because you are always safe through your rope (on belay) and your safety while cleaning, so two things. Sometimes you will need to abseil if the anchor set up or rope drag means lowering isn't easily an option.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Belayer:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unless your climber specifically told you before the climb that they were abseiling, ASSUME they are lowering off.<\/li>\n<li>Never EVER take your climber off belay while they are cleaning and planning to be lowered. I\u2019ve heard and seen \u201cI\u2019ll put them back on when they\u2019re finished\u201d and it\u2019s just not good enough. This is someone\u2019s life. Why risk them taking off their safety before you put them back on?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Climber<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tell your belayer you are lowering off before each climb<\/li>\n<li>When you reach the top and connect your safety yell \u201cI\u2019m in hard\u201d instead of \u201cI\u2019m safe\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m secure\u201d. \u201cSafe\u201d or \u201cSecure\u201d can mean I am into a SRENE anchor and want to be taken off belay. \u201cIn hard\u201d means I am temporarily in on my safety.<br \/>\n<em>Note: Personally I don\u2019t say anything, I just yell \u201cslack\u201d when I need it for cleaning, hence they have no reason to take me off belay, they just give slack.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>When you\u2019ve finished cleaning, first yell \u201ctake\u201d to get your weight transferred from your safety to the rope. Then, yell \u201con you\u201d BEFORE taking your safety off. Wait until you hear your belayer say \u2018ok\u2019 or \u2018got you\u2019 to take your safety off. You want to be triply sure you are safe through the rope with your weight held by it. Never just fall back assuming the rope has you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There you have it. So please keep this all in mind and everyone have fun and be safe out there!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8234\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8234\" src=\"http:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"vicky1\" width=\"307\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1-768x509.jpg 768w, https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vicky1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 307px) 100vw, 307px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cheers, Brendan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have seen too many close calls, and heard of many serious accidents because of the infamous mix up of &hellip; <a class=\"kt-excerpt-readmore more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/14\/the-most-dangerous-part-of-sport-climbing-cleaning\/\" aria-label=\"The Most Dangerous Part Of Sport Climbing: Cleaning\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,127,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing","category-safety","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}