graham wrote:Mountaineering Freedom of the Hills 7th ed page 160-161 shows a “palms-up” belay hand position similar to this diagram. I suspect a lot of folks have been trained to belay like this.
What really sucks about this method is that you can not get the downward force/leverage required to not only stop a sudden fall, but then lock it off aftewards.
I challenge folks to go out and try both palm down and then the palm up methods under a heavy fall scenario. Watch what happens and feel the difference on the wrist as well. And then lock off the load with both methods.
Feel the difference and which takes less energy and is less detrimental to the wrist.