Your Weight Difference Is Blocking the Pick Off Rescue

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As climbing, and particularly route climbing on rock, becomes more and more popular, the number of times I see parents out with kids has been increasing. And as the number of climbing kids increases, the number of kids and teenagers that are capable of lead climbing also increases. It’s a law of large numbers. As the numbers increases, the count of climbing partnerships that have pretty youthful climbers out on the sharp end also increases.

In short, having climbing partnerships with adults and kids is not nearly as rare as it used to be.

It used to be the case that two semi-hardened climbers came up the ranks together, but now we more frequently have generational partnerships, climbing being passed on from parent to child.

As I’ve gotten into progressively more serious terrain as my kids have gotten to be progressively more competent climbers, I’ve always felt like it’s been my responsibility to be proficient at group rescue practices. If I’ve been a part of the decision making process that has gotten me and my children into a predicament, then I have the responsibility for helping get us out of it. I also have felt that I’ve needed to pass along techniques of self reliance to my kids. I want them to be capable of handling themselves, or helping others, should they ever be so unfortunate as to need to apply those skills in a meaningful way.

That has some impact on the systems we use and the risks we need to mitigate as both the body differences and the differences in systems knowledge are more frequently significant.

We are probably aware of the issues that come with having a heavier climber and a lighter belayer. Entire techniques are becoming more main stream as the frequency of this dynamic multiply. We have fixed point lead belays (although there are other use cases for that technique, not just weight differences). We have entire new systems of gear being developed like the Edelrid Ohm, adding friction to the rope. All of this is to help stop a belayer from being yanked up and potentially into the lowest gear placement or the falling climber should a heavier lead climber take a fall.

But we don’t often think of the inverse dynamic. If we have a very light climber compared to the belayer, we don’t have the same issue of a lead fall creating a potentially uncontrollable pull on the belayer. But we do have a problem if we want to do anything counterbalanced, as the weight difference means the heavier person will simply yank the lighter person up until a gear placement stops that upward pull. One such case where that problem stops being theoretical and starts getting real is if we are performing the single-pitch rescue technique of the “pick off.”

In a pick off, the belayer ascends the belay strand to go rescue a climber on the wall. Well, the act of ascending is a counterbalanced procedure. So, the problem above could make the ascension impractical.

How much weight difference starts to become a problem? Well, take a look.