[shark]

From climbing gossip



Hair-raising

Domen Skofic with a broken quickdraw at Misja Pec!

Seems to me that incidents like this will be on the increase so a permanent thread to record failures as a reminder can only be a good thing...

[Paul B]

Squamish (Chek) seems to have these:



fitted and whilst I thought it looked abominable I have to confess that when I grabbed one (  ) it was actually surprisngly comfortable.

I wonder if these suffer in the same way 'general' climbing equipment (i.e. abandoned draws) left in-situ does? Not that I'm suggesting these would be an appropriate solution for almost every venue I can think of.

[krymson]

it looks like a regular quickdraw(not permadraw), arranged with opposed gates. Could this be a factor?

[shark]

it looks like a regular quickdraw(not permadraw), arranged with opposed gates. Could this be a factor?

Didn't understand that but as I have the quickdraw krabs both facing the same way I guess I don't have to. 

[Wood FT]

nah bullshit, from the look in his eyes he's just Uri Geller'd that shit

[krymson]

It happens more easily with a defined nose for the bolt to catch on but this is what i guess may have happened:

With opposed quickdraws as you climb up the top biner has a small chance of rotating and catching on the nose.

If there is a fall at this point ,with the nose hooked in the bolt, the carabiner will snap at a very low force.

These nose hooked biners all have a break pattern like what you see in Domen's hands.

It's not common(especially with keylock biners!) but it does happen. and it's why i face my biners the same way.

[HaeMeS]

Don't think incidents like this will happen more often. Karabiners usually break as a result of the nose catching on the hanger. Old bolts with relatively small hangers will see this happen more often than new bolts with large hangers. Got these pictures of a damaged karabiner sent to me recently:




First picture shows the way the karabiner is held in the narrow opening. Second pic shows the marks made by the hanger.  In this instance the karabiner did not break but got deformed.
Face your biners the same way helps as well as using karabiners with low profile noses and/or keylock noses.

'Permadraws' like the one posted are pretty safe. No sling to rot and a steel biner so no sharp edges.