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Forums: Climbing Information: Accident and Incident Analysis: Re: [RyanJames1984] Cinch is dangerous!: Edit Log




sampleinajar


Jun 17, 2010, 6:35 PM

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Registered: Sep 21, 2007
Posts: 11
Re: [RyanJames1984] Cinch is dangerous!
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RyanJames1984 wrote:
A very good friend of mine decked because his belayer was using a cinch and was not paying attention. My friend fell and the belayer was holding the cinch open. He fell 25 feet and decked hard. Thankfully this was at a gym and not outside. If it would have been outside, he probably would have died from trauma to the head (his head smacked the mats HARD).

With this said, I think extreme caution needs to be taken when allowing someone to use the cinch who is not as experienced in belaying or is not use to ALWAYS paying attention. The gri gri locks much, much easier than the cinch and people need to know this.

Has anyone else had or heard of close calls or bad experiences with the cinch?

Your right it was without a doubt caused by the “dangerous” cinch. It’s hard to blame the cinch in that example, the same thing could happen with a gri gri or ATC. However, if the belayer was using an ATC would he have been paying attention and avoided dropping the leader? I think that is part problem. Rarely do I see someone with an ATC not paying attention while belaying, but I see it all the time with belayers using an “auto-locking” device. What is it about these devices that foster an attitude of such complacency? Would you give a brand new belayer an ATC and start taking huge falls? I have seen people give a 10 min lesson to a brand new belayer on how to use a gri gri then hop on a climb clearly at or beyond their limit and take some big falls. I use both the cinch and gri gri and tend to favor the cinch over the gri gri. But I treat it like what it is, a locking assisted device not an auto-locking device.


(This post was edited by sampleinajar on Jun 17, 2010, 6:57 PM)



Edit Log:
Post edited by sampleinajar () on Jun 17, 2010, 6:57 PM: spelling


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