As a novice lead climber I think you are the best source on youtube for these things since you do proper deep dives into the practical details. You are also quite unique in the way that you have nuanced discussions about different methods rather than biased statements about right and wrong methods (well some things are just wrong..). So just keep doing what you are doing!

My takeaway is that people need to practice catching falls with whatever technique they use and that they should always be paying attention ..

Love these video series. We get told all the time "don't do things this way because this might happen" and this stuff keeps getting repeated as fact but no one is willing to actually test it in a practical environment... until now..

Another top-notch video from HardIsEasy. Among other lessons here, this reinforces my idea that introducing newbies to belaying should include catching some actual falls (with backup, of course). Those who've simply had the correct technique shown to them are routinely shocked at the real thing when it happens.

Here in Germany they recommend the tunneling method, but they also recommend using assisted belaying devices instead of tubers.

Ben, just wanted to say that I have never climbed and probably never will in my entire life but I've watched basically all of your videos just for the thorough enjoyment of your ability to explain such technical things and to tell yours and your mates climbing adventures and challenges with this humble and down to earth way of doing. I'm probably a weird and outlier "demographic" for your channel but here I am and just wanted to let you know!

Oh wow...i am from Germany and learned the tunnel method and had right yesterday a discussion with a guy in California about it. I really prefer the tunnel method, especially for lead climbing, because I can give rope way more faster because my left hand is always ready to pull out some rope. thanks for the video! good job

Stoked you've got a sponsor! We trust you to stay objective since you've done such a great job so far and you focus more on technique than equipment, partnering with brands should give you some awesome resources and I'm super stoked for the videos you'll make with them! I'm really fascinated by the test where the rope pulled out of her hand - I really didn't expect that to happen. I'd guess the "tunnel" was super loose, maybe her thumb wasn't gripping her index finger? Then it wouldn't take too much force for the rope to squeeze out. I used to be an ATC loyalist because "I won't let go of the rope" and "i can give a softer catch" but climbing with friends who force me to use their grigri has forced me to learn how to belay with it better. Now I find myself feeling safer when my belayer uses an assisted device 🤷‍♂

Honestly, more or less all the methods you mentioned here and in the belay device video are super safe compared to how I learned to belay. An 11 year old kid belaying an adult dad, weighing almost 100kg (it should be noted that even then I weighed like an average adult girl :D). However, at that time in the Czech Republic tube devices were just starting to come on the market and the vast majority of people were still belaying via rappelling 8, including us. Which, let's be honest worked for years, at least here, but when I started climbing again as an adult I can't imagine belaying with something so crazy. However, it does make me wonder. We spent 2 months climbing in Spain last year and compared to what I know from home (where the Ocún Ferry or Petzl Reverso is definitely the most widely used gear), most people use the GriGri. But I was shocked how many people use the GriGri as a fully automatic device and don't hold the dead end of the rope at all. Including older climbers, looking relatively experienced (I even saw a guy from a climbing shop in Granada belay like this), who were climbing much harder routes than I was. And what I see as the biggest carnage was that when climbing in Alfacar, a group of young people, obviously beginners, arrived and were being trained by an older climber who most of the time had no hand on the dead end of the rope at all. For this reason, I believe that even belaying with gear that is not designed for that purpose at all (such as rappel 8) can be beneficial to a beginner, from the point of view that when using 8 or tubular gear you don't even think to let your hand off the rope because it is obvious to most people what would follow. Semi-automatics or automatics just don't belong in a beginners hand. That's my opinion.

Thank you for this. We recently had two leader deck outs from height at my local wall. Watching the cctv replay was both fascinating and perplexing; in the first case the climbers were neither very experienced nor used to each other. The leader tried to clip at 15 metres failed and reversed... the slack was not retaken. He tried again and the belayer stepped in to give more slack but lost sight of the climber who fell. The belayer rapidly paid out rope presumably thinking that the leader was moving upwards. The belayer only locked the fall as he heard the impact behind him. A young climber ambling by was very nearly hit. The second deck out from 12 metres occurred when a young couple had agreed to practice “surprise” falls; she wasn’t looking upwards when he fell, although she locked, her hand was dragged into the belay device and she released her grip. Both leaders suffered crushed vertebrae but recovered quickly. The floor is covered with 3 inch thick rubber crumb matting. One thing that did strike me from the video was that the women may not have had the triceps strength to hold the lock position firmly...in the last fall the locking arm collapses, dragging her hand into the belay device.

Super impressed with the nuance and scientific approach that you brought to this video! I didn’t realize the tunnel method existed prior to watching your videos, but feel that I’ve learned a lot about how climbing is done in other parts of the world.

Fantastic video! Great work exploring the little details that make all the difference. In my opinion the failures you recorded were not because the tunneling technique is bad. It was just poorly applied. The first lady had a bad hand position. Her thumb was parallel with the rope instead perpendicular. The last lady tried to take out slack in the middle of the fall. That is why she moved her hand up. When she finally grabbed the rope it slammed her hand into the device which caused her to drop the rope. I belay with a Reverso and use the tunneling technique almost exclusively. I have caught fall with my hand only a few centimetres from the device and it never pinched or sucked my hand in. As long as your reaction is a firm pull down and back. So to avoid the mistakes in the video you need to make sure your tunnel is closed. Thumb firmly on your your index. Your reaction needs to be immediate and always the same. Firm pull down and back. For experienced belayer that can anticipate the fall then you can start incorporate other skills. Soft catch, removing slack, hard catch, jumping down, etc

Your videos are my favorite hands down, thank you for continuing to put out amazing content! It was your Belay Master Class series that I started my intro to climbing about a year ago and I'm so glad I watched them first! Can't wait to see you send that 8A!

Also like to add. Be very careful as a belayer to keep your hand clear of the belay device at the point where the rope goes through. I was dropped because my belayers hand was "sucked" into the device during a fall. Luckily for me I was only 6m up at a climbing gym with a very padded floor. They got a nasty welt /bruise on the skin between their index finger and thumb. I twisted my ankle. I considered myself lucky to get away pretty much uninjured. So keep hands at least 25cm below the tube device at all time.

I like that this video shows that you can practice catching falls. Regardless of what method you choose it's valuable to figure out how you are likely to react to the shock of catching a whipper when new to the sport. Getting pulled up towards the wall takes getting used to for some people.

Excellent video, as always. A couple of things from when I learned this that seem not to get needed attention today with respect to non-assisted: 1) Brakking hand and non-braking hand need to be trained to react without the brain getting in the way. NB hand measures just enough slack that the climber isn't pulled. B hand is always below where the loaded device would sit and NB hand is always above. Keeping the hands in position and feeding (I think of it as "floating" or "whipping") the rope in both directions takes hours of practice. 2) Grabbing the rope is the last thing you do. Brake position is shoulder back, elbow extended, palm down, thumb in with the brake strand on the hip. This needs to be pure reflex based on NB hand input. You don't grab the rope so much as turn the friction all the way up. This is practiced with gloves and belaying a person on abseil preferably. There is a reason gyms don't teach this. You get a lot of control over fall path, fall distance and hardness of catch all without the belayer flying through the air, but it takes a lot of time to get good at and unless you need to control those things, grigris work great in gyms and for a lot of routes outside.

I have been taught to only use tunnel technique with assisted belays, and to always keep solid contact when using tubes. This video pretty much shows why. Its good to be safe.

I use this method a lot. I didn't fully know about it when I started using it but naturally went there. I do hold very tight (a lot of contact but still slipping upwards) when I move the hand up the rope. I am also very aware to keep the belay hand close to my hip at all times/under behind the belay device. Additionally I normally hold the top hand out in front of me with a bit of slack on my side and a tiny bit of tension on the climbers end. The climber will not feel it because the friction in the system will absorb that tiny tension. This way I feel when they move upwards and need a bit more slack or as soon as they fall I also feel it in the rope and can catch the rope with my other hand before they even get to the catch point. The incident where she dropped the rope in the video is also why I refrain from using any belay device that doesn't have automatic assistance like grigri. Many things can happen where you might drop the break hand from the rope. If you get pulled into the wall rapidly and sideways towards the right side you might instinctively drop that hand to protect yourself from the impact. It goes so fast you don't even know you do it. So unless I must use a tube device. I don't.

This was splendid video. Love it! All your content is super interesting and very educational. Every time some one is asking me were they can learn more about climbing, your chanel is one of the very first things I am recommending to them. So please keep up with the content and have a nice rest of the day(or maybe night idk :v). One again loved this video!

Your climber is a hero doing all those falls, good tips;

Fight fight fight, kiss kiss kiss. Love this content. I learned on tubes and only very recently used a grigri. I can see how getting out of practice with a tube might lead to some bad habits, but if you’re using good technique with a grigri, you should still have all the right attributes in practice to catch an unexpected whipper on a tube

About the "when you see person falls you grab a rope instanstly" - people are easily distracted and I believe there is a decent chance belayer (despite one's experience) could miss the moment with their eyes.

I think you have made clear how important paying attention is when belaying. It seems if people are paying enough attention to the climber than even with quite poor technique they are going to catch them.

Really love your informative videos with your "tests". Some well deserved props to the climber taking those falls.

I always watch your videos with great enthusiasm, because they are substantive, but I learn the most from them, the language is great to listen You :)

That last drop looked scary. I bet the climber's heart rate shot through the roof. Great video.

I'd love to see similar tests on semi automatic belay device like BD ATC Pilot, the one I use. Great content, chers! :)

Your real world experiments are very informative, even for experienced belayers, and often reveal the specific weaknesses in devices, standard usage practices, and how a belay can be overcome during significantly more severe falls than are routinely dealt with. A bit paradoxically, the more uncommon, but far more severe fall scenario, occurs in alpine settings, with long runouts on moderate terrain, where loose holds or debris or wet, slippery footing sees an unexpected fall - and more often, when more basic ATC style devices are being used for lightness and ease, yet where they may be overwhelmed in containing a massive impact. This video shows belayers being yanked off their feet into the wall; in alpine terrain, without a tight anchor, this could translate into being lifted and buffeted for many feet, in which time loss of control becomes a significant factor.

You’re an expert in my book. I watch your videos because i climb with my wife and kids… I don’t really want to drop them. Thanks for the reminders about good belay technique.

Hi we practice PBUS method in Denmark. And teach beginners with PBUS and ATC's device. And grigri as alternatives.s I noticed in this video that they use their brake hand like they hold a grigri. (To far out) instead og below the brake. When I see you do it (someone who normally use ATC's) the hand is below. To me it's the position of the brake hand that minimises the slippages. Thanks for keeping the open mind in your videos.

Could you please test what will happen when climber fall on moment when giving slack on thumb-like devices like bd Pilot or ederlid giga Jul?

Extremely helpful! I struggled with the hand over hand instruction at my wall, I see how it is safer (especially with an ATC), but I was losing focus on the climber and my surroundings when I was racing to take in slack and keep both of my hands moving so quickly.

9:41 hand over tube, DANGER. Happened to my girl belaying me with Jul2 (autotuber) - fortunately she quickly pulled down - only 4m of additional fall. We investigated, and switched to Grigri, since the rope hand is angle indipendent (not letting go of the rope is enough). Great video!

Thanks so much for making this video - i’m new to lead climbing/belaying and in my gym this tunneling method is encouraged, but i’ve had a lot of thoughts and worries about all the failure methods you address here. This video provided context, answers for my questions and tips for how to avoid these situations and I feel more confident and better equipped as a lead belayer.

This is the way I learned with a Sticht plate many years ago (still the best belay device imho). A lot of climbing gyms push a "safer" method. Look at 7:13 to see what can go horribly wrong if there were no dedicated brake hand. When you get pulled off your feet, you will instinctively reach out with one hand to brace.

One time, my friend was belaying with an ATC and got distracted at the precise moment that her climber fell. Her hand was loose around the brake end, so the rope slid through. Luckily the fall was stopped 2m above the ground, because her reaction was to grab the non-break end with both hands (lots of rope burn). Moral of the story - human errors can occur, reactions under stress can vary. Thus, assisted locking belay devices are very good at reducing these risks. Thank you for these informative and funny videos that help avoid scenarios like the one described here 😊 love your work

One thing I always communicate with new climbing partners is that, when the person is actively climbing. You’re complete and undivided attention needs to be on them ALWAYS. Only when they are resting or sequencing the route can you look away or communicate with others. There have been times where I looked down and saw my belayer having a conversation with someone. When that happens I ask to be lowered and have a private conversation and let them know not to do that.

No gear is perfect & I use the ATC as a backup. Say whatever you want, hands down, the GriGri is much safer! Yeah, a friend passed out with a heat stroke while belaying with an ATC! 😮

BEST Climbing techniques and experiments Channel, in spite of negative feedback you could have from some people, your videos, knowledge and human quality are over all that and it must work as brushwood into your fireplace to continue growing up! Congratulations 👏 and thank you very much for all your energy!

Thanks for these experiments. I just started lead recently, after just doing top rope for a long time, so these experiments with the catastrophic circumstances ease the nerves since I lack the experience.

It is definatly a possible scenario. That being said with tunel technique in lead, you will "tunnel" mostly downward since you give mostly slack. In that scenario, sliding your hand tight with the brake rope is very easy and natural since your other hand holds the rope after you gave slack. It would be if you give too much that the action would be in reverse (like after giving a lot of slack for clipping) In that scenario though, you would be super attentive since the climber would ask for it. Great video, makes you think a lot!

When you are in Seon at Mammut, you should also visit their climbing gym in Lenzburg :)

Having the hand closer to the body so it tilts the device is one of the most important elements i think. Having that friction means gripping is easier in every situation, the slow motion where the hands slip, the hand is always out in front further so it takes more effort to grip and stop the slip.

In the north suisse and some south German regions there is a style that supposes : do never ever move your belaying hand ( in this video, the right hand) above a fictional horizontal line above the belay device. instead of pulling upwards, you pull away from you in the front. This way, the device always can tip and grip on the robe. It's Stange at first. But I like it. It totally avoids the possibility of both robes pointing upwards and no braking force will apply. I know very well this is not the point of the video (I've seen it 😜) but it is the most concerning part. Now fight please 😉

I think the person falling for these test on these sketchy ass scenarios deserves a shout out

I understand why many people get really angry when climbing safety is a question of life and death. Overall, I think you are very reasonable with the information in your videos, and I appreciate that you SAFELY test the limits of equipment and people so we can all learn and climb more safely!

Watching your videos on failing devices, mistakes made during belaying and carabiners cutting ropes, is actually discouraging me from wanting to take the lead/belay test.

I was taught to always immediately add a left (upper) hand on the rope below the device when catching a flight. I'm quite surprised it's not a common practice.

Great lesson! Please, do the same test with semi-automatic belay devices like: Mammut Smart 2.0, Black Diamond Pilot, Edelrid Mega (or Giga) Jul, Singing Rock Rama. In my country, on indor climbing walls, you have to use at least these type of belay devices. You can not use simple cup. After knowing more about topic, and about how grigri fails, i came to a conclusion that this 4 pieces of gear are safer to use. If i am wrong, You are the only one who can show me that.

"Everything is ok until it's not." - some smartass. I never thought much about the shuffle until somebody didn't like it. We used a lot of hip belays when I started out. Now people freak out if they see that, but there it was in Robbin's Basic Rockcraft. Mindfulness and experience are key, and even very experienced folks can have a bad moment. Play safe out there, kids.

Great video as usual! Personally, I don't think it's a big deal. If practiced correctly, all belay methods (v123, PBUS, tunneling) can be pretty damn safe, and all have there relative advantages and disadvantages. In the UK v123 standard. It's is quick and fullproof if done right but I do notice a lot of people get sloppy with the hand-over-hand bit, and sometimes only hold the rope with 1 or two fingers as they're hand swapping! PBUS is pretty full proof, but in the real world, it's often quite slow and cumbersome. Tunneling is convenient and when using half ropes, tunneling the rope often allows you to control the slack much better than other methods, which could save your mate from decking! The bigger thing is emphasizing safe belaying practices, keeping the break hand low, paying attention, and dynamic catches where appropriate.

If you're really good with tubes, you can let the rope slip a little bit in the hand on purpose, to give a soft catch instead of jumping up. Might be a bit old school, but puts things in a different perspective.

Excellent break down and analysis as always! You have a fantastic approach to testing and controlling for variables. My wife and me haven't done nearly as much lead climbing as we've been wanting to so not as well practiced with lead belaying. There's just not much sport or trad around here. These videos really help highlight possible failure modes before we make them ourselves. It gives us the ability to practice on the ground and be aware of them when climbing.

just use assisted Devices. You dont need to stop the fall with your hand, you only need to build enough resistance for the breaking mechanism to initiate. (Break hand is still important for that matter, but I believe that you‘d fail to replicate a total failure in the way you did here.) Also, at least the last (really bad) fail started with a breakhand above the device. That will always end catastrophic with tube-style devices and cant be seen as a valid point in the tunneling-discussion imo. (but as a very valid point in the anti-tuber-discussion)

Another fantastic video. Beginners should ALWAYS learn to have one hand secure on the brake side at all times, which means switching hands as you've shown, including with assist devices. Tunneling should be considered an advanced technique, suitable for advanced climbers. If someone has any doubt about whether they are advanced enough, they are not. It's someone's life you are holding (or not holding) in your hands.

This video answered all my questions about tunneling. It's fair to say that you can have a dangerous situation with belaying, when the brake hand does not control the rope. This can happen with tunneling, but also in other ways. An inexperienced belayer can get caught off-guard, drop the brake due to getting hand pinched in device, rope burn, or sheer surprise. If the brake hand is above or in front of the device, the rope can zip through very easily. AND, the brake hand is momentarily in the 'wrong' position, every time they take in rope. You showed that all these belaying dangers exist, but you didn't prove that tunneling itself is unsafe. You showed us one example of where it looked unsafe, but actually, that was more to do with having the brake hand out front, inattentiveness and rope burn, than it is to do with tunneling. It's understandable why Climbing Gyms don't like tunneling, because there's always a danger of losing control of the rope, and they want to completely eliminate such dangers. But i've also seen Gym 'instructors' condone patently unsafe practices, such as a short tether to the ground placing the device down low, and belaying with the brake hand above the device. My conclusion is that if the belayer uses all the right safety measures, I don't see why tunneling is unsafe. I still use PBUS, but if my climber is ascending quickly, I'd rather take in the slack quicker with tunneling, rather than slavishly follow the Gym dogma.

As an experienced belayer, i use tunnel up method when belaying lead with the petzl reverso because i find giving and taking rope very much faster. Though i wont recommend it for beginner belayers because it takes experience to automatically tighten your grip and pull your arm down fast when you feel the rope tense up.

Don‘t worry about the comment fighting too much, that‘s the nature of the internet. Thank you so much for your continuous effort to bring us quality content like this! You rock!

I like You video and tips. This year I just started to climb. Thanks to Your course I understood how much weight can sustain elements like rope, harness, belay devices and others.

Accidents are a hard thing to test. But that's the reason in America we stick to the PBUS. Just reducing the chances of accidents.

One thing I’d be interested in: When belaying hand-over-hand or Pull Brake Under Slide, how likely is it that you forget which hand should be gripping? Especially when you are slammed against the wall and want to protect your face. And a warning for the Mammut tube style belay device you use in the video: It loves to eat your brake hand if it gets too close to the belay device. Happened to me once when rappeling and it was really hard to get my thumb out. Fortunately only had some skin damage and the Prusik backup knot prevented any serious danger.

You got the answers to all my questions, so i dont have to get on my friends nerves any more

Learning how to lead climb currently and I’m finding these videos very helpful. Thanks Ben!

can you make a video about what to do if you can't finish a sportclimb or multipitch route

I'd hypotesise that an experienced belayer with Hand over hand or similar technique(variation of which we use here in Finland), is at least fast enough to belay pretty much any climber at any given normal speed, making the risks of the loosening the grip away. Some more experienced belayers also sometimes make the hand over hand even faster if you change the hands(put the left hand close to the belay device below it, raise your right hand, pull, put the right hand close to the device below it, raise your left hand etc, thus skipping one step(raising the hand below the device) alltogether)... Would like to see a video on that, but it might be hard to find one proficient with such technique especially if it's not normally practiced where you are. TLDR hand over hand technique might be just as fast, may be(I see it as quite probable, in finland it's also prohibited I think to use the tube techique) safer and you can make it more efficient by changing hands. (pull-leftbelow-rightabove-pull-rightbelow-leftabove-pull vs pull-leftbelow-rightbelow-leftabove-pull-leftbelow-rightbelow-leftabove-pull)

It kills me you guys belay without gloves. LOL. You must have tough hands!

Please, instead of pull -> brake -> under -> slide, try pull -> brake -> OVER to where you'd slide. The next bite should just be done in mirror. No sliding at all and a considerable dexterity gain at the same time. Once it bakes into muscle memory it becomes absolutely effortless. It's also more comfortable when caching really heavy partners, because you are already holding the rope the entire time (having a death-grip on the rope in such case might not be the best course of action, but that's besides the point). Edit: After baking into muscle memory, you might begin to do your "Over" movement, while your hand goes for "Brake", and because the "Over" hand is physically lower, both the "Brake" position happens quicker as does the next Pull, because the hand remains higher. Definitely not something to practice without getting simple alternation reflexes first, as the whole point is to make things faster by triggering movements from the feel of brake being engaged, not from the idea that you "need to pull faster".

Love it! As a beginer climber I used techniques where I would always have a firm hold on the break strand. As I learned and gained experience, at some point I graduated to using the tunnel technique because it was more efficient. I could remove rope out of the system quicker while belaying someone on top rope. And I can give slack faster when belaying someone on lead. Experience and prificiency is what makes the tunnel technique safe.

You are becoming my favorite climbing KZfaq channel

Thanks for another great video! No real reason not to use P-Bus given the extra safety.. But people are going to do what they want.. I just wont climb with them. ;P

It would be interesting to do the same test with a top rope climber and and unexpected fall, with "not looking/blind" belayer as you did in this video. It seems to me that, top rope-belaying with the "tunnel" method involve actually more "not-grabing-moments" on the rope below the device than "lead-belaying " would do.... It's just a guess... Great videos and Channel btw

Thumb up for the closure sentence of the video. Thank you Ben for your spirit

Hi! Congratulations for the video and the study about belay devices... My apologies for my basic English. I like so much specially the quality of your explanation. I share with my students, I am a professor in Argentina and a high mountain guide. Thank you very much!

The good thing about tunneling is that it requires you to do exactly what your instinct tells you to do at the moment of panic, tighten your grip.

Very good job Ben. I always teach V-knee-1-2-3 for beginners and still use it myself when on top rope. For lead climbing I tend to tunnel but try to still use v-k-123 where I can because it is, intrinsically, safer. I did notice a couple of your volunteers had quite a high hand when attempting to brake, which is something that I strongly discourage and noticed that you addressed at the end of your video. Long story short: It's very hard to make an error provided that you maintain a small tunnel and keep your brake hand close to you and below your belay plate.

Honestly I will never ever climb again with someone who has tendency to release even one hand from the rope during cathing fall. If you are able to do this with one hand it is highly possible that can happen with second one. When i was begginer more experienced climbers and my instructor taught me that the best and the most safest method of holding rope is with your thumb that make ring with your forefinger/middle finger. It really prevent rope from slipping out from your hands. if you release you upper hand from the rope catching the fall is much harder to hold climber with only one hand. Holding rope with barelly touching rope or without thumb is like stepping on thin ice and can lead to dangarous situation. I remember when one day when we practised catching unexpected falls like on the film and my friend got upside-down but he still had both hands on the rope :D. In my country i am sure that if you catch fall with one hand instructor will not be happy about that. Anyway that was awsome video.

I'd like to see what happens if the climber impacts while both hands are above the belay device (11:45). I suspect that this is dangerous, yet beginners are taught this way. My reasoning is this - after an impact the tube device will point directly at the first bolt above the belayer. If the brake hand is above this position at the moment of impact, then the hand will be pulled down into the device, potentially injuring the belayer or worse, dropping the rope/not generating enough friction force through the tube device to stop the fall. As an alternative, the hand controlling the dead rope should never lift above the belay loop - that way at the moment of impact, the tube device will flip upwards above the hand holding the dead-rope which means that the belayer automatically has their hand in a braking position, reducing the likelihood of a failed fall arrest. So why bring the brake hand up to feed slack? This is to reduce friction for smoother rope feeding, but it is the angle between the dead rope and live rope that creates friction - so rather than lift the break hand up, the live hand should pull the rope down to the horizontal as the breaking hand pulls the dead rope through. You probably won't see this comment, but I'd love to see your analysis of this issue!

Another great one, your videos are the best climbing stuff you can find on YT.

Nice!! Great to see this being tested!! One problem with tunneling is that the habit can very easily morph to simply letting go or becoming too loose. So when teaching, it is far easier to verify that there are no safety holes by banishing tunneling, and insisting on matching two hands on the live end of the rope. The aim is to develop fool proof habitats, and tunneling is certainly not fool proof (as you showed). Actually, might start using this testing set up whilst teaching. Thanks!!

The takeaway is: pay attention when belaying with a tube, it can fail. So practice holding a fall! But it has huge advantages, you can give and cut slack faster than with any other device, and to make a soft catch there is no need to jump, the dynamic is in the device. That's why we use it in competition belaying.

Thanks for the video, always excited when a new one shows up.

I really like how you explain your concepts in your videos. You have excellent presentation.

Really nice and interesting as usual :) You can notice the only time it's failed it's seems that the belayer "push" the rope up like if she wanted to take back the loose instead of just grab the rope or even better, grab and push it down where the tube brakes it better.

That last lady is exactly why I recently bought some belay gloves. I have a fear of getting my hand sucked in and pinched by the belay device. With the gloves I feel like the fabric would get pinched first, which would make it less painful, and less likely that I accidentally let go like what she did. I am a new climber, so that is just my opinion though. Great video as always.

You are one of the best KZfaq climbing channels man!!

Hope everything is going okay Ben. Happy New Year for 2023!

All of your videos are so interesting !! Thank you a lot for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

this demonstrates the need for good communication between the belayer and the climber and also the need to learn to belay properly regardless of the method you use as there are many viable and safe belay methods. a message for belayers who become flustered and feel rushed: you can ask your climber to slow down.

Seems take both proper theory and thorough exercizing to work securely!

If you aren’t willing to grab-hold of a ‘runaway rope’ and have it burn through fingers [nearly ‘to the bone’] then you’re not quite ready, and have no business belaying an outdoor trad/sport/aid route.(imho) also; the additional 5’+ additional distance the leader will fall by having their belayer being ‘dragged/launched’ into the cliff face is inexcusable and easily avoided. After all, the ROPE is dynamic…no reason for the belay to be as well. [you notice how when purple jacket girl encounters the weight of the leader, and is being pulled into the cliff face, she extends her left hand to help reduce the collision …this could just as easily have been her belaying hand (which could have catastrophic consequences) such a thing is easily avoided by anchoring the belayer (tree, rock, etc)

When I started lead climbing my belay partner got her hand pulled into and pinched by the belay device. She instinctively loosened her hand but was able to recover, with a pretty nasty rope burn. Not quite sure what happened, but I think she didn't move the brake hand down fast enough. Since then I don't trust tunnel devices. I personally use a Mammut Smart and recommend it or another assisted braking device.

I find alternating hands is what works best for me, ... no need to slide at all

Another great video - we need more videos from you and more youtubers like you!

I have just started calling because I was afraid before and making the people I climb with fall. I think having controlled falla before the big ones is being key for me to become a better belayer 😊 As the video shows, experience is a degree.

Interesting video! At my local gyms you'd get belay privileges revoked for doing this. It would be annoying to switch methods between outdoors and indoors, so I just don't bother with tunneling at all - though let's be real, during lead belay you're bound to use it for small adjustments at some point.

Testing failures with a real human being on the rope - that's the spirit! :D Great content.

Can anybody please explain, why one should not use assisted belaying devices? It does not seem reasonable to me (as new climber).

You alone are a team of experts!

Most of the slips and fails with the beginners seemed to be because they didn't have experience pulling the rope down and in to catch the fall. It's something that comes quickly with experience or being able to see the fall coming

Great video. Thanks for reminding me to be mind in the comments! Very thoughtful and well made content. Thanks