Some key safety considerations to always be careful of while climbing:
- Make sure to have a correctly double-backed harness and correctly tied knot, and be on belay at all times you risk a fall.
- Climbers above you are a danger to you. They can drop gear or dislodge rocks. Wear a helmet and avoid prolonged time underneath other climbers if possible.
- Anchor safety. Make sure your anchor is SERENE-A.
- Closing the system. Make sure to tie a stopper knot in the end of your rope. Make sure your rope is long enough for the climb.
- Proper belaying. Always do a safety check and make sure the device is threaded correctly, carabiner is locked, and the climbing knot is correct. The belayer must never take their hand off the brake strand of the rope while belaying, or become distracted.
- Inspect fixed hardware for quality (solid rock, modern bolts, hangers, and condition of the gear). Always have more than one piece of gear (including bolts) between you and serious injury.
- Inspect your gear before you climb.
And some risks specific to toprope climbing:
- Anchor access. Accessing the anchors at a top of a climb on foot to set up a top-rope can often be dangerous. If the bolts are not safe to access, set up an intermediate anchor further back from the edge of a cliff (such as on a tree) and have someone belay you or lower yourself on a GriGri to access the anchor at the top of the cliff. Have a plan to get back up or down, as well.
- Anchor location relative to the cliff edge. If the anchor is too far back from the edge of the cliff, the rope can wear prematurely by running over the edge.
Extend the anchor if possible, by increasing the length of the legs of the anchor, so that the master point can reach past the edge of the cliff and the toprope will not wear on the cliffs edge.
This will also reduce rope drag during belaying.
- Pendulum potential. Climb underneath the anchor point. If you climb too far out to the side and fall, you will swing to the middle (and maybe bruise yourself in the process). If necessary, place directional pieces along the route to limit the pendulum potential while climbing. These pieces can be unclipped as the climber climbs and re-clipped on the way down (or clipped to the other strand, then the climbing strand swapped). An example of a directional piece is a quickdraw attached to a bolt off to the side above the lower part of a climb
- When lowering, lower straight down as gravity takes you instead of off to the side to reduce pendulum potential.