Tragic accident of Italian climber and photographer Mauro Magagna

I did a search and didn't turn up any related topics, so I thought I'd post this.

https://www.montagnes-magazine.com/actus-accident-mortel-mauro-magagna-succession-evenements-improbables-impossibles

This happened in the beginning of last year. The cause of the fatal accident was determined to be the single locking carabiner he was lowering from rotated on the anchor, and the rope got loaded across the gate and caused the biner to open. A Youtube video demonstrated that this can happen even with a tri-action (twist-push-twist) autolocking carabiner. A good reminder to always make sure your rope is not loaded across the gate of any carabiner, locking or otherwise.

Edited to clarify: the quickdraws in the Youtube video are used to simulate chains at the anchor. The real setup was a locking biner clipped to anchor chains, not to quickdraws. I'm not sure why he was lowering on a single locker, but it may have something to do with the fact that he was also a photographer so maybe he was rigging for a photo shoot. Most of the search results I can find on the web are in languages that I cannot read, so maybe someone else can give more detail on why he was lowering on a single locker.

That’s tragic and also terrifying. I’ve never used that setup before so I’m curious what the perceived benefits are, as opposed to just lowering directly off the anchor draws. 

Why is the rope between the two draw biners, it makes no sense to me?

Ok, with your edit about the chains it makes slightly more sense. Still, using 2 non-locking carabiners would be better than a single locker at that orientation. And even still, whats the point - to avoid lowering through the chains and causing the dreaded “wearing down the hardware”? Chains can be replaced, lives cannot. This is very sad.

Cronwrote:

That’s tragic and also terrifying. I’ve never used that setup before so I’m curious what the perceived benefits are, as opposed to just lowering directly off the anchor draws. 

There are no perceived benefits. Tragic yes. Smart no.

I still don't see how the rope gets in between the two chains unless purposely set that way. If you start from the position of the rope rigged for rappel, the rope is below the chains, clipped into the biner, and the biner is clipped through the two chains. Now describe for me how the rope gets from the bottom of the biner to that  position hanging on the gate between the two chains? Its like one of those magic ring tricks right?

Hard to wrap your head around but it checks out. Rather than attempt to explain it, just try it yourself on a practice board.  

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

I still don't see how the rope gets in between the two chains unless purposely set that way. If you start from the position of the rope rigged for rappel, the rope is below the chains, clipped into the biner, and the biner is clipped through the two chains. Now describe for me how the rope gets from the bottom of the biner to that  position hanging on the gate between the two chains? Its like one of those magic ring tricks right?

That is seemingly impossible. Let's say they did this for demonstration purposes only, and the real scenario was a cross loaded locker, but the gate was on the bottom, which is a lot more likely. In this scenario, the gate may twist unlocked, but the rope would be pulling it down, keeping it closed. This whole thing is probably an insane freak accident where they can't ever reproduce it.

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

I still don't see how the rope gets in between the two chains unless purposely set that way. If you start from the position of the rope rigged for rappel, the rope is below the chains, clipped into the biner, and the biner is clipped through the two chains. Now describe for me how the rope gets from the bottom of the biner to that  position hanging on the gate between the two chains? Its like one of those magic ring tricks right?

Instead of someone trying to describe it for you, just go to the first link I posted and watch the video. Click on the double arrow to maximize the video and fast forward to about 1:05 mark and watch the demonstration. Here's that link again:

https://www.montagnes-magazine.com/actus-accident-mortel-mauro-magagna-succession-evenements-improbables-impossibles

aikibujinwrote:

Instead of someone trying to describe it for you, just go to the first link I posted and watch the video. Click on the double arrow to maximize the video and fast forward to about 1:05 mark and watch the demonstration. Here's that link again:

https://www.montagnes-magazine.com/actus-accident-mortel-mauro-magagna-succession-evenements-improbables-impossibles

Thats wild. Wouldnt have thought it could do that either.

Thank you aikibujin

crazy

Thanks for posting that. At first it is not at all intuitive, but after seeing how the biner flipped over and trying it myself all I can say is yikes.

Yikes indeed. Spread this far and wide. I generally wouldn’t use this setup but I know plenty of climbers might.

Good PSA, but that demonstration vid came across like an unusual party trick to me. I am not saying it didn't/couldn't happen, but after removing the one point of failure, I really don't know what else I learned

Wow it actually looks like the tri-action carabiner is worse in this situation since it doesn't have to rotate as much as a regular locker to open. Not that I would trust a locker if it ended up in that orientation. And I can definitely see people setting up top ropes with a single carabiner thinking that because it's a tri-action biner it ought to be fine