brian, i believe the route was animal cracker. have fun this weekend.

We all know that it is ideal to let a rope 'rest' for ten minutes or so after taking a lot of falls on it, as it has lost a lot of its stretch.

... Furthermore, this loss of stretch may have been compounded by the gear pulling...I have read in several places (such as analysis of Goran Krop's fatal accident) that if you sew it up too close, and then pull gear, all lower pieces will be hit with essentially a static force.

Are you implying that a longer distances between lower pro would have been safer?

... I also seemed to recall someone suggesting in another thread that the short elapsed time between impacts when a top piece fails and there is another a very short distance below doesn't allow the rope to "recover" its elasticity before the next piece is impacted, resulting in a higher peak load on that piece.


-Nubbler

Dang. A good reminder that it's unsafe to take repeated falls on gear as you would while sport climbing.

I think this may be a reference to one of two ideas.

1. The idea (which I believe has been tested empirically, see the RGoldstone's distilled wisdom thread) that increased rope drag in a system, as might be caused by lots of pieces with inadequate runners, effectively reduces the amount of rope actually elongating under load in a fall and thus increases the force applied to the top piece of protection.

2. I also seemed to recall someone suggesting in another thread that the short elapsed time between impacts when a top piece fails and there is another a very short distance below doesn't allow the rope to "recover" its elasticity before the next piece is impacted, resulting in a higher peak load on that piece.

Elvislegs;

I'm so glad your friend Kevin appears so relatively healthy considering... whew.

I was within feet of a near identical accident at Smith rocks (Tale of 2 s--- - I think was the route) @18 years ago which resulted in a fatality. Like Kevin remembering the hit, I remember the sound. This guy, Canadian fella, had a very, very, similar experiance, climbed a trad 5.10a, and does 2 falls on his fourth piece which held fine, then climbed up straight where he should have gone right, putting in more pieces, falls - and then pulled 4 pieces in succession, including the med wired he had fallen on twice. Grounds like a sac of potatoes from @ 70 feet up and dies in front for his buddies and girlfriend. We rapped down (we were like @ 50 feet higher almost directly above on another route) did CPR for some time: finally a Dr. showed up and pronouned him dead. The smell of wheat Thins on his breath, sage brush and juniper berries mixed with the feeling of sadness and helplessness has stayed with me very strongly till today.

damn. It could have been so bad, glad for everybody there....It is a reminder that this is a dangerous sport.

1 more thing, and I don't want to argue here, but you keep preaching about the helmet. I would suggest you go back and read Royal Robbins, one of the the premier climbers of the last century, if you want to know why so many people do not wear them:

it really has nothing to do people feeling they don't look stylish like you indicate, but with mind set. There is a philosophical reason, of which skill and philosophy set the stage, which basically boils down to the fact that it's inside the head, not outside that counts for safety reasons.

...I am really just happy that your friend is fine, it's a shocking thing which could have been real bad but wasn't: Kevin looks like he still has his mental and physical health, and his daughter still has a father, it dos not get better than that!