Another Accident

Today a (professional) climber who works for(frans) part time was working for another service when he fell.

He did not tie a figure 8 in the end of his climb line and when he was coming down, ran out of rope.
He broke both ankles, and because the tree was on a slope, tumbled down hill about 20 feet.
Bad day for him.
Poor guy will be out of work for the rest of the summer and summer is the time for him to make money.

Read the rest of the comments at the Treebuzz site

Originally posted by Oldtimer
He did not tie a figure 8 in the end of his climb line and when he was coming down, ran out of rope.
He broke both ankles. . .
Bad day for him. . .

Oldtimer,
Thanks for bringing this report over to the TCI forum.

A lot of the simple safety things we recreational climbers are taught by the Master Instructors seem like over-kill. It seems that all the redundant safety we are taught at basic climbing class is more for “their” insurance reasons than for our own “reasonable” safety.

The accident report you have pointed out here proves that the safety we are taught at class is very real and very necessary.

Thanks for that reminder!
Go the extra step for safety, especially when it's late in the day and your tired and anxious to “just get done & down”.
Regards,
Electrojake

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully his ankles aren't too bad and will heal up quickly.

I just recently read a rock climbing accident report where a woman rappelled off the end of the rope as well. She survived but had serious injuries in a 70 foot fall.

An all to common occurence when it comes to rappelling

Note to self: place stopper knot, check rope length, place stopper knot, check rope length, repeat.

Tie a "bitter end knot" 5 feet from the end of your rope. Why 5 feet? Because if you catch yourself at the proverbial end of your rope, you'll need enough rope to grab to pull yourself back up to set a new but lower anchor point.

Another option. Tie a figure eight on a bight five feet from the end (bitter end) and clip it to your saddle using a life support carabiner. If you make a mistake during your descent, you come to a screeching halt as your back up tie in gives you a strong jolt when you reach the end of your rope.

Long descents are the most dangerous. You often can not see if you have enough rope to get down. A good practice is to set a new anchor point as a safety practice on the way down just to be sure (down pitch).

Fatigue? That will cloud even the most expereinced climber's mind. Slow down when you are tired and triple check every move!

On big climbs I always clip my end to my saddle on the way down. setting up a multi-pitch descent is far easier when you don't have to haul all that rope up again. I refuse to lanyard off and lower the rope to me because I've a fear of dropping my climbing line.

Think it through, it's better to know what you would do before it happens.

Climb Safe!
Icabod