RRC Archives

Thought this was a cool link, funny how the grooves make the anchors stronger, rather then weaker as you would think they should, though if the edges get sharp, then you could have other issues.

http://www.bdel.com/scene/beta/qc_kp_archive.php#081908

His blog is a great source of good, real world type info. When I replace old fixed gear, it is crazy to see what looks like really bad stuff, actually be pretty strong, and what looks fine, pretty week.

keep in mind his findings really only apply to cold shuts, because a biner's gate would prevent the rope from sliding out and producing more leverage.

Very interesting site....I liked reading about the belay loop safety.

pkananen wrote:keep in mind his findings really only apply to cold shuts, because a biner's gate would prevent the rope from sliding out and producing more leverage.

Not in the case of old worn biners that don't snap shut on their own...


I met Kolin and his wife, Ellen, at the trade show last summer. The guy is a super cool walking encyclopedia of knowledge. Makes me comfortable knowing guys like him are working on our safety...

i still like to see new hardware.

512OW wrote:

pkananen wrote:keep in mind his findings really only apply to cold shuts, because a biner's gate would prevent the rope from sliding out and producing more leverage.

Not in the case of old worn biners that don't snap shut on their own...


I met Kolin and his wife, Ellen, at the trade show last summer. The guy is a super cool walking encyclopedia of knowledge. Makes me comfortable knowing guys like him are working on our safety...

True...but I don't think that will convince me to clip them.

Its a good thing you guys weren't climbing here 10 or 12 years ago...

how much new hardware do you guys donate to the cliffs? just curious since you seem to be clear on what you want to clip, do you actually support that or just expect the crag gods to supply it for you ?

p0bray01 wrote:Very interesting site....I liked reading about the belay loop safety.

Saw a test on belay loops at Misty Mountain once. They took a standard length of webbing for a belay loop, wripped around in the standard configuration and then instead of stitching it they just put a loop of masking tape around the loose ends.

Failed at 600 lbs.

They also tested some old runners that I had sewn myself on a couple of cams. They were about four years old and very ragged, plus my stitching was really shoddy (had been using them frequently for four years as well).

Failed at 1,300 lbs.

We had a test fest that day and they just started putting silly stuff in the machine. But it made me realize how physics most often work in your favor in climbing, as long as you don't introduce a weakness yourself.

If you play by the rules and always doulbe check everything, take care of your gear and use it correctly then your climbing system should be bombproof. THere are enough redundancies built in ot the ideal (and hopefully common and standard) climbing setup that it should be super safe all the time.

Climbing accidents are always pilot error. Of course someone else may crash their plane into yours, but it was still pilot error.

Also, do you realize that at the force necessary to cause most climbing gear to fail, your body would have already been broken?

When gear fails and that force that caused it is not the cause of death or injury there was typically a flaw in the rigging of the system and not in the relative strength of the individual components of the system.

It's hard for a 150-200 lb. body to cause a great enough force (even at fall factor two) to cause a piece of gear to completely fail.

Lateralus wrote:how much new hardware do you guys donate to the cliffs? just curious since you seem to be clear on what you want to clip, do you actually support that or just expect the crag gods to supply it for you ?

+1