When someone rock climbs up a mountain how does the ropes hold him?

· 3 Comments

Could you please explain how someone rock climbs. Ok so i have rock climbed and abseiled, but when rock climbing it’s only up small rocks which i get attached too at the top and bottom. So how does someone climb a massive mountain when i don’t see any ropes attached to them from the top. What happens if they fall.

Theres only a rope below him:

http://www.llanberisguides.com/geego_assets/publish/4/567.jpg

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3 Responses to When someone rock climbs up a mountain how does the ropes hold him?

  1. Sexy Homer is back! says:

    You place spikes in the rock wall as you climb, and you wrap the rope (the one you are carrying) around the spikes. You usually are attached to this rope by a sliding carribeaner and a short rope attached to your harness. When you fall, you only fall as far as the last spike that you set, as the carribeaner gets caught on the spike.

  2. the yes man says:

    your question is difficult to answer the way it is worded. but i’ll try….

    the rope is there to catch falls if you are free climbing, I’m not gonna get into aid climbing here cuz it’ll just confuse you. a team (2 people) tie in to the rope, one at each end, a rope is somewhere around 165 ft long. the first person climbs and puts protection into the rock, either by clipping existing bolts or placing stoppers or active camming devices and clips his rope with a caribiner. once he has one or 2 pieces in if he should fall he will fall twice as far as he is above the protection, leading is refered to as “the sharp end” when you take lead falls you CAN get hurt (I have been). the climber in you pic is leading so he is above his protection & trailing the rope. anyway the leader climbs till they run out of rope(165 ft). then they set up a belay station and bring their partner up. at this point they get ready and climb another “pitch”as a rope length climbed is called. and you just keep going and going and going till you top out. it’s done in a couple/several/many rope lengths.

  3. Steve says:

    Sexy Homer doesn’t seem to understand climbing at all, however Yes Man certainly does. He is exactly right – this is a form of Free Climbing called Lead Climbing. The leader periodically places protection as they climb. In the event of a fall, the leader will fall double the distance between them and the last piece of pro (pus rope stretch and slack).