Safety Policy
Attention all Aberdeenshire Rockwall Approval Holders
Peer Belaying - January 2006
(ie. letting students belay each other)
The issue of peer belaying has been under discussion at national level for a while as a result of a lot of poor practise observed by the inspectors for the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority. It has also been highlighted by a recent incident resulting in serious back injury. In this case the instructor called to someone in the group to ‘let go of the rope’. A second belaying team promptly let go of their ropes, dropping a student who was being lowered.
There is no inference here that bad practice is being employed on Aberdeenshire walls but I doubt there are many of us that could not identify in some way with the heat of the moment mis-communication that caused the incident described. There but for the grace of God….etc etc
The moral of the tale and as a reminder to all of us involved in supervising rockwall sessions:
- Ensure that you give very clear instruction in the techniques of belaying
- Do not hand over belaying to students until you are absolutely certain of their abilities. (err on the side of caution).
- Use a competent person to tail them
- Encourage use of ‘buddy’ systems for all belayers: one belays, one ‘tails’. If one person makes a mistake hopefully the other is still in control.
- Very clear use of climbing calls, including the NAME of the person you are speaking to.
I’d welcome your thoughts/questions on this topic, or any other issue that concerns you. These can be shared via the recently created Rockwall users e-mail group or directly to: info@adventure-scotland.com
Happy climbing
Dale Kitching
Adventure Scotland
Technical Adviser, Mountaineering
