BEND, Ore. — After looking into indoor climbing options, I discovered Bend Rock Gym not far from my house. Having previously frequented gyms that offered only bouldering, I was impressed BRG not only had bouldering, but also lead climbing, top rope climbing and auto-belaying.
I had never heard of an auto-belay before, much less seen such an invention. As the name implies, auto-belays allow you to clip yourself in and a mechanism slowly lowers you down to the ground, instead of a human having to do so.
I rented a harness ($4) and was given a brief safety demonstration on how the system worked.
They showed me how to clip the carabiner into my harness, lock it into place and check that it was secure by giving it a tug.
As I approached the wall to climb with the auto-belay for the first time, I wasn’t as nervous about the technology keeping me safe as I was about how to use it. A nearby climber noticed my hesitation and suggested climbing up a little way and testing the auto-belay first, rather than climbing the full length of the 50-foot wall on my first go.
I climbed up a few feet and jumped down, feeling the auto-belay kick in not long before I hit the ground. I felt confident and it seemed simple enough, so I started back at the bottom and climbed up to the top.
At 50 feet in the air, I didn’t feel so confident anymore. In fact, the initial descent with the auto-belay was terrifying. Trusting my life to a device as I jumped from the equivalent of three stories is not something that comes naturally.
Afraid to look down, I pushed off the wall, feeling completely out of control. My panic caused me to swing to the right into the middle of the climbing route next to me. Thankfully, no one was climbing there. After a moment, the auto-belay kicked in and carried me back down to safety.
From the ground, I watched as my fiance, also trying auto-belaying for the first time, tensed his body as he let go at the top, his reflexes just as unfamiliar with the mechanism as mine. However, after getting the initial descent over with, it didn’t take many more climbs until the auto-belay began to feel natural. I trusted it would catch me, and the brief period from when I let go of the climbing holds at the top of the wall to when it slowed my descent quickly lost its terror.
Since becoming comfortable with the auto-belay system, I’ve developed an affinity for climbing with it over bouldering. The assurance of knowing a device will catch me allows me to take greater risks and climb longer than I feel comfortable bouldering, where there’s nothing to catch me if I fall.
