How to Belay

So you feel that you are comfortable enough with rock climbing to want to learn how to belay. This posting is going tot go through the step that you would take from start to finish followed by a video that will go through the process. In order to do this you will need a climbing rope, belay device, locking carabiner, and a harness. This is the equipment that I will be using to describe how to belay.

The process begins after the rope has been set up in a proper top rope setup by someone who is trained and has experience. At this point one end of the rope will have a figure eight tied into it and the other will have the slack pulled out of it. What you need to do is take the locking biner and place it through the ring in the belay device, which in this case is an ATC (air traffic controller). The two are put together in order to make sure that the entire device stays connected to the harness. Which is where the biner needs to connect next. So at this point you should have a locking carabiner attached to the belay loop of your harness with an ATC hanging off of it. (Figure 1) Then to get the rope attached you need to create a bend in a rope called a bight of rope. This gets pushed through the right side of the ATC if you are right handed. (Figure 2) The rope end going up to the anchors should be coming out of the top side and the free end should come out of the bottom of the ATC. At this point you are ready to begin to learn how to belay.
Figure 1.

Figure 2.

The process works by pulling out the slack in the rope. The goal is to get the slack to come out the bottom of the ATC. What this does is gives the climber a more confident feel in the rope. But if you were to just try and hold it in your hand there is a good potential that they you will get a major rope burn. Therefore you need to do what is called locking off. You will take your right hand which is on the rope and slap you right thigh. The go under your right hand with your left hand, this should almost feel as if you are holding a baseball bat on your thigh. The you slide your right hand back up toward the ATC freeing you up to take more slack out of the rope. The video below goes through the step by step process of how this works.

However once you climber has reached the top you need to know how to safely let them down. IN order to do this you need to verbally make sure they are ready to come down and even get a second or third conformation if you are unsure of the answer you heard. Next take as much slack out of the rope as you can this puts less stress on the rope and makes the climber feel more at ease. The without taking either hand of the rope slowly allow it to slip through your hands in order to control the descent of the climber. Upon them reaching the ground and having stable footing your climber will most likely appreciate some extra slack in the rope.

In order to practice this before trying it with a person on the end of a rope, have you partner take out the majority of the slack and hold it in their hand. Then you can simply pull rope through the ATC as they apply resistant giving you the feeling of someone being on the other end. That and it will provide you with less fear of someone hanging on the rope.

Here is a step by step video of how the process works. However, in the end the best way to become proficient is to practice and get professional instruction.