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Michele Caminati rope break and ground fall

Original Post
Jason Halladay · · Los Alamos, NM · Joined Oct 2005 · Points: 15,153

A pretty wild and scary accident for Caminati when his rope severed during a fall on a sharp edge on Elder Statesmen in England. Amazingly, it was caught on video:

"Michele suffered a badly broken wrist and a broken heel, and is currently recovering in hospital."
Tom Halicki · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 35

Yikes!

Kyle Berthiaume · · MN · Joined Dec 2015 · Points: 86

And he's 140 lbs! Would like to know what rope, although in that situation, probably all climbing ropes would fail. Makes me want to keep my eyes peeled for potential cutting edges when climbing.

Ian Machen · · Fredericksburg, VA · Joined Sep 2016 · Points: 35

I'm 200+ lbs and have had a similar experience. I fell, rope got abraded on a rock corner, and ended up with a total sheath sever, and some core cut. Luckily the rope didn't fully fail, as I was on the 11th pitch of a climb....

Russ Keane · · Salt Lake · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 392

Boy, that's a fun movie. 

Tyler Smeenk · · Lyons, CO · Joined Nov 2005 · Points: 315

Anybody have any more details on the rope?  I'm just curious, was it an old rope, was it brand new.  Size, brand.  Glad he's recovering at least though!

Pete Spri · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 347

Crazy that people will be leading big run outs like that without a helmet!

Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0
Tylerpratt · · Litchfield, Connecticut · Joined Feb 2016 · Points: 40

This title should be renamed to "rope cut and ground fall" 

mattm · · TX · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 1,885
Tyler Smeenk wrote:

Anybody have any more details on the rope?  I'm just curious, was it an old rope, was it brand new.  Size, brand.  Glad he's recovering at least though!

It really doesn't matter.  Pretty much ANY rope will suffer some sort of failure (sheath or total cut) when run along an edge under tension like that.  Maybe it was a thin cord in the lower 9mm range but simple fact is this is a failure mode for ANY rope.  McClure lead it with THREE ropes on - He knew the hazards.  There are times while climbing where you are forced into a DO NOT FALL zone because of how the rope would be loaded over an edge if you fell.  More people need to be aware of this.  

Petzl has a video on ropes loaded over an edge.  Scroll to the page bottom: Petzl Rope over Edge.

This video also is indicative of damage to a rope of an edge:  

Mark E Dixon · · Possunt, nec posse videntur · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 974
anotherclimber wrote:

I don't think that's correct. uk climbing per the reference up thread calls the route E7 7b, which I believe is 5.12ish. 

Perhaps one of the Brits can enlighten us?

Looks like a super cool route, but not one I'll be leading in this lifetime!

Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0
Mark E Dixon wrote:

I don't think that's correct. uk climbing per the reference up thread calls the route E7 7b, which I believe is 5.12ish. 

Perhaps one of the Brits can enlighten us?

Looks like a super cool route, but not one I'll be leading in this lifetime!

You may very well be right. I just took the information from the article and wikipedia assuming it was correct. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Injuries and Accidents
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