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Topic Date User

No good belay devices yet? 19-Oct-2010 At 9:20:06 AM rocksinmyhead

Message

On 16/10/2010 Olbert wrote:

>Unless the belayer weighs a feather
>there should be enough friction to stop them hitting the ground. The only
>way I can see for a leader actually decking is if the first bolt is like
>5m off the ground and they fall from like 8m. Then there wont be enough
>friction. When does that ever happen though?

I've had something like this happen twice.

Both times I was belaying the same leader and he fell while trying to clip second or third bolt. I wasn't anchored, he weighed at least 20kg more than me, and so when he fell I ended up at the first draw and he landed on the ground. He was a bit shocked about it the first time, and so was I. We had both had a good laugh when it happened again a few years later. He wasn't injured either time, and I think I may have had a couple of scratches from the second occasion.

I guess that, unless there's a HUGE weight difference, if you manage to pull your belayer off the ground in a fall, that's taken out a lot of the force out of the fall.So hitting the ground because your belayer isn't tied down may not be that big a deal.

Now I'm curious, who's had a similar experience, and what was the outcome?