Top stop is a version of toproping where the rope runs through a few... um, rolls (dunno with correct word). Looks like this. It works like a brake, you lift only 10% of your partner's actual weight. So you don't need a belaying device on your belt either, you can also just belay hand-over-hand. (However, if the belayer let go the climber's fall wouldn't be slowed; the brake works only when there's pull on both ends.)
FWIW, I've belayed people who are heavier enough than me that I get pulled up into the air if they fall; it's quite fun.
Thing is that the other day I witnessed something at the climbing wall that makes me extra cautious - The belayer was lighter than his partner and also standing away far from the wall. When his partner fell from way up at the top, belayer got pulled not just up but also smack against the wall, and let go of the rope. He caught it again when his partner was just 2 metres above the ground. Scary shit, man. He got rope burn on one hand but... that could've ended really nasty.
He said he was standing quite far away from the wall. And he was possibly just not paying enough attention? I don't know, I've never seen anything like that happen before. I'd just been talking with someone about how some people are sloppy when they're belaying, not keeping their hands at the right height and, well, standing too far from the wall. That was an illustration of their point that'll stay in mind.
So anyway, I'd rather be on the safe side and not have the weight difference be a risk factor. We don't have anchors but they have weights, I think.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-05-12 09:33 pm (UTC)FWIW, I've belayed people who are heavier enough than me that I get pulled up into the air if they fall; it's quite fun.
Thing is that the other day I witnessed something at the climbing wall that makes me extra cautious - The belayer was lighter than his partner and also standing away far from the wall. When his partner fell from way up at the top, belayer got pulled not just up but also smack against the wall, and let go of the rope. He caught it again when his partner was just 2 metres above the ground. Scary shit, man. He got rope burn on one hand but... that could've ended really nasty.
He said he was standing quite far away from the wall. And he was possibly just not paying enough attention? I don't know, I've never seen anything like that happen before. I'd just been talking with someone about how some people are sloppy when they're belaying, not keeping their hands at the right height and, well, standing too far from the wall. That was an illustration of their point that'll stay in mind.
So anyway, I'd rather be on the safe side and not have the weight difference be a risk factor. We don't have anchors but they have weights, I think.