gear failure??

[Adam]

from 8a.na:

8a editor fell and the lower carabiner broke (20) 16/04
Click to Enlarge PictureToday the 8a yearbook editor was 20cm from banging his head into the ground when he fell above the fourth clip and the lower carabiner broke. This was an almost new set of carabiners of the highest standards. 8a has heard about breaking carabiners before but these are usually old and worn out. Often it is the top carabiner that wears out on the bolt(see safety article). 8a will contact the responsible manufacturer and hear what they have to say. Perhaps 1 of every 1000 carabiners have a fault? If this is the case, is it acceptable? Have anyone out there experienced a similar thing?

[Adam]

seeing this reminds me that i wanted to spread the knowledge of a near-accident Rodney and I witnessed in red river gorge a few weeks ago.

this guy was leading a route and one of the draws was two draws together to make a longer draw to make the clip easier. he made it to that draw and took to rest. when he started climbing again he made it up to the next bolt (about 10' above the extended draw) and was too pumped/sketched to clip so he just decided to take the fall. so he jumped, and when the rope went tight on the extended draw it suddenly ripped apart and he fell another 15 feet and swung upside down. he smacked his back on the rock but managed to avoid hitting his head and was 'ok'. he probably was going to be sore for the next week but he shook it off pretty well.

now, to explain why this happened...

from the ground the extended draw looked funny, but it being 30 feet away i couldn't really tell why. it turns out he had the lower draw's top biner clipped into the upper loop of the upper draw. so when the rope went tight, the upper biner of the lower draw loaded the threads of the upper draw and sliced right through them. we couldn't believe our eyes at the time b/c we didn't know exactly how it had been set up (we found out later from a guy who had climbed the route the day before). the correct way to use two quickdraws to make an extended draw is to clip the lower biner of the upper draw into the upper loop of the lower draw. i'll post some example pictures when i get home.

so moral of the story is, even if there are 'perma-draws' on a route, or just draws someone left b/c they are working a route, don't assume they're set up correctly. always double check each piece of protection.

[Fred]

sounds similar to zipping through a daisy chain or screamer draw... I can see that. Although I would expect it to bottom out at the end unless... The closed loop stitching is NOT independent of the stitching that holds to the draw tight. So when you slice through the middle you essentially cut the same stitching that holds the loop closed.

[granite_grrl]

This is the reason its better to use wire gates on screamers than solid gates. Less weight, and thus less momentum.

[chossmonkey]

I'd guess the gate was open.

Can anyone tell what kind of biner that is? The draw looks Petzl the biner kinda looks it too.


I doubt biners from reputable manufactures would have a one in a 1000 fault since there is a large amount of QC and the biners are all individually tested.

[*Chris*]

Looks like a petzl spirit that failed with the gate open to me too. Must have gotten caught up on something. Looks like the anodizing is rubbed off at the rope end... not an old biner but not brand new either. It very well could have been manufactured to correct specs... I'm sure I could generate 9.5 kN if I really put my mind to it.

Well, maybe I'm not ready to break biners with just the power of my mind... but with my body, some momentum, and only a little rope... you betcha!

[Stan]

Looks like the biner was cross-loaded. Petzl draws are wide nylon - IMO the way that the draw was clipped may have caused the rope to sit in the outside part of the basket, closer to the gate and further from the spine. When the guy took the fall, the resulting 5-9 kN might have been enough to torque the basket out. I remember seeing an old report when a climber was secured to a bolt anchor with the main rope and a steel biner. Suddenly he slipped and fell about 1 meter. The biner got caught crossloaded and failed (remember, it was steel), so the fellow took a 600 m flight down a steep alpine route.

[martha]

so the fellow took a 600 m flight down a steep alpine route.

and.....there is the case for redundancy!