You can only bring up one climber at a time.This is a very minor worry, because you probably shouldn’t trust your buddy’s life to a point that can’t hold more than 200lb, but it’s worth bearing in mind. Belaying in this manner doubles the force on the redirect point, which increases its chance of failure.If it suddenly fails, the belay device will invert as the rope direction changes, which may cause the belayer to lose control of the rope. The top roping climber’s weight is entirely on this redirected belay point.However, there are a few major drawbacks to this system: So, this method allows the belayer up top to belay as though the seconding climber were on the other end of a standard top rope setup (just starting far below!). This just requires the belayer up top to clip a quickdraw into the anchor point above themself, or into a bolt or piece of gear on the following pitch, and clip the side of the rope going down to the seconding climber through the other end of this quickdraw. However, many belay devices are designed with top belaying especially in mind and will do this job much better. This includes all tube-style devices (ATC, reverso, etc.), assisted braking devices, and even the old-school munter hitch. In theory, any belay device can be used to belay from above. Belay Devices and Techniques for Belaying From Above In this case, the rope stretch of a fall might land the climber below the starting ledge, which may then be difficult to climb back up to. Rope stretch when falling on top rope off the first few feet of a long climb might also be a problem if the climb starts off a ledge. With 200 feet of rope between the climber and the belayer, it’s probable that a fall on top rope in the first few feet will see the climber fall back to the ground due to rope stretch. Maybe the route is long and the moves in the first few feet are hard. By belaying from above, you halve the length of rope between the climber and the belayer when compared with a standard top rope belay, therefore halving the potential rope stretch.

In situations where you would like to minimize rope stretch when top rope belaying, you might choose to belay from above.

Atc climbing device