Climbing
Crag etiquette, rockfall and not dropping things on people
The most common way to injure someone at a cliff is not to fall on them. It is to send something down at them, and almost all of it is preventable.
A busy crag is a place where objects fall from height onto people who are standing still and looking up. The physics are unforgiving — even a small stone from thirty metres arrives with enough energy to cause a serious injury, and helmets only cover so much.
Most of this is behavioural rather than technical.
Wear a helmet at the base
Belayers and bystanders are hit more often than climbers. If you are standing under a cliff with people above you, wear a helmet, including while flaking rope, eating lunch or watching.
The culture at sport crags has drifted away from this and it is a genuinely bad drift. Rockfall at bolted crags is less frequent, not absent, and dropped equipment does not care what style of climbing is being practised.
Do not stand under people
Obvious and constantly ignored. Belay from a position slightly to the side where the line of fall does not run directly through you. Keep the rest of the group out of the fall line entirely, and particularly keep children and dogs away from the base.
Packs, ropes and gear at the base should also be out of the fall zone, which additionally stops them being landed on.
Shout, immediately and clearly
If anything falls — a stone, a nut, a water bottle, a shoe — shout "BELOW" or "ROCK" instantly and loudly. Do not hesitate to work out whether it matters.
And if you hear it, the correct response is not to look up. Looking up presents your face. Press into the rock if you are on the wall, or cover your head and move under an overhang if you are at the base. Only look after the noise has stopped.
Teach this to anyone new. The instinct to look up is universal and it is exactly wrong.
Do not trundle
Deliberately pushing loose blocks off a cliff is unacceptable at any crag where people may be below or approaching. The visibility from above is poor, sound does not carry reliably, and paths at the base are often hidden by trees.
If there is a genuinely dangerous loose block that must be removed, it needs the base closed, spotters, and certainty that nobody is beneath. Otherwise, climb past it and warn others.
Manage the top of the crag
Walking along the top of a cliff kicks debris over the edge onto everyone below. Stay back from the lip on approach paths, keep to the trail, and be especially careful when it is loose, wet or after freeze-thaw.
The same applies to setting up top ropes: gear placed near the edge dislodges material, and dropped carabiners at that point are travelling the full height of the cliff.
Ropes and hair
A rope pulled after a rappel dislodges rock reliably. Warn everyone below, wait until the base is clear, and shout before pulling.
Long hair, chest straps and clothing get caught in belay devices and rappel devices. Tie hair back, tuck things in.
Space and noise
Beyond safety, there is the matter of sharing a place.
Do not monopolise routes. Working a project is fine; leaving a rope hanging on a popular climb all day while you sit and eat is not. Let people work in.
Keep noise down. Music at a crag is imposed on everyone within earshot, and the argument that other people enjoy it is generally made by the person playing it. It also masks safety calls, which is the practical objection.
Control dogs. An unrestrained dog at the base of a crag interferes with belaying and can knock a belayer at the wrong moment.
Leave it as you found it
Take everything out, including tape, wrappers, cigarette ends and fruit peel, which does not compost quickly at a dry crag. Bury or pack out human waste well away from the base and from water.
Use existing paths rather than creating new ones through vegetation, which is how access gets lost.
Respect seasonal restrictions for nesting birds. These are usually the result of a negotiated arrangement that keeps a crag open at all, and ignoring them puts access at risk for everyone.
Do not chip holds, do not add bolts to existing routes, and do not remove fixed gear that others rely on for descent.
The point
Access to most cliffs depends on landowners, local agreements and long-standing goodwill, and it is lost more easily than it is gained. The etiquette exists partly for safety and partly because a crag is shared, borrowed ground.
Be the party other people are glad to arrive next to.
