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Top Stupid Mistakes to Avoid 18-Aug-2003 At 1:53:21 PM Nico

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This one comes under the heading 'odd sequence of events having awkward consequence' - like this: My climbing partner was using a figure-8 descendeur (which are supposed to be foolproof), starting an abseil over the pointy edge of an overhang, when the lip of the overhang made contact with the descendeur as he went past. This had the effect of pushing the loop of rope up the shaft of the descendeur, and over the larger metal ring, with the result that the rope formed a neat lark's-foot knot on the descendeur. Because it was on an overhang, the abseiler could not get his weight off the rope (by standing on something), so there he hung, going neither up nor down. Solution? When my partner did hang himself up in this manner, I borrowed a rope from another party, tied it off to the abseil anchor, and lowered it so that he could tie a loop to stand in, while he sorted the figure-8. A small epic.