Weekend Whipper: Belay Miscommunication Leads to Huge Fall

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

OK, OK, before you all get flustered about this evidently terrible belay, let’s divulge the lesson learned straight away: Make a plan and stick to it! Now for some background.

Fryhoff Albertyn du Toit was projecting the classic sport route Jimmy and the Big Boys (5.11d/South African 24) at The Mine crag, in Cape Town, South Africa. The meat of the route is surmounting two prominent roofs with “some head-scratching sequences,” du Toit said.

Why Poor Communication Can Cause Big Falls

“I was working the route all day, and on my final go—even though I had my beta dialed—I got pumped much earlier than my previous attempts,” du Toit told Climbing. “I was climbing the lower sections very confidently, even with the extra pump, so my belayer didn’t suspect that a fall was coming.”

But after busting through the first roof, du Toit reached a sloping rail where he decided to clip from—a much earlier stance than on his previous attempts. “On my first attempt to clip I dropped the rope in order to reposition my hand,” he said. “At this point my belayer started to take in slack. But the hold I bumped to was even worse. Nevertheless, I tried to pull up the rope to clip it again.”

The belayer—now switching from quickly taking in slack to quickly giving slack—missed latching the cam of the Grigri with his thumb and ended up short roping du Toit. “By the time I managed to pull the rope up to the draw, my left hand was tired and decided to leave work early, resulting in me getting some air time,” du Toit said.

OK, let’s reiterate that lesson learned: Communicate with your belayer—especially if you are projecting and the belayer thinks they know what you’re going to do.

Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.

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