RRC Archives

ovals and Ds; Omega and BD; all for trad. Metolius QDs bentgate on one end.

I was there the day the biner broke on Bohica when Big H was climbing. Let me say that it was not necessarily that the biner was a "bad" brand. As Greg moved past the biner his hips moved in and caused the biner on the bolt to cross-load. Well he didn't notice and climbed past it and fell. Anyone who knows Greg knows that he is not a small guy. So the biner snapped (it was a loud, terrifing noise). Luckily he was far enough off the deck that he didn't deck, although his belayer was already off the ground when the thing snaped. I don't think the tooth was ever recovered. But the moral of the story here it the biner broke because it was cross loaded. Greg has since beefed up the draw and it now has two opposing biners on the bolt.

As for the draw on TOC I'm still unclear as to what happened even though the draw was mine. (they had been up there since May) It is my understanding from what I heard that the top biner was upside down and the runner somehow finagled the gate opened as the guy climbed and when he fell the thing snapped. It was a BD strait gate (the exact name I am unsure of). But once again the breaking did not occur when the draw was positioned correctly.

I conclude one thing from both of these incidents. Be sure that the runner is snuggly attached to the biner and both of these problems could have been avioded. It's funny how runners are often tight around the bottom biner and loose aroung the top. Well in both of these cases (the only two I know of in the Red) it was the top biner that failed.

i have heard plenty of stories of biners breaking. but none of them ended in death (with the exception of Goran Kropp on Air Guitar at Frenchmen's coulee). I was chatting with an AMGA guide a few weeks ago and he told me that he has had two biners break over the years. both ultra light ones and in the alpine environment. he didn't seem fazed by it though.

personally i use BD hotwires for sport. they are light, don't suffer from gate flutter and they are the easiest to clip for me.

My gate was fluttering watching you climb,Merrick .I was wishhing you had your costume on. Then you saved my cams and now you are my hero too.

Did I type that out loud?

To avoid cross loading a binner (a bit) I have been using a small piece of tape on the top binner (around the draw, close to the binner). It works like a charm, and is only meant as a preventive measure.
It also makes the entire draw stiffer, and can boost an inch when clipping high.

From what I undersand, that's one of the advanatges of having a wiregate on the bolt end as well. The gate won't break, it will just deform.

Mj

It's so much harder to derail threads these days.......

Don't worry ynot were just going through a phase. You keep your gates fluttering and the derailing will just happen. 8)