Simulrapping mishap

Aidan Maguirewrote:

A few years ago 3 friends were coming off Serenity Crack.  1 guy down at the last belay and his 2 buddies simul rapping to him from the top. The first guy to reach the anchor took himself off belay and his simul-rap partner started plummeting to his death.  Very fast action by the climber already at the belay stopped his death fall and resulted in extensive palm burns as he grabbed the rope. The climber fell 30 or 40 feet before being arrested.  Though not a fan of simul-rapping, after hearing this I swore off it permanently. 

It always impresses me how incredibly foolish mistakes can be made while climbing - I honestly don't even understand how you could get the rope out of the device if your partner is counterweighting the other side of the line. While there's an argument to be made that this shows how dangerous simul rapping is, it seems to be an even better argument for the fact that someone really experienced has to be in complete control of the situation, dictating exactly what happens, how, when, etc. 

if I was to simul rap, I'd be explaining the steps we're going to take, the processes, the commands, etc... and also would emphasize the fact that we'll stick close to each other and, most importantly, we'll communicate the whole way through, especially as we both come off... which basically takes so much time as to more than defeat the time savings purpose of simul rapping, so I won't do it unless i have longtime and/or extremely competent partners, or there's another good reason (which is rare).

Aidan Maguirewrote:

A few years ago 3 friends were coming off Serenity Crack.  1 guy down at the last belay and his 2 buddies simul rapping to him from the top. The first guy to reach the anchor took himself off belay and his simul-rap partner started plummeting to his death.  Very fast action by the climber already at the belay stopped his death fall and resulted in extensive palm burns as he grabbed the rope. The climber fell 30 or 40 feet before being arrested.  Though not a fan of simul-rapping, after hearing this I swore off it permanently. 

Multiple ways this incident could have been mitigated.  First, tie both ropes off and have the two climbers rap first.  They are now individually rapping fixed lines.  Second option would be for first climber to rap and once at the lower belay they either keep the ropes through their belay device and prusik or they tie both ropes to the anchor.  This should be standard practice even if the upper climbers aren’t simul rapping as it may protect against the upper climber improperly setting up their rap device.  If the upper climber misses one strand on their device nothing will happen.  It is also just a good habit to keep the rope system closed whenever possible and maintain possession of the rope at the lower belay.

Christian Heschwrote:

It always impresses me how incredibly foolish mistakes can be made while climbing - I honestly don't even understand how you could get the rope out of the device if your partner is counterweighting the other side of the line. While there's an argument to be made that this shows how dangerous simul rapping is, it seems to be an even better argument for the fact that someone really experienced has to be in complete control of the situation, dictating exactly what happens, how, when, etc. 

Really experienced people make mistakes all the time.

if I was to simul rap, I'd be explaining the steps we're going to take, the processes, the commands, etc... and also would emphasize the fact that we'll stick close to each other and, most importantly, we'll communicate the whole way through, especially as we both come off... which basically takes so much time as to more than defeat the time savings purpose of simul rapping, so I won't do it unless i have longtime and/or extremely competent partners, or there's another good reason (which is rare).

Everybody thinks they will be the ones who do all the checks, say all the commands, but the reality is nobody’s perfect.

The best bet is to keep things simple and consistent, less steps, less commands, do processes the same way every time, don’t change up the plan on the fly. 

Simul rapping is dangerous 

If you are complacent...

Everyone is complacent eventually. With simo rapping you get the Two for one special. 

The problem with simul-rapping threads is we fail distinguish between:
(a) danger to those who have been simul-rapping for a long time
(b) danger to those starting to simul-rap

Maybe (a) is higher than some people think, but (a) isn't the main problem.  I'd happily call (a) negligible if it helps us get the point across that (b) is significant.

Learning to simul-rappel is especially dangerous for those with a lot of individual rappelling mileage.  Individual rappelling conditions us to do, without thinking, things that need to be un-learned for simul-rappelling.  *Some* of those things are well understood/documented in the climbing community, but not all.  Even if we did manage to document them all, unlearning already-learned reflexes takes time and a few people will die in the process.

BTW this thread shouldn't be under "trad climbing"..

 at least one of the really high profile  fatalities associated with simo rapping was a pro climber so  calling a negligible is not working.. 

Simu-rappelling is safe if you are linking pitches, simul-climbing, and you're in-the-alpine, and racing a storm to the summit because speed is safety when you going car-to-car. Sick. 

So sick

Fatally sick.

WF WF51wrote:

Simu-rappelling is safe if you are linking pitches, simul-climbing, and you're in-the-alpine, and racing a storm to the summit because speed is safety when you going car-to-car. Sick. 

Omg! Does simul need medicine?