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Activity

Trad rock climbing

When

Descending

Injury

No injury

Incident

Several abseils were required to descend from the route.
The first abseils went without problem.

On the final abseil, instead of placing the mid-point of the rope at the anchor, we rigged with one of the end markers at the anchor.
The ends of the rope were marked with black stitching (by the manufacturer) in a similar way to the middle marking. This left one 5m long end and one 65m long end.

We did not tie knots at the end of the rope for this abseil, as we expected to reach the ground.

My partner attached to the rope as normal, and noticed the error only after detaching from the anchor. She clipped back into the anchor and we pulled the rope through to the middle marker to fix the issue.

Lessons

- tie knots for every abseil
- end markings should be significantly different from middle markings

Causes

abseiling error

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

None

Author

12 May 2019 at 21:12:37

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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