climbing commands
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Ross.
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Di
There’s a couple of climbing commands used in AUS that seem a bit weird to me and I just wondered what the logic was. Go the Yank bashers . . . .
Take vs. uprope- take means ‘take all the slack out of the rope and hold my weight’ and uprope means ‘there’s a lot of slack, please take it up but don’t pull me off the rock’. No-one says uprope here, just take, even when they don’t really want the belayer to take their weight. Why not use uprope?
Take vs. safe- this freaked me out when I was climbing at Willy’s because with those darned crashing waves in the background, take and safe are VERY different. And if you mean take, you don’t want your belayer to yell up ‘off belay.’ Why not use the term ‘off belay’ when you’re safely anchored and want to be taken off belay? This seems particularly important when you lose sight of the leader!
John Knight
Sorry Di, I missed what you meant with take vs safe, is it because they sound similar in difficult listening conditions?
pete
“Off belay” is the words that should really be used after finishing the climb and untieing from the rope.Just as with “on Belay” once tied into the rope at the beginning of the climb.
Di
Yes John the issue is that they sound the same. I know I’ve been a source of annoyance when I take after someone says safe but better that way than taking someone off belay when they mean take!
Domhnall
In Canada they use “SECURE” instead of “SAFE” which gets rid of the take v. safe confusion – works well, been using it for years… Oh, and just to make you all jealous, just spent the week bouldering/climbing at Castle Hill in NZ (the centre of the energy of the universe according to the Dalai Lama) and around Christchurch… of snowboarding now!!! D
Ross
G’day Di. My version of the Aussie calls is comprehensible even in crashing surf. There are only 3 calls that I would normally make while on lead:
“SLACK” (i.e. give me more rope, note this is a single sharp sound; if this does not work I will just repeat it until I get desired action. As last option I rarely say “Give me more slack, you bastard”.)
“TAKE-IN” (i.e. give me less rope, note 2 long sounds, pronounced Teeeeeyk-iiiiiin. I would strongly advise against people using just “slack” and take” as they are of the same length.)
“ON BELAY CLIMB WHEN READY” (when I’m all all sorted, lots of sounds).
I generally don’t say “I’m safe” or “safe” unless I have clear view of belayer and there is clear hearing and no room for ambiguity. The fact that the belayer keeps belaying me while I’m setting up the belay does not bother me although it slows things a bit.
As an aside, the English language is all full of similar sounds meaning opposite things: like “on” and “off”, numbers “nine” and “five” or “fifteen” and “fifty”. So it’s a struggle.
Best to agree on calls with your belayer first (as in diving signals before going underwater) and keep chitchat to minimum while on the job. Like “hey, niiice dolfin, what the fcuk…falleeeng!” Be well.
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