Black Diamond Carabiner Recall

Part I: Accident Description

The upper anchor system, set up for a “top-rope, bottom
belay” on Dementia, failed while a climber was being
lowered, resulting in the death of the climber. Both the
climber (victim) and partner reportedly had years of
active experience at 5thclass climbing.

• The anchor system was rigged by the climber using webbing
purchased by the climber the day before—specifically for
this climb. The knots in this webbing were tied by the
climber at the anchor just prior to the climb.

• The climber had reportedly put his weight on the belay rope,
and thus on the anchor, during the climb.

• The anchor system failed as the climber was being lowered.
The climber fell 60 ft. and was fatally injured.

Part II: Accident analysis and discussion

Error 1: Tape “splice” on anchor sling

• The orange webbing purchased by the climber had a “splice” of
masking tape placed visibly by the webbing manufacturer merely
to hold two lengths of webbing together on the spool, not as a
high-strength bond.
Discussion:

• The climber did not adequately investigate the reason for the tape
on the new webbing.

• Climbers and retailers should be aware of the common industry
practice of spooling together several lengths of webbing joined by
small tape “splices”; the spool may have a warning label such as
“CAUTION CONTAINS SPLICES”.

web.archive.org/web/2016020…

bearbreeder wrote: Part I: Accident Description The upper anchor system, set up for a “top-rope, bottom belay” on Dementia, failed while a climber was being lowered, resulting in the death of the climber. Both the climber (victim) and partner reportedly had years of active experience at 5thclass climbing. • The anchor system was rigged by the climber using webbing purchased by the climber the day before—specifically for this climb. The knots in this webbing were tied by the climber at the anchor just prior to the climb. • The climber had reportedly put his weight on the belay rope, and thus on the anchor, during the climb. • The anchor system failed as the climber was being lowered. The climber fell 60 ft. and was fatally injured. Part II: Accident analysis and discussion Error 1: Tape “splice” on anchor sling • The orange webbing purchased by the climber had a “splice” of masking tape placed visibly by the webbing manufacturer merely to hold two lengths of webbing together on the spool, not as a high-strength bond. Discussion: • The climber did not adequately investigate the reason for the tape on the new webbing. • Climbers and retailers should be aware of the common industry practice of spooling together several lengths of webbing joined by small tape “splices”; the spool may have a warning label such as “CAUTION CONTAINS SPLICES”. web.archive.org/web/2016020…

I remember reading about this a while back. Pretty wild! Human error compounded (climber + shop + manufacturer + the way its always been done) = the perfect shit storm.

I still can't believe BD would let that shit fly.

It's okay guys. BD didn't "let that shit fly" on all of the carabiners recalled. I just looked through all of my gear, had maybe 12-15 of the biners in that batch, and none had the recall issues. I also work at a gear shop here in CO, and not a single one of our climbing equipment biners had the defect.

kipp.fo wrote: That's just for the wiregates-don't think you got through the whole notice. There are individual inspection procedures for multiple potential issues with solid gates and screw gates.

It's basically the exact same issue for the screwgate and solid gates, the rivet was not finished.

Pretty poor quality control on behalf of BD. They seem to be some fairly obvious screw ups. But like most decent climbing companies they have been sensible in doing a recall.

shoo wrote:Sadly, other climbing companies, such as Fixe, have not been so responsible. I'll keep my money going to the companies that can keep my trust, admit when they made a mistake, and rectify it.

Could you point me and others in the direction of the basis for those claims against Fixe are coming from??
(Not that I doubt you, but I just haven't heard.)

I spent a good part of the day inspecting several hundred BD biners, and all the ones from the affected batches are Made in USA, and all the good ones are Made in China.

Interesting.....

patto wrote:Could you point me and others in the direction of the basis for those claims against Fixe are coming from?? (Not that I doubt you, but I just haven't heard.)

Let's not derail the thread here, but here are a few links related to a string of failures around their trigger system failing, some of which I personally contributed to. If you would like to follow up on this, please do so on the threads below, and keep this thread on the Black Diamond recall.

thealpinestart.com/2015/06/…

mountainproject.com/v/fixe-…

mountainproject.com/v/new-a…

the interesting part is that i count 6 distinctive inspection failures across different products in this recall

- wire not riveted correctly

- poor tension on gate

- locking sleeve oriented wrong way

- wrong number of stopper wrings on lock

- locking sleeve wont capture nose fully

- runner splice

its a good thing BD is doing the recall ... but this is a serious failure of the QC and inspection process

some of these issues should be absolutely dead obvious in even a cursory inspection sheet run through

maybe some lazy yankees smoked too much ganja on da job?

;)

The rivets and especially the slings look pretty bad for BD's QC. On the other hand, if you don't catch the sling one, you probably deserve whatever you get.

The sleeve thing on the other hand, seems like an acceptable (shit happens, and some bad batches get through) human mistake that doesn't look as bad, at least to me, for two reasons:

1 It's fairly easy, like the runner issue, for the climber to notice it and realize their equipment is broken before it gets loaded because the biner either locks or it doesn't.
2 Nobody is perfect, and it isn't reasonable to expect QC to catch 100% of all errors. If it were, recalls wouldn't exist.

Although I hold negative feelings against BD for other reasons, I think they've acted responsibly, and fortunately no injuries have occured yet as a result. They are certainly being more responsible than some other companies (I'm looking at you fixe and edelweiss) have been.

How the hell am I supposed to figure out the "manufacturing code"?

oh wait- I see how. My locker has an A..... means I am all set

Russ Keane wrote:How the hell am I supposed to figure out the "manufacturing code"??

it's pretty easy to find out if you actually read the article

Khoi wrote:I spent a good part of the day inspecting several hundred BD biners, and all the ones from the affected batches are Made in USA, and all the good ones are Made in China. Interesting.....

How can you tell where they are made? I can't find any "Made in ..." on any BD biners.

Josh Romney wrote:I seriously question anyone who doesn't notice this the second they pick it up. Like it was said above, you should probably quit if you didn't notice this.

T.M. Herbert climbed half a season in a swami belt with a halfway mark that was actually a tape splice.

Anybody know the manufacturing years for these particular carabiners (codes between 4350 and 6018)?

Roy Suggett wrote:Anybody know the manufacturing years for these particular carabiners (codes between 4350 and 6018)?

Product manufactured between December 2014 and January 2016.

Phew all my BD gear is made in China. Looks like mine are good to go.

bearbreeder wrote:the interesting part is that i count 6 distinctive inspection failures across different products in this recall - wire not riveted correctly - poor tension on gate - locking sleeve oriented wrong way - wrong number of stopper wrings on lock - locking sleeve wont capture nose fully - runner splice its a good thing BD is doing the recall ... but this is a serious failure of the QC and inspection process some of these issues should be absolutely dead obvious in even a cursory inspection sheet run through maybe some lazy yankees smoked too much ganja on da job? ;)

I think the last is spot on. It doesn't feel like gross manufacturibg error (an entire run got out made with the wrong material loaded in a machine, say). Seems like the sort of things that could happen in tiny percentages (part flips into machine upside down) of normal operations, BUT, somebody at a particular station for a certain stretch of time was AWOL.

Check the BD job listings for -4 to +1 months. Good bet you're going to find an opening for a QC person somewhere in there. Maybe more than one opening.

Brian wrote: How can you tell where they are made? I can't find any "Made in ..." on any BD biners.

Also, you know how BD says that if the serial # has an "A" then it's good, regardless of the date of manufacture? All of the ones with the "A" are Made in China while all of the ones without it are Made in the USA.