Carabiner related accident at Pilot Mountain - 9/25/2010
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Summary: I witnessed an accident involving a friend of mine in the Amphitheater section of Pilot Mountain, NC. He cut his forearm to the bones, from mid-forearm to the palm, on a carabiner during a lead fall.
What I saw: The climber was just about to pull the final roof of Arms Control. I was watching him climb extremely closely as I intended to climb the route and wanted to see what he did. He had a 48 sling on the last bolt he clipped at the roof and a 24 sling combined with a quick draw to extend it on his second-to-last bolt (see picture for where these draws were hung). Because he had already gone past a smaller roof, a lead fall should have put him in the air. I watched him leaning out to grab the jug beyond the big roof. His hand looked a little shaky as he reached out for it, leaning far back from his stance under the roof. I remember thinking If hes having trouble reaching for that, Im really going to be in trouble. He did fall, and stopped about 8-10 feet below where he started, in mid-air (4 feet of this was due to the sling). It did not look like a bad fall; it looked safe and his belayer caught the fall with no problem. It was about a full second before he yelled and we saw him looking at his arm, which had been sliced open. I wont go into the details, as friends and family might read this, but it was a deep and serious injury. We lowered him and called 911 literally within seconds. A first responder, a surgeon in residency, and a doctor were all climbing near by and gave assistance until he was carried out. I cant tell the story of the rescue with much detail because I left to make sure the rescue personnel could find their way to him. Perhaps someone else can analyze the rescue. What I figured out: At first we couldnt figure anything out. Did he pull out of a hand (arm) jam? There really werent any up there. Did he hit a rock during his fall? The features below were smooth and sloped and he fell into mid-air. Could he have run his arm over a bolt? The bolts werent anywhere near his body during the fall because his arm was way out reaching over a roof. I had seen a story about a climber becoming impaled on a carabiner at the elbow about a month ago ( rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/fo…) In the forum thread about the accident other incidents were mentioned, so it appears to be rare but not unheard of. Because of this, I wondered if catching his arm on the carabiner might have been the cause. It seemed unlikely, since Id never heard of it happening until I saw the picture a month before, but there was no other equipment or rock near him. I climbed Arms Control up to the point where the long draws were used (his last clipped bolts) to clean as much of his gear for him as I could. I decided to leave the last two slings and carabiners to lower from we were ready to get out of there! But I did get all the way to them so I could examine them. The quick draw carabiner on the second-to-last clip was clean. The Helium carabiner on the 48 sling had blood and other evidence on it of entering a human. There was no blood above this and actually very little below, for about 15 feet, since he didnt really start bleeding until he was being lowered. I am certain this carabiner was the one that entered his arm and ripped it from forearm to palm. I made some diagrams to try and explain the set-up. They are as close to scale as I could make them without going there with a tape measure. For additional pictures of the route see: rockclimbing.com/photos/Spo… and rockclimbing.com/photos/Spo… I think that there are two possible explanations: 1) The carabiner on the long draw was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. His arm hit it just right. 2) Because there were two long draws near each other in the system, it is possible that they came together during the fall (See figure, bottom left panel). The lower carabiner could have held the Helium carabiner such that it could not move or rotate as easily as is normal. Having it held steady like that could have made it more likely for it to cut his arm. I want to specify that we did not see this happen the climbers body was between us and the carabiner and draws during the fall. The draws came close together when I lowered off the climb, but did not touch. Under the strain of a lead fall they might have touched. It is just the only additional explanation I can come up with. Perhaps the same effect of a non-rotating carabiner could also be achieved without them touching, just having the rope running through both at an almost horizontal angle. What could have been done to prevent this accident: Honestly, Im not sure anything could have been done. In hindsight a number of actions could have prevented the accident, including not going climbing in the first place. Sure, he could have led it on shorter draws. A scaredy-cat like me would have used a short draw, because I hate falling. But 1) it was a clean looking fall from an overhang, 2) many, many people take longer falls over worse ground as a matter of course, 3) he was climbing below his usual ability level on a familiar climb and trying to plan ahead for how the rope would run for a follower. Having locking carabiners on the rope end of the draws would have prevented the accident. He could have lead it on short draws, fought the rope drag (he mentioned there was some the day before), and then re-clipped long draws on lower for the second, but I do not personally believe this accident was foreseeable enough to take those steps. Its possible the two long draws coming together was the cause. Although weve all seen it, its not always intuitive that the rope end of a draw will move UP when the rope is tensioned or how far or how quickly they can run up the rope during a fall. This changes with terrain, too. This would be a lot of variables to calculate during a lead climb, especially when it requires a change from the plan formulated on the ground pre-climb. The draws are still up there for anyone willing to get them and examine them. The quick draw and Mammut sling belong to the climber, the Bluewater sling and Helium carabiners are mine. |
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Thanks for posting, excellent report, my best to the injured climber. |
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Anne, |
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Excellent report! |
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I'm going to venture that a loose 48 in sling is unlikely to engage a biner to the extent that it would penetrate skin. Simply too much flexibility. The sling would only come really taught after the climber would pass it's height. I like Anne's second possibility in that there is potential to lock the upper sling down. |
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Wow -- that's really horrifying, Anne! I hope your friend recovers quickly and without lasting damage. |
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Strangely enough, the same model carabiner was involved in the earlier Eldo accident. |
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Wow, what a freak accident. I never heard of a biner accident until that same report Anne mentioned about a month ago. |
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anne, thanks for that detailed account and for the in-depth photos and diagrams. |
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I found out about this last night and called as many people as I could to find out what happened. As of this afternoon, this is what I know: |
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Wow, thanks Anne for a heads up report. I have never heard of this happening. Glad he will be alright. |
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Anne - Thanks for posting details. |
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All, |
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RC.com says the roof moves are mixed, did Bennett bring gear to supplement the bolts? Is the gear needed or are there bolts through the roof now after the 1st set of anchors? |
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Na, the roof isn't mixed there is plenty of bolt protection there...even so, a piece with a long sling would have probably resulted in the same accident. |
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George Heib wrote:Na, the roof isn't mixed there is plenty of bolt protection there...even so, a piece with a long sling would have probably resulted in the same accident.Not necessarily depending on the placement of the last piece. Regardless, i just wanted more info to clarify the scenario after having looked at the pictures and read the info on RC. This kind of accident just freaks me out. |
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I've climbed this route-a few times, and I am at an absolute loss as to how this could have happened; that fall should be nothing but air. Pretty freaky. |
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Was he carrying any sharp objects on him? Knives, tools, etc.? You can only narrow it down to a few factors that contacted his arm: rock, rope, protection, and himself. |
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Zombie thread will eat your face... |
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Im so high I can't really follow all that. |
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Recent posts have returned this to the active list, so here is an update. Bennett had been afraid that he would never climb again, or not make it back to climbing 5.11 again. On the anniversary weekend, Bennett "sent" the route, as you might have read at cragmama.com, the blog by Erica Lineberry. His re-assessment of the accident accepts the analyses posted here. |