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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Abseiling tips, tricks, habits and advice 28-May-2014 At 3:33:20 PM patto

Message

On 28/05/2014 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>having the brake hand in front of your stomach is no-where near as efficient
>as having the rope wrap over your thigh, with your braking hand low and/or
>behind your body...
I disagree. Your thigh is a pretty poor friction device. In contrast using your belay device how it was intended and ensuring the full 180degree position provides the best friction from the device. Try it sometime you'll be surprised. I normally abseil or belay like this regardless of any autoblock. I can easily brake with one hand on wet 9mm rope with my hands out in front of me.

>In my opinion clipping off a leg-loop is fine, provided your setup is
>dialled to a fine tune, AND you test it out in a controlled environment
>beforehand to become aware of any limitations and re-dial if necessary.
>I have done this and will now happily hang off the autoblock. It doesn't
>twist your body that much and have you hanging off your leg, provided it
>is set up correctly.
I routinely hear this. Yet I've never heard of a person testing out flipping upside down on rope in a controlled environment.

>Dare I say, it was probably applied by having read about it on the internet,
>or in a book, without real-life testing (dialling it in) beforehand...
Dare I ask if you have dialed in your autoblock in circumstances where your leg loop is higher than you belay loop?