Fall up BCC

Looks like a terrible accident up BCC today

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk8lItYAcjO/

Hopefully full recovery

My thoughts are with all involved, and my hope is also for a full recovery.

OLH

Anyone have any info on what actually happened here? The local news keeps reporting that "their rope snapped" which I'm pretty confident is total misreporting BS. The SAR post just says that the cause of the fall is still unknown - very curious to learn what actually went wrong.

sevrdhed wrote: Anyone have any info on what actually happened here? The local news keeps reporting that "their rope snapped" which I'm pretty confident is total misreporting BS. The SAR post just says that the cause of the fall is still unknown - very curious to learn what actually went wrong.

Still not sure what happened. 2 people were involved, one was climbing outside for the first time, the 2nd had around 4 years on experience. They were rappeling off Addd Abba, the first climber (with less experience) made it down to the start, was off rappel, and was cleaning up stuff when his partner fell. He was still attached to the system (ATC thru belay loop, etc.) The rope was piled up at the bottom of the climb. In the process of getting the injured party packaged things were removed and the harness was cut, so exact rigging is unknown. The injured climber stated that something broke. The rope was intact and in good condition. The uninjured climber said the rope was fed thru 2 chains on bolts for the rappel setup. Harness was double backed and belay loop intact.  I don't know how the ATC was attached to the climber, but the plastic coating on the ATC cable on one side was abraded away exposing the cable itself. (cable intact) No rope fibers were obvious on the cable. The only thing I can figure is the climber loaded the ATC incorrectly and only clipped one rope strand into his carabiner. He was wearing gloves, so he may have been able to slow the fall a bit When he fell the rope was pulled thru the chains and was piled up on the ground.

Thanks for the info, and for your service! Your scenario sounds like the most likely failure IMO - I'll always presume climber error over full blown equipment failure. Good reminder to always triple check everything. Hope the injured party makes a speedy recovery and I hope this doesn't scare their new partner away from climbing forever!

Something else to consider: the crag faces due south and on Saturday it was already 97F by 10am. I was working in the back yard and had already soaked myself with the hose 2 times by then. There could have been a mistake made due to the foggy thought process that happens with heat exhaustion / heat stroke.

Once again, kudos to SL County SAR for carrying out an operation in difficult conditions.