By Tom O’Halloran
Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport. We spend our lives climbing away from the safety of solid ground, throwing ourselves wildly across the side of cliffs, boulders or even the climbing gym walls. These are calculated risks with the right control measures. The rope is strong, my belayer is good, the pads are in the right spot, I know what I am doing.
The issues arise when we don't know what we don’t know or become complacent and overconfident. I’ve been on the stupid end of these mistakes a few times in life. Sometimes I got away with it and realised the catastrophe I avoided afterwards. Once I really truly fucked up and nearly killed a friend. I’ll tell that story another time though.
I wanted to write this because the other week I saw people throwing themselves wildly into the unknown. There’s this route, bolted on U’s in steep sandstone, it has a bouldery start and the first bolt is too high to practically work the steep starting sequence. Someone added an extra bolt to make the start easier to work. The issue was this bolt was a dyna on a carrot hanger in steep ground. In soft sandstone dynas aren’t strong enough to withstand the forces of climbing falls, however this isn’t half the problem.
People were working the start boulder from this first hanger. They’d fall onto the rope and swing about in the steep overhang. This bolt, due to the way it was placed, became severely deformed. It was a 90-degree hanger in a 45-degree overhang. I’ve attached a drawing below to show how the forces work in this situation, ultimately leading to the hanger being as dangerous as it was.
The hanger was put under forces it wasn't designed for. When you use gear outside of its mode of function, something is going to give. You can see from the photos below how much damage has actually happened. There are fractures in the back of the hanger where it has levered against the nut on the dyna. You can also see multiple hairline fractures across the front of the hanger. No one in their right mind would knowingly trust their life on this, surely?
There is a serious gouge from the head of the bolt digging into the hanger. Also you can see several hairline fractures next to the gouge.
Both of the cracks you can see there go all the way through the hanger.
The contrast between the deformed and not
The crux of my story is that this hanger looked in no way similar to what you would buy from your local climbing shop. Yet multiple people kept using it. Why? It held last week so I’ll be fine today? That’s what everyone else does? Not knowing any better? If you see something that doesn’t look like it would in the shop, don’t use it!
We need to cast a critical eye on everything we use, like our life depends on it. Because it does! Be the overly cautious person who didn't break their legs. Accidents do and will always happen, it’s how life goes, but if we can avoid a few of them, then that’s a win.
I replaced this bolt with a glue in U so it’s now a much safer situation. I took the dyna and hanger out.
Here’s a few simple things to look out for in the wild:
· Check perma-draws. They can become seriously damaged/worn very quickly. Both from use and UV exposure
· Check bolts for wear, fractures, deformation
· Check if nuts on hangers are done up tight
· Check glue in bolts aren’t falling out or wobbly (it can happen)
· Check your knot!
There are literally hundred, perhaps thousands of ways your climbing day can go wrong. It’s up to you to take things seriously and look after yourself, your friends and even the person at the cliff who may be about to belay off their gear loop. Yes I have seen that one.
Stay safe folks, asks questions and, as Chris Kalous always says, check your knot!
The roller stopped rolling and the rope cut this groove. Significantly more than 10% section loss. The quickdraw was at the beginning of a route, no one fell here so the wear is just when the draw was loaded during lowering. The edges were very sharp
Here’s a little checklist to keep in mind.
Here’s a video showing UV damage to quickdraws. It’s a sobering reminder of the importance of inspecting perma draws. https://vimeo.com/27292874