Tips on pulling the rope for a clip

Dropped my climbing partner..... only a few feet and not to the ground.   

My climbing partner was leading and I thought she was clipping, but she actually let go of the wall --not that far from her last clip.  I was watching the slack because she was high up and going over a bulge.  The rope tugged, which seemed liked her clipping, so I gave a arm length of slack, but a little bit too much rope whizzed thought the GriGri, so that was not right.       My mistake on the belay. I got yelled at little for the surprise.  

We are new to leading and her clipping style is to yank the rope-- then she might drop it, yank again....  Its like hell to belay without leaving a lot of slack.  Running back and forth try to deal with the slack.  She says that is hard to pull the rope when it gets heavy, so she has to yank it. The rope gets heavy if its high on a route and if its dragging on the rock. I think she is scared of leading, so she is clipping overhead, which is hard to lift and requires a lot of slack.  I tell her to clip chest high if possible because you don't have to pull much. 

Anyway, any tips on pulling the rope for a clip would be appreciated.  I could find a lot about clipping the carabiner on Youtube, but not much about pulling the rope.  I usually pull really slowly so I dont get short roped.  I don't want to upset our climbing partnership.     

Ask your partner to yell out “clipping” when clipping and “climbing” when she’s clipped and ready to go. The most dangerous time to fall is when you’re clipping and dealing with rope drag is just part of the sport. As you climb more and get more experienced clipping will become easier, just takes practice. 

Elijah Pena wrote:

Ask your partner to yell out “clipping” when clipping and “climbing” when she’s clipped and ready to go. The most dangerous time to fall is when you’re clipping and dealing with rope drag is just part of the sport. As you climb more and get more experienced clipping will become easier, just takes practice. 

Yes, we agreed to do say "clipping".

All of the excuses of how your leader’s clipping/rope pulling could be improved... and no thought of improving your belay technique?

Those are not mutually exclusive. And all her clipping issues aside, YOU have a DEFINITE problem somewhere in your technique.

Sometimes people clip overhead. Very often, actually. In fact, “clip at your waist” is easier in trad climbing than in sport climbing. Many sport climbs have clipping stances that were bolted with overhead clipping in mind.

Sometimes people fall when clipping with a lot of slack out. That makes for a bigger fall. But the rope shouldn’t “whizz through your gri-gri”, if your brake hand is on the rope, and you feed the slack out correctly. It is lucky that the Grigri engaged and this isn’t a post in the injuries and accidents.

Re-watch the video of Petzl belay technique. Practice belaying with the first 1-2 bolts clipped, your friend standing in the ground, and pulling the rope. Go through the entire length of rope. Many times. Have someone experienced watch your belay stroke and get their input.

When your partner leads again, get a backup! Until your belaying improves... Have someone hold the brake side of the rope, but far enough back that it doesn’t affect your belay stroke.  

For a high clip, many people pull up the rope far enough to put in their mouth between your teeth, hold it there, then pull the rope the rest of the way to clip. Holding it between your teeth takes the weight off the rope for the rest of the pull. Sounds silly, but it works. Just don't fall while it's in your teeth!

Preeti P wrote:

I gave a arm length of slack, but a little bit too much rope wizzed thought the GriGri, so that was not right.       My mistake on the belay. I got yelled at little for the surprise.  

Your belay technique using GriGri might need some fine tuning - there usually is no running of rope through GriGri during the fall.

How do you usually feed slack for those long clips?

Yeah I'm not sure either about the "rope whizz through the grigri" part. This may be partly due to how you hold the grigri - I still see a bunch of people grabbing with the whole hand:

As opposed to using just the side of the index on the lip:

The 2nd way, a sudden fall will almost certainly rip the thing out of your hand, meaning it'll catch. The first way with the handful, you may end up gripping for later, preventing it from gripping for longer, hence longer fall.

You and your partner have a lot of work and coordination to do, as all the great advice here as made clear.

One minor thing to get dialed on your end: learn the exact length of rope that your partner tends to pull out for desperate clips. It'll vary, but when I'm climbing with regular partners, I'll know based on their height and climbing style whether to give them a quick armlength, 1.5 armlength, or 2 armlengths. Work on this in conert with your partner learning to clip quickly, and you can minimize the seconds that she has a bunch of unclipped rope pulled out.

I've felt the whizz, if you are fast feeding during a fall it will whizz, especially if you are used to feeding fatter ropes and holding the cam down harder. It does rip out of the one finger grip and lock but not always right away. This is why I try the ATC feed as much as possible, as Petzl recommends.

Franck Vee wrote:

As opposed to using just the side of the index on the lip:

The 2nd way, a sudden fall will almost certainly rip the thing out of your hand, meaning it'll catch. The first way with the handful, you may end up gripping for later, preventing it from gripping for longer, hence longer fall.

I think this is the way I was holding the GriGri.  That is how I learned.   I think I was giving slack and more rope pulled than I gave (the amount seemed surprising) and then it locked. To be clear, this was not a whip, I did not leave the ground and only got pulled toward the wall a step. I will practice this scenario.  

Pnelson wrote:

You and your partner have a lot of work and coordination to do, as all the great advice here as made clear.

One minor thing to get dialed on your end: learn the exact length of rope that your partner tends to pull out for desperate clips. It'll vary, but when I'm climbing with regular partners, I'll know based on their height and climbing style whether to give them a quick armlength, 1.5 armlength, or 2 armlengths. Work on this in conert with your partner learning to clip quickly, and you can minimize the seconds that she has a bunch of unclipped rope pulled out.

To clip over your head is about 4 arm lengths of rope -- two up and two back down.  When I think, she is clipping, I'm probably not feeding enough slack sometimes because I feel the rope get tight.

FrankPS wrote:

For a high clip, many people pull up the rope far enough to put in their mouth between your teeth, hold it there, then pull the rope the rest of the way to clip. Holding it between your teeth takes the weight off the rope for the rest of the pull. Sounds silly, but it works. Just don't fall while it's in your teeth!

I have not tried biting the rope, but I see people doing it.  I was avoiding this because of this accident:

Elijah Pena wrote:

Ask your partner to yell out “clipping” when clipping and “climbing” when she’s clipped and ready to go. The most dangerous time to fall is when you’re clipping and dealing with rope drag is just part of the sport. As you climb more and get more experienced clipping will become easier, just takes practice. 

Unless your partner is out of sight this isn't all that helpful, especially at a crowded wall, if everyone is doing this it just makes it useless, better to save it for when your belayer actually needs to know you are clipping... you should generally have enough slack that even if you can't see the climber a clip doesn't take you so much by surprise that you lock up your device trying to feed slack, not that this is actually all that much slack, maybe a foot? stand a couple of feet back from the wall and you can feed enough slack to clip by stepping forward and throwing out one armload of slack, step back and you can take that in just as quick, don't just stand in one spot and try to yard rope through the device.

also, get used to putting the rope in your teeth if you are clipping high, you don't want to blow it with that much slack out anyway so don't go for the clip that high unless you are stable, I'd say that the only time I'm not putting the rope in my teeth for a high clip is when the space is occupied by an ice tool...

Probably not an option at present, but more time practicing (leading & belaying) in the gym would help--it's a well controlled and generally safe environment where you (as belayer) will usually be able to watch the climber as she clips. Of course you can do the same outdoors, but it's usually easier inside. As much as anything else, it'll give you both a chance to become accustomed to each other's habitats...or iron out the bad ones and figure out good ones! Have fun; sounds like you have the right approach to improving.

Pamela Gregory wrote:

Holding it between your teeth takes the weight off the rope for the rest of the pull. Sounds silly, but it works.

Not silly, quite normal actually. Gym climbers are taught the opposite but the clips in the gym are every 3' so you never do need to pull up two arm loads for a clip.

Now with the pandemic its best to bite your own cord only or get the Covid

Pamela Gregory wrote:

Holding it between your teeth takes the weight off the rope for the rest of the pull. Sounds silly, but it works.

You used my words, verbatim? Are you a bot?

Yelling out communications when the climber has moved out of sight is pretty damn obvious. For one thing, it calms the leader down. Brings them out of their tense focus bubble.

Pretty important too to learn how to gauge getting your knot closer to the clip for minimal rope pull when you are leading. If you feel a great stance but need to reach high, you might try feeling if you can get a little higher still. The desire to make a full arm reach to clip is usually fear based, not a rational one. Lije if you are climbing a route 2 or 3 numbers below your ability, you usually are way more calm about getting right next to the clip. Remember that feeling on the harder routes

I've found that it's much easier to pull up the rope if you keep your hand/elbow close to your side, as opposed to swinging it out wide. YMMV.

Coward here. You can avoid the consequences of a fall while pulling rope up to clip from below by clipping a long sling to the protection point with its other clipped end to the rope coming from your harness ie you would now fall a minimal distance. You can have a quickdraw on the top krab so you can clip that as you pass the bolt for higher protection. I think there's a term for it....swooning?