How dangerous is backclipping...really?

Josh Olson wrote:How hard is it to not backclip...really?

Actually, when learning to lead, you often don't notice a backclip. My belayer had to point it out to me a few times. If I was unsure if it was a backclip or not, I would get paranoid thinking that if I fall, the rope would come unclipped.

If you must, you can rotate the back clipped biner so the gate is up and the spine facing the rope. It beats unclipping.

John Husky wrote:If you must, you can rotate the back clipped biner so the gate is up and the spine facing the rope. It beats unclipping.

Most sport draws are designed so that the biners don't easily rotate inside the dogbone, and for good reason. I think that in most cases flipping the biner like that would actually be more difficult.

If you DO happen to backclip, and are in a good enough position to fix it, it's usually easiest to unclip the entire draw from the wall, twist it, then clip it back in so you're no longer backclipped. This is almost always easier than trying to unclip the rope from the draw. If you're NOT in a good position to fix it, just leave it. It's not ideal, but I think a backclipped draw is much safer than trying to fix one while on a shitty stance. (For now I'm ignoring the whole "spine of the biner should face the direction of the climbing thing, since obviously twisting the draw will change that...)

But really, it's so easy NOT to backclip that if you find yourself doing it at all you should probably pay more attention and practice some more.

John Husky wrote:If you must, you can rotate the back clipped biner so the gate is up and the spine facing the rope. It beats unclipping.

Isn't backclipping where the rope runs from the belayer, up through the carabiner, toward the rock, then back to the climber? (As opposed to correctly clipping, where the rope runs from the belayer, out through the biner, from the rock to the climber.) Spinning the biner will not fix this.

I've seen the term "backclipping" used to refer to both situations - with the rope running the wrong way through the biner, and with the rope loading the gate side as opposed to the spine. As I understand it, the danger of unclipping comes from the first definition (rope running the wrong way through the biner), not the second, although neither is ideal. Is there a better way to differentiate between these two mistakes?

MaraC wrote:Isn't backclipping where the rope runs from the belayer, up through the carabiner, toward the rock, then back to the climber? Spinning the biner will not fix this.

You are correct about backclipping, but when I read the comment about flipping the biner I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that a rotated biner, where the gate opens at the TOP side, would be far less likely to unclip during a fall as a regularly oriented one...though I could be way off the mark.

MaraC wrote:I've seen the term "backclipping" used to refer to both situations - with the rope running the wrong way through the biner, and with the rope loading the gate side as opposed to the spine. As I understand it, the danger of unclipping comes from the first definition (rope running the wrong way through the biner), not the second, although neither is ideal. Is there a better way to differentiate between these two mistakes?

I've never really heard of a term for the latter situation of having the draw not oriented in the right direction. I'll try to be conscious of the climbing direction which hanging my draws, but more often than not you're just going vertical and/or wandering to the left and right, so it rarely matters. One time I hung a draw and an onlooker said "you should clip that the other way", so I did. Once I made a couple more moves and was higher above the draw I found myself on the other side of the draw anyways...

not as dangerous as this-
gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blo…

what a daredevil