The American boulderer Daniel Woods has been in Spain for several weeks and is once again dedicated to sport climbing. At the end of February, he proved 2018 to be not only strong in the bouldering discipline: he managed the third Tour of the 9b route La Capella in Siurana, His latest project in Margalef almost resulted in a landslide.
When trying in the route First Round First Minute (9b)that Daniel had projected for three days, the American almost crashed to the ground due to a carabiner break on a fixed-hanged exe. The following video shows his departure.
Possible reasons for carabiner breakage
That a carabiner breaks due to a fall, may occur, but it is rather unusual. Possible reasons are (not exhaustive):
- The carabiner runs over a small ledge or edge in the rock structure (transverse load).
- On the carabiner, which is hooked to the hook, acts in the moment of loading a lever through the plate.
- The carabiner bounces against the rock and opens. If a carabiner is not closed, its breaking load is reduced significantly.
Detailed information on dangerous load situations of carabiners you can find on the website of Petzl.
Be sure to critically evaluate fixes
As tempting as it is to step into a route where exes are already hanging, the consequences can be so fatal. This showed a fatal accident in the climbing garden Magletsch in the Swiss municipality Gretschins from the year 2012. On 37-year climber crashed in a strongly overhanging route into the last backup. This exe was fixed and heavily worn due to wear and tear. The sharp edge, which formed in the carabiner, led to the rope tear and thus to the deadly fall of the climber. We have also encountered several times sharply ground Fix-Exen in routes. That's why we recommend an accurate and critical assessment of fixes.
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Credits: Cover picture with Daniel Woods in La Capella (9b) from Jon Cardwell