Seneca Rocks Accident 8/5

David Burridge wrote:

Thanks for the update Bryan.

I took the liberty to make a sketch based on my understanding of said description? I hope there is more to it than this because it doesn't seem like a scenario that would cut a rope through unless there was some sort of very sharp edge in exactly the wrong place.

By “sloping”, I think Brian is saying that it was a ledge with an edge that was sloping downward, not a sloper.

Yes, the carabiner pinching a rope down on an edge could sever the rope. Always pay attention to your carabiner position, and remember to add in just a hair of length for a elongation of a sling or cam loop.

This discussion is exactly why it would be helpful to have a full accident report. Danny was a loved member of the central Pennsylvania climbing community and a wonderful person. Our family and our community are grieving over this tragic incident. 

I spent many years Backcountry skiing in the West and the Avalanche centers always produced accident reports after fatal and non-fatal avalanche accidents. This is how the community learned and understood mechanisms of failure. I honestly think this would be a valuable resource to the climbing Community to provide accident reports to explain how these accidents happen and the mechanisms of gear failure. I'm frankly surprised that this is not standard practice after these type of events.

Rest in Peace Danny, your smile and infectious enthusiasm will be missed ❤️

so.. maybe something like this?

Combined with some lateral see-sawing against the edge from the fall, seems plausible.

ubu wrote:

Can anyone share which route this happened on?

Someone on the seneca rocks climbing facebook group claimed it was Simple J Malarkey.

I suppose this highlights the dangers of rope drag against sharp features and the need to be wary of unexpected cases, even involving downward facing corners as in this example photo from the route.

(bonus famous case of rope being cut against an arete during a fall here).

james james wrote:

so.. maybe something like this?

Combined with some lateral see-sawing against the edge from the fall, seems plausible.

Yep.

james james wrote:

so.. maybe something like this?

Combined with some lateral see-sawing against the edge from the fall, seems plausible.

Yeah more like this scenario as the carabiner needs to the edge in order to pinch the belayer side rope against the rock.  

Bryan L wrote:

So after talking to numerous people about this accident it seems like the following consensus has been reached that the rope was laying flat on a sloping area of rock when the leader fall was taken and the rope was pinched off by the carabiner. 

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like any official analysis of the incident is going to be released.

The incident report was submitted to the AAC yesterday.

Bryan L wrote:

Yeah more like this scenario as the carabiner needs to the edge in order to pinch the belayer side rope against the rock.  

It does not "needs to the edge." 

First illustration is more accurate to the actual incident.

Simple j is pretty sandbagged as I recall. A 5.7 climb with one 5.10 move. Seneca has a lot of sharp crystals in the rock . i can see how pinching the rope between the carabiner and the  rock in a spot with that extra abrasiveness  could do the deed. 

Patrick Hoffman wrote:

It does not "needs to the edge." 

First illustration is more accurate to the actual incident.

That's even more frightening if scenario 1 is more accurate. 

The few times that I've seen a carabiner pinch like this it's due to the direction of pull not being in line with the spine of the carabiner. The lead side rope pulls the carabiner down pinching the belay side rope between the carabiner and the rock. The term edge that I was referring to doesn't necessarily mean something sharp. . 

Any chance of the report sent to the AAC being posted anywhere else?? It would be nice to see it sooner than next year in the 2024 accident reports.

Here is the report, thank you all for your patience.

I apologize for the brusqueness of my comments, this was an emotional event for me 

On August 6th, 2023, Patrick Hoffman and I climbed Simple J Malarkey to see if we could determine the cause of the accident the previous day.  The following is what we found and our assessment of what we believe to have occurred.  

On August 5th 2023, a party of two started up Simple J Malarkey, a three pitch, 5.7 that climbs out over the top of the cave, on the south end of Seneca.  The top of the second pitch ends in a corner alcove with overhanging rock above.  From the top of the second pitch, the leader placed a 0.75 Camalot just above the belay before initially attempting to climb up and left which would have taken the leader to the Muscle Beach finish (5.8).  Encountering a wasp nest, the leader stepped back down to the belay and then stepped  down again and right about 5 feet from the belay.   The leader then placed a second 0.75 Camalot before moving up and left to a second alcove, about 8’ above and to the right of the belay.  Here, the leader placed a #3 Camalot in a shallow, slightly flaring pocket.  (This piece was found with both extended and non-extended alpine draws attached.)  At this point, the second .75 Camalot was removed to prevent excessive rope drag.

The leader attempted to move up and right from this stance, which is the proper direction for the standard finish.  This requires the leader to move out over a roof on a short 4’ face and is  very exposed.  Though there is gear here, you cannot see it until you have committed to the that section of face and then the placement is behind you and at your waist.  (The hand holds here could be described as less than inspiring as this is one of the places water drains off the crag above, adding a polished feel to the rock.)  The leader stepped back down to the previous stance and discussed options with the belayer.  During this period,  the sun was peeking over the top, making route finding more difficult.  The climbing team discussed options before the leader decided to move up and left.

Climbing above the last piece and not finding additional protection, the leader called down to the belayer, informing them that he was going to jump/fall (acknowledging it was “going to be a big one”).  The leader then let go, falling somewhere between 11-12 feet before loading the rope.  The belayer reported having time to take in maybe 2-4 feet of slack before hearing the very loud “gunshot” of the rope exploding.  The belayer never felt the falling climber load the belay and the leader fell approximately 130 feet to the ground.  

While numerous climbing parties immediately responded to give aid, fallen climber passed at the scene.

Evidence points to the rope being cut by the carabiner on the extended alpine draw attached to the #3 Camalot.  The carabiner attached to the fully extended alpine draw was found lying on a slabby portion of rock just below the #3 with the fuzzy remains from the sheath inside the carabiner.  No other sheath material was found on any rock edges or face.  Photos from the accident scene show approximately 7’ of rope extending from the tie-in at the leaders harness.  There was 3”-4” of core exposed where the rope cut.  The core was “exploded”.  The individual bundles of the core were all cut at the same length indicating a definitive “cut” versuse extended shredding over an edge..   If the belayer took in two-three pulls of rope (2’-4’?) the leader could have been 9’-11’ above his last piece when he let go.

How the carabiner cut the rope may be difficult to visualize, so apologies if my description is not clear enough for you.

The rope leaving the belayer moved up through the first piece and past the slightly overhanging rock above.  That overhang also included a 6-8” V slot which in all likelihood inhibited the belay strand from moving laterally to the right.  From there, at the time of impact, the belay strand of the rope would have been laying across the slabby rock face above before entering the back side of the carabiner on the extended draw.  In the same way the load strand in a Guide ATC or Reverso lock down on the belay strand, the leader’s end of the rope loaded the outside of the carabiner, crushing it down on the belay strand and forcing the entire load onto a truly small section of rope.  

In essence, the leader took a factor two fall onto the carabiner.  In fact, he may have achieve something greater than a factor two fall, as the pinched rope effectively reduced the rope in the system to just 6’.  I’ll leave it up to someone more qualified to calculate the force load of a climber falling and estimated 9’ to 11’ on 7’ of rope and all of that energy being applied to the bend at the carabiner and subsequently down onto the belay strand and rock face.  Needless to say, it was enough to instantly sever the rope.

Takeaways?  Was this avoidable?  

One tragic fact, had the carabiner in question moved just two inches left or right, it would no longer have been laying on rock, but hanging in free space, as the slab came to a point just below where the carabiner was laying.  

Would have extending the sling on the first piece changed the location of the carabiner in question at the time of impact?  Unknown as the first piece was ultimately removed by the belayer before they rappelled to the ground, so we were not able to replicate exactly how the rope was running. 

Apart from being off route at the time of his fall, this in my opinion, goes under the heading of freak accident where two inches of movement in a carabiner could have truly been the difference between life and death.  It is easy to see how the fully extended sling appeared to clear the rock below when it was initially clipped, with the plan being to move up and right.

The route description for Simple J Malarkey in the Seneca guidebook concludes with both the telling of an accident in 1991 where a rope was cut by rockfall on the third pitch, but no one was injured, followed by the statement that “This is only one of many known epics that seem to dog parties on this route.  Some of the excitement seems to take place on the third pitch.”  In an earlier version of the guidebook, it says that “Most of the excitement seems to take place on the third pitch.”  

I’d like to thank all the climbing parties and guide services who responded to administer aid and assisted in the recovery.  I’d also like to thank everyone who took the time to speak to me about this truly horrible event to make sure this report was as accurate as possible, especially Danny’s climbing partner.  

As others have expressed in this thread, my sincere condolences to Danny’s family and friends.

Arthur Kearns

The Gendarme

Seneca Rocks Climbing School

Thank you Patrick for sharing this.

See you at the rocks likely in a couple of weeks (going to the RRG next weekend). 

Patrick Hoffman wrote:

It does not "needs to the edge." 

First illustration is more accurate to the actual incident.

So was the carabiner on an edge? If not it was probably a lower edge that actually cut the rope or a crystal such as Goldsmith suggests. Doesn’t really matter much now.

Looking at pics of the route there are tons downward sloping ledges that end in edges making the whole thing tough to protect 100 and pushing this into an “easy is dangerous” kind of route, ala “the leader must not fall”.

If the report is correct, then that would make any instance of the rope running through a carabiner laying against a less-than-vertical surface potentially very dangerous. That has to be quite common and surely this type of fall has happened before, where the last clipped draw is at a slabby headwall above an overhang.

So what is the critical component of this occasion - the belayer taking in large amounts of slack during the fall, creating a factor 2+? I see that pictures of the rope have been removed... anyone know if the rope was old or worn?

Patrick, Thank you for the full report. I understand that this was a tough event for all involved and no need to apologize for any brusqueness in the comments.

Holding everyone involved or impacted by this tragedy in the Light. 

james james wrote:

If the report is correct, then that would make any instance of the rope running through a carabiner laying against a less-than-vertical surface potentially very dangerous. That has to be quite common and surely this type of fall has happened before, where the last clipped draw is at a slabby headwall above an overhang.

So what is the critical component of this occasion - the belayer taking in large amounts of slack during the fall, creating a factor 2+? I see that pictures of the rope have been removed... anyone know if the rope was old or worn?

Severity may have something to do with corseness of rock, pebbles, edges etc. Laying the biner on rock is never good but not a death sentance.

Condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. I hope the first responders can also get assistance as these traumatic events can trigger long-term issues.

There was a similar lead rope cutting death in Eldorado Canyon in 2010 that was analyzed in-depth. Here's the Eldo report Link. 

Patrick Hoffman wrote:

In essence, the leader took a factor two fall onto the carabiner.  In fact, he may have achieve something greater than a factor two fall, as the pinched rope effectively reduced the rope in the system to just 6’.  I’ll leave it up to someone more qualified to calculate the force load of a climber falling and estimated 9’ to 11’ on 7’ of rope and all of that energy being applied to the bend at the carabiner and subsequently down onto the belay strand and rock face.  Needless to say, it was enough to instantly sever the rope.

I am not sure I understand this.
Modern ropes should reliably catch factor two falls.

Is this really possible for a pinched rope to be cut by a carabiner laying on a slab without sharp edges?

Eli Helmuth wrote:

There was a similar lead rope cutting death in Eldorado Canyon in 2010 that was analyzed in-depth. Here's the Eldo report Link. 

In this report "As the rope pulled tight, Miller swung ("pendulummed") slightly to the right, dragging the rope over a sharp protruding "knife" edge".
So it seems like the rope was cut by the sharp edge in this Eldorado Canyon incident which doesn't seem like happened in this Seneca Rock incident, unless pendulum also happened and a carabiner with a rope underneath was dragged across a slab.

Patrick Hoffman, as for your observations, is there a chance that such pendulum has happened there?

Yury wrote:

I am not sure I understand this.
Modern ropes should reliably catch factor two falls.

Is this really possible for a pinched rope to be cut by a carabiner laying on a slab without sharp edges?

A factor 2 fall onto a pinched rope is very different than a F2 fall on a regular anchor.

At the end of the day there is no way to be certain of the mechanism in this accident.  Finding rope fibers on the carabiner (and lack of fibers elsewhere) is consistent with the idea that it was pinched at that point, but perhaps the rope cut on a sharp edge above the carabiner and some fibers became entangled on the carabiner when the end passed through.  Pitch 3 of SJM does have a bunch of sharp blocky edges, and it's easy to see how bad things could happen there (the most recent fatality at Seneca before this accident was also due to a rope getting cut on a sharp edge, although I forget which route), but this is just speculation and the AAC report should carry a lot of water in interpreting this incident.