【How to】How to avoid unsafe climbers

 Unsafe climbers = someone who learnt to climb from friends

I was being asked to go climbing with by a climber who has no rope nor ATC. Being puzzled since I never dreamed of going to travel without a rope and expecting to climb,  I asked advices to climbing community overseas. The answer was to say no to such climber. 

Someone in Canada taught me this is also happening a lot in overseas including Canada, 

It's maybe a shortage of Educational institutions to teach climbing properly.

This time, I found out that a proper climber is someone who learnt climbing in educational institution... (I myself learnt in Sangaku sougou center)

You can tell by their gear that they are not well educated.

I didn't know what to do with a guest climber who said she doesn't have a rope nor ATC, so I asked the international climbing community, "What do you guys do?" 

I found that the consultation itself was a question that could separate the climbers who were doing it safely from the ones who weren't.

Difficulties

The difficult thing is,  that nobody carries a full set of gear while travelling.

But without a rope... Rope is a vital piece of gear, and without it, you can't climb at all.

But someone who already established "trustworthy relationship" like long time partner, would say, 

  "you can come without a rope this time" 

often, just to be nice. But still that is an offer, not your right. 

If you are already in a relationship of mutual trust, you might say: 'This time you are exempt from the rope', but that is only when you are so sure having just one rope does not decrease the safety.

My background 

I come from ice climbing background, but I rarely climbed with my own rope while climbing with my mentor, because he has gotten a 120m rope, meaning more convenient for 55m ice fall. 

Nevertheless, every time I go climb with him, my rope was in my pac. I never showed up without it.  When I lead, of course, I climbed with my own rope.

A single 120m rope is technically easier so using that rope was a part of risk management. 

It was less risky than connecting two 60 m ropes, as there are no knot to connect them. If there is a knot, your belay gets complicated.

That was our mutual understanding. And I bought a belay device to match his rope. 

Choosing a rope Length ... no1 risk control

Even at ordinary rock crags, a well-educated climber will check the length of the route or problem he wants to lead, and bring a rope that is suitable for that length. It is a primary risk management.

In general, in Japan, 50 metres used to be sufficient, but nowadays 60 metres is often required.

If you don't want to have a missing stopper knot accidents.

Back up rope?

If you're as clever as a climbing guide, you may have a 30m lightweight rope tucked away in your backpack, just in case. This is because it serves as a backup in case the main rope gets stuck or something.

When you say, "Oh no, I've got the rope stuck", you can not get it out...in such case, someone say, "I've got the back up rope", this is a truly cool guy!

Having no rope is forgivable, but no ATC is not.

Well, even in the international climber group, the advice from the proper climbers was "tell that travelling climber to keep travelling".

However, 70% of the climbers who travelled without ropes were so forgiving, it is a kindness toward a beginner.  Because everyone was once a beginner, those who relied on the goodwill of other climbers... including myself.

Climbing on the goodwill of others paying nothing on your side, you can still improve your climbing grades but not a climbing skill itself...it takes your positive effort of trying to learn risk management.

Climbing grades do not indicate anything about that person's risk management skill and the risk management skill is what protect you. 

It is not your grade nor expecting the strangers to have a good will without a concrete reason.

However, it should be noted that even within such a lax community,

　No ATC is not allowed as a climber.

Having no rope seems already out of the question to me, but no ATC... is NONO to everyone. No matter what kind of lax climbing community you are in.

Checking unconscious assumptions.

Rather than verbal communication, non-verbal communication is important, such as,  "not bringing gear" or "the way the person talks", are more indicative of what kind of climber they are. This is a true indication of the climber.

What I am currently researching is this unconscious assumption.

  Assumption = unconscious.

so people take it for granted and often push that to the others.

Example:

　No rope = unconscious assumption is that every rope is 100% safe.　

　→ Actually, no.

　No ATC = unconsciousness is that all ATC are all the same.　

 → In reality, the rope and ATC has compatibility.

Another possible assumption about not bringing an ATC is,

　not wanting to belay,

This is probably more likely to be the case. This is probably top reason for climbers to be disrespected.

Belaying is a climber's duty and belayers are climbing gear.

You are in a position to be chosen as a belayer, and unless you are chosen, you cannot go climb.

Climbing with everyone together?

Many bad risk management cases are often seen in,

　Climbing with many others.

The case: climbing with others in a bad climbing school.

A climbing school was conducting an ice climbing course with frozen ropes... The rope was coated with ice like a macaroni cheeses... This is not a good idea.

Climbing with bunch of others is fun, but probably the most inappropriate relationship for learning risk management since you don't think you are responsible.

You'd think it's OK because a lot of other people are doing it, or it's probably safe since no one is pointing out ... 

But in reality, frozen rope is nono, and it can make you lose your grip on the belay.

These are such kinds of things that, if your standard of safety is compromised and you keep compromising and then, it will lead you an accident later.

For example, when you're climbing solo, you're on a bit of an old rope and it's frozen because you used it in a rock, but you do a top rope solo anyway, thinking, "Well, it'll be fine"... That's how my mentor fell, his gear didn't bite the rope and he had a ground fall.... And such times, even if there were lots of people in the vicinity, he would find himself in a blind spot and not be able to be seen and found. And there, you can't even get a wire of mobile phone, and it's -20 degrees!  He had a serious lumbar fracture, but it took him a long time to be found, and he survived one out of nine lives.

After that, he was very careful with his rope, it was ice climbing-specific rope with a good coating, and after each climb, he applied a coating to replenish the coating. I have inherit that from his habits.

The rock version

On the cragging, it is particularly important to match the diameter of the rope to the belay device. 

My rope is soft and flexible to best match to my lead with my light weight, so it is too stretchy for another climber with a heavier weight to lead. The rope will be hurt and that heavier climber will not be safe.

In Japan, the bolts distance are often sooooo far apart, nearly runout,  so extra stretch can be fatal. I have seen the climber fell in 3rd clip and the belay was totally proper but the fall still ended up to be a grounder.  It was a Kyusyu's crag. The climber had spinal fracture. He's got no one else to blame, it's his responsibility.

Partnership can back fire

Once we are in the crag, the principle of partnership is naturally more important than who's rope to climb. 

So if your partner showed up without rope, you will end up offering your rope. 

So whether if it's a poor lead, such as your rope rubbing against the rock corner and peeling off the outer skin, or a fall factor 2 that is super hard on the rope, you have to rend the rope as a partner. That is considered obligation. 

I'm not going to complain, No climber would complain about that. I am to explain why a beginner take it for granted.

Therefore, a climber who has never been on the offering end of a rope himself will never be aware of the burden or responsibility on the offering the rope.

It's same as people who think that renting your car is free, but in reality, the maintenance costs involved, actually. So it's just a free rider. Like when your are still a kid, you never imagine that how much your parents had to pay just to keep the house running.

In the end, they are not only ungrateful, but also gets mad at you when you refuse.  This is a one way goes to another.  

The best way to avoid this is to avoid climbers who are at a stage where they don't have that imagination. Accidents can happen to anyone, but one can not imagine that, i.e. a beginner, will invite a accident unneccesarily.

It is the minimum requirement to have your own gear for climbing. Anything short, say no to be on a safe side unless you know the person in deep...and the person has a reasonable reason to get away with it.  

Ofcourse it is ridiculous to tell the long time partner to bring his own rope when you know he's just visiting you and trying to belay you for a day to be nice. 

This is the letter I sent. 

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I had canceled XX　cragging with my friends. It is too risky to take you there, and the crag only needs a good reputation for local tourism, not a risk.

You have made it clear that you have no intention of bringing your own rope.

Well, I can compromise, but you have neither an ATC nor your own belay device.

I cannot compromise on that. 

I've already had enough trouble to know that Japanese crags are not like overseas ones; they require a certain mentality to be safe. Otherwise, you are risking your life.

I cannot put you in such a position without knowing what's going on.

I am so sorry; it was my misjudgment that I misunderstood you as an independent climber. My judgment is that you don't have the readiness that our crags require.

This is an HP for finding a climbing guide. I hope you have good luck!

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