Textbook Bad GriGri belay puts comp climber in hospital

Posting here as a how-to-not belay.  Distracted, bad rope management, hands all over the place, topped off with a cam override that decks the climber.  Yikes.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGdC-UDoTXz/?igsh=N2VmMml2aDdrdTRs

Paul L wrote:

Posting here as a how-to-not belay

Jyan Renks? 

Paul L wrote:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGdC-UDoTXz/?igsh=N2VmMml2aDdrdTRs

Made clicky

NSFL. That's horrific.

I’m a Gri Gri fan, been using one since 1994. Every Gri Gri user should be required to view this video. 

yikes - hire me and excommunicate that guy

Jesus Christ. That was hard to watch. 

I was also horrified when I learned about this accident (from the same IG post). One moment, she's training for IFSC World Cup; and next, she suffered broken spine and two broken feet. I wish her a full and speedy recovery. Please note that she already climbed to the top and clipped into the anchor draws above her -- this was not even an unexpected lead fall. Besides the obvious takeaway -- a belayer MUST learn how to properly belay regardless of the belay device used, I think there are some subtle but maybe equally important takeaways that have not been talked about:

1. If you are not climbing or belaying, DO NOT strike a conversation with a belayer (esp. a lead belayer). 

2. If you are a belayer (esp. a lead belayer), know/learn to say "I can't talk right now."

3. Unless you have learned trust in your belayer, do not fully let go until you are sure that your belayer "got" you. (Note: this is absolutely not to blame the climber in this accident. Everyone I climb with and I all keep our hands on the top rail/hold until our weight is fully taken by the belayer below before letting go. See it as self-preservation.) 

For those who are principled enough to boycott IG (along with Facebook), this is the translation of her latest IG post as this is from a Saudi athlete:

A Nightmare,
On the second day of the training comp in France for IFSC World Cup [to be held] in Korea —Your session start and ends with one warm-up route. A 13 metres fall led to severe injuries, then the “training comp“ spent in a hospital undergoing surgeries, Unable to walk for 3 months, Relearn to walk after !
And to go back to sport 9 months of rehab minimum. Eventually, the plates and screws need to be removed through additional surgeries, and back to recovery again .
During this exhausting journey, you watch the opportunities slip away, and you can do nothing.

On top of this,
As an athlete on A National Team you expect to be taken care of!
- I faced reality when I came back from this “training comp”, struggled for months to secure the basic healthcare!!!
- And what’s even more disappointing is that no one took responsibility or acknowledged the mistake. This accident was simply treated as one of the “Risk factos in sport climbing” , leaving me to deal with it alone.

Last thing, I’d really love to know what the old men discussed while destroying my life. Cause I don’t know French 

P.S. I am surprised to read that she struggled to secure the basic healthcare even as a citizen of one of the wealthiest countries in the world (Saudi)... kinda like living in the US. However, if she had been an American, I'd think multiple lawsuits would have been filed against everyone in the vicinity of that accident along with the gym and the organizers whether deservedly so or not.

I hope this GIF clip (excerpt from the video) will render fine.

I am pretty sure that belay technique is 100% backwards from the Petzl instructions.

-never hold whole device in hand

- never feed slack with out hand on brake strand

- never hold climbers side of rope

Would have been better off with hands off approach. As someone who decked due to improper belay, I feel terrible for climber and hope she makes a full recovery.

At least he was wearing that glove...

In all seriousness, that's awful. It should be a good reminder not only to give an attentive and proper belay, but to intervene when we see dangerous belaying. I'm generally not someone who thinks we should have more liability, but this doesn't seem that different from seriously injuring someone with careless or reckless driving.

That's so infuriating to watch!

I hope she will be successful in any legal action she pursues against the parties responsible!

Any way to send messages of encouragement to her? It sounds like no one has acknowledged the awful belay that led to this… “just risk factors in sport climbing…”

Unfortunately, I see a lot of this here in Spain, both gym and crag. I’ll keep this handy in my phone to show around. So sad and unnecessary. Wishing her a full and complete recovery.

Daniel Joder wrote:

Any way to send messages of encouragement to her? It sounds like no one has acknowledged the awful belay that led to this… “just risk factors in sport climbing…”

Unfortunately, I see a lot of this here in Spain, both gym and crag. I’ll keep this handy in my phone to show around. So sad and unnecessary. Wishing her a full and complete recovery.

You can DM her on her Instagram, or post a comment to this very video that she posted to her Instagram account and encourages sharing of said video.

Thanks, Khoi. 

Sadly there are people who belay exactly like this in most crags and gyms

Who runs these shit shows? Don't they have belay tests? Dropping a competitor through incompetence, how is that not a lawsuit?

This was not due to inattention but total incompetence. She would have been safer if the guy was asleep with his arms at his sides, rather than doing the one totally nonsensical thing that will stop the cam from engaging. 

There is more than one person to blame here.  What about all the other people standing around including the person videoing the event and the dude talking with the belayer?  Did everyone else there think the belayer's technique was ok before the accident?  I doubt that is the first time for the belayer to belay someone.  How come nobody questioned or corrected the belayer before the accident?

Appreciate everyone that took time to detail the terrible belay and overall setup more than I had time for when originally posting.  I think Mei and Scott covered it pretty well.  I had to watch the video a few times to even digest what was going on, which was a lot.  Definitely the clamped hand over the entire device was the worst offense and ultimately what led to the decking, but there were definitely other mistakes being made.  

Mike Gibson wrote:

There is more than one person to blame here.  What about all the other people standing around including the person videoing the event and the dude talking with the belayer?  Did everyone else there think the belayer's technique was ok before the accident?  I doubt that is the first time for the belayer to belay someone.  How come nobody questioned or corrected the belayer before the accident?

Certainly there are a lot of contributing factors, but in the end it is 100% on the belayer.  He should have told that guy to wait until he was done belaying to engage in conversation or show him something on the phone.  There are definitely some comments on the IG post of people trying to blame the climber to a point for not communicating her fall at the top, which is ludicrous.  Sure, it a courtesy to announce a fall if able, but hopefully everyone here can agree that the belayer has taken full responsibility for keeping the climber off the ground once the climber is that high up (especially in a closely bolted gym).  I don't think the climber had reached the anchor, but she had just clipped what looks like the last bolt and then taken a practice fall, but shouldn't matter regardless.  It does also look like the women in the front are talking about the belay, but it's impossible to know.  There's been more than one thread here about personal responsibility when seeing something dangerous, and responses always range from 0% to nearly 100%.  I'd say that while many of us would or do say something when we see something dangerous, that in the gym it is really only the responsibility of the staff to do so, and in this case team coaches/managers/officials.  I am guessing that given the level of the climbing, that complacency was all around a contributing factor.  

As the dad to a competitive climber that will be leading in comps in a few years, this video really shocked me.  I've seen some falls at comps that I think are unnecessarily large, but never a belay that I thought was downright incompetent.  My expectation is that the belayers are well vetted, and I would definitely hold that expectation at an international level.  I'll be asking a lot of question regarding this when the time comes now.  

Adam W wrote:

Sadly there are people who belay exactly like this in most crags and gyms

Not in my gym or at my crags.  This is next level inattentiveness and incompetence.  The fact that he is belaying a minor makes this more egregious