I see these sorts of behaviors constantly these days, and they are inevitably the result of gym and sport climbers who lack even the most basic technical skills. I for one am sick and tired of reading these gruesome accident reports and finding that the common thread is all too often the complete absence of even the most basic skills. What comes next will sound hard-hearted, and it is, and for this I will make no apologies.

Rule #1: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #2: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #3: Don't forget rules #1 and 2.

If you don't know how to belay, then please, go home and find a new trendy hobby. I am getting tired of picking up broken and dead bodies. If you're really proficient at climbing 5.12a, then it stands to reason that you're also proficient at the basic systems. That you apparently aren't is alarming. You don't turn into a 5.12 leader overnight, and you don't do so without traversing some pretty sketchy terrain that demands climbing and anchor skills that far surpass what you learn in the gym. Well, unless you've only ever climbed 5.12 in the gym or on sport routes…..

The only possible way for this sort of disastrous combination of climbing skill and belaying stupidity to occur is if you continually emphasize one at the expense of the other. And the only way that can happen is if you climb mostly in a gym or on sport routes and, therefore, never have to learn these systems. How else can this accident be exlpained? In 30 years of climbing, I have never seen or heard of any belay system that remotely resembles what is described here. What I HAVE seen repeatedly, and it's on full view here, is an increasing number of sport and gym climbers who treat safety like a game of chance, who apparently have no meaningful skill when it comes to belay systems, and who are manifestly incapable of recognizing obviously flawed systems that can get them killed.

It doesn't get any more basic than top-roped belaying, and my sympathy is at an end for people who can't be bothered to take care of themselves. I notice also from her website photos that the belayer climbs without a helmet. Make a note: The heads on 5.12 climbers smash open with the same ease as those on the shoulders of 5.4 climbers. People who climb without helmets are morons who deserve their fate. Get back to me when the nice people in the ER have rammed a chest tube into your ribs and a catheter up your urethra because you were unconscious and unable to tell them where it hurt. People in the ER don't think it's cool that you climb without a helmet.

Finally, it was more than a little annoying to see the repeated references to route grades in this report, as if being able to climb 5.12 somehow ameliorates the obvious absence of skill that caused this accident. It is simply unseemly to go and on about what a bad ass climber you are while simultaneously discussing how you dropped your partner 60 feet to the deck. Take a hint: No one really cares what grade you climb. The only thing any of us should care about is whether or not you're competent. If this obsession with route grades doesn't make you look like a clueless chump, then it does something very much like it.

If any of this has made anyone mad, then good. It is meant to. We've all been lucky, and we've all gotten away with things that were beyond our control. But I am sick of watching stupid people do stupid things, and then failing to understand their complicity in their own stupidity. Those of you who mistake my objections with an absence of sympathy for the victim are wrong. No one asks to get hurt, and if you're trusting your life to someone else, it's not asking too much that the other person pay attention.

I see these sorts of behaviors constantly these days, and they are inevitably the result of gym and sport climbers who lack even the most basic technical skills. I for one am sick and tired of reading these gruesome accident reports and finding that the common thread is all too often the complete absence of even the most basic skills. What comes next will sound hard-hearted, and it is, and for this I will make no apologies.

Rule #1: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #2: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #3: Don't forget rules #1 and 2.

If you don't know how to belay, then please, go home and find a new trendy hobby. I am getting tired of picking up broken and dead bodies. If you're really proficient at climbing 5.12a, then it stands to reason that you're also proficient at the basic systems. That you apparently aren't is alarming. You don't turn into a 5.12 leader overnight, and you don't do so without traversing some pretty sketchy terrain that demands climbing and anchor skills that far surpass what you learn in the gym. Well, unless you've only ever climbed 5.12 in the gym or on sport routes…..

The only possible way for this sort of disastrous combination of climbing skill and belaying stupidity to occur is if you continually emphasize one at the expense of the other. And the only way that can happen is if you climb mostly in a gym or on sport routes and, therefore, never have to learn these systems. How else can this accident be exlpained? In 30 years of climbing, I have never seen or heard of any belay system that remotely resembles what is described here. What I HAVE seen repeatedly, and it's on full view here, is an increasing number of sport and gym climbers who treat safety like a game of chance, who apparently have no meaningful skill when it comes to belay systems, and who are manifestly incapable of recognizing obviously flawed systems that can get them killed.

It doesn't get any more basic than top-roped belaying, and my sympathy is at an end for people who can't be bothered to take care of themselves. I notice also from her website photos that the belayer climbs without a helmet. Make a note: The heads on 5.12 climbers smash open with the same ease as those on the shoulders of 5.4 climbers. People who climb without helmets are morons who deserve their fate. Get back to me when the nice people in the ER have rammed a chest tube into your ribs and a catheter up your urethra because you were unconscious and unable to tell them where it hurt. People in the ER don't think it's cool that you climb without a helmet.

Finally, it was more than a little annoying to see the repeated references to route grades in this report, as if being able to climb 5.12 somehow ameliorates the obvious absence of skill that caused this accident. It is simply unseemly to go and on about what a bad ass climber you are while simultaneously discussing how you dropped your partner 60 feet to the deck. Take a hint: No one really cares what grade you climb. The only thing any of us should care about is whether or not you're competent. If this obsession with route grades doesn't make you look like a clueless chump, then it does something very much like it.

If any of this has made anyone mad, then good. It is meant to. We've all been lucky, and we've all gotten away with things that were beyond our control. But I am sick of watching stupid people do stupid things, and then failing to understand their complicity in their own stupidity. Those of you who mistake my objections with an absence of sympathy for the victim are wrong. No one asks to get hurt, and if you're trusting your life to someone else, it's not asking too much that the other person pay attention.

thanks so much for posting this. i think it helps alleviate any confusion people had–rumors can be so inaccurate! i am glad both you and the climber are doing well.
i hope to see you again before you head back west–gus-gus (my pug) and your pup need one more play date .
take care….

I’m glad to see that you were able to take some lessons from this and share them with the rest of us. It’s too easy after a lot of uneventful climbing trips to get too comfortable with the rope systems involved. We need to be reminded what hangs in the balance, and why we should always be triple checking every detail. I’m sure it took a lot for you to write this post, thanks so much for doing it.

Phil