How to Use Figure-Eight & ATC Belay Devices While Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we're at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Trustees of the Reservation Property and in this series I'm going to be talking about rock climbing gear. I'm going to talk about belay devices. A belay device is a piece of equipment that's going to let you hang on to your end of the rope and keep your climbing buddy safe up on the cliff. A wide variation of them out there these days, from the more old fashioned variety of the figure 8. Loads up looking like this, clip the carabiner onto that, this device gives you a lot of flexibility in moving the rope, but not a whole lot of friction or assurance in catching a fall. More common these days is a device that looks like this, generally speaking called an ATC type device. There are a million brands out there, I believe this one is called the sheriff, but the function of it all the same, by the rope, in here, clip to the carabiner and this is going to cause enough friction to stop a fall. It's a reliable, simple, easy to use device, good friction for catching falls. What do you want to choose as a beginner? Probably something like this, is going to be the easiest to use right off the bat and the thing you're going to choose first."