Would you like to…uh…belay me dynamically?

Dynamic belaying. That sounds like a very exciting topic.

That's why I want to talk about it at length and in detail. Because nothing in climbing is as nice as a belayer who belays dynamically; then you end up in a bed full of soft clouds as a reward for facing the fierce physical and mental challenge above the bolt.

A static belayer on your lifeline feels, by comparison, like bouldering without a mat. You'd rather not fall. While lead climbing is already (fantastic but) a bit scary for many of us, a static belayer can be deadly for any ounce of fun above the bolt.

Unfortunately, dynamic belaying is not self-evident and not always easy either. I have had pity on many ankles, and I am by no means a belaying queen myself. I find dynamic belaying sometimes quite difficult. Especially when my climber is much lighter than me. Then I don't feel when they end up in the rope and I have to kind of decide when and how much to give. I have a friend of 47 kilos who has seriously injured herself several times because her (experienced!) climbing partners failed to belay her dynamically. Her tip? Sit in a frog position with light climbing partners as soon as it gets exciting and jump upwards in case of a fall.

Even belaying climbers of my own weight sometimes gives me headaches. When they climb above obstacles, anyway a moment when you as a belayer better pay attention, I have to make a quick estimate of when to let go. Belaying until after the obstacle (if possible) or not belaying dynamically? You can laugh about it, but the climber really can't control her fall. Secretly quite a responsibility.

Heavier climbers who fall are even more difficult in that context, because it's harder to control where they end up exactly. After all, you're being rapidly pulled upwards with a lot of force and hats off to those who can still anticipate slings and obstacles correctly.

However, what I find many times more difficult than belaying climbers of any weight dynamically, is talking about dynamic belaying. Fortunately, many of my climbing friends belay dynamically, and that does wonders for my mental peace above the bolt. But when I go climbing with new acquaintances, I can hardly bring myself to say that a dynamic fall is very important to me. Say super important. Say very important for all my climbing pleasure.

"Hey honey, can you belay me dynamically?" is easy to say, and yet it quickly comes across as expressing a serious criticism of the belayer in advance, especially if they've been messing around with the grigri for years. But a repetition of static falls is even more detrimental to the budding climbing friendship.

I have developed two communication tactics for when I go climbing with new climbing partners. As soon as we put on our harnesses, I say that I one, fall (not always self-evident) and two, really love dynamic falls. Then it seems a bit like I'm declaring that I'm a fan of the color green, Eefje de Visser, cream puffs and coincidentally also of dynamic falls.

If I notice that I still don't have confidence in them, for whatever reason, I initiate a fall training with tiny falls to start with. That is not only good for my confidence in the equipment and the general good outcome (progress?) of my life, but also gives an idea of the belayer's belaying experience. If Mr. or Mrs. then catches static falls, you at least have a valid reason to make a remark about it (or you can seize the opportunity to secretly run away very fast, something I would rather do than have a confrontation).

But what I would of course like to see most of all is that it's simply a more common topic of conversation at the base of the crag. That I hear more often 'I'm very light, watch out' or 'did I belay you properly?' or 'shit, oh no, that was a nasty fall, I'll try to do better next time', so that in the future I might see fewer trembling climbers climbing above their last bolt, only to witness them being thrown against the wall by their belayer in case of a fall. People already have enough trouble with lead climbing.

So that beginners also immediately realize that dynamic belaying is really 'a thing'. For all our ankles.

Hey honey, can you belay me dynamically?