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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Poll Option

Votes

Graph

Never - I aim for maximum re-sale price.

Once or twice over my entire climbing career.

I rest on gear occasionally but have never fallen.

Rarely, however I have taken a fall onto trad gear

51%

Once every couple of climbing trips.

27%

Every climbing trip.

Almost every climb.

I love whipping onto RPs &zero cams on every climb

Topic Date User

How often do you fall onto your own trad gear? 17-Jan-2006 At 5:00:03 PM mikepatt

Message

I'm suprised there hasn't been any smart arses (apart from me) saying "I prefer to fall on other peoples gear" but the truth is one on my first big falls was on an ancient borrowed fixed friend in a horizontal placement. I was doing a downward run out traverse (off route..) when a big block I stepped down onto fell off. (I'lll spare the the full details of that minor epic) The fact that there was quite a lot of rope out and I did a big swing rather than fall from above would have been in my favour but I'm glad to say the cam held. Since then I've fallen maybe once or twice a year and usually when I'm not expecting it and the gear has always held. However I have had a cam I've rested on blow much to my suprise so don't assume because you weight a piece it will be bomber or for that matter hold your body weight for some time.
I'd also be interested if anyone has details of any deterioration in gear after repeated falls. We all know ropes are rated for a certain number of falls but I've never seen any such info about cams & nuts. I'm sure repeated falls on small RPs will lead to failure and I've scene a cam destroyed by repeated loading (old Mari cam booty bugger up story) but at the end of the day I reckon most people selling their whole rack maybe giving up climbing cos the were never that into it in the first place, and the less you climb the less you fall.