Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Proficiency of beginners 27-Sep-2003 At 12:43:10 PM Scratch

Message

On 22/09/2003 phil_nev wrote:
>Thats a good point. I mean, just because you have completed a 2 or 3 day
>lead course, does that make you safe to lead outdoors. I doubt it.

Indeed! I was recently checking someone off for leading (they had done an anchors and lead course), so I let them lead up that grade 3 at Dec. crag. On the way up the person looked like they knew what they were doing, placed some good gear, didn't backclip etc. I was going to wait till said person was safe, and climb up the back and have a look at the anchor, but since they seemed ok on the way up i seconded up. At the top I was presented with a very very scary sight. First thing I noticed was that the person was tied into the anchor with about 3 meters of climbing rope, and belaying off their harness, so they would have been half way down the cliff if I fell. Next thing I noticed was that the screwgate at the anchors was not done up. Then I looked at the anchor points.. 3 nice bollards with slings, ok that's good.. BUT what do we have here.. there were two on the left joined with a cordellete that was just clipped into the screwgate, no knot.... hrmmm... The other point was connected via a sling to the screwgate at 180 degrees(!!!!) from the other two points.. so we had a nice 3 way loaded unscrewed screwgate. THEN the two slings around the bollards on the left both had single biners with their gates loaded over edges. ARGHGHG. Obviously this person needs some more help before they can get their hands on club gear.