Hey that's me! I'm Asshat 🙋.. we learned she needed to be to one side more for that ohm to work better. It took to long to engage. We've climbed together for 2 years and this was our first issue like this. She had to take about a week and half away from climbing but is back crushing again. An unfortunate learning experience for us but sometimes in life you take an ass to the chin and keep going. Big fan of your channel Josh 🙌

Thanks for calling this out Josh, it's been my personal issue since getting back into climbing this last year. A month in and I too gave my lovely wife the hat. We were using an Ohm and following all our gym's recs. The reminder for me was, always read your lit on any new equipment. Ohms only go up to 80lbs in weight differential. So now we use the Ohm and a 25lb Rogue kettlebag at the gym. Oppositely, outside . . . and strangely ignored in the testing you showed . . . I tether any lighter partner down to the ground, underneath them. This means I get some dynamic give, they can move a little, and they don't get pulled up more than a few feet. I don't know if it's just that there aren't that many disparate weights among most partners, but I've become a little distributed by how few educators and gyms fail to address this issue. If you move into multi pitch, accounting for that differential becomes even more important, as directional pull and class-2 falls come into the mix. Moreover, Ohms are only meant for sport use.

About time someone discussed this. It's a big issue for multipitch climbs where you need to be attached to the cliff because you are either on a ledge or a hanging belay. Belaying directly off the anchor is way better otherwise as you showed the belayer gets thrown around.

When I belay my heavier climbing partners (me being a lighter climber) I use an edelrid ohm and believe they are awesome. But before I owned an Ohm I would place a couple of the local rocks from the crag in my back pack and then attach my back to my harness with a sling to keep my feet planted to the floor. The ohm gave me so much more over all control while belaying my climber. I recommend it to anyone that has larger climbing partners.

The friction that the Ohm adds to the system depends on how far out from the wall the beylayer is. I haven't seen anyone talking about how the friction changes, but from personal experience, I can say it is significant.

Love your video and explanations! ❤

I appreciate this one. Saw the second clip on Instagram and the belayer was getting dragged hard by "experts" about if you had done this or that then you wouldn't have collided. Ass hatting is much more complex than a one size fits all solution can fix. Also, climbing is dangerous! We want to mitigate danger but you'll never be 100% successful in eliminating all risks.

A**hatting is a serious issue. I once a**hatted my climbing partner much softer than the guy did in the second clip but it caused some real damage to my belayers neck. We even went on climbing for another 2 hours, but later she was off sick for 2 weeks and had trouble from that trauma for several more weeks. This happened in a gym during our routine fall exercises (lead climbing). The rope was I was clipped to the 6th bold already. However, I was probably almost at the 7th, so I did a little whipper. As I was about 15% heavier than she was, this was enough for hitting her head with my bottom. She was pulled a good way up as she had jumped up a little to even soften the catch. Since that happened, I’m even more a fan of devices like EDELRID Ohm (which we bought) and BAUER Zorro (possibly not available on the US market yet). According to an article I just red, BAUER Zorro is even better than the Ohm (superior in 6 out of 10 aspects; inferior in none). It allows climbers to weigh up to twice as much as the belayer and catches are much softer (as the device automatically adapts to the weight / impact force). 👋Frieder from Germany

We have sandbags with 15kg (33lbs) in our climbing gym which you tie in your belay loop. Isnt to comfortable when you have a bag standing between your legs but better then getting an a** hat :D

My gym has counter weights that you can clip onto your harness. They work really well to keep me from flying into my partner. The downside is that I constantly have to worry about where my rope is and my ability to move around is really limited. Still haven’t found a good solution other than not climbing with people too much heavier than me. Also, it’s a really great conversation to have with a new partner. So how much do you weigh?

I try to rotate slightly, so i hit the wall with my shoulder, not my face and hands, and I making space for climber to fall. On the 2nd clip if she roate her body around right leg, she wouldn't be hit in the head.

JUST SAYING WHEN I FLY UP INTO THE AIR IM THRUSTING MY HIPS TOWARDS THE FALLER SO THAT WHEN WE MEET MAGIC HAPPENS 😍

I weigh 30kg more than my belayer and we use an ohm. I have never seen my belayer fly with an ohm in the system. Leave the ground sure. But that was crazy high. It catches crazy hard sometimes. But I still feel more secure knowing that they wont fly into the first quickdraw and smash their hands or worse, disable the braking device.

- Use Ohm if over 25lb difference. Every single time. - Belay close to wall (but to the side) to minimise slack and leave room to move backwards - feed rope for clipping at the last possible minute, and practice pulling it in super quickly. Keep an eye on your climber so you don't pull them off the wall. - jump at the last moment of the climber's fall to soften the "landing". If you jump early you create extra fall distance and potentially don't soften the "landing" part of the fall. - if you're more than 15lb lighter don't jump at all, you'll be pulled up regardless.

the hazard in the clips was the positioning og the belayers, the preparedness for a fall and the slack in the system. or in short: a sloppy belay.

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Z clipping indoors. If you're a heavier climber than the belayer, you clip the the first bolt from the climb next to you before you start climbing. So the rope goes up to the first bolt on the climb next to you, then horizontally to your first bolt, then up again. This Z shape adds a lot of friction, plenty enough for 50kg belayer, 70kg climber. Plus, if you do fall, the belayer gets flung up next to you, not under you. Con is that you block the route next to you. Edit: Here's a video by a climbing association demonstrating this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpyheNeK2ru6oWQ.html Apparently it's not called Z clipping, but I don't know the proper name for it.

30 kg Delta between me and my partner, and I swear I climb better since using an Ohm in the gym and outside when possible (peace of mind probably). Still does not prevent a**hats, so I still pay attention on when and how to clip... When multipitching we started using the Alpine Up last year. This gives the safety for her of belaying from the anchor, and for me the 'locking' feature because she doesn't need to hold my full body weight on a munter...

Easy fix for lighter belayers is to throw on a heavy pack to balance out the load

Solutions: Z clipping or Ohm. The example that included the Ohm could have had the belayer one meter to the back and one to the side, like you are thought in the lead climbing courses. This ensures the Ohm engages effectively. Also, ensure your rope is thick enough.

The thing I don't get is surely anchoring yourself to the ground will give seriously hard catches to your heavy friend. Is there not an in between?

>it could hurt Yes

Prvent the second clip from happening?! Use the Ohm correctly. You need to stand a few meters from the wall when belaying. I use the Ohm all the time and never has this happened or been even close.

Seems counterintuitive (to me at least) that adding a human between the faller and the anchor results in More load at the anchor. I would think that the load moving the belayer means that less is available to load the anchor. Or is it that the load moves the belayer and passes to the anchor in a shorter amount of time, resulting in higher load? Yeah, I think so. Ok, cool thanks :)

Dude.... LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Nobody wants an ass hat'......... speak for yourself. 😆

Hey, that’s my wife and I in the first clip. I don’t think it’s logistically fair to draw a comparison of lead-once-every-few-years R-rated 5.12 trad to your average sport route asshatting, as the asshatting in this case was not entirely unintentional. It would have been nice if you asked to use this clip beforehand as well. Cheers.

Get a pig

I miss the beautiful intro song !