Gear Failure

[young'n climber]

Sunshine, what is an ARI and what does Tori Allen have to do with it/them.

[captain static]

There are a number of examples of failed gear on display at the Gendarme's Ancient Climbing Gear Museum in Seneca Rocks, WVa.

[captain static]

Here is an interesting excerpt from rec.climbing from BD's quality assurrance mgr.:

We make products that will not hold falls. Climbers use these to protect themselves routinely. So why do we do this? If we were to use the strict engineering safaty factor rating and guarantee that you would never break gear in any situation encountered in climbing then you would not be climbing. Camalot Jr's would be for 8 inch cracks and would weigh 10 pounds. There would not be any Stoppers or Steel nuts. Carabiners would be three times heavier and all would have autolocking sleeves. And, you would all retire your ropes and gear after even the smallest fall. So why do we sell gear we know has the potential to fail? Because we are climbers and we recognize the need for the protection we sell. Technique is what protects you foremost, not the gear. Placing protection often to reduce the fall factor, equalizing small nuts, using low impact ropes (carefull with these since they may stretch you into a ledge), etc.

For the full rant see: http://home.eol.ca/~toadhall/outside/cl ... _cams.html

[jefflehmkuhl]

interesting, very interesting???