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Topic Date User

Fall at Cliffhanger climbing gym 28-Mar-2007 At 12:56:50 PM JohnK

Message

On 28/03/2007 westie wrote:
>On 28/03/2007 JohnK wrote:
>>At this stage indications are that Tom has a badly broken ankle and a
>broken
>>vertabre in his back (not affecting his spinal chord). Hi is meant to
>be
>>having surgery some time today and will be paying him a visit at the
>Alfred
>>later this arvo.
>
>John,
>
>can you tell us what occurred? did he miss the first clip? backclip? what
>went down?

As I understand it, and I could be wrong, he was 10 meters up and fell as he was trying to clip one of the quickdraws. The belayer could not hold the fall and the rope ran through the belay device resulting in rope burn in the belayer's hand and the climber hitting the ground. He is one lucky boy. Obviously the belayer feels extremely depressed and totally down about what happened as well.
The important thing from here forward is to support the injured climber and to avoid placing any blame on anyone, especially as the facts have not yet been determined. Thanks for concern everyone and will pass everyone's well wishes to Tom.