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Posted

If I read it correctly, "the example" assumed NO pro. Are you worried about your anchor construction skills, too?

 

Do what you want, but if I'm climbing with you, Dru, just remember that I'd prefer you to reel me in then to run the calculation and decide I'd rather have the factor 2 fall than the 2.25 or whatever. I'll take my chances that the extra force may cause my gear to blow. OK?

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Posted
mattp said:

If I read it correctly, "the example" assumed NO pro. Are you worried about your anchor construction skills, too?

 

Do what you want, but if I'm climbing with you, Dru, just remember that I'd prefer you to reel me in then to run the calculation and decide I'd rather have the factor 2 fall than the 2.25 or whatever. I'll take my chances that the extra force may cause my gear to blow. OK?

I've got this mental picture of Dru belaying Mattp. Matt falls and Dru pulls his trusty slide rule out of his back pocket, "Ah, just a minute, Matt, while I do a quick calculation".
  • 2 years later...
Posted

I took a 50+ foot fall and my belayer ran backwards about 20 feet into the woods. Once the rope caught, my belayer was pulled back to the rock and up it 10 feet. I was still 40 feet of the ground but it would have been close if it wasn't for his "reeling".

Posted
I know I would have loved for my belayer to reel me in before I grounded from 25 feet on BBQ the Pope.
That must have been at the third bolt? Was there too much slack or some other reason you decked? I caught my friend from about that same spot and he didn't come close to decking - no "reeling in" going on either. Just curious.
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Reeling in would seem to lessen the fall factor, wouldn't it?

 

Take the following situation: 5' from the last pro, 15' up from the belay. In a normal (unreeled) fall, the leader will fall (5' x 2) / 15 = FF .66, right?

 

Now convert this to a "reeled" belay: Let's say the belayer manages to reel in 2' of rope during the fall. The leader is still going to fall the original 5 feet to the anchor, regardless of how much is reeled. But, he will only fall an additional 3 feet below the anchor, since 2 feet of rope was removed from the system. That would be an 8' fall, with 13 feet of rope, right? 8/13 = FF .61

 

Is my math right?

 

I guess you would need to decide if the FF was high enough to warrant the possibly dangerous task of trying to take in quick enough while still locking off in time to catch the fall.

 

As to the question posed in the OT, I'm not sure how you could safely take in more than and arm's length of rope, and if you would want to.

Posted

You can't reel in on a short fall like that, it happens too quickly.

 

But Professor CBS will let you borrow his slide rule so you can start calculating fall factor while your leader is sketching so you can decide if it is worth it to reel.

 

Also your math only works for static ropes. More likely with rope stretch the leader will still fall 10 feet but on 13 feet of rope now for FF = 0.77

Posted

About the only circumstance where it is practical to bring in any significant amount of rope is slab climbing. Falls on slab tend to develop in slow motion. Also, the consequences of a poor lock-off of your device at the moment of impact are much less.

 

Last week at Fee Demo wall, I was able to get about 3-4 feet in on Jim's fall.

Posted

Slide rule? Nah, that's what my calculator watch is for. cantfocus.gif

 

Also your math only works for static ropes. More likely with rope stretch the leader will still fall 10 feet but on 13 feet of rope now for FF = 0.77

 

But, if the rope stretched, wouldn't that increase the rope length, too? wink.gif

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