Learn to Lead



Step 1: Read John Long's books



Placing Gear
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placing nuts, tricams, cams
SCORED
sling extension
practice placing
practice placing and clipping while traversing wall



Building Anchors
----------------
slinging trees, pinches, chockstones
fixed gear (3/8" or bigger shiny bolts with non-spinning hangers = good; everything else = suspect)
screamers
cordelette/webolette anchors
EARNEST
tree and other anchors away from the top of the cliff
belaying off harness vs. belaying off anchor
practice building anchors



Leading Pitches
---------------
jesus nut
stacking the rope
protecting traverses



First Lead Protocol
-------------------
2 fat ropes + grigri
G-rated climb <30m with no traversing
S1 = testing student
S2 = other student

1) Instructor lead pitch, fix rope to anchor
2) S2 cleans, takes entire rack down to bottom
3) S1 mock leads, belayed by Instructor on toprope, belayed by S2 on mock lead
4) S1 and Instructor rappel together, evaluate placements and spacing
5) if S1 mock led successfully (good gear, good spacing, did not weight rope,
   did not look sketch) then ready for real lead
6) S1 leads belayed by S2. Instructor jugs next to S1 on a grigri on the fixed
   rope. Instructor has a 120cm sling girth hitched to harness. If Instructor
   worries about S1 (bad gear, bad spacing, sketchy climbing) then clip sling
   to S1 rope, essentially acting as a high piece of gear
7) At the top of the climb, S1 is finished. They can rappel and clean gear.
   If the other student is also testing, swap roles and go back to step #3.




Sport Climbing
--------------
backclipping
clip at waist and/or from best clipping hold
never pass your fingers over the carabiner nose (pinch clip or hook clip)
dynamic belay - conservation of angular momentum & soft catch
two draw anchors
quad anchor
cleaning sport anchors:
  Loweroffs
    Super easy
    Make sure your belayer knows what is happening!
    Common mechanism for accidents

  Rappelling
    attach to both bolts
    call off belay
    attach rope to you, on a strong part of your harness
    untie
    thread anchors
    tie stopper knot
    untie rope from you
    feed to ground/middle mark
    rig rappel device
    rig autoblock
    weight rappel device
    unclip from anchors
    rappel

  Lowering through rings
    attach to one bolt
    pass bight through rings
    tie eight on bight and clip to harness
    untie from rope
    lower

special cases: stick clip, cleaning steep routes