Looking down from the hanging belay at the top of pitch 13 on the Lotus Flower Tower. Only five more to go.
Hanging belays look great in photos, but let’s face it, the novelty disappears pretty quickly. After a half hour of hanging in your harness, your legs go numb, your kidneys throb, and your patience of your partner’s slow, methodical technique begins to wear thin. There are a few things that you can do to reduce the suck, so before you go get on something with pitch after pitch of steepness and no ledges in sight, make sure your bag of tricks is nice and full.
Don’t Hang Around:
The first rule of hanging belays is don’t get stuck at a hanging belay. Even six inches of ledge sticking out from the wall drastically reduces the amount of discomfort you experience. If you can stop 20 feet sooner or climb another 20 feet to avoid a blank sheet of rock, do it. Lots of long, classic routes were put up back in the day with 50-meter ropes. If you climb with a 60m or 70m rope, you can often bypass an old belay station and keep going until you get to a small piece of flat terrain in the vertical world.
Block Pitches:
If you do have to stop at a hanging belay, stay there for as little time as possible. Standard climbing style dictates swinging leads, but this is a terrible strategy when dealing with hanging belays (and for long routes in general). Using this tactic, you lead a pitch, hang at a belay while your partner follows it, and then stay there while he leads the next pitch. By blocking pitches (having one person lead several in a row), you stop at a belay, stay there while your partner follows, and then leave as soon as you’re re-racked.
Tie In Long:
If you tie in too short at a hanging belay, the rope pulls you straight into the wall, which makes it very hard to adjust your position and pulls your harness straight against your spine and kidneys. Instead, tie in with enough rope to put your anchor’s main point at a full arm’s reach or longer. This changes the direction of pull on your harness to straight up, the way it was designed to be comfortable, and also gives you more room to move around and adjust if needed. Use a clove hitch to tie in instead of a figure eight on a bight. This allows you to adjust the length of your tie-in without actually untying.
Change It Up:
Hanging in any position gets uncomfortable pretty quickly, so moving around is important. There are three basic positions that you’ll usually use. The most basic is to put both your feet against the wall and simply stand there. This works for a while, but it’s very tiring, especially if you’re wearing tight shoes. Usually, a better method is to hang with your knees against the wall instead of your feet. This takes the weight off your legs (hey, you need those things to climb), saves your toes, and changes the ropes direction of pull to a steeper angle, which makes your harness more comfortable to hang in. The final method is to simply slump in your harness with your side against the wall, and switch sides from time to time. This one is usually reserved for about the fifth hanging belay in a row. You’ll know when it’s time.
Belay Seats:
If you can’t find a ledge, another option is to bring one with you. While a portaledge is a comfortable option, it’s only really reasonable for aid climbing because of the size and weight. Big-wall climbers sometimes use Bosun’s Chairs, which are very comfortable, but these too are too bulky and heavy for long free routes where you expect to move fast. A great alternative is a collapsible belay seat made from nothing more than a sheet of nylon and some webbing. A few companies used to make them, but I haven’t seen one around for a while. My suggestion is to find a friend with a good sewing machine and get them to work. In the absence of a belay seat, simply take a long sling and loop it under yourself. It’s not too comfortable, but it does take the weight off your harness for a little bit.
Rope Handling:
If you think keeping the rope running smoothly is tough on a long route, wait until you throw in a few hanging belays. Not only do you have to keep the cord organized, but you don’t have any place to put it. The standard method is to drape your rope across the tie-in point. This is quick and easy, but it puts the entire weight of the rope on your harness, as if hanging there didn’t suck enough already. The other option is to tie an overhand knot every 20-40 feet and clip it to a carabiner hanging from the anchor. This takes the weight off you, but you need to stay on top of the knot’s position in your belay line so you don’t short-rope your partner above. Either way you do it, make each loop of slack shorter than the one before so they don’t get hung up as you play out slack.
Autoblock:
I recommend belaying a second with an autoblock for all long routes, but this is especially true at hanging belays. Not only does it mean one less thing attached to your harness (which is always nice), but it also allows you to fidget, move positions, and stack the rope without risking your partner’s life. Black Diamond, Petzl, CAMP USA, and several other companies make them. Buy one and use it.
Put It All Together:
Learn how to set up a belay quickly. Learn how to stack the rope efficiently. Learn how to belay, eat, drink, and lace your shoes at the same time so you don’t have to stop and take the time to do them all individually. Learn how to re-rack as fast as possible and change from belaying to leading without missing a stride. In short, keep the team moving. This not only means less time at each hanging belay, it also means your team moves quicker and you climb faster. After all, the only thing better than climbing is more climbing.