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Date of Incident

05/04/2015

Country

Wales

Route

DM walls

Activity

Sport rock climbing

When

Descending

Injury

Serious injury requiring medical treatment

Incident

Experienced climbers in a familiar area on a simple warm up climb, first climb of the day. Topo for climb taken from sportclimb.co.uk as no guide book for DM walls existed at the time. Topo had no route lengths in it. 30m rope was used where majority of route known to be 15m. Climber used belayer rope and kit, unfamilliar and not wanting to scrutinise to much for fear of offending. Climber had a 50m rope in the car with proper belay sheet where rope ends were always tied. Belayer had a 30m rope in an ikea bag. Upon lower off rope was found to be too short, belayer continued to lower off, no knot tied in the end of the rope therefore rope slipped through belayer and belay plate. Climber fell four meters and is now paralysed. Route assumed to be 17m not 15m.

Lessons

Always tie a knot in the end of the rope. Never be afraid to ask questions about friends kit especially when your life is resting on its use.

Causes

Belaying failure or error, Abseil or rappel failure or error

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

Mountain rescue helicopter, not sure which service for trevor rocks, Llangollen

Author

1 August 2020 at 19:07:02

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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