Belay device

With the right belay device, a small, weak climber can easily arrest the fall of a much heavier partner.

Typically, when the rope is held outward, away from the body, it moves relatively freely, so the belayer can take up or pay out slack.

There are many reasons why the two-rope option might be chosen by a climber, including the consideration of reducing rope drag.

This is a device that you feed a bight (loop) of rope through a hole or aperture and then hook it into a locking carabiner on the harness.

It consists of a small metal plate with a slot that allows a bight of rope to pass through to a locking carabiner and back out.

A wide wire spring may be attached on one side to help keep the plate away from the brake carabiner to ease feeding and taking in rope.

Sticht plates have become less popular since more modern designs provide smoother control over the rope and are less prone to jamming, especially when doubling as a descender.

The most common form of this kind of tubular belay device is the ATC, an acronym for "air traffic control".

There are also variations on this design including DMM's "cardiac arrester" which does the same thing but in which the larger loop is shaped like a heart.

However, due to their tendency to twist rope[3] and general disagreement about their safety, figure eights are often banned in climbing gyms.

When the device is attached directly to an anchor point with the use of a second carabiner through the larger of the two loops it performs a similar stopping function to that created with the guide plate.

[7] Trango sells a similar assisted braking belay device called the Cinch that is rated to work on ropes from 9.4 to 11 mm.

While used by solo climbers outdoors, such devices are most commonly found hanging on or fixed to an artificially made climbing wall.