Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Topic Date User

worst near accidents I've seen 21-Sep-2010 At 1:24:19 PM mikllaw

Message

I keep chuckling about these, but they could have been pretty horrible:-
- At the Freezer a few years back a bloke was teaching some n00bs. "You clip into the belay loop to belay or abseil, not the gear loops" Fair enuff I thought till he continued "but you can belay on the gear loops, cos they make them strong enuff in case you get confused"

- Three years back at Thompson's Point there was a guy who had lost his belay plate and was belaying with a piton brake abseil setup from canyoning-

he had set the piton on the underside of the biner, so every time there was slack the piton would swing away and take his girlfriend off belay. I gave her my stitch plate and suggested she get a new belay device or a new boyfriend.

- Nic Taylor (FA of Country Road 24 in 1977) told me that he did Leaning Tower in Yosemite. A photographer met them, said he had gear and would pay $500 if they towed a rope up for him to jumar up. He handed them a very new rope, they lead off. The first pitch is overhung and gains about 200m of instant exposure. They were on the hanging belay and he cut loose out into space. A few minutes later they heard a noise like a steam train below, looked down to see the photographer thrahing up the rope on jumars, with his large camera bag on his shoulders swinging across the aching void.

The noises got louder and more desperate until he was about 15m below the belay, the climbers suddenly realised he had no harness or slings, just a jumar in each hand. They were able to get a loop of rope under his feet and he fell with it under his arms and survived.