New Mexico rappel accident.

It says equipment malfunction.  As this seems to be becoming a weekly thing, what can we do as a community to prevent future accidents.

Condolences to anyone that knew this climber, terrible to hear about these things and an absolute tragedy.

The reality is when news articles immediately speculate "possible equipment malfunction" it isn't helping anyone get safer. The sad reality is most (meaning the vast majority) of accidents are caused by a human mistake and a very tiny percentage are caused by equipment malfunction or failure. That's obviously not to blame the climber or belayer; we're all human and we all make mistakes.

But how we limit future accidents is education and consistency. When climbers come on a forum like this and read tons of posts that basically laugh at anyone preaching safety & consistency, it's tough. When I go out climbing and see people that learned everything they know about safety from a 24 year old friend of theirs, that probably learned it from a different friend, it's scary.

Encouraging climbers to take instruction from certified sources, refresh that knowledge periodically, and practice safety EVERY time they climb is what we should be doing. Safety is a combination of education & consistency.

IMO it gets harder when there are movies like Free Solo floating around. I like that movie and Honnold is a crazy good climber but also an icon of unsafe/too cool climbing culture. Obviously that doesn't directly have anything to do with a rappel accident except it helps promote a more lax, nothing-can-happen-to-me attitude among climbers.

> what can we do as a community to prevent future accidents.
Keep posting accidents.
And maybe cross post to the regional forum, since some people will only read their regional forum.
People who are not yet aware should get the idea after awhile that accidents happen frequently.

Best for accident prevention is "eternal vigilance".
Keep your attention level up, especially when belaying and rappelling, where one mistake can result in a death or serious injury.
If climbing over a full day, you can't pay extra attention the whole day, so focus on when actions are critical and bump up your focus then.
And keep in mind that you are often rapping at the end of a day when you are more tired, so that is always a time for this increase in focus.

This subforum seems to have become entirely about injuries and recovery.
Maybe there should be a separate subforums for Inuries, and another for Accidents.
Maybe there should be an automatic way to make a thread appear in both the Accidents forum and the regional forum (kind of an auto cross post).

An additional problem with threads on accidents is that people speculate about what may have gone wrong, especially early on when few details are available.
This is normal human behavior.
But sometimes mods will lock a thread for this reason.
This could lead to people not starting accident threads.
Instead, I feel individual posts could be suppressed if a poster starts saying the victim was a dumbass, etc.
Unfortunately this could result in a lot of moderator work on such threads.

Richard Burnett wrote: I was lucky enough to have known and climbed with the deceased. Out of respect for family and friends I will wait to post his name till it has been released to the public.
From the small amount of information we've received it sounds like either the rock the anchor was in failed or, he was hit by rock fall while rapping, or both.
He was a warrior in life and In his death

Lost a friend 2 weeks ago due to rock breaking. I am sorry for your loss. I have been tracking accidents and lately 85% have been the victim as being inexperienced doesn’t sound like it in this case. 

I heard rock fall too although Richard’s sources is likely the same as mine. He’d been climbing when I met him 6 years ago so he certainly wasn’t a beginner. Sad to see such a psyched, passionate person go so young

Heard this story on KUNM this morning. Just to complete the story, they apparently did recover the body yesterday. Condolences.

Backup the reppel ?

Condolences to everyone who knew him. From the article, it sounds like he was an amazing man. This is a horrible loss for the communities he served.

  

Garon developed a number of routes in central Utah.  It's a crag that's never going to be a destination for climbers, but it's nice to have some climbing available in that area.  I had hoped to cross paths with him to thank him.  If you are out there Garon, thanks for your work.  I hope your journey continues.

djh860 wrote: Backup the reppel ?

Yikes.... maybe back up the advice. Dafuq is a reppel?  And how does one back it up?

One great way to protect from future accidents is to share information. I often wish the climbing community was more like the backcountry skiing community. Any time somebody triggers an avalanche everybody looks for a report. By reading this report we all gain more information and can check our practices. It seems with climbing deaths and accidents the information is not shared as much. People keep it to themselves "out of respect". The constant sharing of information is what keeps people safe so keep doing it!

PS: Before you reply telling me that the details aren't sound yet I understand that. I am not saying that in this case we know what happened but rather when we do that somebody of actual knowledge of the situation give a trip report so we all can learn.

A good life cut short. Very sad.

I offer my sincere condolences to Garon’s Family, Friends and all of us who never got the chance to climb with him.

Sad, RIP

Ben Pellerin wrote:

Yikes.... maybe back up the advice. Dafuq is a reppel?  And how does one back it up?

https://www.climbing.com/.amp/skills/5-steps-for-safer-rappelling/

djh860 wrote:

https://www.climbing.com/.amp/skills/5-steps-for-safer-rappelling/

He knows how and why to back up a rappel. He's making fun of your spelling "reppel." He has no patience for you because it seems you didn't read about the accident or who was involved, and you jumped right to the conclusion that they didn't back up the rappel, which he thought was pretty disrespectful, unhelpful, or arrogant.

Is what I imagine happened.

Climbed with Garon a couple times briefly when we lived in Utah via mutual friend. I hope we can learn what is likely to have happened. It's really too bad... He was mostly just starting his life.

Andy Eiter wrote:

He knows how and why to back up a rappel. He's making fun of your spelling "reppel." He has no patience for you because it seems you didn't read about the accident or who was involved, and you jumped right to the conclusion that they didn't back up the rappel, which he thought was pretty disrespectful, unhelpful, or arrogant.

Is what I imagine happened.

This guy gets it. The person involved in the accident by all accounts was experienced climber that seems to have had the kind of accident that involved circumstances outside expectations or control. Prepare for the worst is a good rule to climb by. Even that can leave you unprepared for the accidents.

Pretty tactless to just assume you know the circumstances behind this unfortunate accident. I'd say most people try and climb safe but that only goes so far.

Andy Eiter wrote:

He knows how and why to back up a rappel. He's making fun of your spelling "reppel." He has no patience for you because it seems you didn't read about the accident or who was involved, and you jumped right to the conclusion that they didn't back up the rappel, which he thought was pretty disrespectful, unhelpful, or arrogant.

Is what I imagine happened.

Yup. I almost made a post just like Ben's.

Ben Pellerin wrote:

This guy gets it. The person involved in the accident by all accounts was experienced climber that seems to have had the kind of accident that involved circumstances outside expectations or control. Prepare for the worst is a good rule to climb by. Even that can leave you unprepared for the accidents.

Pretty tactless to just assume you know the circumstances behind this unfortunate accident. I'd say most people try and climb safe but that only goes so far.

So what are the circumstances behind the accident?

this is horrible news.  he had a lot of life ahead of him.

Richard Burnett wrote: https://www.abqjournal.com/1340907/he-touched-a-lot-of-lives.html
Garon coriz
You are not lost, but instead shared amongst us all.

What a guy.  Sounds like an inspirational individual that the world is lesser without, not just the climbing community.  
Heartfelt condolences to all those close to him.  
May his next chapter be even greater than the last.

Richard Burnett wrote: https://www.abqjournal.com/1340907/he-touched-a-lot-of-lives.html

Thank you for posting that link.  Dr. Garon Cortiz was an amazing person it seems, and an experienced climber among so many other things.  The world needs more people like Garon.  Wish I had met him!

Condolences and best wishes to his family and friends.