The lead rock climber climbs above the belayer who is holding the safety rope. The rope is threaded (snap linked in actually) through carabiners as the leader progresses, so if the leader falls, he/she will drop to the last carabiner and the same distance below.
The second, holding the belay rope, must now stop a fall of what could be ten to fifty or more feet. Today’s climbers wear special harnesses and belayers use fancy gizmos to automatically clamp the rope to stop a falling climber.
But this was in the 1960s. Climbers tied the ropes around their waists and belayers held the rope around their backs so, in case of a fall, they could wrap it around their body to get enough friction to stop the fall. It took some practice.
Our plan for teaching climbing at Brown was to find a tall (40-50 feet) tree, and haul a heavy weight up the tree. Then the practicing belayer would have a second rope, with about 20-30 feet of slack in it, going up through a sling in the tree and attached to the weight.
We'd cut the weight lose, and the belayer would have to stop it before it hit the ground.
The belayer has the belay rope wrapped around his/her waist, and is also tethered to a tree so the force of the fall doesn't pull him/her into the air.
The tree we wanted to use was in a public park in Providence. We knew we'd get in trouble doing this, so, before hand, we went to the head of parks in Providence and told him our plan and asked for permission. He thought it was cool and wrote a letter giving us permission.
So armed with our letter, old climbing ropes, a big old heavy radiator and a volkswagen, we went to the tree and set it all up. It worked great and we were all doing well catching the falling radiator.
Then, as expected, the police showed up, ready to put a stop to it. So I went over to the patrol car with my letter and started explaining it to them. They were fascinated.
Now Dan was the next to try it. He laid out 25 feet or so of slack in the belay rope and someone drove the volkswagen tied to the weight to get the weight up in the tree.
They didn't know anything about rock climbing and I was explaining to the police how you stopped the fall by wrapping the belay rope around your body.
Dan was ready, with coils of slack at his feet. Cherry was ready to pull the slip knot on the Volkswagen to free the radiator. I was with the police car, where there was the anxious expectation of a circus crowd.
The weight started down. But Dan, like captain Ahab of Moby Dick fame, had his foot in one of the coils of rope. The belay rope tightened, but around his ankle instead of his waist : whoop : up he goes feet first towards the tree, held down by the restraining rope, instantly suspended upside down between the two.
I'm gaping in horror, hoping he's OK, as the policeman calmly remarks "oh, I see, you wrap the rope around your leg like that."
Dan was OK.
Was this the same Dan that, when we were climbing at Table Rock, made the figure-eight knot before threading the rope through the belay loops on the harness?
I do appreciate the diagrams. Really puts Dan's predicament into perspective.