10 Beginner Sport Climbing Mistakes to Avoid

Thank you Petzl for sponsoring this video!

0:00 - Gear you need
1:17 - Giveaway!
2:18 - Not taking care of your rope
3:44 - Not wearing a helmet
5:20 - Bad Belaying
8:54 - Perfect Knot Every Time!
10:03 - Buddy Check
10:33 - Clip in from the right stance
11:32 - Why we use quickdraws
12:02 - Backclipping
13:07 - Z Clipping
13:57 - Leg behind rope
14:56 - Building a sport anchor
17:12 - Cleaning an anchor
23:07 - Crag Ethics

[NoahKane]

Update: I've selected a winner for the giveaway! Thanks to all of you who left such kind comments below. I really wish I could give gear to everybody! But this seems to have gone great, so maybe Petzl will let me do more giveaways in the future!

[shamharoth]

Anyone who is new to outdoor climbing, please don’t use this approach for stripping the anchor - you’ll be completely removing yourself from the rope unnecessarily. For a much better and safer approach, look at the video titled “How to lower off a sport climb with Emma Twyford” on the BMC TV YouTube channel.

[sdsdsdaxvkqafnvex]

Congratulations on the Petzl sponsor! Hugely deserved Noah

[gordonsulc]

Most links or rappel rings have enough room to fit a bight through, allowing you to not untie your original climbing knot until you've tied a new one on a bight--requires a locking carabiner to attach the loop on a bight to your harness.

[makoko]

19:30 - Never clip the the carabiner in the gear loops but in the center loop of your harnes! Attaching the rope to your harnes is not just to prevent the rope from falling down. It's also a backup in case something goes wrong at the top anchor. The gear-loops won't hold a fall in case, the center loop will!

[wagbagsag]

When building quick draw anchor I prefer to clip to a middle link of the chain rather than the bolts under the chains. This avoids the situation you encountered while cleaning wherein you can’t easily remove the draws because you are weighting the rope.

You might be tempted to clip the bolts over the chains, but this is a bad idea because it can put a bending load on the carabiners.

You might also be tempted to clip the last link of the chains, but this will get you into trouble while cleaning because you need to put the rope through there.

Have fun out there!

[paulgaras]

I’ve never seen someone clean an anchor quite like that. We usually pass a bight through the rings and make an fig8 on that bight then untie and clean from there.
I also usually just clip my pas to 1 bolt because I don’t come off the rope at any point.

[reeno]

All good, but the cleaning shown here is not a proper way. After using PAS you should take out the slack above final quickdraws, then tie yourself to the rope (to the belay loop) and only then untie the figure 8 and pass the rope though the anchor points, in that way your system is redundant (1st point is PAS, second is your belayer keeping you on belay thanks to taking the slack from above last quick draws). You can also (after using PAS) pass the bite of rope through the anchor points, then attach it to the belay loop and only then untie figure 8 - both ways are valid, and both are very popular (although there are other ways of course).

[BenbowBoulders]

Bad Bad anchor cleaning method.. would be nice to see a follow up with proper anchor cleaning..

[BAK]

I come from an alpine/mountaineering school background so I always wear a helmet (might not look cool though XD) due to falling debris or slamming head on the wall. Rock/Ice is always harder than your head and the last thing you want in remote area is getting injured/crippled/dead! When doing buddy/double check, also check the end knot on the rope just to be sure! When cleaning an anchor; there are two safer variants of your method with a bit more redundancy, I suggest you look them up and practice. Well presented overall :)

[SCOclimbing]

The cleaning of the anchor wasnt so good as the other parts.

I never chain myself to my draws, I chain myself to one of the anchors. Then I remove one draw and connect it with the other and to my arness, now I have my own anchor, the quickdraw anchor with the rope.

Second mistake you made in my opinion: the 8 knot comes AFTER you cross the rope through the rock anchor because many anchors have tight spaces and you cant even fit the knot at all, so first feed rope through the anchor and THEN do the knot. Then tie to your arness with a bolt with a lock gate and remove draws, request to take and release self anchor and you are good to go.

All the rest, good guide.

[tomasnejezchleb]

Personally I'm not a fan of that anchor building. I get that you are an awesome climber, but many people here in comments are beginners, who would get pumped - building that anchor and holding themselfs in the same time (=why not set a personal anchor first, relax and then build an anchor stress free?) +not sure about that (don't know how far to the left is the last bolt) but it seems to me, like your left leg has potential of getting behind the rope if you fell while building that anchor.
Otherwise great vid👍

[sofiespalova]

I’m a beginner and this video has helped me so much in my climbing journey. Thank you so much ❤

[jamesmahoney]

18:34 I still think staying tied in and passing your slack through the top chains, then make a figure 8 bite to locking clip in to your belay loop, then untying the original knot, is a better system.
You never come off the rope and you can still tie in afterwards for redundantness.
I am always sketched out when I'm not on the rope system.

This method looks great and I will use it, but I'm just adding my two cents.

[dangerousnatureous]

Loved your tree climbing vids, but just started sport climbing so this is great! Thanks for sharing!

[Techniv]

Cool tips.
For the anchor cleaning you can passe the loop of slack of the rope in the permanent anchor without untight the belay knot. Then you tight an over hand and clip it to your belay loop. You untight your original knot and finish to passe the rope to the anchor at the end. So at any time your belayer is in redundancy with your personal anchor and when the two knot are tight you have a second dynamic slack personal anchor for extra safety.
With this method you have enough redundancy to clip your personal anchor directly to the bolt and stay on it until the descent. So you can work without annoying your belayer. 😁

[johnpranger]

I loved this video and you covered most of the content really well. I have to say that I have some concerns about the cleaning the anchor part where you have the rope hanging from your harness but you are only on the anchors when you untied your knot.

When doing this process please pull the slack through the draws and clip it to your belay loop so that if your PAS were to fail you fall onto the knot that is still through the draws.
-OR-
Rather than tying the knot in the bight of rope, push the bight through the quick links/rap-rings and tie the knot on the bight and attach to your harness.

These two processes ensure that at all times you are on rope that is through the anchors before you begin untying the knot from your harness. At 19:30 when you begin untying the rope is no longer going through the anchors and in the INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY SCENARIO that your PAS fails you have no backup. PAS failure could be from nothing more than forgetting to lock your carabiner but the consequences of the setup you demonstrated would be a groundfall from the anchors.

[timosnieder]

Dude I love the little videos you spliced in, they illustrate your points quite perfectly.

[flwi]

Great tips! I recommend using a clove hitch knot to secure your rope from falling down. Very easy to do and you don't have to untangle it.

[jigokatama]

honestly very valid and good content right up to the anchor cleaning portion - there are much better videos for that segment out there (if anyone sees this comment)