rgold wrote:
billl7 wrote:
I am curious about your method ...
If I understand, you went on to indicate just two verbals when at opposite ends of a pitch: "Off belay" and "Climb". Do you mean you use rope signals all the time when at opposite ends of a pitch, even when verbals are working? Like this ...
a) leader anchors in;
b) leader yells "Off belay" (and waits a bit);
c) leader tries to quickly pull up five armloads of rope;
... if the rope comes easy in 'c' just keep pulling until all the rope is up then ...
w) lower a few feet of rope;
x) thread the belay device;
y) take back the few feet of slack;
z) yell "Climb".
Bill L
It's almost what I do. If the leader shouts "off belay" and gets a "belay off" response from the second, then no need to pull up a bunch of rope against the belayer's belay. With the belayer known to be off belay, the leader pulls up the rope hand over hand, lets some back down when no more can be taken in, threads the device, takes the slack back in, and shouts "climb."
If the leader doesn't get a "belay off" response after shouting "off belay," then incommunicado protocol described earlier is invoked.
Make sure to have everything ready for belaying (belay gloves on if you are using them, device clipped and ready to go) before starting these protocols.
