canb you tell me what a belayer is

A belayer is the person at the other end of the rope from the climber. The rope is run through a friction device clipped to the belayer's harness, and the belayer can stop the climber from falling, or lower them slowly. The belayer can be above the climber or below them, depending on the setup.

I assume the term comes from the naval usage, where "belay" is to stop, or so I understand.

Does that help? If not, feel free to give me the context.

He's just talking about the belayer and the climber, but he's a shitty writer so I wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about, but he's got it. I had never heard the term before.

And that does help, thanks! Although, just out of curiosity, who is the belayer's belayer? Or do you switch off?

who is the belayer's belayer? Or do you switch off?

You switch off, generally. If climbing outdoors, the belayer is usually "clipped in" or anchored to something, like a tree or bolts in the rock, or something. So if the climber falls, the belayer doesn't get yanked into the air, or pulled off the cliff when the climber's weight hits them.

Oh, gotcha. Thank you!

i'm listening to Free to Be, You and Me and it's really improving my mood.

My understanding is that if the belayer isn't attached to something very firmly, it's pretty much a suicide pact in action.

My understanding is that if the belayer isn't attached to something very firmly, it's pretty much a suicide pact in action

Not necessarily. Like I said, it depends. Not many indoor climbing gyms have belay anchors, because the setup with the rope puts sufficient friction into the system that if the climber falls, the belayer can generally stop them without difficulty. (When I climbed with my friend T, who weighed 230 lbs, I would sometimes be bounced into the air when he fell, but not far.)

If I were top-roping outdoors, I wouldn't require the belayer to tie in unless they were very small or there was some other reason to fear them getting yanked around.

But lead climbing certainly requires an anchor for the belayer, because the belayer might be sitting on a ledge 75 feet off the ground, or be belaying a second climber from above. If a climber falls off the wall and drops below the point where the belayer is, they could easily pull an unanchored belayer down the cliff with them, which would be bad.

This sounds amazing: A female cast reads Glengarry Glen Ross.

That would have been incredible to see. What a fantastic cast.

Wow- that is a bunch of talented female actors, too!

I know you guys will feel my pain. I just received official recommendations from the Academic Honesty and Integrity Task Force in COMIC SANS!!!!