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Date of Incident
03/10/2024
Country
Scotland
Area
Route
Activity
Trad rock climbing
When
Ascending
Injury
No injury
Incident
The belayer was tied in to anchors at the top of the route bringing up the second. He had attached his ATC to both the rope tie in loop (double ropes) and the harness belay loop using an HMS carabiner with an internal gate/captive pin. The second fell. The carabiner was pulled around so that it was loaded against the weakest axis by the rope loop and belay loop, despite the rope being tight at the time of the fall. There was no real shock load. The internal gate had been pulled out by the movement of the belay loop and rope loop. There's a risk that the ATC could have been dislodged by the two loops but fortunately it stayed put, although the belayer only just managed to hold the fall.
Lessons
The belayer had been taught to attach the ATC carabiner to both the tie in loop made by the ropes and to the harness belay loop. I've also seen suggestions on the internet that this is OK, when reading up further background to today's incident. But this incident shows that doing this leads to a real risk of cross-loading the carabiner, given that the force of the fall is distributed between the anchors and the belayer's harness in different directions. This seems to be extremely dangerous and could have led to the second sustaining a ground fall today. Surely it would be better to attach the ATC to either the rope loop or the belay loop but not both? Could this be reviewed please and appropriate advice given to training providers?
Causes
Belaying failure or error
Anonymous?
Yes
Reported By
Participant
Wearing Helmets?
Yes
Rescue Services Involved?
Not needed but might have been! It might have been a very serious incident
Author
31 October 2024 at 12:30:48
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