Safe belaying

This page gives gives advice on safe belaying. With illustrations (click for larger view).

Left or right handed?

You've just climbed up to a stance, set up your belay, made yourself comfortable and are about to put the rope through your belay plate. Do you belay right handed, left handed, or doesn't it matter? Well it does matter, and whether you're right handed or left handed has nothing to do with it.

The correct method

The belay anchors come in on your left hand side, so you belay left handed.

Belaying correctly, anchors come in from left, so belay left handed.

If the second falls, it's easy to move your arm back and lock off the the belay plate. The load pretty much by-passes the belayer so its comfortable to hold.

Belay locked off and load on anchors by-passing the belayer. Note that it is easy to lock off the belay plate.

The wrong way (1)

WRONG. Anchors coming in from left, belaying right handed

Again the anchors come in from the left, but this time the belayer is belaying right handed. Looks fairly comfortable don't you think? Well it is, right up until the point when the second falls.

Belaying right handed with the anchors coming in from the left. The body is now in the way and you can't loack off the belay plate properly

The load is now on the rope and the belayer has attempted to lock off the belay plate. Unfortunately his body is in the way and he can't bring his arm into position to lock the plate off properly. Note also that the belayer has been twisted round by the force of the fall which makes it even harder to lock off the belay plate.

You should by now have figured out that not only is it important to always belay on the same side as the anchors, but its dangerous (if not lethal) if you don't.

The wrong way (2)

OK, so what if you have two anchors and you clip in with an anchor on both sides?

Wrong again. Anchors coming in from both left and right.

Firstly, you're 3-way loading either your tie in knot or a karabiner. Not good. Secondly, if something goes wrong and you need to escape from the system, suddenly its become a lot harder.

Summary

Most of the time you will be able to set up a belay so that you can belay left handed or right handed. Where the stance doesn't allow this it is vital that you belay with the same hand as the side that the anchor is on.

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Disclaimer

Climbing is dangerous and belaying is a vital safety task. If you don't understand what you're doing, don't climb. Before you use any of the techniques described here, make sure you actually understand what you're doing. If you don't then seek professional instruction, or at the very least, practice in a safe environment until you do.