Look Ma! No hands!

“Belay on?” calls one voice. “On belay!” sings out the reply. 

If you’ve been into a climbing gym, you’ll have heard this little exchange being sung out all around you. It’s a ritual of the sport as much as a safety procedure, and it ensures the climber can trust to his or her belay buddy to take the slack off the rope and catch them if they slip off the wall. It’s a climber’s way of saying “I’ve got you buddy.”

BELAY SOLO

But what if you don’t have a buddy on belay? What if you just popped in to the gym during your lunch break or after work, and your squad isn’t around? Do you ask a total stranger to help?

Auto Belays don’t sing back to you but they do totally solve the belaying-without-buddy problem. Turn up, clip on (very important, that one) and off you go, safe in the knowledge that if you take your eyes off the ball or your hands off the wall the auto belay’s magnetic breaking system will ease you back down to the ground safe and sound.

WE AUTO BELAY ONLY ONE WAY

We’re great believers in the TRUBLUE auto belay systems by Head Rush Technologies’  that we have at Push because we’ve installed them all over Southeast Asia. They’re the perfect solution for climbing gyms since they’re safe, they’re convenient, and they can even handle kids as light as 15 kg. Are we happy to trust them when we let go at the top of the wall? Yup – we would literally jump out the window of a tall building if we knew we were clipped on.

Push Climbing is the first climbing gym in Saigon to use auto belays so if you haven’t tried one then pop by and clip on. You’ll appreciate the convenience and the efficiency… and there’s nothing stopping you calling out “on belay” if you miss the company.

Words by Steve Shipside.