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Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

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Grounder at SICG 24-Oct-2009 At 5:59:49 PM garbie

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On 23/10/2009 trog wrote:
>
>Every night at SICG there are a hell of a lot more belayed climbers than
>auto-might-be-belayed, and I haven't heard of too many serious top rope
>incidents. And the ones I have heard of have been things like clipping
>into gear loops... just as easy to do on the auto-might-belays.
>
>Any gym workers on chocky who can comment on how often top rope climbers
>get dropped?

We haven't had a toproping accident at St Peters, apart from the odd scrape. With the setup we have (with a slo-go at the top) its pretty hard to get into serious trouble - though certainly not impossible.

With the amount of leading that gets done here now - its really taken off - it was inevitable that mistakes would happen and indeed there were the two gri-gri related accidents (smashed heels in both cases) and the broken ankle when someone skipped a draw on purpose, then hit a jug awkwardly when they swung back into the gently overhanging wall. So until Lyndon's accident only belayer or climber mistakes have led to accidents, and considering the amount of climbing that gets done here, they have happened pretty rarely - less often than at the crag (per climb) I'd have thought.

The real battle for us is to keep people mindful of the inherent risks especially in leading, and to get them to be careful - I think people are more relaxed and less on their guard indoors - but gravity works much the same way. It feels like a safer environment and there can be more distractions. All I can say to people is be careful, take it seriously, and relax when you get to the pub.