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Date of Incident
10/11/2018
Country
England
Area
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
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