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October 12, 2002

Accidents in Climbing

Daily, I go to RockClimbing.com to see if there are any interesting discussion threads. Today this thread caught my attention as it was about a climber who needed to be rescued on El Cap and was charged with reckless endangerment. Someone posted asking if anyone had heard about it, which immediately sparked a flurry of speculative posts. In the end, the actual climber ended up posting and answering questions. Charges were dropped, but it was a very interesting story. Especially to hear how his gear actually failed (a rare occurrence indeed). Even more interesting was to hear the critiques of other climbers as to what he could have done differently. The climber in question even had things to say about his mistakes. In the end it was decided that most bad injuries and deaths in climbing are not caused by any one failure or mistake, but rather a string a failures and mistakes. It was a very sobering thread that any serious climber should read. The specifics were less important than the emphasis on redundancy for just the reason stated above. In climbing, redundancy is SO important. Multiple points of failure at any given time.

Any time a climber falls, there is always discussion of Fall Factor (ff). The fall factor is a ratio of the length of fall divided by the amount of rope holding the fall. ie. The amount of rope out after the last piece in the wall. That is actually a simplification and things like the dynamic nature of ropes and/or gear play a part as well. But basically, if a person was 10' above their anchor with no other gear in and fell, they would fall 20' and have a fall factor of 2, the highest fall factor (ff2). This puts TREMENDOUS strain on the gear. Depending on the rope and gear used, it can generate forces up to 27kN (kilonewtons). A kilonewton (kN) is defined as the force which gives to a mass of 1000 kilograms an acceleration of 1 meter per second squared. Its about 225lb per kN. So 27kN is over 6000lb of force. The idea is to constantly observe your possible fall factor and do what you can to reduce it. For example, putting your first pieces in early, reduces the ff significantly. Thats not to see gear can't hold a ff2 fall. Many people (including the euro climber in the thread above), have survived a ff2 fall. I just hope I never have to. :)

Links on the death of Joe Ivy, a caver killed by his own mistakes:
RockClimbing.com Thread
Accident Report

Posted by wonko at October 12, 2002 09:53 AM

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