2. Back-clipping

One of the easiest-to-make mistakes for anyone starting out in climbing, is back-clipping. Back-clipping occurs when the rope is incorrectly clipped into the bottom carabiner of the quickdraw so that it runs behind the gate or clip as opposed to in front of it. See photo above.

The danger in doing so is that, in the event of a fall, the rope is liable to unclip itself from the ‘biner and, well, the rest is should we dare say, history? Avoiding this mistake is as simple as forming a mental picture of how a correctly-clipped carabiner should look or carrying a mental-memo or acronym onto the rock with you such as R.B.C (Rock-Biner-Climber) to describe the flow of the rope through the ‘biner from the ground up.