RRC Archives

Oops I didn't even look at the picture long enough(I'm tired from a bouldering trip/hiking/driving). I thought it was the same as the picture here: http://www.petzl.com/catalogue/Petzl-Sp ... 10-USA.pdf on page 36 that is labeled "direction of the quickdraw". Now that I look at the photo it is also just another back clip example. I guess they labeled it "direction of the quickdraw" because if you did backclip, but had faced the gate away from you, it prevents the rope from coming unclipped.

I swear they used to have an example of how the rope side biner could walk up and then sitting on a ledge and if you took a lead fall it could come unclipped, but not if the gate had been facing away from you, in that case it would have been facing down while it sat on the ledge. Maybe I saw that diagram in one of my climbing books. I lent them out so it will be a while before I can check.

-unrelated to the topic-
There is two interesting things on page 5: http://www.petzl.com/catalogue/Petzl-Sp ... 11-USA.pdf

1. I never like trusting a single bolt, and so if I ever had to bail on a route I always figured I would end up using two quicklinks to do it. Well they offered an alternative: "lowering with a prusik". You learn something new everyday.

2. Hard to believe that they are recommending lowering versus rappelling: "Lowering is therefore recommended since it allows the climber to remain tied in throughout the lowering process". Wait no it's not, I suspect they are hoping that our anchors are always being worn out so that we have to buy new ones... from them. Rick Weber did say he rather have noobs lowering than trying to figure out how to rappel, which makes total sense.

for those of us who don't care to read the back-and-forth, is there a consensus on how this happened?

I meant to skip redpoint's post, but after reading it, he might actually have a point.

It will be interesting to see what really happened here.

can you summarize, I don't have time to read a novel this morning.

Shamis wrote:I meant to skip redpoint's post, but after reading it, he might actually have a point.
It will be interesting to see what really happened here.

Time to take Redpoint seriously, nice find Redpoint. The relevant information is on p. 35 and not page 10 of RP's Petzl manual.

Took a fall on a route at Smith once. After my fall was arrested, looked up and saw that the draw below my last point of protection had come off of the hanger (I-bolt style) and was hanging on the rope. I had the draw just as (correctly) pictured. And Yes, the gate was closed. Got pretty spooked for a while after playing with a biner and I-bolt. It is REALLY easy to make the gate open and come off of the bolt, though not as easy with old Petzl hangers.

Long story short, having your draws configured as pictured is no guarantee that something crazy isn't going to happen. Rock climbing is dangerous.