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Date of Incident

10/11/2018

Country

England

Area

Climbing Wall

Route

Activity

Indoor climbing

When

Injury

Minor injury

Incident

Climbing indoors at my regular wall with a frequent climbing partner, who was approximately five or six stone heavier than me. Device used was an ATC (roughly 15 years old and quite worn). Climber slipped around 9 metres, at the point that I was paying out slack with the hand on the dead rope above the device - and also distracted by a friend entering the climbing wall. I was pulled up to the first quickdraw, and the climber decked. The only injuries were moderate rope burn to both my hands. The climber was uninjured.

Lessons

The belay device used was particularly slick, a more appropriate device would have been a Grigri, or at least a more modern device such as an ATC XP. Whilst the distraction was not a critical element of the accident, belay glasses would have helped focus attention on the climber.

Causes

Belaying failure or error, Distraction

Anonymous?

Yes

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Rescue Services Involved?

None

Author

13 May 2019 at 14:53:45

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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