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Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear (Read 6019 times)

highrepute

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Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 12:09:17 am
I was informed about a swiss climber Mario Luginbühl falling to his death when his rope was cut by fixed quickdraw by some swiss climbers whilst in france.

Hard to find exact info on the web but they gave the impression it's shaken the scene a bit in Switz.

http://abutz.com/?p=1154

The crux of what happened is that a fixed draw had worn away so as to leave edges the rope runs over if you fell sharp. The key was that this was a draw that normally you wouldn't fall on so hadn't been smoothed rounded by the rope running right over the draw in the fall.

The swiss guys we met removed a draw from where we were climbing (venasque) as they felt it was going the same way. It was a fixed draw on steep ground, in a spot you'd rarely fall, and mainly there to assist with striping the route. The edges of this draw were indeed sharp and you could see it might cut a rope.

Kind of thought I'd find this already mentioned on here when I got back. Anyone heard anything about it?

Raises a point I'd not thought about before and will make me check fixed gear for this in future.

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Ste

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#2 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 08:25:15 am
Terrible news.

Couple of weeks ago a friend fell on my rope using my draws (less than two years old) and when he lowered to the ground the rope was almost completely cut through. Initially I thought it was my repeated short falls earlier in the day. However, on closer inspection of the draws I noticed a very sharp nick on the shoulder of the crab and this was most probably responsible.

Just thought its probably worth pointing out that it's not always in situ and/or old gear that's in poor condition.

Steve


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#3 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 09:18:43 am
Wow, that IS shit news!

Some of my mates think I'm a bit anal about not using my super-light DMM trad drams on bolts, and, if I do have to, always using them the right way round (I berate my friends if they borrow my rack and clip a draw with the rope end of the draw through a bolt...)

Don't feel like my actions are so "over cautious" now.

Gutted for whoever it was...

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#4 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 09:22:14 am
Just thought its probably worth pointing out that it's not always in situ and/or old gear that's in poor condition.

Indeed not, i have seen awful wear on the draws at some climbing walls in this country. This seems to have gone along with incidences of very rapid rope wear. I don't have evidence of direct correlation, only suspicion, but it is something worth looking out for.

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#5 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 09:35:43 am


Indeed not, i have seen awful wear on the draws at some climbing walls in this country. This seems to have gone along with incidences of very rapid rope wear. I don't have evidence of direct correlation, only suspicion, but it is something worth looking out for.

Interesting, friend started using a new rope at the Foundry recently and its already got a little fluffy at the ends after only four weeks (twice a week ~10-15 routes climbing in 2/3).  Figured there may be a few small nicks in some of the krabs.

I do regularly notice a worn notch in a lot of the draws both there and the Edge.

SA Chris

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#6 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 10:48:48 am
Some of my mates think I'm a bit anal about not using my super-light DMM trad drams on bolts, and, if I do have to, always using them the right way round (I berate my friends if they borrow my rack and clip a draw with the rope end of the draw through a bolt

You are seriously looking for shit if you don't have clearly differentiated "gear" ends and "rope" ends to your quickdraws. Even a slightly damaged wire on a nut can leave marks in a biner if fallen on enough times.

RIP to the person involved.

SamT

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#7 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 10:57:32 am
Yikes.  shit news.


Having spent a couple of hours yesterday at the Peak Bolting Workshop, a lot of this kind of thing was talked about.  To quote someone there "who's ever heard of someones rope snapping".

Anyways - one thing was clear to me, that's that the ubiquitous Petzl Couer hangers are pretty shit really in that they really knacker up your krabs quickly.  Couple of my krabs were really chewed up after a bit of bolt to bolt faffing.  Should those krabs then get used on the rope end, even just once on a long trad route or something where you are faffing about, short on gear etc.  I shudder to think.  Especially now that the ropes are so much thinner than they used to be.  Single ropes are commonly 9.something these days.  Not like when I were a lad.

Its clear to me that really, on common routes on sports crags like the tor, and new sports routes else where, we should be considering 12mm plate hangers as old hat, out dated technology, and looking to the long term future and using resin glue in's.

(not that this would have prevented the above  :-[   :( )

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#8 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 15, 2012, 11:12:54 am
Indeed not, i have seen awful wear on the draws at some climbing walls in this country. This seems to have gone along with incidences of very rapid rope wear. I don't have evidence of direct correlation, only suspicion, but it is something worth looking out for.
Interesting, friend started using a new rope at the Foundry recently and its already got a little fluffy at the ends after only four weeks (twice a week ~10-15 routes climbing in 2/3).  Figured there may be a few small nicks in some of the krabs.
I do regularly notice a worn notch in a lot of the draws both there and the Edge.

It's probably worth emphasizing that it wasn't either of those walls I was referring to: I have seen far, far worse than the current foundry ones! The wall in question did do some replacing (though not immediately) after me and some others said something, so i didn't think it was fair to start pointing fingers.

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#9 Re: Climber dies, rope cut by in-situ gear
October 24, 2012, 02:32:43 pm
RIP

6 falls on a marked krab with a brand new rope = sheath destruction. DMM video here:

http://dmmclimbing.com/knowledge/carabiners-and-potential-rope-damage/

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Interesting, friend started using a new rope at the Foundry recently and its already got a little fluffy at the ends after only four weeks (twice a week ~10-15 routes climbing in 2/3).  Figured there may be a few small nicks in some of the krabs.

I do regularly notice a worn notch in a lot of the draws both there and the Edge.

Paid attention to things last night and its predominantly the Metolious karabiners that have a worn notch, whether this is by design or from wear I've no idea.

 

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