Great article and all the best for a swift recovery.Regarding stick clipping, And if I'm honest it is, it's both physically and psychologically easier to do some of these routes with an extra draw in.. ... For me sport climbing is about the physical experience and none of the risk and I'm therefore now happy to do routes in the style I think is safe and enjoy. If it means that the grade decreases or its somehow considered invalid by certain people, I'm okay with that
Hopefully this will help someone, read if you have time and ever tie in:https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=9367Sorry Simon, I know it's on the other side, but hopefully it'll help someone out there not to have an accident.
I stick clip for safety and occasionally to make it easier to work a route. I can't see why anyone would have a problem with that.
Those people who were apparently telling someone off for stick clipping were apparently just bemoaning the bolting on Yorkshire limestone.
Apparently Yosemite Wall and Appetite have a poorly/sparsely bolted start?
Nowt so queer as folk - as my grandma was fond of saying. Until my grandad glued her false teeth together, that is.
Quote from: WilliCrater on May 09, 2017, 07:27:54 pmNowt so queer as folk - as my grandma was fond of saying. Until my grandad glued her false teeth together, that is. boom boom, the old ones are the best ones eh? WRT your anecdote, ain't that always the way. I have started with 2 clipped on several significant routes to me. I'd tell anyone who was bored enough to ask, the act of doing this hurt neither myself or anyone else. Ergo, it's basically fine. Things done for the sake of making the route easier, and then covered up concealed, or fully lied about on the other hand deserve some proper bad karma
So the perfect weather finally broke, that run of 50% humidity turned to 90% with a damp drizzle. Still, we turned up, because you have to. But still a good effort, I made the final clip before the crux slap, almost dropping the clip and taking the fall, and then just didn't quite hold the slap. Then sat on the rope I looked down in horror to see the previous clip somehow wasn't clipped. For sure I had clipped it, others had noted, and then somehow it 'undid' itself. If I'd dropped the clip before the crux I'd have been on the ground from 20m. Food for thought before my next effort...
Pete’s is a good point. Climbing accidents or near misses happen to the very experienced because it’s a numbers game. Most facets of our play have small risks but if you keep spinning the wheel eventually your number will come up. The typical mountain accident features experienced climbers on not very risky routes (p21-25). I take moderate risks (sketchy trad., descending from a big route) two or three times a year, small risks (soloing to the first bolt) dozens of times, and tiny risks (tying in, clipping the autobelay) 1000s of times. Which is more dangerous? It's worth addressing apparently trivial risks if you take them frequently.I've seen the rope unclipping from a carabiner twice, Mike Highbury on Fish Supper and me on Sunkist, both big falls where other pieces had pulled. I appreciate this is not sport climbing, a zipper fall introduces a whole lot of weirdness, but it's a reminder the system is not infallible. On U.K. sport routes we frequently have “all our eggs in one basket”. It's worth considering locking carabiners on draws when there is one piece between you and the ground. It's unrealistic to use screwgates on a really tenuous clip but why not if you're pre-clipping the first or second bolt? Or use one of the quick locking carabiners, like this perhaps? Not played with one personally, interested if anyone has.I've never been too impressed with the beta clipsticks. I've used a superclip which worked well and seemed more robust but they're unavailable in the U.K. Anyone (Munchener?) played with the LACD which looks like a superclip style head on a tent pole.
Patch Hammond fell off Rainbow of Recalcitrance and the q/draw unclipped.Sam Whittaker fell off Fast and Furious at Dove and the q/draw unclipped from the peg.It's not that uncommon.
Classic at walls is "backclipping" as bolts are so close together.