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Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

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Topic Date User

Another Arapiles Accident 25-Jan-2004 At 12:59:35 PM dantheman

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i led Missing Link when it was at my limit. I didnt think it was particularly run out but i now realise that i went the way that had the large wire a couple of metres after the seam. I led it on a single rope and had a lot of rope drag at the top of the climb. Luckily the climb gets a bit easier at the top. Most climbs will become more dangerous if you miss a crucial gear placement just as most climbs will increase in difficulty if you miss a crucial hold. We choose to do this potentially dangerous activity and take responsibility for ourselves the moment we decide to go climbing. Trad climbing can be run out and genuinly dangerous, it allows us to discover things about ourselves that are hard to realise in a safe environment. We discver where our limits are and develope good judgement, hopefully without having a major accident. Unfortunately people do have accidents and it is this potential that for me makes climbing challenging and genuinly worth while. if this potential for death/injury were not a part of climbing i think that i would not discover so much about myself whilst doing the activity and it would have less meaning to me. My condolences go out to all the people adversly effected by climbing accidents but we make the choice to climb ourselves and i am grateful that i am able to make these choices.