RRC Archives

The facts are slim but apparently a 33 year old woman died over the weekend at Kaymoor, 50 foot fall from anchors. Link on rockclimbing.com-

Wow--that thing about the Petzl rubber band things is really scary. Never thought of using one on a sling, but I could see why someone would. Crazy how it could look secure, but the fail suddenly. It's just like being backclipped, until someone shows you how dangerous it is, you wouldn't think anything of it. That is so sad that a woman died in this situation.

When I used runners as daisies, I used a sliding overhand knot on the carabiner side. Its a little bulky but what happened with this accident couldn't happen with a knot...

Seems like such an odd setup to come up with especially when a PAS is only $25...

Wow, great thing to learn. I use a lot of slings like these, I will definitely keep rubber bands off them.

The one thing that doesn't make sense is that she went indirect with 2 slings, right? It seems pretty unlikely that BOTH of them would be like this without being noticed.....

I have used slings with rubber bands for years and never had it happen to a sling even once. Of course I took my time and always weighted my anchors slow. Given a long enough time line I suppose that it would be possible. Both at once is truely unlucky.

It more than likely happened before she even left the ground. To save time at the top, she probably girth hitched her slings before she started climbing the route. When she went to clip them to the back side of her harness there was enough slack in the sling that she clipped thru the sling and onto her gear loop. Didn't notice it when she clipped in at the top.

where were you at saxman you missed your cue ( pffft new gym owners slacking on their link providing, thanks for having his back neuroshock) wonder what route it was??