Indoor Lead Climbing
Introduction
On this page you will find the course material for the indoor lead climbing course. This course and the corresponding course material are a continuation of the Indoor Toprope course, which is a prerequisite. The indoor lead climbing course consists of 3 course evenings and 1 exam evening. To pass the course you have to be able to comfortably lead climb at least three routes on the concrete climbing wall. Furthermore you must pass a written exam. Upon passing the course you will be allowed to climb the UT climbing walls without supervision of an attendant.
Course material
At TSAC we follow the course information of the Dutch national climbing association (NKBV). Note that this information is not stand-alone, proper instruction and supervision by a certified instructor is required to safely practive these techniques.
Additional information
Upon passing the course you will gain an indoor leading climbing certification (KVB-IV) at the TSAC. With this certification you are allowed to climb on UT climbing walls without supervision of an attendant under certain conditions. To properly and safely climb on UT walls you will need to apply the techniques listed below. It is also required that you know the rules regarding use of the climbing walls and the procedures for handling emergency situations. For more info on this, see the zaal- en buitenwandreglement (dutch).
Belaying
Belaying a lead climber is much harder than belaying someone on toprope, the video below demonstrates what can go wrong when utilising bad technique.
The World's Worst Belayer [EN] Bad belaying techniques from Petzl-sport on Vimeo.
Quickdraws
When climbing on the concrete wall you will need to clip quickdraws yourself. This is briefly mentioned in the material from NKBV, but we will take a closer look at it.
A quickdraw is made up from two carabiners connected with a stitched express-sling, also known as a dogbone. The carabiner that is able to rotate is for clipping into bolts whereas the fixed carabiner is for clipping your rope. Do not mix this up! The bolt-side of the quickdraw will get scratched up by using it, if the rope rubs over these scratches during a lead fall it could be severely damaged! If you have to reassemble a disassemled quickdraw make sure that the carabiner with the straight gate is used for the bolt side (the big loop on the dogbone) and the carabiner with the bent gate or wire gate is used for the rope side. The video below demonstrates what the effect of doing this is.
Carabiners and Damage to Ropes from DMM Climbing on Vimeo.
In addition to this the bolt side can rotate freely on purpose to avoid restricting freedom of movement. If you were to restrict the rotation you would increase rope drag and increase the chance that the quickdraw gets loaded in a weird way which may cause it to break due to leverage.
Leverage caused by clipping a quickdraw with the rope side in the bolt. Source: Petzl
Furthermore it is important to look ahead and take into account in which direction you are going to climb above your quickdraw; make sure that:
- The gate of the rope side carabiner faces away from the climbing direction.
- The rope enters the carabiner on the back and exits on the front, make sure the dogbone is not twisted.
When failing to follow these steps there is a chance that the rope will unclip itself during a fall.
The dangers of "back clipping". Source: Petzl
Foot placement errors
It can be difficult to identify a foot placement error (voetfout in dutch), the video below demonstrates how a foot placement error can happen en what you can do to recover or avoid these errors.
The most import thing to remember is to always keep your rope between you and the wall. If you are scared to make an error due to a sideways movement or twisting your hips you can carry the rope with the top of your foot, make sure that the rope does not go behind your heel.
Installing a toprope
see also Outdoor Lead Climbing.
After lead climbing on the conrete wall you can convert the system to create a toprope. To do this create an anchor for yourself (Do not call off-belay, you want to be lowered by your belayer); Now take a bight of rope from back to front across the belaying bar and make a figure of eight knot in the bight. Connect your belay loop to the knot using a safebiner or two opposing screw carabiners. Ask your belayer to take and check your knot. If you are tied in correctly, remove the knot tied in directly to your harness and then remove your anchor.
While lowering take the quickdraws out of the wall. First remove the quickdraw from the bolt and clip the draw to your harness, then remove the draw from the rope. Do this for all but the last quickdraw, for this draw we remove the rope side first to avoid it from sliding down the rope and hitting the belayer. It is possible to connect a quickdraw between your belay loop and the rope to keep yourself close to the route. Remove this quickdraw before unclipping the bottommost quickdraw. Always make sure that there is a knot in the end of the rope to make sure that the rope does not slip through the belaying device.
Using the outdoor climbing wall
You need at least 3 people to open the outdoor wall, this is because you need someone who is able to get help in case of an accident. When there is no attendant on site everyone climbing needs to be at least an indoor lead climber to climb on the outdoor wall.
Keys
The key (#99) can be picked up at the reception of the Sports Centre using your student card. The keyring has 1 key (blue label) for the storage in which you will find ropes and cones. A second key is for the gate. The third key is used to open the locker for the floodlight, so you don't have to climb in the dark.
Setup and takedown
After opening the gate, use the cones and the chain to cordon off the area around the wall to avoid potential viewers from walking under climbers.
Cover the sharp edges of the gate using the plastic covers and two buckets. It is recommenden to do this with 3 people. Make sure all sides of the gate are covered, even if you are only climbing on one side of the wall. Only remove the covers after everyone is done climbing and the ropes have been removed from the wall.
For further instruction, see the guide (dutch) from the Sports Centre.
Clipping quickdraws
It is required to clip every bolt up to the first anchor (except the first bolt sometimes) to avoid making a grounder. After the first anchor bolts can be skipped at your own discretion.
Make sure to keep your second (naklimmer in dutch) in mind during a traverse. When you skip a lot of bolts during a traverse to avoid ropedrag you can induce dangerous situations for your second. Your second will also have to skip the bolts, this can possibly lead to big swings in case of a fall. This can cause many complications, it is better to just have a bit more ropedrag during lead climbing.
Other rules
Everyone climbing has to have a student card.
Beer and climbing/belaying do not mix well.
The floodlight is very sensitive, please do not turn it on and off too often.
Make sure you return the keys to the Sportcentrum before it closes.
Always perform a partnercheck: https://youtu.be/Ini3eibqw2g
Emergencies
In case of an emergency, call 112 first! They can coach you and send an ambulance. After calling 112 call Charlie (UT security located in Spiegel), they can escort the ambulance. Enter the phonenumber for Charlie in your phone:
- +31 53 489 2222