Can You Block Lead from a Climbing Rope Anchor?

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Rock and alpine climbing has a long tradition of mentoring. In some ways, it often still follows the old notion of apprenticeship, with the (often) older, more-experienced hand shepherding the newer climber. There is something poetic about it, and it may be at the heart of the community-building that climbing (at its best) creates.

But there is also a downside. Unlike an electrician, who has to stay up to date on the latest tools, techniques, and regulations/codes, there is no such requirement of your mentor. Guides, yes. Mentors, no. That’s not to say that some mentors won’t keep up to date and allow their climbing to evolve as best-practices evolve, but they aren’t required to do so. And while we can take the counter-perspective and assume that there are some derelict guides that similarly fail to stay up to date, I think it’s safe to say that there are strong incentive structures in place that make that less likely that it otherwise would be.

Now, I’m not hear to bash mentorship. In fact, I am a mentor to a few newer climbers beyond just my own kids. In fact, I would say mentorship will always play a key role in most climber’s progressions because we simply cannot afford to pay someone a fee every time we go out. So, please don’t hear this as some cautionary tale about unqualified mentors. Although, as your own knowledge advances, I would be skeptical of anyone who is too fixed in their ways to change - that’s my one warning.

My point is a more subtle one, and I want to bring it back to this video. Many, many climbing relationships have in imbalance of ability and/or experience. If you have a mentor, it’s possible that there are many occasions, as your own skills build up, that the mentor is sending the crux pitch or the like. So, there are likely times when we need the more accomplished climber of a pair to put multiple leads up in a row (a block lead) on a route.

For years, I was leading all the pitches for my kids. Now, they are good enough to swap leads - or even block lead, themselves - on some routes. But for those years, I needed to be able to get into and out of a lead transition with them regardless of any type of anchor configuration we may have. While having slings or cord makeup the anchor makes this easier, there are times - as I point out in the video - where using the dynamic properties and long length of the climbing rope just makes sense for the circumstance. So, I need to be able to block lead even with the rope anchor.

Do we limit ourselves from using the rope - the most adaptable soft good we carry - in our anchors because we have so many circumstances where we block lead, and especially early on in our climbing careers when our mentor is doing the leading? Is that that tail wagging the dog when it comes to anchor building? I don’t know if it’s as severe as all of that, but if we felt really comfortable getting into and out of rope anchors, maybe we’d be more inclined to use those anchors.

There are other downsides. It’s possible that we could have a rope anchor at the top of the - let’s say - first pitch, where we are now belaying the leader up the second pitch and, once there, have another rope anchor built. So, now we have two rope anchors in place, taking up a lot of rope length. So, again, please don’t hear some extreme version of what I am saying. I’m not saying “rope anchors are almost always better.” I’m just saying that more tools in the toolbox means more options available to us that we can customize to the circumstance.