Reply To: Learning from Rock fall close calls

Yeah, (i) leave enough slack between you and belay point so you can move around and (ii) avoid having leader climb directly above belayer’s head. The extreme case was when I was in Peru on Alpamayo (snow/ice) where the leader fell on top of his belayer and put a crampon through belayer’s scull, killing him. Nasty, eh?

Also, even large solid flakes that people have been yanking on for decades come off eventually, plenty of stories in Yosemite – so even though the Central Pilar of Frenzy (nice climb with greazy start 1st pitch) Glenn refers to is a well beaten trade route, he is totally right not to rely on previous cleaning.

Main thing is to use the head. Better a live turkey than a dead eagle, eh?