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I used to climb with the Colorado Montain CLub. My buddy was a single guy and over time I noticed that he too frequently was not paying attention to me when I was on belay. Sort of soured me on the experience.

I took a rock climbing class in college. Our instructor had two rules that kept everyone's head in the game. One, who-ever ties the knots is the first person on the rope. (makes you pay attention to detail!) Two, we only belayed from below through a pulley or carabiner and the belayer was directly below the climber - so one way or another, you were going to break their fall. ;-)

I only ever took the one class, didn't really get into it beyond that. So I don't know if those rules are common or the instructor's own personal twist on things. I do remember he was seriously into it. If you got stuck he would free climb up next to you and say inspiring things like "If you screw up and knock me off, I'm grabbing you..." ;-)

Gotta trust your partner.

Our adventures with quarry walls were not that professional. We lived out on the edge of town. This was back in the day when the neighborhood kids headed out in the morning with instructions to be home by dinner. The quarries were out in the woods. They were old, with enough weathering and rockfalls over the years to make them climbable. Some sections were pretty formidable. Others were for sissies. Our parents knew the kids were playing in the quarries but figured they couldn't stop us. The quarries were probably less dangerous than the creeks and, from time to time, the river (when we got that far afield), but in my time no one got killed. We did get cornered by fearsomely large cows once when we were exploring down the wrong side of the creek, but the big kids were able to ford the creek and fetch help.