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Ankles busted in the Bluies 21-Apr-2009 At 9:15:49 PM rolsen1

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On 21/04/2009 wallwombat wrote:
>I had a friend who dislodged a large rock while abseiling in a canyon.
>snip
>I can't see how that can be a bad thing.

We participate in a hobby that if things go pear shaped we can die, even more so when we are near the edge of the cliff setting up a top rope, a rap or beginning the rap.

The thing that will most likely keep us alive is knowledge about how climbing system work and their limitations. We make decisions to minimise the risk but we can't totally remove it. We can always die if things go really wrong.

The guy in this situation had the accident because he made a mistake.

The point I was trying to make, probably not too clearly, was that an autoblock won't save you from every fcuk up and may even add to the chance of making one. I can't see why someone who thinks they are safe to belay a lead climber wouldn't think they would be safe to control their own descent on a rap. Do they always belay with a gri gri or use a backup when belaying as well?

Obviously, the rock fall case is different but is that why people are using them and how many people climb with partners who will be able to rescue them when they are dangling unconscious from a rope half way up a steep face? And what precautions are we taking from rock fall from a leader hitting a belayer?

The posters who thought my post was based on feeling invincible got it totally wrong. I know I could die everytime I rap off something, I know I need to thread my belay correctly and I know it won't fail if I do. I know that I need to cinch the knot tight. I'm not invincible, and I may die if I make a silly mistake.

That's why these sort of threads annoy me so much, people make blanket statements about safety practices which are only playing around the edges of safety. I'm sure there are alot of novices who read these forums. To those, I say rather than take the time to set up an autoblock, take the time to say to yourself, "if I stuff this up I'm dead" Being safe is continually making good decisions the whole time we're out.

Sorry for the sermon.