Block or swing: What's your leading strategy?
One of the more famous examples of block leading. Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell, and John Long, after the first one day ascent of The Nose on El Capitan, 1975.
Photo credit, Mike White
Photo credit, Mike White
When multipitch climbing, you and your partner have a choice to make:
Will one person lead multiple pitches at a time and then the other person takes a few pitches, known as block leading?
Will you alternate leads every pitch, also known as swing leading?
They both have their pros and cons depending on a few variables, so let's have a look.
Block leading
Block leading can be good for bigger days of harder climbing, as one person can get into the “leader-head” mentality. When the second arrives at the belay all tired, they get a rest.
If you're swinging leads, one person is standing still for two consecutive pitches as you move up the cliff. On a cold day, this sucks. When you lead in blocks, you only stand till for one pitch, so both partners stay warmer.
If you’re onsighting or on a climb where the route finding is tricky, block leading allows the person on top to scope out where to go, and maybe what gear is needed for the first few placements of the upcoming pitch.
If you're climbing in a team of three, block leading usually minimizes flubbering around at the belay.
It can be good for more experienced teams who are good at efficient belay changeovers and gear swapping.
For more advanced techniques, such as “fix and follow” or short fixing when aid climbing, block leading is strongly preferred.
(On a related note, when you have a long multi pitch rappel, it's often good practice to have one person be the “leader” and go first on all the raps.)
One early and well-known example of applying block leading strategy was the first one day ascent of the nose on El Capitan in 1975 by Jim Bridwell, Billy Westbay, and John Long. They divided the 30+ pitches between each of the three climbers, depending on their specialty, whether it was free climbing, mixed free and aiding, or mostly all aid.
Here’s a firsthand account of that famous climb, by (the late) Jim Bridwell.
You could use the same strategy on a longer multi pitch. Is one partner better with smaller size cracks because they have smaller hands? Is one partner better with thin face climbing? If you've got several pitches of a certain climb flavor, it may be best to have the person lead it who’s most suited.
Swinging leads
Swinging leads is more common for most people.
It can be better in warmer weather, because the leader can stand around more without getting cold.
Is it better for easy climbs or hard climbs? Opinions differ. When you lead every other pitch, you get sort of a built-in mental rest. On harder climbing, the follower can have a break, instead of climbing back-to-back hard pitches. So, there's some mental / psychological benefits as well as physical ones.
Swapping leads can feel a bit more fair and egalitarian.
Rope management and gear management is also slightly easier because the second has been cleaning the gear on the previous pitch. They have most of it already, plus their end of the rope is on top of the stack or coil.
That's a pretty good summary of the two methods, as I see it.
Just because most people probably learned swinging leads as the standard when they started climbing, doesn't mean you have to use that same strategy on every route. On your next multi pitch, talk it over with your partner and maybe try something new. You might like it!