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Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

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carabiner failure 27-Oct-2006 At 4:28:09 PM The Keeper

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Yup, they sometimes fail -they are made by and used by humans, afterall. Don't have the ref. right handy but there was a good detailed report on a failed biner in an issue of Accidents in North American Mountaineering - in essence - a leader fall, biner impacted the rock open the gate and overloaded the stem - and it failed. The lad was downbound and pulled a couple of pieces but fortunately was wearing a helmet - he decked but not full bore - sort of a robust whack - he was stunned and had blood coming out of his ears but lived to send the failed biner to the manufacturer for an analysis. Would be good to have some clear details and context for this one starting this thread.

I have a steel locking Petzl biner - I cannot imagine how that could ever break before an aluminum one excepting if there was some heinous flaw embedded in it. If toproping under any context I would always use two biners, preferrably lockers but if not -definitely opposed.