Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Stupidest thing youve seen? 5-Dec-2007 At 12:23:17 PM certifi

Message

On 27/07/2005 GG wrote:
>Someone testing a top rope set up by standing at the edge of the cliff
>and pulling really hard!

>Some years ago one of the Melbourne outdoor shops ended up in court. A person - may have been a
>teacher - purchased several metres (10 or more) of 1'' webbing off the roll. The staff member measured and
>cut the required amount.
>
>At the edge of the cliff, the person tied the end of the webbing around a tree and then proceeded to lean out
>from the cliff to inspect a possible abseil route (as I indicated, may have been for a school), holding the ???
>webbing by hand.
>
>What you need to know is that 1'' webbing on rolls is supplied from the manufacturer with joins - not one ?
>continuous length. These joins are held together with sticky tape.
>
>Since (allegedly), the webbing was being used virtually straight out of the bag it was supplied in, the person
>did not bother to check the webbing was a single length before committing their weight to it.
>
>Hence, person descended the proposed abseil route at high speed, suffering broken bones and ligaments on
>impact. And took legal action against the retailer.
>- Steve

funny coincidence actually, my acquaintance (may or may not have been my yr11 design technology teacher)
were chatting about rock climbing. he told me a story about when he was inspecting a potential abseil at the
youies, that he was going to take students on later in the week. he explained that he had earlier that day
purchased from a shop some 1" tape wich the shop didnt have enough of, so they joined it togeather with
tape. he also told me he didnt think he should check because he just purchased it, and that he fell a good
30m to broken bones and hospital due to this sticky tape anchor. he later sued the shop and won 30 grand.
the shop later closed its doors. im not sure but id dare say these people are one in the same. he was always
a bit thick.