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Date of Incident

11/07/2019

Country

England

Activity

Sport rock climbing

When

Fall whilst leading

Injury

Minor injury

Incident

Chose to do this route as my warm up despite it being very close to my onsite limit because I had climbed it successfully previously. The route has a small ledge (protruding by about 1 ft) between the 2nd and 3rd bolts. I had got to the jug from which you would normally clip the 4th bolt but was pumped senseless and knew that placing the draw and pulling up slack was just going to result in a bigger fall, confident in my regular belayer I just jumped without communicating my intent. Didnt realise that my belayer had thought I would be clipping and preemptively had the rope out ready. I fell and caught my foot on the ledge on the way down, stopped a metre or so from the ground. Bad sprained ankle and a bruised ego.

Lessons

First mistake: I should have warmed up on something easier to avoid such savage flash pump preventing my finishing the classic route I had done before.

Second mistake: I should have communicated my difficulties to my belayer, definitely shouldn't have jumped without warning.

Third mistake: my belayer shouldn't have preempted my attempt to clip, having less slack out stopping me before the ledge.

Bolts gave me a false sense of security after a good few months of early season trad...

Causes

Belaying failure or error

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

Author

16 October 2019 at 17:27:36

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All reports are self-submitted and have not been edited by the BMC in any way, so please keep an open mind regarding the lessons and causes of each incident or near-miss. 

If you have a concern regarding this report please contact us at incidentreports@thebmc.co.uk

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