Buttman
10-06-2008, 11:44 AM
Hi all,
I thought I would write an accident report following a frightening near miss on the weekend. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder for everyone who reads it and will prevent something like this happening again in future.
What happened?
On a beautiful Saturday morning a group of three of us started doing warm up routes at Ganhyeon. Climbing beside us was a group from Colorado. In passing we noticed that we were using the same brand of rope; a 65 meter Matrix. Both ropes were new and prompted discussion about prices and age etc. After two of us had gone up the route we were on, the third member of our group was preparing to tie in. The Coloradans wished to have some of their members toprope the climb after us and requested that the third person use their rope. Of course, that was no problem. So climber 3 tied in, ascended and was being lowered. Between about 6-8 feet from the deck, the end of the rope shot through the gri gri and the climber fell the remaining distance backwards onto some dangerous rocks. He took the brunt of the impact on the lower back and some on the ***, but basically it was a fall in the horizontal position onto the ground with no hands or feet, resulting in a sickening impact.
Why?
There are several reasons why this happened, and why it was totally avoidable.
1) We didn't ask the other climbers how long their rope was. We had been talking about the ropes' similarities so much, that we assumed that they were the same length. Of course now that seems ridiculous, but the situation lulled us into a false sense of confidence (or relaxation). For the record, our rope was 65 meters, theirs was 60.
2) No one tied a knot in the end of the rope
3) No one tied the rope to the rope bag
4) Excitement about the long weekend of climbing leading to inattention/laxness
Result
A fractured vertebra, general muscle soreness, a hospital bill and an indefinite period of recovery
The blame game.
All three people in our group are responsible for this accident. The climber, the belayer, and the observer. Safety is everyone's responsibility.
The wash up
I consider what happened on the weekend to be extremely fortunate. Our friend is in hospital with an injury that he can recover from. He could easily have hit his head on rocks and been killed, I've no doubts about that. I hope everyone who reads this will focus not on how careless we were, but on how they can avoid doing the same thing. Of course safety is paramount, but it's easier to say that than to meticulously check every detail when you are climbing, especially seemingly innocuous things, and especially when you have been climbing for a while. I'm not referring to just rope lengths, but everything.
Complaisancy is our enemy. Don't let your enthusiasm for getting on a climb or a sense of familiarity cloud your judgment. Be aware of situations where your attention to detail might wane by keeping strictly to a routine of safety checks.
The feeling of following the ambulance to the hospital on the weekend was truly awful, especially when I knew that it was completely avoidable. I hope by posting this, that others won't have similar experiences in future.
Good luck and happy/safe climbing.
Shaun
I thought I would write an accident report following a frightening near miss on the weekend. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder for everyone who reads it and will prevent something like this happening again in future.
What happened?
On a beautiful Saturday morning a group of three of us started doing warm up routes at Ganhyeon. Climbing beside us was a group from Colorado. In passing we noticed that we were using the same brand of rope; a 65 meter Matrix. Both ropes were new and prompted discussion about prices and age etc. After two of us had gone up the route we were on, the third member of our group was preparing to tie in. The Coloradans wished to have some of their members toprope the climb after us and requested that the third person use their rope. Of course, that was no problem. So climber 3 tied in, ascended and was being lowered. Between about 6-8 feet from the deck, the end of the rope shot through the gri gri and the climber fell the remaining distance backwards onto some dangerous rocks. He took the brunt of the impact on the lower back and some on the ***, but basically it was a fall in the horizontal position onto the ground with no hands or feet, resulting in a sickening impact.
Why?
There are several reasons why this happened, and why it was totally avoidable.
1) We didn't ask the other climbers how long their rope was. We had been talking about the ropes' similarities so much, that we assumed that they were the same length. Of course now that seems ridiculous, but the situation lulled us into a false sense of confidence (or relaxation). For the record, our rope was 65 meters, theirs was 60.
2) No one tied a knot in the end of the rope
3) No one tied the rope to the rope bag
4) Excitement about the long weekend of climbing leading to inattention/laxness
Result
A fractured vertebra, general muscle soreness, a hospital bill and an indefinite period of recovery
The blame game.
All three people in our group are responsible for this accident. The climber, the belayer, and the observer. Safety is everyone's responsibility.
The wash up
I consider what happened on the weekend to be extremely fortunate. Our friend is in hospital with an injury that he can recover from. He could easily have hit his head on rocks and been killed, I've no doubts about that. I hope everyone who reads this will focus not on how careless we were, but on how they can avoid doing the same thing. Of course safety is paramount, but it's easier to say that than to meticulously check every detail when you are climbing, especially seemingly innocuous things, and especially when you have been climbing for a while. I'm not referring to just rope lengths, but everything.
Complaisancy is our enemy. Don't let your enthusiasm for getting on a climb or a sense of familiarity cloud your judgment. Be aware of situations where your attention to detail might wane by keeping strictly to a routine of safety checks.
The feeling of following the ambulance to the hospital on the weekend was truly awful, especially when I knew that it was completely avoidable. I hope by posting this, that others won't have similar experiences in future.
Good luck and happy/safe climbing.
Shaun