ATC Guide

IMO, everyone should learn on a non-assisted device first to build strong brake-hand-always-on habits, and then if assisted braking is desired, get a Grigri because it's more or less the standard ABD. I started on a BD ATC-XP, which worked very well. I would recommend a two-lane device, and to get a

Oh my God, I had this bullshit happen in real life. I was ice climbing (well, top-roping in the Ouray Ice Park) with my wife belaying me. Long story short, some dude walks by and accuses her of having an unsafe belay. In reality, she was properly using a BD ATC, but he insisted BD stopped selling th

I stick to screwlocks for basically all my carabiners (save for a couple small wiregates I have for clipping shoes/chalk to my harness). For a belay device, assuming it's an ATC style, get a round stock carabiner - ie it looks like it's made of a cylinder of metal instead of the flattened profile th

It works and is safe. Sometimes this is the best option but generally not. I would highly recommend buying a belay device with guide mode (black diamond atc guide is cheap and good) so that you can belay directly of the anchor masterpoint. For almost any hanging and standing belays that is both safe

Most versatile is definitely the edelrid giga jul. unfortunately, the edelrid giga jul is quite terrible with rope diameters above about 9.7 mm except for rappelling. my favorite way to rappel is actually with the edelrid giga jul in assisted mode. You can always buy an atc guide later if you start

the atc you have isnt really usefull on multipitch, not that it is the end of the world but something like black diamond guide or dmm pivot would be good to have. Some of my friends use mammut nordwand atc

Left handed climber of more than 25 years here. I use a grigri and I belay right handed with it. I use a Black Diamond ATC Guide when multi-pitch trad climbing and belay left handed, though I can now belay ambidextrously when needed on awkward belay stances. It's not confusing. Learning to belay rig

I use a 60m Petzl Rad line for exactly this purpose. I pair it with a Black Diamond ATC Guide and it works really well, plenty of friction for the purpose in my opinion. I will add that it’s pretty much a necessity to have a third hand because that skinny rope isn’t gonna do any of the work for you

Ah! Where to begin - Belaying: - these are my preferred choices GriGri Black Diamond Guide (ATC) DMM Ceros (belay carabiner) Nick nacks: climbing tape chalk brush chalk balls (or loose chalk) chalk bag / boulder bucket Honestly you’d be able to get most of this for under £100, and it’d make a great