Belay communication - Rope pull signals

You and your partner are on a multi pitch rock climb, and are at the belay at the base of the second pitch.  The second pitch is fairly easy climbing, but it’s a full rope length, and goes over a corner with the top of the pitch out of sight.  In addition, the wind is picking up.

Your partner heads out on lead.  After about 10 minutes of climbing the rope comes to a stop.  You think you hear a faint call from your partner above, but you can’t make out the words.  You of course continue to keep your partner on belay.  The rope does not move for five more minutes.  You think this probably means your partner has built an anchor, but you’re not sure, so you continue to keep the belay on.  Suddenly, you feel some hard yanks on the rope coming from your partner.  “Huh,” you say, “what the heck is this?”

So there you are, in what has quickly become a very uncertain and stressful situation: you do not know if you are on belay, and you also do not know if your partner still needs your belay.  This is a mess in which almost every beginner climber will find themselves someday.  Obviously, the simple verbal calls you learned on your first day climbing are not working in this situation.  Fortunately, there is an easy solution - rope pulls.

There are different approaches to this, but after trying a few of them, the one I prefer it is the Four Pulls method.  Here, the leader pulls hard four times ONLY after she does four things: 1) leader is off belay, 2) builds anchor, 3) pulls up slack rope, and 4) puts second on belay.  When everything is ready for the second to come up, only then does the leader pull hard on the rope.  The rope yanks essentially replace the call of “Belay on”.  In truth, the actual number of pulls is not so important, but I like calling it Four Pulls because it’s a good reminder of the four critical things the leader needs to do before giving the signal.

A few tips . . .

- Keep in mind that these are not dainty little tugs, but full on, win-the-tug-of-war-contest type of pulls.  I usually yank 5 or 6 times, to be sure the least two or three of them are getting through to the belayer.  (If the rope is stuck in some rock feature, there’s a small chance that you are pulling hard but your belayer still is not feeling the pulls.)  As a belayer, remember that if you only feel two or three of the pulls, that still means it’s OK for you to climb.  The important thing is that you feel some sort of yank on the rope, not that you feel an exact number of specific pulls.

- The belayer need to watch for the clues of what is happening above. One, if you know the climb is fairly easy for your partner, the rope has gone out for the approximate known length of the pitch, and you notice that the rope has stopped moving for a few minutes, you can be pretty darn sure that your partner is in the process of building an anchor.  If, after this pause, the rope quickly starts to be pulled up, you can probably deduce that the leader is pulling up slack, and you are about to be put on belay.  At this point, you should be keeping the rope fairly tight in order to be sure you feel the pulls.

- Always talk about this method with your partner before you think you might need it.  In this case, discussing this at the bottom of the second pitch would’ve been a great idea.  Review signals at the start of a climb, esp. with a new partner.  Climbers need to be in agreement.  Never assume that your partner knows the meaning of your rope pulls.  A 10 second discussion can save you from a very stressful and potentially dangerous communication breakdown.

- The three main factors that hinder verbal belay calls are 1) wind speed, 2) a long pitch, and/or 3) route going out of sight.  One or more of these situations can easily make it impossible to hear a verbal belay call.

- Be wary of “multiple pull” systems, such as, “OK, two pulls means I am off belay, three pulls means you are on belay”, etc.  The problem with these “different pull, different meaning” systems is that while the leader may yank on the rope three times, the second may only feel one or two of the pulls.

- Of course, only the leader uses these rope pull commands (the second should never yank on the rope!)

- (And, for a more technical solution, you might consider using short-range FRS radios if you think you’ll have communication challenges on most pitches of a long route.)