Broken biner sport climbing (and broken foot)

Climbing “sex packets” in the Owens river gorge, up into the hard section of climbing, got to the second to last bolt and clipped it gates to the left (climb trends right), fell off at the last hard move with my feet at the bolt and the carabiner snapped. Looked up and saw the bottom half spinning down at me without the top biner. It was a little wonky when I hung it but looked like it straightened out when I clipped. Hard to know for sure because I was getting pumped and tunnel vision. Fell a bunch extra and sort of sideways because of the way the rope pulled me and caught my foot, which is broken now. Had to crawl out.

Any insights on the failure mode here? As far as I know the bolt hanger was normal, and the draw wasn’t taped or anything weird. The actual key lock gate is broken if you look closely. Draw says 2014 on it.

Damn, I bet that crawl out was fucking brutal...Sorry about your foot dude.

Really sorry to hear about your broken foot. I hope it heals quickly.

I had a very similar thing happen to me in 2013, minus broken bones. ANAM published it with their analysis (I didn’t submit the story, someone else did).

You most likely rotated the bolt-end biner when you moved past it, and then the biner snagged, and was loaded badly in a fall. Doesn't take much force to break one under circumstances.

Hearing about carabiners breaking like this freaks me out. Thank you for posting though...

There are certain brands out there that I just don't trust; Cassin,CAMP, Kong.
Nothing against the Italians as I really like Grivel stuff.
Have a broken Bonatti/Kong around somewhere.
Interesting that the 'biner broke in two places.
Hope you heal well and quickly, and, most importantly; listen to your doctor.

Nose hook failure. Had the same thing happen to me on Honey Badger at the RRG this year
https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/experience-story?cid=qc-lab-weakness-of-nosehooked-carabiners

..."Draw says 2014 on it".         Is that 2014 something the manufacturer printed, or was that the date the draw was "installed"?

+1 for being nose hooked, especially considering the key lock failure as well.

Nose hooked seems unlikely given its key lock and thus doesn't have a nose hook.

Alex R wrote: Nose hooked seems unlikely given its key lock and thus doesn't have a nose hook.

You might want to take a closer look at what nose hooked means. The nose is the hook. 

Almost certain that it was a nose hook. If so, any carabiner would break. 

Giant kudos on self-rescue.  Very well done.  Leading by example

Next time you are belaying watch the draws (which you will be doing alot of now because broken feet take a long time to heal), the rope drags on the biner while climbing changing it's position on the hanger, when you fall this happens to the extreme, this movement can occasionally put the biner in an awkward position, crossloading etc and the force from the fall can break it.

Happens less in trad because what the biner is clipped to (sling) can move and twist freely, unlike a bolt hanger.

What part of your foot did you break? Low blood flow on the outside of the foot, could take a long time to heal. 4 months for me, broke 5th metatarsal. 

Lena chita wrote: I had a very similar thing happen to me in 2013, minus broken bones. ANAM published it with their analysis (I didn’t submit the story, someone else did).

Looks like the gate was open in your case.  OP's case is interesting in that the gate was clearly closed, yet it still failed.  There is a witness mark on your biner finishing the story, but the same section of the biner is missing in the OP's case, which would be interesting to see.  I wonder how much the OP weighs?

Bill Schick wrote: Looks like the gate was open in your case.  OP's case is interesting in that the gate was clearly closed, yet it still failed.  There is a witness mark on your biner finishing the story, but the same section of the biner is missing in the OP's case, which would be interesting to see.  I wonder how much the OP weighs?

No actually, the gate was closed. The draw that broke was at a shakeout rest spot before the cruxy bit, so I didn’t just clip it in a rash, moving past it and not realizing that it was hanging in a funky way. After I clipped that draw, I was shaking out for a while, looking at the draw the entire time, before making the next moves. 

In my case, the draw likely rotated upwards on the bolt as I jostled/kicked it when moving past the bolt, and then the bolt-end biner got stuck in that position, and broke when I fell. 

The only difference between my broken biner and the OP is that the little bit on the gate got broken for him, in addition to the spine of the biner, probably that little bit broke first, and the spine of the biner broke second, after the biner became effectively open. While in my case the spine broke first. 
I had a lot more pictures showing a most likely scenario recreation of how we thought the break occurred, given the marks on the biner, butbits hern a while back, and couple of laptops who, so I’d have to dig to find them. 

And I don’t think OPs weight is a contributing factor, honestly. It takes very little force to break a biner in that direction. 

Maybe post this to the "how to keep people out of climbing" thread?

Lena chita wrote:

While in my case the spine broke first. 

That's an interesting theory, but it would require considerable force.  There is no witness mark to support this loading, either.  In fact, I would say with some confidence that if you were correct, then it would follow that most Petzl Spirit owners would be dead.

It's far more likely the gate vibrated open during impact - gate chatter - combined with the incorrect loading at that witness mark.  Petzle Sprits with the solid gate are known for this.

Everyone saying nose hooked--how did the gate catch break too? This biner broke in two locations, at the gate and at the top of the spine. Seems strange.

Bill Schick wrote: That's an interesting theory, but it would require considerable force.  There is no witness mark to support this loading, either.  In fact, I would say with some confidence that if you were correct, then it would follow that most Petzl Spirit owners would be dead.

It's far more likely the gate vibrated open during impact - gate chatter - combined with the incorrect loading at that witness mark.  Petzle Sprits with the solid gate are known for this.

There are marks on the back of the small piece that broke off, you don’t see them in the picture that ANAM grabbed, but they show which way the biner was rotated on the bolt.  If I find those photos, I’ll post them later. 

But it was not clear that the gate opened due to flutter. It could have been that the biner was slowly deformed until the gate came open, and then it broke. 
I have seen one case of a biner deforming in a fall like this— just this spring, actually. But in that case the biner didn’t break. Wasn’t my draw, so I don’t have details, but it happened to someone climbing next to us. 

OP can you post better pics of the fracture surfaces?

David Appelhans wrote: Everyone saying nose hooked--how did the gate catch break too? This biner broke in two locations, at the gate and at the top of the spine. Seems strange.

A nose hooked carabiner will usually break at the spine like this one.