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Date of Incident
18/01/2025
Country
England
Area
Route
Activity
Indoor climbing
When
Injury
No injury
Incident
Indoor lead climbing at local indoor centre. The climber has attempted to clip into the 6th clip (approx 30ft), missed the clip and subsequently fallen. The fall was initally caught for a split second before the climber experienced an acceleration of free fall and ended up falling to the deck.
The belayer was using an ATC device and h ad paid out slack for the clip at the time of t he fall. Struggling to reme mber exactly what happened due to shock but belayer has rope burns on hands and chest/shoulder area. Belayer after inital ly catching couldnt arrest the slack run through in time before climber had decked.
Climber sent to hospital as precaution but luckily no injuries.
Lessons
Both climbing partners have only been climbing with themselves for 4 years. Undertaking refresher course on belaying/fall arrest to examine if any bad habits have been adopted over this time and try to understand how the accident could have occured. Learned on ATC, now investing in brake assisted device.
Causes
Belaying failure or error
Anonymous?
Yes
Reported By
Participant
Wearing Helmets?
Rescue Services Involved?
Author
19 January 2025 at 15:11:22
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