Glad we could be helpful, and I hope it goes well. Most people seem to find them a little unnerving at first, but they're a very handy option to have.
Ooh, one other thing it might be of interest to know: you can down-climb on an auto-belay, if you want.
The mechanism works like a seat-belt, pretty much, so as long as the cable's reeling in or out relatively smoothly and your weight's not on it, it lets you get on with it. It's only when you weight it that it'll take over and lower you slowly back to the ground.
So if you want, you can do endurance stuff by down-climbing easy routes rather than lowering off between laps.
Or if you're not comfortable letting go at the very top initially, you can down-climb to where you feel better about it.
(If I'm having an anxious day, before I begin climbing properly I'll climb up a short distance and let go, just to confirm to my brain that the mechanism's working!)
no subject
Ooh, one other thing it might be of interest to know: you can down-climb on an auto-belay, if you want.
The mechanism works like a seat-belt, pretty much, so as long as the cable's reeling in or out relatively smoothly and your weight's not on it, it lets you get on with it. It's only when you weight it that it'll take over and lower you slowly back to the ground.
So if you want, you can do endurance stuff by down-climbing easy routes rather than lowering off between laps.
Or if you're not comfortable letting go at the very top initially, you can down-climb to where you feel better about it.
(If I'm having an anxious day, before I begin climbing properly I'll climb up a short distance and let go, just to confirm to my brain that the mechanism's working!)