The Prescription—August
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The Prescription—August — American Alpine Club
The following report describes an accident in the Canadian Rockies that will be published in the upcoming 2024 Accidents in North American Climbing . While reviewing last year’s accidents, a particularly improbable incident stood out. Almost exactly a year ago, a climber fell, unroped, from the fou
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
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@k7wxw I've read that 5 times and I still don't understand how it failed. The correct-way illustration is clear, but I don't understand how it was incorrectly clipped (the photo). Do you get it Bill?
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By all measures, Adam (the climber who fell) did almost everything right. He switched systems from the rappel to the PAS, and even weighted it, but he unfortunately clipped his PAS through the sling incorrectly so it wasn't in the sling at all.
Hits a bit closer than usual Prescriptions, since those usually center around mountaineering or other alpine incidents, but this one is directly relatable even in a single-pitch sport climbing context.
I may experiment with this "second carabiner" approach to shortening a sling-PAS.
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@tsherrygeo Tim, if you look really hard, you can see the knot is resting on the carabiner: both sides of the loop are on top of it. When he weight tested the PAS, the knot caught on the carabiner, when he unweighted it, it slid over it.
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@k7wxw Ah, I understand now. He did not clip the loop at all. The loop of webbing was draped through the carabiner. They should show that in their photo.
