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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

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Topic Date User

Solo Top Rope with Mini-Traxion. 22-Jun-2005 At 5:06:05 PM brat

Message

The shock absorbing lanyard mentioned is like a Y where each arm of the Y comes back to the shock absorber, (the single arm of the Y) then the base of the Y is connected to your harness. The guy that died did so because he put the unused connection (other side of the Y) back to his harness, by doing so he took the shock absorber out of the system. It unravelled slightly until the other arm of the Y came into use, then no more unravelling, then he had a high factor fall!

Even at best industrial shock absorbers are designed to minimise the chance of death in a fall, not act like a dynamic rope, ie soften the fall, the amount of force needed to deploy one is enough to make you one sick puppy for awhile! Recreational absorbers have a far lower "let go" and are therefore more user friendly, but more likely to totally unravel and potentially load up your gear again, however with either, make sure you can't deck when fully extended, ie if the extended length of your absorber is 2m and you have another 2 metres of rope etc, you'll deck if you fall when less than 4.5 metres above your next landing!
Clear as mud! :)