multiple placement failures captured on vid

youtube.com/watch?v=nDSg0vl…

Hamish Ousby whips off Future Tense (26 5.12b/c) at Frog Buttress, Queensland, Australia, and goes slamming into a shrub after a 'biner breaks and two more pieces of gear fail.

Although Ousby was barely above his last piece—a "well entrenched finger sized nut, something like a BD 6," says Matt Hunter, friend of Ousby who captured the whipper on film—when he fell, the 'biner clipped to the nut shattered.
With that short of a fall and with the amount of dynamic rope in the system, Ousby could have never generated the force to break a carabiner, under normal circumstances.
Carabiners, when properly loaded on their major axis with the gate closed, meet a minimum test of 20 kN (4496 lbf or 2039 kg). Even in an open gate scenario, carabiners test to a minimum of 7 kN (1574 lbf or 714 kg), much higher than the force Ousby could have generation.

So how did his 'biner break?

Ousby couldn't see where he was clipping and nose-hooked a wire-gate carabiner on the nut (the 'biner was also over an edge). In controlled pull-tests, nose-hooked carabiners have failed at less than 10% of their rated closed gate strength—"that's less than 2 kN (500 lbf or 227 kg), a load that can be easily generated in even the smallest of climbing falls or even just a light bounce test," Kolin Powick, a mechanical engineer and Black Diamond’s Director of Quality, wrote in Climb Safe: Weakness of Nose-Hooked Carabiners.

He explains: "It's a combination of an open gate scenario coupled with the fact that the carabiner basket is being cantilevered off of the bolt hanger/sling/Stopper wire, meaning the load is not in line with major axis (i.e., the carabiner's spine). This off-axis loading causes the carabiner to be excessively torqued and break at an extremely low load."

With his 'biner in pieces, Ousby came hurtling down onto his next piece of gear, but it was the piece below that which would fail first. For his third highest piece, Ousby had slung a stuck Trango cam (which remained in place) with a 60cm sling. As he fell, the sling was pulled up the rope, "perhaps wrapped around it," says Hunter, and the 'biner on the sling was unclipped by the BD 00 cam above.

Then the "badly" placed 00 cam blew.

His fourth piece, a "bomber" 0.5 cam, finally caught his fall.
Ousby was fortunate to be high enough on route to be spared a ground fall, but had the top carabiner been properly clipped (an easy mistake when cruxing out and making a blind clip), his fall would have been a matter of feet.

rockandice.com/weekend-whip…

;)

Great analysis. You rarely catch all this on film to be able to thoroughly review. And of course glad no one was hurt. It makes me think I can go out and do it too.

Nose hooked wiregate biners on nuts are unfortunately fairly common with some biners. All biners are different and some can nose hook easier than others, but I found the Mammut Moses biners to be especially susceptible to nose hooking.

On more than one occasion I have looked down to find these guys nose hooked and I had to give the rope a nice shake to get them to unhook. Nothing is more fun than being mid crux, about to peel and you look down to see the biner is all f***ed up. In addition to the nose hooking issue, the gate is much wider than the body which makes it easier for the gate to rub on the rock and open as well. While I love the biner because it's so light and cheap, I think the design needs to be reconsidered as there is much to be improved on the biner. There are members on this forum who have fallen on Moses biners and broken them.

I never buy one of those,I don't like the look i prefer to see a 1 peace full gate make me very confy on the climb.

Could someone post a demo pic of a nose hooked biner if they have time thanks

Doug18 wrote:Could someone post a demo pic of a nose hooked biner if they have time thanks

Thanks Gunkiemike

Now that's bad..really bad, holy s... How can someone possibly do that.

Walter Galli wrote:Now that's bad..really bad, holy s... How can someone possibly do that.

Instead of the bolt hanger, imagine that it us a nut cable or a skinny sling that rotates to the flat part of the biner by the nose. The gate doesn't necessarily have to be open for it to be super bad, either.

Wow! Great vid, thanks, bearbreeder! I super love that the first thing he says is "did you get all that?" I confess, though, I was thinking about being his belayer, what would u do, not do, have no chance of doing, hmm, if this was sport, I could...aw, man,this girl's hopelessly hooked. : )

Thanks for posting. So many ways for quickdraws to fail.

DMM "Carabiner and Bolt Interaction"
vid

So...two questions.

1. It's not standard practice to flip gear/bolt end biners? (I do.)

and 2. Best solution for extending a wire nut in this situation? Basket hitch a sling? (rather than loading the biner over an edge)

One more reason to love the ange biners.

What always amazes me is that whenever a piece blows, there is such a high chance of lower pieces unclipping. This guy would have been stopped by the third piece had it not violently unclipped. I've had a similar experience on a fall ripping out maybe 2 pieces and several more unclipping themselves. I know of another story of a fall on Sheer Lunacy in Zion where around a half dozen biners on a full pitch opened due to gate flutter.

Gunkiemike wrote:

That's only one variation, and it's not the most common variation. The most common variation involves correctly clipping the rope to the biner, but through movement of the rope the carabiner becomes loaded along the nose, but with the gate still closed.

marnie wrote: 1. It's not standard practice to flip gear/bolt end biners? (I do.) and 2. Best solution for extending a wire nut in this situation? Basket hitch a sling? (rather than loading the biner over an edge)

1. Not it's not common, nor is it very practical when climbing at your absolute limit. Moreover, most people dont secure the biners on trad draws and cams so the biners are free to rotate as physics will allow, thus flipping the biner wont do much since it could just flip back quite easily.

2. A standard trad draw is perfectly fine. It's not as much of an issue of the fact that a carabiner was placed on a wire nut as it is a design problem with the said carabiner. There are carabiners that are extremely hard to nose hook that you can buy. Most solid gate carabiners will not easily nose hook on a wire nut, and most wiregates that use a more advanced form of nose termination wont hook either (e.g. DMM Chimera, DMM Shield, BD Hotwire, Petzl Ange, ect, ect.)

marnie wrote:1. It's not standard practice to flip gear/bolt end biners? (I do.)

No, far from it. In fact I'm not sure I've seen anybody but myself do that. I also won't hesitate on using a small screwgate on the rope end of the sling if I'm particularly concerned.

Of course I do both these things quite rarely. It only when I think a fall may be likely AND I don't have multiple pieces protecting the fall. (I don't fall that often really, but when I do they are often whippers! :) )

marnie wrote:Best solution for extending a wire nut in this situation? Basket hitch a sling? (rather than loading the biner over an edge)

I've never been concerned enough about an edge to any about a gear end biner. But yes, I would basket hitch it. (Certainly not girth hitch!)

Also looking at the video it seemed even the "badly placed 00 cam" held at least body weight. You can see it load to a fair degree before it pulls.

I have started to carry a few alpine draws with lightweight lockers on them recently. I don't always use them and if it's a tough climb you may not have the gas to clip and then screw the gate closed but every now and then when I'm making a bold move far above my last piece or bolt it's nice to have that option.

Jon Rhoderick wrote:What always amazes me is that whenever a piece blows, there is such a high chance of lower pieces unclipping. This guy would have been stopped by the third piece had it not violently unclipped. I've had a similar experience on a fall ripping out maybe 2 pieces and several more unclipping themselves. I know of another story of a fall on Sheer Lunacy in Zion where around a half dozen biners on a full pitch opened due to gate flutter.

Gear behaves as a system

Its possible for each individual piece to hold on its own, but once theres a violent upward pull for the pieces to fail

Years ago doug phillips (founder metolius) claimed that if one two good individual pieces that it basically eliminated any real chance of cams pulling

However we know that isnt true as it doesnt take into account how gear behaves as a system in real life ... Sadly even in bomber easy granite placements its not unknown for folks to rip multiple pieces

Thats the thing beginners have the most trouble with ... Rope path, drag and behavior in a fall

Putting in that extra piece can actually compromise the previous one and increase the chance of failure if one is not careful

;)