Autobelay accident

When I get to the top I double check again that I’m clipped in to the autobelay before letting go in case I have to down climb. Of course that won’t work on a hard proj half way up…

Alan Rubinwrote:

It seems that clipping in to your harness with a locking biner is such a simple and straightforward maneuver as is double checking that you have in fact done so, but for some reason too many folks fail to do this properly.

This has got to be the cause. 

Tying a figure 8 re traced through your tie in points becomes pretty automatic once you have been climbing long enough but it's still a task the requires more focus and attention than simply clipping into your belay loop.

Whenever I use auto belays I weight the system while close to the ground to make sure that it's working and to ensure I'm actually clipped in. This is in addition to multiple double checks; the carabiner is locked, the carabiner didn't lock before fully closing, the carabiner is attached to my belay loop, the orange triangle is on the ground, the autobelay that I'm clipped to is for the route I want to climb, etc. 

I think making the process a little more involved requires just enough processing power that my autopilot shuts off and I have to consciously make sure these things are in order. 

I'm not making any judgements or criticism on the folks who have suffered autobelay accidents. Hopefully we can figure out a way to make auto belays safer without having an attendant at each line, or moving away from using them at together.

Rasputin NLNwrote:

This has got to be the cause. 

Tying a figure 8 re traced through your tie in points becomes pretty automatic once you have been climbing long enough but it's still a task the requires more focus and attention than simply clipping into your belay loop.

Whenever I use auto belays I weight the system while close to the ground to make sure that it's working and to ensure I'm actually clipped in. This is in addition to multiple double checks; the carabiner is locked, the carabiner didn't lock before fully closing, the carabiner is attached to my belay loop, the orange triangle is on the ground, the autobelay that I'm clipped to is for the route I want to climb, etc. 

I think making the process a little more involved requires just enough processing power that my autopilot shuts off and I have to consciously make sure these things are in order. 

I'm not making any judgements or criticism on the folks who have suffered autobelay accidents. Hopefully we can figure out a way to make auto belays safer without having an attendant at each line, or moving away from using them at together.

While I only rarely use the autobelays, those in my home gym utilize 'twist lock' biners for the clip in. I have pretty 'dodgy' wrists, so it is a bit of a pain for me to manipulate those biners. But, thinking about it, it seems that is a good thing because it requires me to really concentrate on that process instead of doing it 'casually'. Hopefully, at least, that will make it less likely for me to make a mistake. Still don't like the autobelays though, and try to avoid using them.

Anyone else notice that the other person in the frame glanced over at the climber? And didn't notice they weren't clipped? And, notice that the climber climbed over the autobelay line, toward the top?

We see what we expect to see, expect things to be the way they've always been before.

As to safer autobelays?

It seems like it wouldn't be a huge technological leap to alarm them some how. Have everyone wear a tag or something, everytime they are in the gym. PIT tag, RIFD, anything like that. Couple that to the autobelay clip, and, if the 2 aren't talking when they should be? An alarm of some sort. 

Think security tags in stores, tracking tags on, well, anything you wanna stick them on, magnetic strips or RFID in library books, or loads of other applications of the sort out there. Yeah, someone would have to figure it out to be vertical, a disarm if it stayed close to the autobelay locker, and yeah, someone would hafta want to, figure it out for such a tiny market, but it just doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult to do. 

If someone wanted to.

Dude was really lucky to land fairly flat, and, there was enough padding to bounce off of it. I've been in gyms where the roped climbing areas were not much more than carpet over concrete.

Sep M wrote:

I’ve gotten half way up the wall without clipping the autobelay. Apparently I should have blamed social media for it.

What I learned instead is that it’s our habits that keep us alive. Attention is just not a thing that is 100%. It’s not “designed” to be; if you’re too focused on cracking that nut and miss the odd rustling I the grass behind you, you might not be part of the gene pool going forward.

Climbing is a weird and artificial thing though. We have to do boring tasks right every single time. If your survival tactic is “just pay attention,” it’ll work almost every time. Which is not often enough to lead to a full length life with climbing in it. Stupid looking habits that check your errors are, imhe, a necessary mental “cheat” for a cognitive ability that fails very rarely.

Anyway, I pat my belly before starting an autobelay route. And I’m proud to look dumb doing so. 

The only reason, now in hindsight, that I didn’t let go after topping out autobelay route was I held on to “pull up rope to clip the chains”. Otherwise it would have been a quick trip to the floor.
I was wearing headphones and was “in the zone” getting ready to climb, basically distracting myself from myself to do a basic safety check.

We can go back and forth why people forget to do routinely basic things that keep them alive and there are many reasons. I was of the mindset that it would never happen to me, yet it did. No matter how much we try to make something safe to use in the end some of us will find a way to defeat it and mess up.

Todd Berlier wrote:

anyone else think it looks the guy passes out about 1/3 of the way down?

Hard to say, but I thought it was a bit odd that he didn't seem to be windmilling his arms or anything like that to try to get in a feet-first position, which I would sort of expect (but maybe I watched too many Road Runner cartoons as a kid).

I use the “point and call” method when using autobelays. Google “point and call” to learn about it. It is used in industries where safety procedures are critical. There is science behind it.

I clip the autobelay to my belay loop. Then I point to the autobelay locking carabiner, check that it is locked,  and I say to myself, out loud, that the carabiner is locked. Then I point to my belay loop, confirm that the carabiner is attached to the belay loop, and I confirm this outloud to myself. Then I give the autobelay a tug to confirm it is taking slack, and I start climbing. I do this every time.

Old lady Hwrote:

Anyone else notice that the other person in the frame glanced over at the climber? And didn't notice they weren't clipped? And, notice that the climber climbed over the autobelay line, toward the top?

We see what we expect to see, expect things to be the way they've always been before.

As to safer autobelays?

It seems like it wouldn't be a huge technological leap to alarm them some how. Have everyone wear a tag or something, everytime they are in the gym. PIT tag, RIFD, anything like that. Couple that to the autobelay clip, and, if the 2 aren't talking when they should be? An alarm of some sort. 

Think security tags in stores, tracking tags on, well, anything you wanna stick them on, magnetic strips or RFID in library books, or loads of other applications of the sort out there. Yeah, someone would have to figure it out to be vertical, a disarm if it stayed close to the autobelay locker, and yeah, someone would hafta want to, figure it out for such a tiny market, but it just doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult to do. 

If someone wanted to.

Dude was really lucky to land fairly flat, and, there was enough padding to bounce off of it. I've been in gyms where the roped climbing areas were not much more than carpet over concrete.

Wouldn't necessarily need anything that complicated. Image recognition. Have a camera mounted across the wall from the autobelay. It would be easy to detect the autobelay still clipped to the anchor at the bottom. If it's still at the bottom and someone is above the bouldering line, sound an alarm.

Todd Berlier wrote:

anyone else think it looks the guy passes out about 1/3 of the way down?

He could have still been waiting for the Autobelay to catch.

For my gym's bouldering comp they would also set problems in the roped area, ending around the 2nd clip. Towards the top of one of the problems I let go, but because of the location I forgot that I was bouldering. So I fell as if I were on a rope, relaxed with my feet forward, all the way to the ground where I landed square on my ass and got knocked out for a few seconds.

Justin Trentwrote:

I use the “point and call” method when using autobelays. Google “point and call” to learn about it. It is used in industries where safety procedures are critical. There is science behind it.

I clip the autobelay to my belay loop. Then I point to the autobelay locking carabiner, check that it is locked,  and I say to myself, out loud, that the carabiner is locked. Then I point to my belay loop, confirm that the carabiner is attached to the belay loop, and I confirm this outloud to myself. Then I give the autobelay a tug to confirm it is taking slack, and I start climbing. I do this every time.

Thanks for bringing this up. "Point and call", I've read, made a marked difference in train safety in Japan.  It seems dopey to do but I will try to work it into my routine.

We have lots of tech invested in keeping us alive. Things like triple-lockers are almost foolproof (fewer unlocked gates), but you cannot let them do the safety work for you. It's like blind spot monitoring and backup cameras; you can rely on them completely, but to the detriment to your situational awareness and ability to use your mirrors.

Physical Checklists also made a huge difference in the aviation industry regarding safety. It feels silly for a lot of people to have something like this, but habits (like Sep mentions) are not actually reliable ways to ensure safety. It's a shame there are not credit card sized laminated checklists which attach to harnesses for belaying. Maybe I'll make some.

Alan Rubinwrote:

What I am trying to comprehend is why does this  mistake happen so frequently? It seems that clipping in to your harness with a locking biner is such a simple and straightforward maneuver as is double checking that you have in fact done so, but for some reason too many folks fail to do this properly.

I believe the simplicity is partly what makes it easier to miss.  Here are two hypothetical scenarios:

1.  Top rope or lead climbing: climber takes about 20 seconds to tie in, climber and belayer check each other, climber verifies the belayer is indeed ready, then begins climbing.
2.  Auto belay climbing: climber takes 3 seconds to clip in and begins climbing.  (This is a less than ideal practice, but it's what most people do.  More on that later.)

It seems logical that it's EASIER to miss a 3-second process vs a 45-second or so process.  Clipping in is much simpler, so people don't pay as much attention to it, thinking there's no way to screw this up.  Another major factor is the lack of a partner.  We've all caught our partners not properly set up.  When you climb on an auto belay, you have no partner.  Therefore, you need to be extra diligent with yourself.  But again, most people are far less diligent than they are when they tie in to a top rope or a lead rope.

I have worked in indoor climbing for ten years and have dealt with all sorts of accidents, included a handful of accidents related to people failing to clip into auto belays.  I've seen many near misses as well, in which someone failed to clip in but were stopped before they climbed very far.  Here are anecdotal trends I've seen first-hand, which industry-wide data also supports on a larger scale.
1. NEW CLIMBERS DO NOT FAIL TO CLIP INTO AUTO BELAYS.  It is experienced climbers who do this. Of course, some of this is probability-related. Someone who climbs ten times is far less likely to experience an accident than someone who climbs ten thousand times. However, I observe climbers a lot, and the newer climbers tend to check themselves more thoroughly, though there are exceptions. Complacency kills, as they say.
2. People who fail to clip into auto belays do not perform self-checks before climbing.  New climbers are taught to double-check things.  The exact checks may vary from place to place, but I'm not aware of any climbing gym with auto belays who doesn't train people on how to use them properly.  Over time, people stop checking.  If you double-check yourself before every climb, you will not fail to clip into an auto belay.  Super obvious, I know, but the majority of climbers still don't do it.  Here's a link to an observational study on people's behavior in indoor climbing gyms. TLDR: people claim to safety-check, and speak to its importance, but still fail to do it when observed from a distance.
3.  People who fail to clip into auto belays are distracted at the time they begin climbing.  See the original video.  The climber is very focused on his camera.  That was likely a factor in him failing to clip in.  Most people I've personally dealt with were wearing headphones.  I'm not against headphones, but they're certainly a distraction.  Every person I've dealt with also told me they were having an awesome session, and were very much "in the zone", therefore more focused on climbing than clipping in.  Again, a ritual of performing a self-check is imperative.  If it's a habit, you're likely to do it even when other things are on your mind.

I know we've all heard lessons like this a thousand times.  We all know it, but all it takes is a few seconds of slipping up to cause a catastrophic event.  We think it won't happen to us, or our loved ones, until it does.  

I really hope this helps.  I'm not trying to be preachy, although I'm fully aware it's probably coming off as such.

Seriously Moderate Climberwrote:

I really hope this helps.  I'm not trying to be preachy, although I'm fully aware it's probably coming off as such.

Not at all.  All very on-point and insightful comments on the topic, in my opinion.  I think you've nailed the biggest lesson of virtually all auto belay accidents with this: "complacency kills."

In a former life, I was very active in the recreational SCUBA diving industry, and the statistics about fatalities in that world were compelling: Your chances of dying on a dive were relatively high as a brand-new open water certified diver, then dropped steadily with experience until you reached a certain point, and perhaps you got into the business as a divemaster or instructor, at which point they skyrocketed.  DMs and instructors typically aren't getting buddy-checked.  They've gone through the routine hundreds or thousands of times.  Gear setup and diving becomes easy - perhaps boring.  Then something goes wrong.  The pros were dying at a much higher rate than the newbs (and I assume they still are).  Complacency is absolutely the enemy, whether you're a climber, a diver, a roofer, or a driver.

I'm intrigued by the "point and call" method, which I hadn't heard of before, and I'm probably going to adopt it for all climbing activities that are safety-critical.  Sounds like a good way to break us out of that automaton trance.

Semi-thread drift here. Several folks who have posted on this thread have mentioned head-phones and a potential correlation between their usage and some of these accidents. I must admit that, while I am aware that using headphones while climbing, especially, but not only, in gyms, is a fairly common practice, I do not understand why this is the case. To me, all aspects of climbing, including those involving safety, require focus and concentration and listening to music ( or whatever) on the 'phones' is clearly a distraction and inconsistent with being able to fully concentrate on the task at hand. I like listening to music, but not while I'm climbing and especially not of the intensity provided through headphones. ( At my local gym some of my friends will be commenting on the background music' being 'broadcast' over the sound system and I am not even conscious of it unless I make it a point to stop and listen, but that wouldn't be the case wearing headphones). 

I understand that some folks believe that the headphones help screen out the numerous other distractions, especially in the gym, but I am not convinced that this is a viable solution. 

Just make that video mandatory viewing at all gyms and it will never happen again. Put it on a loop at the front desk.

Tradiban’s Safety Video

Alan Rubinwrote:

I understand that some folks believe that the headphones help screen out the numerous other distractions, especially in the gym, but I am not convinced that this is a viable solution. 

I’m on the road right now and dont have the time to find the research. But I believe there are extensive studies including neuro and other surgeons performing significantly better when listening to music.

The spatial awareness needed to safely navigate a clombing gym is different than that of an OR maybe though so overall some apples and oranges on my part. But apples to apples in terms of requisite concentration and consequences. 

Rasputin NLNwrote:

This has got to be the cause. 

Whenever I use auto belays I weight the system while close to the ground to make sure that it's working and to ensure I'm actually clipped in. 

Yes, i think the training and instructions for gym usage of the autobelay should require this.  I like to climb up 5 feet or so and jump off to make sure the device works.

I like Helen's idea. If you are climbing autobelays, you have to check out and wear an altimeter-proximity sensor on your harness. A matching transceiver is mounted on the critical locking carabiner. When you walk up to the bottom of the autobelay, the two devices pair via NFC or bluetooth. If you start climbing up, gaining altitude, and the autobelay carabiner transceiver is not communicating proximity (like an avalanche beacon), alarm and vibrate goes off on harness mounted sensor. 

 I know it sounds expensive, but so are lawsuits.

Our gym got rid of autobelays altogether because of all the accidents. We have been forced to find belays the old fashioned way: make friends. Two human beings performing a safety buddy check together: it's a proven, time tested system. Just today my partner forgot to close the gate on her locking binier. Sh*t happens, but we see it with two pairs of eyes.

Mark Websterwrote:

I like Helen's idea. If you are climbing autobelays, you have to check out and wear an altimeter-proximity sensor on your harness. A matching transceiver is mounted on the critical locking carabiner. When you walk up to the bottom of the autobelay, the two devices pair via NFC or bluetooth. If you start climbing up, gaining altitude, and the autobelay carabiner transceiver is not communicating proximity (like an avalanche beacon), alarm and vibrate goes off on harness mounted sensor. 

 I know it sounds expensive, but so are lawsuits.

Our gym got rid of autobelays altogether because of all the accidents. We have been forced to find belays the old fashioned way: make friends. Two human beings performing a safety buddy check together: it's a proven, time tested system. Just today my partner forgot to close the gate on her locking binier. Sh*t happens, but we see it with two pairs of eyes.

How often is this happening that we need such an elaborate system for all? Not to weigh lives against convenience or whatever but also yes let's do that. 

Adam Rwrote:

How often is this happening that we need such an elaborate system for all? Not to weigh lives against convenience or whatever but also yes let's do that. 

I do believe he was kidding.

With autobelays y’all are just going to have to accept that this will happen. This is why many gyms are simply doing away with them.