The indoor climbing areas at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club are extremely popular with our members. At AFAC, we have two climbing spaces — The Cave and a Climbing Wall. Both of these climbing environments are great for building your overall strength, balance, and core muscles. Plus, during the winter, they’ll help you get ready for climbing the mountains in the summer.

But what if you don’t have a climbing partner to be your belay buddy?

That’s no problem at AFAC! We have two auto belays on our climbing wall—and harnesses to go with them—which means you don’t need anyone to hold your ropes for you.

If you have any questions about our auto belays, our staff would be glad to assist you and show you how they work. Read on for more details about auto belays and how they can help you get your climb on at our Thornton, CO, gym.

What is an auto belay?

An auto belay is a device that takes up the slack on your harness rope as you climb, so that you don’t need a belayer on the ground to do this job for you. If you fall off the climbing wall, the auto belay will “catch” you by locking your rope, and then it will slowly lower you to the ground.

How do I use an auto belay?

The first step to using an auto belay is hooking your harness up to the device. Being securely attached to the auto belay is extremely important for your safety, so make sure to ask anyone on our AFAC team if you need help or have any questions at all. We’d love to show you the ropes! Below we’ve listed the general steps on how an auto belay works.

Setting up the auto belay

Before you begin, you’ll want to put on your climbing harness. AFAC has a harness you can borrow or you can wear your own.

Once you have your harness on, you’ll need to attach it to the auto belay. At one end of the auto belay, there’s a large locking carabiner (a carabiner looks like a hook with a latch or “gate” you can open and close). You’ll find the carabiner latched onto the climbing wall.

Once you open the gate on the carabiner, you need to pull it toward you and clip it into the belay loop on your harness. Then, close and lock the carabiner’s gate. As you’re clipping into the auto belay, be careful not to let go of it because if you do, it will coil itself and travel all the way to the top of the wall. If this happens, let someone on the AFAC team know and we’ll be happy to bring the clip back down for you.

Also be aware that clipping into the auto belay is a very important step. If you forget to clip in or clip in incorrectly, you could get hurt. So always make sure you’re clipped in securely and that the clip is properly locked before you climb. Our staff is always available to verify this for you. You can also do a low-level climb to test the auto belay before you go any higher up the wall.

Climbing the wall

Once you’re sure the clip is secured and you’ve double-checked it, you can start climbing! For the best results, remain in-line with the device as you move up the wall and try not to move too much from side to side. As you climb, the auto belay will reel in the slack on your rope so that it remains taut.

If you happen to lose your grip and fall as you’re climbing, the auto belay will take control of the rope and slowly lower you all the way to the ground.

Likewise, when you’re ready to come down from climbing, all you have to do is let go of the wall and the auto belay will bring you back to the floor. There might be a slight delay before you begin your descent. If you choose, you can also climb down the wall yourself while still attached to the auto belay.

When you’re finished

At the end of your last climb, it’s time to unhook from the auto belay. As you complete this step, be careful to keep a good hold on the carabiner. If you accidentally let go of it, you’ll send it all the way up to the top of the auto belay device.

After you open up the carabiner and release it from your harness, keep the clip open and hook it back onto the anchor at the bottom of the wall. The carabiner will automatically lock itself in place.

What are the benefits of an auto belay?

There are many reasons why you’ll appreciate having the use of an auto belay at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club. Here are some of the many benefits of this unbeatable training tool.

• Auto belays are great for all climbing levels. First-time and inexperienced climbers love using auto belays because it gives them more confidence. Auto belays also allow beginners to climb alone and not be self-conscious about a belayer watching them. On the flip side, experienced climbers also enjoy auto belays because of the freedom they provide—train as hard as you want, whenever you want to!
• Freedom. With an auto belay, you can practice climbing alone without finding a partner to assist you, which gives you a lot more freedom to train on-the-fly or warm-up with a quick climb before working out in other areas of the gym.
• Do laps. You can do laps up and down the wall as many times as you like without the worry of wasting a partner’s time. Laps help you improve your endurance and allow you to practice your climbing technique.
• Practice downclimbing. You can use an auto belay to practice climbing up the wall and then let it catch you as you descend, or you can practice climbing up and down. Downclimbing is a valuable skill to refine and an auto belay gives you a chance to perfect your footwork!
• Take your time and work on your climbing technique. You can climb as slowly as you want and go at your own pace with an auto belay, which allows you to concentrate on your form and work on improving any weaknesses you might have.
• Go all out. Thanks to an auto belay, you can climb as hard as you want and push your limits without the fear of falling, which allows you to really focus on your climbing workout.
• Climb with your friends. Since AFAC has two auto belays, you can climb with a friend and not worry about having to conserve energy to belay for each other. Go all out and challenge each other to new personal bests!

Your Auto Belay Adventures Await You at AFAC

Between our climbing wall with two auto belays and our climbing cave, there are many indoor climbing adventures waiting for you at AFAC, the best gym in the Thornton, CO, area. We hope you will stop by and ask our team about how to use our auto belays and the other top-of-the-line equipment at our gym. You can also call Susan at 720-849-0245 or email her at susan@adventurefitness.club.

To read more articles from Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, check out our Adventure Corner blogs by clicking here.