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Date of Incident

15/08/2025

Country

England

Activity

Sport rock climbing

When

Ascending

Injury

Minor injury

Incident

I was leading up the route putting the draws in. I clipped the third bolt (difficult to reach) with my panic draw. I then rested on the panic draw for a bit because I couldn’t work the move out. Thought I might as well switch out the panic draw for a normal one. Something I’ve done many times before with no issues. I put a normal draw into the bolt too (above the panic draw, with gate facing the same way as the panic draw’s gate) and clipped it to the rope. The bolt was small so there wasn’t much much room to try to get the panic draw out. I had to get my weight off the rope a bit and wiggle the panic draw for a while - then it finally came out but somehow opened the gate of the other draw too and dislodged it. Both draws came out of the bolt so I fell quite a long way.

Lessons

Be careful when swapping out a panic draw for a normal draw, especially when the bolts are small. I’m still trying to understand exactly what happened. I’d consider putting the replacement draw below rather than above the other one, or facing the gate the opposite way to the one already in there, or if it’s possible, clip next bolt above before you try to retrieve the panic draw.

Causes

Slip, trip or fall, Equipment failure,

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

Author

16 August 2025 at 15:55:57

For more advice and guidance on good practices visit BMC skills

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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