Climbing Accident in Staunton State Park

Found this link to a previous discussion

mountainproject.com/v/10934…

If there was THAT much tape on the draw, I'd be interested in hearing why the climber did not recognize the danger. Were they borrowed slings?

It's all of our responsibility to learn not to use tape or rubber keepers on long sling draws. I first heard about this sort of failure from a friend down in Potrero Chico cleaning a route on The Wave. He fortunately had been taught as I had to use two independent slings to clip in for cleaning, so his second one caught him. Once he told us the story, we all removed those sorts of things from our own draws. I had at least two long slings set up like that on my rack.

I hope your friend recovers well. Everyone else, check your and your friend's gear and remove any tape, rubber bands, o-rings, whatever you have to fix your carabiners to your long slings. Just double them up instead.

Also, consider using two different slings when tying into an anchor for rappelling and cleaning.

Sounds like this was the same "phenomenon" that caused the death of Karen Feher here at the New River Gorge. She was using two slings, one to each anchor bolt, and both were looped over like this. The number of accidents caused by long slings with any kind of keeper (including rubber bands, Petzl strings, climbing tape) has become uncountable. This danger has been consistently covered in climbing media, yet it seems there are always folks that aren't aware of this. I still see folks at the crag that have this set up. Call them out!

Here's the video that clearly shows how this happens:
vimeo.com/29836772

newrivermike wrote:Here's the video that clearly shows how this happens:

Say's video can't be played here. gotta cut and paste.

But that's pretty scary stuff.

When I see stuff like that, the TAPE .....

I show them just what can happen.

I hope the climber is OK

newrivermike wrote:Sounds like this was the same "phenomenon" that caused the death of Karen Feher here at the New River Gorge. She was using two slings, one to each anchor bolt, and both were looped over like this. The number of accidents caused by long slings with any kind of keeper (including rubber bands, Petzl strings, climbing tape) has become uncountable. This danger has been consistently covered in climbing media, yet it seems there are always folks that aren't aware of this. I still see folks at the crag that have this set up. Call them out!

Call them out for what? Using a tool (the rubber band) that is there for a specific purpose? The tool isn't the problem. The problem is people not paying attention to what they are doing (no offense intended to the young lady who fell up at Staunton). Yes, I have seen the videos showing how the error in clipping the draw occurs. For the life of me though, I can't figure out how you could possibly accomplish such a feat without: a) being completely tuned out to what you are doing; or b) not understanding how the gear you climb on works; or c) all of the above.

Don't blame the gear for user error. You don't blame an ascender for cutting the rope when you take a weighted fall on a static line do you? Nope. The lesson here is that any piece of gear when used incorrectly can be dangerous. You can't eliminate every danger in climbing, but what you can do is take responsibility for own safety, which includes understanding the limitations and dangers of all of your gear. Its really that simple.

J. What you said is 100% true.

But it is not to smart to set yourself up with something that could go wrong.

Example: those little dime store biners.... maybe to hold your water bottle.

What if, your hurt, first person gets to you, sees water bottle and cause they are a Noob, clip you into the helo cable with that?

all climbing stuff used, should be as simple as possible.

i have to agree w/ JA on this one. now you have folks saying the little rubber gaskets on the the petzl draws are dangerous. not paying attention is what is dangerous.

Guy Keesee wrote:J. ? all climbing stuff used, should be as simple as possible.

I agree with you there Guy. A good example of your sentiment is someone who sets up a clusterf*ck of a belay. Now, if you are paying attention, then nobody mistakingly unclips from the anchor. Still, a clean and simple anchor is easier to keep track of, which I think is the gist of your comment.

That said, I don't think that removing every complication is a good policy. For example, I have rubber gaskets on the rope end of my one foot trad draws because I got tired of looking down at my gear while on lead and seeing the biners 'hooked' on the draw in a cross-loaded orientation. With the gasket I don't have to worry about that. In exchange, I need to be aware enough not to mis-clip a draw like the girl in the OP's post. For me, that is a no brainer 'plus' for my setup.

To summarize, I think the real danger in all of this is that people seem to be blaming the gear for the problem instead of taking responsibility for not making clerical errors at belays.

slim wrote:i have to agree w/ JA on this one. now you have folks saying the little rubber gaskets on the the petzl draws are dangerous. not paying attention is what is dangerous.

Exactly.

J. Albers wrote: Call them out for what? Using a tool (the rubber band) that is there for a specific purpose? The tool isn't the problem. The problem is people not paying attention to what they are doing

J, I completely agree. What I said was just poorly worded and should have been, "I still see folks with this set up THAT ARE UNAWARE OF THE POTENTIAL DANGER." I've "called out" a few people at the crag that have the long sling w/keeper girth-hitched to their belay loop for cleaning and every time I showed them the "magic trick" that can cause devastating failure of their system they're like, "What? do that again!" I just think it'd be nice if people continued to help spread the word and step in when they see someone that may not know what everyone in this thread now does.

This information is incorrect, I have spoken with the climbing party she was lowing off a hex and it "popped" out. nothing to do with keepers or tape. We all hope her a speedy recovery and hope to see her soon.

That accident was two years ago according to this thread. Anyone know how she recovered? Hope she is back to 100%.

so there was another yesterday

This is the GoFundMe for HallyAnn, who is the most recent climbing accident victim at Staunton State Park. (2016)

gofundme.com/2r2xhms

I have seen it poked fun at on threads here but I think a PAS or a sling/runner with knots is a great a idea. Clip in 1 loop on each anchor, my go to for sport climbing.

From the GoFundMe posted to Denver Social Climbers, she didn't exactly walk out of the ER.

Broken bones in the back and feet. Wish her a speedy recovery.

teece303 wrote:From the GoFundMe posted to Denver Social Climbers, she didn't exactly walk out of the ER. Broken bones in the back and feet. Wish her a speedy recovery.

Two different Accidents, the gofundme was last Saturday 9/24/16 the other one was two years ago.

Oops, thx Alex teaches me to post at work when I'm distracted.