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Date of Incident

17/07/2025

Country

Scotland

Route

Activity

Trad rock climbing

When

Ascending

Injury

No injury

Incident

The leader climbed the route and set up an anchor. One rope was passed through the anchor screw gate and brough back to the belay position where it was clove hitched to the climber using another screw gate. The error made was that the clove hitch screw gate was not passed through the loop of rope created by the figure of eight when tying in to the rope at the start of the climb, but was clipped between the figure of eight and stopped knot. The second climber noticed this error upon completing the route but if they had fallen and the anchor was weighted then there was a significant risk the stopper knot may not have held as the tail was not long.

Lessons

Anchor and belay checking process has been reviewed and expanded to include more thorough checks of all items every time as this was previously not considered as a failure method. Stopper knot will now be tied much closer to figure of eight to reduce the likely hood of being able to clip in-between.

Causes

Belaying failure or error

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Yes

Rescue Services Involved?

Author

22 July 2025 at 02:19:06

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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