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Date of Incident

30/06/2019

Country

England

Route

Activity

Trad rock climbing

When

Ascending

Injury

Minor injury

Incident

I was lead climbing up a corner crack. I got to a certain point and felt uncertain about the moves and couldn't see any obvious places to climb to to place more gear. After much deliberating, I backed off the route. I had what I thought was a good cam placement (I had never been taught that slightly flared cracks horizontal cracks were not suitable for cam placements), I couldn't see anywhere else to place gear and I had more good placements below me. I began to be lowered but the belayer wasn't very experienced and the lowering off was very jerky. At some point my cam popped and I fell around 4-5m before my gear caught me. I stopped just above a ledge but my leg kept moving and whacked the ledge leaving a huge bruise and graze. It was multipitch climb so my partner had to finish the climb. I was stuck on the ledge in a lot of pain from my leg.

Lessons

Cam placements in horizontal cracks and flared cracks
If possible, back up gear being lowered off
Ensure belayer competence with half ropes and being lowered - I say this as the cam did initially hold my weight, I wonder if the jerky nature of being lowered was loading and unloading the cam, causing it to walk?

Causes

Belaying failure or error, Gear Placement

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

Author

11 February 2020 at 16:19:21

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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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