Accident Report - Sport Climbing accident 28th April 2019

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Lindsay M
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Posts: 1032
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:49 pm
Location: Whitkirk, Leeds

Accident Report - Sport Climbing accident 28th April 2019

Post by Lindsay M »

As many of you will know, three club members were involved in a sport climbing accident back in April this year. I have made an accident report here: https://www.incidents.thebmc.co.uk/resp ... 5bd7f5ed9d

Thankfully, although the climber was injured we have all walked away to climb another day :)

If you've been on the incident database, you will notice that there are quite a lot of sport climbing accidents reported. Yes, it is generally safer than trad climbing and more trad accidents are reported but it is still so easy to make a mistake or a communication error so please be safe out there.

If anyone would like to chat about what happened and how to avoid it, I am happy to chat in person about this. It's more clear than explaining via this forum and I don't want anyone to get confused. Regarding comments on the thread, I wantto make sure this doesn't turn into a prolonged discussion/dissection of what happened because of the point above about confusing people and potentially unintentionally leading to unsafe practice. For that reason I will lock the topic to replies but feel free to PM me here or on Facebook if you do want to arrange a chat.

Some things to think about (they don't all apply to this accident but if you look at the database would have prevented many of the accidents/near misses reported):
On single pitch sport climbs, there is no need to ever have a climber off belay until they are back on the ground
If the anchor is run out from the last bolt, make sure you have redundancy in your system - if there is an issue with your sling/personal anchor you are going to have a big fall
When rethreading a belay, never completely untie from the rope. If you are unsure how to do this, there is a video here (https://www.thebmc.co.uk/how-to-lower-o ... port-climb) or seek instruction
Communication is key: climber and belayer should know exactly what the plan is for the top before the climber sets off. Don't assume you'll be within ear shot, even on single pitch. Know your calls and never say something unless you mean it.
Be confident of what you need to do before you're relying on it 15m+ up a rock face! Big Depot, Harrogate Wall and Horseshoe Quarry all have bolts at ground level you can practice retying on.
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