Climb Safe: Dangers of Rope Worn Carabiners

Nehru Institute of Mountaineering is the best mountaineering institute of India right now, ahead of HMI when it comes to physical training, providing efficient equipment, proper accommodation facilities. NIM is situated a little above the town of Uttarkashi.

The campus is great with all the facilities you will need in an Institute. The hostels are clean and the food is great! Our course had 106 people to start with and by the time we finished we were 92 with people from Armed Forces and NCC also. We were divided into 14 ropes (groups) each with an Instructor.

First couple of days of the course will have briefing from the Principal, taking you around the campus, medical inspection, introduction and issue of equipment etc. Make sure you get the right equipment or else you will be in big trouble later in the mountains.

Then you will have a short trek for about an hour and a half just above the campus through the woods with half the load you carry in the mountains – may be 10+kgs – and you get good views of BanderPoonch range. And every afternoon you will have theory classes be it in campus or in Tekhla. The course as most of them know is divided into Rock Craft, Snow Craft and Ice Craft. During Rock Craft days you trek every day for 8kms till Tekhla Rock Climbing Area, mostly on road.

You will carry all equipment given by NIM, which ends up more than 10kgs for sure. But on the way back you come in the bus to save time. Lectures will happen in Tekhla in the afternoon and inside the campus during evenings which will be followed by a movie.

In snow craft though you are thought different types of Ascending and Descending on snow. For Ice craft you hike for an hour and a half to Dokrani Glacier passing the moraines near the Ice walls. Those were my first steps on a glacier and also got to see huge crevasses just next to the training area. Walls aren’t just there, there was a lot of snow again and we had to shovel out the snow till we found hard ice. We had lectures up there next to the walls and sitting on the glaciers had our bums numb! Last day at Base Camp you will have a Navigation test where you’ll have to run around a little and a Theory test which will be really simple. And finally the course was over and undoubtedly I had an awesome time and more importantly learnt a whole lot of stuff.

By Kolin Powick Kolin Powick (KP) is a mechanical engineer hailing from Calgary, Canada. He has over 20 years of experience in the engineering field and served as Black Diamond’s Director of Quality for over 11 years. He is currently their Climbing Category Director.

There was an accident at the Red River Gorge where a climber fell going to the second bolt and the rope was cut completely through by the fixed draw's sharp-edged, rope-end biner at the first bolt.

If you recall the previous testing and commentary on this subject, I had stated that I'd only seen ropes getting "sheathed" by sharp-edged biners—usually mid-route—and subsequently learned of an accident in the Czech Republic (in a climbing gym) where the rope-grooved sharp biner (also at the first bolt) severed the rope completely, resulting in the climber hitting the ground. Luckily in both cases, the climbers were not badly injured.

Which biners get badly grooved and why? From my experience falling all over routes, all over the county, I've noticed three primary locations where fixed biners become badly grooved:

1) First Bolt

Belayers typically stand too far away from the wall. This results in a sharp angle in the rope from the belayer to the first biner and then up the route. When lowering a climber, the rope, often dirty and gritty, slowly wears a groove in the biner. Both incidents I've heard of where the rope was cut completely, it was the first bolt that was the culprit.

2) Crux Bolt

Many climbers being lowered off the same biner (falling at the crux onto the same bolt). This has the same effect as above. The sharp angle of the rope wrapping around the biner and the weight of the climber being lowered is what is allowing the rope to slowly cut through the biner.

3) Out of line bolts

Often if the bolt line isn't straight, an out-of-line biner can end up being grooved. Once again, this is caused by the rope and its angle running over the biner surface.

TESTING We have done some testing before, but decided to do one more super quick test in our drop tower just to see what it would take to cut a rope on a sharp-edged biner in a harsh, but realistic, loading scenario.

SETUP

Sharp-edged biner (actual biner used in test shown directly above) 80 kg mass brand new 10.2 mm rope One harsh, but realistic, drop Static belay

RESULTS

Rope cut on the FIRST drop (see image below) Max load reached - ~7 kN

DISCUSSION Once again, what does this mean? What does 7 kN actually mean at the piece of protection? What does it mean to you, the gear and the rope?

Well, 7 kN falls can and do happen in the field. These can occur:

usually when there is not much rope out (i.e., early on in the climb). With not enough rope out, there is little rope to help absorb the energy of the fall. and with a close-to-static belay (i.e., belayer hauls in rope and even leans back, trying to keep the climber from hitting the deck.). Loads are decreased with a dynamic belay, but increase with a static belay. The climber usually "feels" these sorts of falls. Your kidneys take a beating, your hips are sore, and your feet may even hurt from slamming into the wall. I've seen many a climber take a harsh fall low on the route—it's usually followed by a deep grunt and "lower me".

The reality is these sorts of harsh falls low on a route with a sharp biner in play and the rope running over its sharp edge at angle (belayer standing away from the wall) can, and obviously have, resulted in damaging and even cutting the rope.

BOTTOM LINE Now I don't want to get into some ethical debate on whether routes should be left with fixed draws or not. The bottom line is you can do a few things to reduce the impact on fixed gear:

stand close to the wall when belaying, especially when lowering use your own first draw on the first bolt of fixed routes use long slings to help reduce rope drag use steel biners on "high traffic" fixed draws And of course, it's in everyone's best interest to replace worn and tattered fixed gear.

Be careful out there KP

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