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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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There's no way you can have an extra second to run or back up any distance, once a fall has been initiated. Zero.
You can walk away if you want when you see your leader shaking and sketching before he falls but you can just do the same thing anyway by yarding in. Plus you won't be 20 feet from the wall when he whips.
Personally, if I whip I want my belayer squarely on both feet, manning the rope, not tripping over rocks.
Arne
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Madbolter
Big Wall climber
I used to be hard
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Yep. I've done it and been caught by it. Suicide, JTree, Apron, Big Rock (Perris). On slabs...it works.
I even put up a couple routes in Josh that pretty much required this technique: "Big Sandy Bound" in White Tank CG and "Shock to the System" on Little Hunk. Ground up ethics didn't always allow bolts in convenient spots.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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I've backed up at a reasonable speed on occasion back when we hip belayed, but that's with the rope locked up - there are basically no circumstances where I'd let the rope slide in the process.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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The belay can always be given more attention.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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There have been plenty of occassions on which I dearly wanted to run. Then there were the
two occassions I literally caught someone. The first time there was no anchor or pro and if I had not caught him he would have gone another 30' onto some boulders. The second time I
was wedged in a pea pod with a #2 stopper behind a dinner plate sized flake. He came off 20'
up, bounced off a ledge I hadn't enough rope to reach, and landed in my arms. We started to
tip out of the pea pod but I decided I really didn't want to test that stopper.
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docsavage
Trad climber
Albuquerque, NM
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I am sort of surprised no one has mentioned so far the brother & cousin to this 'running belay' technique (which as several people have mentioned is really an old Brit phrase for intervening protection, or 'pro'): a) the technique of flinging yourself off the opposite side of a ridge to offset a fallen partner (which several old books propose) & b) the technique of stuffing handfuls of rope through your belay device while your partner falls. I would be interested to know if anyone has effectively used either of these. I was once able to stuff about two arm lengths of rope through my plate before it came tight - but that was only because it was such a long fall, well anticipated & my partner slid on his butt for about 20 feet before falling the 40 remaining ...
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