Weekend Whipper: How’d That Happen?

Readers, please send your Weekend Whipper videos, information, and any lessons learned to Anthony Walsh, awalsh@outsideinc.com.

We analyze a lot of whippers here at Climbing, but this one from Mou Ding in Beijing is pretty surprising—how did she end up upside down like that?

Here’s a little background: Ding was belayed by a friend who “is a good climber but seldom belays.” (Second question: how the hell did she con her way into that arrangement?) “I told her what a dynamic belay was and how to give a soft catch.”

After a few easier routes to give her belayer some practice feeding slack, Ding hopped on an overhanging 5.11 and told her belayer to watch her closely at the fifth bolt, where she lurched for a distant jug. “However, my belayer was a little nervous,” Ding explained. “She didn’t give me any slack.”

As Ding fell—body firmly to the left of the rope, neither leg foolishly wrapped around it—she curiously flipped upside down when the belayer’s rope came suddenly taut. On closer inspection, her right arm is crossed behind the rope, which—when paired with the static belay—might have been just the force her torso needed to flip like a coin.

Ding summarized: “Dynamic belays are hard to master. Don’t trust a novice to do that. Even if they are good at climbing.”

Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.

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