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Rappelling accident results in death at Coon Bluff near Saguaro Lake
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Especially awful when it happens to a young inexperienced person. |
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Any insight on what exactly went wrong? Anchor failure? |
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Based on the news tonight katelyn's friend said that after she did the rappel the anchor failed and katelyn fell and another said that the rigging for the anchor failed. That's all that I have heard of right now but this sounds similar to the firefighter that died rappelling on camelback a little while back. |
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Conrad, a 21-year-old honors student, had been a member of the ASU Outdoors Club for more than three years on January 17, when she and about 20 other ASU students went on an outing to the Coon Bluff Recreation Area at the Lower Salt River just north of Mesa.
The bluff, rising about 150 feet from the river area, is a popular crag for rappelling practice. On that day, members of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team were training nearby on another part of the cliff. Mike Zysman of Rappel Arizona was the "trip leader" for the ASU group, according to the incident report by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Conrad's rappelling experience included a two-day course put on by Zysman and three canyon trips, the report states. Like the other students, she had signed a liability waiver before the outing. The group was split into three sub-groups: Beginner, intermediate and advanced. Zysman set up the beginner's rappel anchor, but members of the intermediate and advanced sub-groups set up their own anchors. Instead of a straightforward anchor, Conrad and another student set up an anchor often used in canyoneering called a "biner block." .... No one besides the three women inspected the anchor before they began rappelling at about 11 a.m. The first two students, including Jessica Jia, Conrad's best friend, made it down successfully. They were lucky, it seems. By herself at the top, Conrad walked off the cliff edge and began her descent. The end of the rope came free from the anchor and Conrad began free-falling. People in the area heard a sudden scream. A man on the other side of the river yelled, "Oh my God, she fell!" Conrad slammed into a lower part of the cliff, her shattered body coming to rest upside down in a tree. She'd been wearing a helmet at the time, but it wrenched to one side when she hit her head. The entire length of the orange climbing rope had fallen with her. Her injuries were "severe," the report states. ....... Conrad's setup didn't involve a backup anchor, either. One of the PCSO rescue-team members told investigators that a second anchor would be standard when practicing a rappel. At the scene, Jia told detectives she had watched the anchor being set up and believed "we failed to tie a correct anchor." After conferring with other rappellers, she figured that the clove-hitch knot must have worked itself loose, possibly because it wasn't positioned correctly on the carabiner. Besides that, "we didn't tie any knots on the remainder of the 10 feet of rope," Jia told authorities. phoenixnewtimes.com/news/po… My personal thought, not about the accident particularly, but about some of the outdoor/climbing groups in general is that up here in squamish anyways its sometimes not quite safe to learn with such Ive seen some awful group "leaders" Very sad accident |
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I canyoneer and I can tell you that some of those static ropes are incredibly stiff and I have been reluctant to use a biner block at times. In my experience you need to yank the heck out of that knot from both sides to get it tight or the knot can loosen. |
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Pretty sad. I've always wondered why people are so attracted to the sport rappelling. I cant believe that a company exists that organizes rappelling events. I'm an experienced climber and the worst part of climbing in general for me is the rappelling. That's where I have experienced most of my significant close calls. To each their own... |
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There are very good slot canyons in Arizona so I'm sure that's why they were gaining that skill. Sketchy anchors is a part of the deal. I had a friend break a few bones rappelling off a bag of water designed to drain and be retrievable which is where I drew the line. To each his own indeed. |
rging wrote: I had a friend break a few bones rappelling off a bag of water designed to drain and be retrievable which is where I drew the line.Yikes |
