Set-up a rappel while you belay

One way to improve efficiency on big climbs is to multi-task while you belay. This could involve eating and drinking, checking a route topo, or setting-up a transition into a different technical system. In this video I demonstrate one way to set-up a rappel while belaying a second climber from the top of a pitch. Some caveats here: Multi-tasking while belaying works best when working with one rope in the system. If you are belaying with two separate ropes in your belay device (such as when belaying two climbers simultaneously from the top of a pitch) then this technique may be inappropriate due to the complexity of rope management with two ropes and the difficulty of keeping up with two climbers. This technique may also be more difficult if it is easy for your follower to climb the pitch very quickly, such as the case with low angle climbing that has minimal protection to remove. Once multi-tasking has been mastered you can knock minutes off short multipitch climbs, and hours off complex alpine climbs with many transitions.