Setting a Top Rope on a Ledge: Keeping You and the Climbers SAFE

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I recently did a single-pitch rescue series in which I cover some of the fundamentals that are applicable to just about any climbing partnership, but I also go deeper into something I experienced a lot given that I’m a climbing parent: climbing with really light climbing partners.

This is a well-worn topic on the “light belayer” side of things. There are lots of videos about the dangers of a light belay getting sucked up a route because a heavier climber took a lead fall. There are entire pieces of gear dedicated to helping rectify this problem. There are in-the-field solutions like back anchors and the like.

But almost no one talks about having a really light climber and the risks that scenario brings. The reality is, when everything is going fine, it’s not a big deal at all. But when something goes wrong, all of a sudden, it’s a problem. Many many rescue scenarios begin with ascending to a climber that needs assistance. That ascension can’t happen if the leader’s weight can’t counterbalance the weight of the ascending belayer.

And, frankly, this is a very typical potential issue for parents who climb with young kids. We tend to think that if the kid gets in trouble, we are climbing something so easy that there isn’t anything we need to worry about.

But what if your kids are pretty good; sure, maybe not as good as you, but good enough that they are climbing consequential terrain. Maybe 5.8, 5.9, something like that. Sure, the likelihood of you falling on that terrain is pretty low, but it’s not like a scramble up a 5.0 or 5.2 slab. The consequences are high, and the probability of a fall are starting to creep up there.

Frankly, in today’s world of gym climbing and training protocols, I’m seeing more and more kids that are pretty strong climbers, and then when they start going outside, I’m seeing parents who are maybe not prepared to deal with the confluence of the risks inherent to the outdoors that then are multiplied by the fact that the kids are climbing hard.

The likelihood of consequential falls by the kids goes up, so the likelihood of injury goes up.

And then there is the garden variety “refusal to come down” that I see so many young kids face. If you climb with kids a lot, you will see many instances when a child is comfortable climbing up, feeling the rope from the top (assuming we are on top rope) reassuringly going tight as they move. But they will cling to the rock and refuse to be lowered on descent. It’s potentially psychologically damaging (depending upon the kid) to simply put slack in the system and let and wait for them to tire and let go. That initial drop can be pretty freaky for a kids who is already having some version of a panic attack.

So, how do we reassuringly help them get down?

My point is that the dynamics of gym-to-outdoors (when my generation all started outside), really technically accomplished climbing kids, and the weight dynamics all can combine to create some unique problems that we need to be equipped to solve, as parents. That was the entire motivation for my single-pitch rescue series. Yes, some of it is applicable to everyone (everyone should know how to tie-off a belay… everyone should know how to transfer a load from one line to another), but this was really aimed at those of us shepherding our children into this sport.

As I finished that series, I realized there is a bunch of other stuff that parents who may have climbed with their kids in the gym might need to know if they are to move to the outdoors. This video falls into that category. Again, it is very applicable to any climber that has maybe been the mentee and is now starting to climb with people for whom he or she is the mentor. But it’s really about us parents and maybe specifically that new generation of “climbing parents” who have moved from gym to crag in a way that simply not available in the previous generations.