climber down
I was belaying Andrea on a climb at the gym, when I heard what sounded like something heavy tumbling, followed by a thud ... and then screaming.
The gym is fairly safe, but climbing is still risky. While it's normal for climbers to fall, and happens all the time, nothing comes of it usually - all the ropes and harnesses are to make it fairly safe, but that only helps if used correctly. Peeked around the corner, and the rope they'd been climbing was still hanging there, with a nice figure eight knot still tied in it, up near the anchor, but nothing was attached. The climber had fallen most of the height of the climb (one of the shortest ones in the gym) I worry about equipment failure, and asked the staff what happened - did the harness fail, or were they tied in wrong somehow? Turns out, it was user error (most common cause of climbing accidents) ... the rope wasn't tied to the strong point on the harness. The tie-in points on the harness were still intact, and the rope was intact, but one minor loop (used only for keeping the rope in the right spot, and not meant to take weight) had been pulled open.
The paramedics came and examined the climber, who apparently was (mostly) okay. Walked out of the gym, with an icepack.
Very lucky.
And a good reminder for the rest of us why we need to be careful with double-checking everything.
They most likely fell either on the first fall, or more likely (as they were doing a really easy climb) when they put weight on the rope to be lowered. Either way, ~20-30 feet.
Andrea and I continued climbing, but that had disrupted my mental state somewhat for the evening. Still got a couple decent climbs in.
The gym is fairly safe, but climbing is still risky. While it's normal for climbers to fall, and happens all the time, nothing comes of it usually - all the ropes and harnesses are to make it fairly safe, but that only helps if used correctly. Peeked around the corner, and the rope they'd been climbing was still hanging there, with a nice figure eight knot still tied in it, up near the anchor, but nothing was attached. The climber had fallen most of the height of the climb (one of the shortest ones in the gym) I worry about equipment failure, and asked the staff what happened - did the harness fail, or were they tied in wrong somehow? Turns out, it was user error (most common cause of climbing accidents) ... the rope wasn't tied to the strong point on the harness. The tie-in points on the harness were still intact, and the rope was intact, but one minor loop (used only for keeping the rope in the right spot, and not meant to take weight) had been pulled open.
The paramedics came and examined the climber, who apparently was (mostly) okay. Walked out of the gym, with an icepack.
Very lucky.
And a good reminder for the rest of us why we need to be careful with double-checking everything.
They most likely fell either on the first fall, or more likely (as they were doing a really easy climb) when they put weight on the rope to be lowered. Either way, ~20-30 feet.
Andrea and I continued climbing, but that had disrupted my mental state somewhat for the evening. Still got a couple decent climbs in.