[ian dunn]

News from France is that the young climbing sensation Tito Traversa has had an accident in Orpierre. Information is sketchy but he is in hospital in Grenoble fighting for his young life.

His videos were inspirational to young climbers and I for one wish him success with his fight and hope he makes a full recovery.

Latest news is: 'he was on a trip with a group of 10 kids and 3 adults from Italy. While he was climbing he
fell of 15 to 20meters. He was belayed from the ground by a person but they don’t
mention if he was toproping or lead climbing. Local police is still
investigating but at this point they talk about an equipment problem, a quickdraw
was apparently not used correctly. Like previously said he is in Grenoble
hospital and fighting for his life.'

My best wishes are with him and his family.

[flyguy]

Really bad shocking news. It's reported on 8a that he died today. Too young.

[Kingy]

Very sad news, RIP

[Oldmanmatt]

Shit.

His family must be suffering.
 

RIP.

[Grubes]

Such sad news

[Doylo]

Totally grim news

[Nibile]

What horrible news. Poor boy. They donated his organs, he helped someone else luckier than him.
Ciao Tito.

[chummer]

Absolutely awful news, very sobering indeed. Lord only knows how his friends and family are feeling.

[Jaspersharpe]

Grim and terribly sad.

[iain]

That's so sad, his poor family.

If the reports are right got to spare a thought for whoever did the quickdraws as well, they'll be suffering too.

[Oldmanmatt]

Yep, and the belayer. Which, given the child/adult ratio of the group; was likely a kid as well...

[Luke Owens]

Truly tragic, RIP.

[shark]

http://eveningsends.com/2013/07/tito-traversa-death/

A review by Andrew Bisharat

[Moo]

Gotta say I disagree with mr bisharat there. Incidents like this will happen in the future but less frequently of we review our safety and the people made responsible for it.

[shark]

Gotta say I disagree with mr bisharat there. Incidents like this will happen in the future but less frequently of we review our safety and the people made responsible for it.

Not sure what point you are trying to make Moo.

He does say : "If anything positive can come of Tito’s death, it is a reminder to also inspect our quickdraws—along with double-checking our knots, double-backed harnesses, locked belay biners, etc."

[T_B]

I don't agree with everything Bisharat says. I wonder whether fundamentally those who only sport climb have a different attitude and do not perceive the inherent risks in climbing in the same way as those who participate in other aspects of the sport? He says I don’t know anyone who has ever inspected a rack of quickdraws.. Seriously? You've never checked that your quickdraws, which get tons of abuse sport climbing, are starting to fray, or might have been cut against the rock? What about the karabiner that gets clipped into the bolt? Or does he not care which end goes in the bolt (and gets worn away, thus damaging the rope). Ironically, you are always 'testing' your gear sport climbing - lowering off, falling off, whereas trad climbing you often don't weight anything.

This accident is completely heartbreaking to read about and I cannot imagine what those close to Tito must be going through (especially his Dad). Of course, it could have happened to any of us, but it's not a freak accident just in the same way as the various lowering off/not re-tying knots properly accidents are not 'freak' accidents. They happen because we get distracted or forget to do something. I do think there is a bit of an 'issue' with the attitude we sometimes bring to sport crags (a bit too bl*ody relaxed at times). I don't really know what the answer is, but we could start by not distracting belayers by talking to them when they are belaying. And even wearing a helmet at some of our limestone crags (leading or belaying) which are not entirely solid.

[shark]

I don't agree with everything Bisharat says. I wonder whether fundamentally those who only sport climb have a different attitude and do not perceive the inherent risks in climbing in the same way as those who participate in other aspects of the sport? He says I don’t know anyone who has ever inspected a rack of quickdraws.. Seriously? You've never checked that your quickdraws, which get tons of abuse sport climbing, are starting to fray, or might have been cut against the rock? What about the karabiner that gets clipped into the bolt? Or does he not care which end goes in the bolt (and gets worn away, thus damaging the rope). Ironically, you are always 'testing' your gear sport climbing - lowering off, falling off, whereas trad climbing you often don't weight anything.

This accident is completely heartbreaking to read about and I cannot imagine what those close to Tito must be going through (especially his Dad). Of course, it could have happened to any of us, but it's not a freak accident just in the same way as the various lowering off/not re-tying knots properly accidents are not 'freak' accidents. They happen because we get distracted or forget to do something. I do think there is a bit of an 'issue' with the attitude we sometimes bring to sport crags (a bit too bl*ody relaxed at times). I don't really know what the answer is, but we could start by not distracting belayers by talking to them when they are belaying. And even wearing a helmet at some of our limestone crags (leading or belaying) which are not entirely solid.

Good post Tom. I think the main point that he makes that the specific "lessons" from this tragedy are limited (unless it leads to the manufacture of rubber retainers being discontinued or the design altered?) is correct. But generally, yes, as you say sport climbing can make people too bloody relaxed. I was the only one of maybe 50 climbers at the Grande Grotte to wear a helmet even though the evidence was obvious that tufas get pulled off on a regular basis. Another common one is climbers decking out when lowered off with a rope that turns out to be too short. I would like to think I would notice at some point that someone's draws were set up wrong if I was handed them and placed them all the way up a route but who knows - the below photo is far from obvious that its is a disaster in the making. When handed quickdraws you don't view them at eye level and often just clip them automatically to your harness without looking.

[tommytwotone]

Having read this (and seen the related video on UKC about the possibility of this happening to these types of quickdraws), I have to wonder about the cost/benefit of these spinning-krab-prevention rubber ring things.

I don't really climb much sport so can't comment on how big a problem this is when on a crucial redpoint but I'd certainly accept a potentially spinning krab on a draw over the potential for it getting tangled up, me not notice and a fatal accident happen.

[abarro81]

Having read this (and seen the related video on UKC about the possibility of this happening to these types of quickdraws), I have to wonder about the cost/benefit of these spinning-krab-prevention rubber ring things.

What the UKC video shows can't happen with the draw in the picture Simon posted, or any beefy draws, so once set up correctly they can't screw themselves up. All my thick draws have a petzl style rubber thing holding the lower krab and I have no intention of changing that. When I used to climb trad I had some sling-draws set up with rubber bits holding one krab, but after being told about the thing shown in the ukc vid I changed them all back to being loose, as I thought it was too feasible that I would fuck something up whilst fumbling, pumped and scared.

[Lund]

over the potential for it getting tangled up, me not notice and a fatal accident happen

Do we have any figures on how many accidents quickdraws getting tangled up cause?  When compared to the hours of use, do they indicate a significant accident rate?  I doubt it.  And don't give me "one or two is too many", as we don't ban horse riding, motorcycle riding, bike riding, eating peanut butter, or whatever - and all those have a measurable death risk.

More to the point, you say "tangled up".  Sorry, don't buy that immediately in this case.

TNB says: "Traversa climbed the pitch and placed 12 draws on the route. However, when he weighted the top draw, it failed as did the seven draws below that one."

There's some assumption that the other four were fine.  So we have 8 out of 12, 66%, being "tangled up".  The chance of these things actually getting "tangled up" is, to my mind, tiny.  I have unsewn quickdraws with a rubber band on.  They've never got tangled up, or not so I've noticed.

Given the tiny probability that loads of quickdraws got tangled up, to my mind this isn't the first thought.  So I suspect that the quickdraws were incorrectly slung, rather than accidentally tangled up.  In that case it's human error not fate or tangling or a design flaw.

This is all very sad.  But who slung the quickdraws that ended up with a 12 year old dying?

[slackline]

So I suspect that the quickdraws were incorrectly slung, rather than accidentally tangled up.  In that case it's human error not fate or tangling or a design flaw.

The various reports have pictures that are suggesting how they were slung (shark has posted one below, they are on many other reports too).

Your suspicion is correct.

[shark]

Lund,

There are two issues confused here relating to rubber retainers.

One is sport quickdraws with the rubber retainer set up wrongly as in the picture in my post.

The other relates to trad type quickdraws with a rubber band that are featured in a UKC video which has nothing to do with the Tito tragedy but is nonetheless useful viewing and can be found

[tommytwotone]

Sorry - yes, I have introduced a bit of confusion here.

The Tito thing sounds (to me at least) like someone's taken a bag of separate krabs, dyneema quick draw things and rubber retainer rings and they've been assembled incorrectly, resulting in quickdraws that look like the picture Shark posts above where the only thing holding one of the krabs on is the rubber retainer.

What I was getting at was the issue of "tangling up" that's demonstrated in the UKC vid.

I think my point was that for both of these, the benefits of the rubber ring are outweighted by the potential for human error / not checking and a resultant dangerous quickdraw setup.

[krymson]

i dont want to be rude to anyone but while the trad draw elastic mixup shown in the video is understandable, i am absolutely in disbelief that any sport climber could mess up the elastic band installation with proper dogbones.

[mrjonathanr]

My condolences to all those involved in some way.