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General Climbing Discussion

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Who is responsible for bad belaying? 15-Nov-2007 At 9:39:44 AM Joad

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I witnessed a somewhat nasty lead fall at a climbing gym last night. The climber fell from about 6 metres up with a drew at his waist, the belayer wasn’t in the correct position, with too much slack out, and the climber fell onto the belayer, kicking him in the eye, ending up only 1-1.5m above the ground.

The climber was upset he fell so far, the belayer was upset he now had a painful black eye, and the gym staff were just bemused.

That left me questioning, who is responsible?

Is it the belayer for not knowing what to do?

The climber for not telling the belayer how to be belayed?

Or

Is it the gym management for not training staff to recognise and correct bad/dangerous belaying?

I have previously witnessed this same belayer, belaying 4m back from the wall. I notified the gym staff, who only asked him to stand 1m closer, no other instructions were given.

I’m particularly worried about how this would translate to outdoors, as I’ve seen similar belaying unzip gear.