Clove Hitch Fail

Dave Alie wrote: This is exactly how I feel. Good luck throughout whatever recovery procedure might follow.

Recovery procedure??

The shitmypantsectomy

Buff Johnson wrote:The shitmypantsectomy

Me like!:)

Stan Pitcher wrote:I made several mistakes at the top of a climb as I prepared to belay my partner and took a huge fall as a result. Posting this in the hope that no others will do the same! Mistake 1: At top of climb (big ledge), I did not clip the chains. Mistake 2: I clove hitched to a non-locking biner (tripled shoulder-length sling with neutrinos). Mistake 3: I didn't cinch the clove hitch tight. Mistake 4: I hadn't backed up the clove hitch. I always do this before going off belay/belaying but had got in bad habit of sometimes not doing it until I'd adjusted the length. Then I stepped to the ledge edge below and left of the chains (where I would be able to see my partner climbing) and happy with the length, I leaned back a little and instantly went flying! Luckily, I didn't get hurt too bad and I did have a helmet on. I don't remember hitting my head but my helmet had cracks inside. Somehow the un-tightened clove hitch had opened the gate and the biner had come off the tripled sling. The biner was still on the rope. Be safe out there!

That picture makes it look like you also didn't tie the hitch correctly.

MorganH wrote: That picture makes it look like you also didn't tie the hitch correctly.

Its possible, but I've tied thousands of clove hitches and I think the knot was correct except for I hadn't tightened it. My friend thinks he can show me how it could happen. To me it doesn't really matter how it happened, what's more important are the mistakes I made that allowed the fall. Just making one less mistake would have prevented it.

A little more clarification to hopefully answer some of the questions. This was a two bolt anchor. I was setting up to belay using an auto-block belay from the chains that were going to be above me and too far away to use a PAS.

I believe its fairly common (and safe?) to use just the rope to anchor in with using a clove-hitch on my side of the rope off one bolt and then backing it up with a figure-8 on a bight or another clove hitch (just above the first clove hitch) on the 2nd bolt.

Stan Pitcher wrote: Its possible, but I've tied thousands of clove hitches and I think the knot was correct except for I hadn't tightened it. My friend thinks he can show me how it could happen. To me it doesn't really matter how it happened, what's more important are the mistakes I made that allowed the fall. Just making one less mistake would have prevented it. A little more clarification to hopefully answer some of the questions. This was a two bolt anchor. I was setting up to belay using an auto-block belay from the chains that were going to be above me and too far away to use a PAS. I believe its fairly common (and safe?) to use just the rope to anchor in with using a clove-hitch on my side of the rope off one bolt and then backing it up with a figure-8 on a bight or another clove hitch (just above the first clove hitch) on the 2nd bolt.

Yep, I do it all the time. I messed around with a rope and a biner a little bit, and couldn't get a correctly tied hitch to do what the picture shows. I had to leave one strand on the wrong side of the knot.

Jeff Scheuerell wrote:Glad your ok. The whole scenario is a bit confusing. Biggest mistake I see is blaming the clove hitch for a slew of other mistakes.

Gotta agree with Jeff. A properly tied clove hitch doesn't fail. Glad OP is ok and had the humility to share the experience with us.

Trusting your life to a single nonlocking biner isn't the best of practices. I attach myself to the master point on 90% of climbs with the rope, a clove hitch, and a locker. I also make sure it's tight and secure before calling off belay. I'm sure I'm going to die, but not from my clove hitch failing.

Out of curiosity, I re-created the photo using a 'biner and cord. Sliding the loops of cord to the top of the 'biner I was able to get a proper clove hitch. But it doesn't matter much because the mode of failure was the open biner coming off the sling.

tight is right

MorganH wrote: That picture makes it look like you also didn't tie the hitch correctly.

Most "likely" this. Big thing is that you should be setting your knots, whether hitch, 8, autoblock or whatever.

Glad you are alright man...thanks for sharing.

Glad you're okay Stan. Sounds exciting. Will be interesting to see if you can duplicate the gate opening.

Robert

So I was able to totally recreate this playing around a little with a loose properly tied clove hitch.

Picture 1 is the loose clove hitch on a wire gate biner in the same orientation as the OP picture

Picture 2 is loading both the upper and lower strands as in a fall. The gate is open!

Picture 3 is the same knot as in Pic 1 & 2, dressed properly, without removing it from the biner

I was also able in an inverted orientation have the clove hitch unclip itself and leave just a single strand through the rope.

Moral of the story. Dress your knots, use a locker, make sure biner is properly oriented facing down

Loosely tied clove hitch on a wire gate biner

Load the loosely tied clove hitch. The gate is open!

Same loosely tied clove hitch, properly dressed

Had something similar happen once with a clove hitch on a locker.

Thought it was locked. One strand worked its way up over the gate. Luckily I gave it a tug to test it, before I leaned back on it. I was very surprised when it just popped right off the biner.

You are very lucky...

I would always use a locker (and make sure it is locked) if I'm clipping in with a clove...

I looked at the first picture that Mark O'Neal posted and thought, there's no way that is a properly tired clove hitch. So I had to prove it to myself. Yep, sure enough, it's correct.

I always tie in to the anchor, whether it's bolts or gear, using the rope with a clove hitch on a locker. But now I will be more conscious of checking that my clove hitch is tight and that I'm not getting lazy and using a non-locker. Thanks for the posts.

Clove hitch on lockers: just to say it should be a modern triple-action locker, not a simple just-rotate-the-barrel-and-open type, as a clove hitch can still open one of these.

Scary. I think I'll start using an autolocking biner to clove into because I've caught myself once or twice with an unscrewed or semi-screwed locking gate.

Another thing to note is that if you try cloving into a very twisty rope it can be extremely difficult to set the hitch like it should be.

I have never been convinced the clove hitch is a safe knot ..more so to show to begginer climbers, and it takes up more space in a biner than the good old figure of eight.

If the clove hitch is your personnal anchor knot and properly dressed its plenty safe, but this should reinforce the idea that you have at least two anchor points/carabiners. I do on occasion use a figure-8 as the second point of attachment in order to provide a convenient "power point" of sorts, but the clove is a powerful tool. Stan's no gumby, he just got careless/distracted. Good reminder for the rest of us.

David Coley wrote:Clove hitch on lockers: just to say it should be a modern triple-action locker, not a simple just-rotate-the-barrel-and-open type, as a clove hitch can still open one of these.

If the "simple" locking biner's barrel is tight and the knot properly dressed, how could a clove hitch still open the biner? I'm not baiting you, genuinely curious.