A fellow who wanted to practice Trad did so today on a short route. He got to the ledge, and his partner did not want to second, being too cold. The first guy, A., wanted to try making belay anchors for multi-pitch and did so, using three pieces in the face behind. He ran a blue sling from those to his belay loop, letting him stand at the rim. He attached an ATC-type device to his belay loop, and called to his partner, D., to come up. He did, and as he came over the rim, he looked at the belay arrangement and complained about it. Nevertheless, after some discussion D. let A. lower him. As soon as he started down, D. fell 30-40' to land on his back on a large tree root.

Incredibly, D. was not showing any signs of injury, not even a bump on his head. He helped pack up, including bending over to bag his rope; but we did not let him lift anything. His back-pack was carried by A., who had suffered serious rope burns across all surfaces of both hands around the rope, which is probably how D. was able to survive such a fall. That, and his being a career Marine with a back muscled like a boxer.

D. explained that the problem with the rigging was the direct connection of the rope to A., instead of the rope being put through an master-point at the anchor and then through the device, similar to how it is from the ground. My understanding of his point is that making a two-strand pulley divides the force on the device in half. D. said that the device will not hold in that direct alignment, even if "locked off". On D.'s climb up, A. was good about never taking his brake hand off the rope, though his guide hand was off a lot as if resting it.

My assessment finds both at fault, D. for not making sure his belayer knew how to do that under the conditions, and letting him proceed even after seeing there was a problem. I blame the cold and his being tired for his being lax. I don't know what common instructions for top-belay say on this, to know how A. did not know how wrong his method was, as seems obvious with D.'s explanation. Another top-belay that I've seen used a carbiner auto-block, which was not part of this arrangement.

It seemed that A. was deeply affected by nearly killing his buddy, and I've wondered how others involved in accidents go on afterwards. His trying to hold the rope was a help and honorable, but will have caused him some injury that may leave permanent scars; and it will take hospital tests to be sure that D. is as okay as he seemed at the time.

LL
.