74 Cliff Climbing 
ends of the rope should be if possible made fast to the rocks or 
held by men who have found a good secure foot-hold. I never 
recommend roping at such a place. I have happily never had 
as companions men who could not avail themselves thus of a life-line 
with far better effect. 
This incidentally brings me to a somewhat interesting trait I 
have noticed in many of the fine climbers I have met among the 
rugged sierras of Spain, their inherent mistrust of a rope of any 
sort. As a rule, if a goatherd cannot get past a bad place with- 
out a rope he will not attempt it at all. I imagine this dislike 
to be inherited, due to tales handed down of men who have been 
killed by trusting to ropes. Judging from the average condition 
and size of the ropes ordinarily available, those employed by the 
arrieros (mule-drivers), this seems reasonable enough. 
Again, it may happen that a cliff may be reasonably safe to 
descend for a considerable distance and yet that here and there 
a rope may be of the utmost value to guard against a slip. In 
such cases it is of enormous advantage to get a trusty comrade 
to place himself at some point whence he can see most of the face 
of the cliff and tend a rope by the aid of which the climber can 
descend in a bowline. 
The whole art here depends upon the comrade above neither 
checking the climber in his descent nor giving him too much rope. 
For the former may cause him to miss his footing and throw him 
off his balance, whilst the latter is doubly dangerous, for should 
the climber slip, he will be brought up at the end of the slack with 
a violent jerk which may prove awkward for the man above. 
Hence two men above to tend the rope is an advantage although 
frequently impossible to arrange for. To my mind the most 
dangerous method of using a rope as a life-line is to make it fast 
above with no assistant to tend it and to climb down, keeping a strain 
on the rope. It sounds perfectly simple and safe and so it is when 
