It’s safety time!

“Wow, you guys must be very brave, aren’t you ever scared?” People from the regular world (you know the type of folk who don’t care about the beta in the latest 9a boulder, or the best type of chalk for medium dry skin) often think climbing is a crazily dangerous sport! One where climbers hang on for dear life by only their fingertips, wearing a pair of skimpy running shorts and nothing else. They’ve probably just watched Free Solo, or remember the tv films from Catherine Destivelle and Patrick Edlinger, either way, to them, climbers are psychotic superheroes, living on the edge and holding on to life and their sanity by a thread.

I always smile when this question pops up in polite company, as the truth (for the most of us at least) is far less exciting. I don’t consider climbing to be a risk taking sport, more of a risk managing sport. Of course there can be serious consequences, but most of the processes that could lead you down a dangerous path are very slow, and thus can be controlled and managed down to the smallest detail… provided you know what you are doing.

©Coll. Ciavaldini/Pearson

Whether it’s because we’ve recently become parents and so we’re double and tripple checking our knots, or that we’ve spent the last month climbing in the mountains where stories of accidents are commonplace, but the subject of injury and worse has come up quite a lot recently. Caro and I have begun to re-examine and scrutinize all of our safety protocols in hope of living a long and happy climbing life, and so I’m going to share with you some of our thoughts.

Whilst the following list might seem more useful for the beginner climber, the truth is that we could all do with taking another look at what and how we do things, as were actually often at the most risk when we least expect it.

The objective risks of mountaineering are undeniably high, but one can also argue that you are at your most focused. Inversely, when lowering off a sport climb for the 100^th time this year, you might not be paying particular attention to the state of the belay bolts, or the way you are threading your rope! Injuries and accidents can come at any time, and statistically, if we ever have an accident its probably going to be doing something that we consider to be pretty easy/normal.

Bouldering

A common misconception that bouldering is the safest form of climbing, whereas the truth is that its one of the most dangerous. Every fall is a ground fall, and you are often putting your body into far more complex positions, and moving at much greater speeds than in other types of climbing. When bouldering, there are two things standing in between your soft body, and the hard ground – your spotter, and your pads, so you’d better make sure they are working as well as they could! Here is a quick list of things to think about…

• Missing pads – take some time before pulling on to place your pads as well as you can. Have a few tentative goes at some of the moves, and then place them better.
• Get a spotter to guide you into the landing zone. They shouldn’t be trying to catch you out of the air, but redirect your momentum down towards the pads.
• One of the most common bouldering injuries is a twisted/broken ankle when rolling off the edge of a pad. This is especially common in places like Fontainebleau, where the ground is usually flat, but there are quite often small roots and stones, making small “dead spaces” under the pad. Its easy to be lures into a false sense of security.
• Gap in pads can appear during the session, from either repeatedly falling or simply walking around on the pads. Check the pads before each attempt and reposition if necessary.
• You might need to have your spotter move the pads during your climb if you don’t have enough pads to cover the whole problem. Be efficient in the way you move the pads, choosing to drag them during easy moves and not during the crux.
• Communication with your spotters is key! Explain where they should pay more attention, and where they should stay close, and where they can step back. If they are too far away too help you, or too close so you “dab” them during a swing, it’s your fault, not theirs!

©Coll. Ciavaldini/Pearson

Sport

Sport climbing is seen as the next safest, and I often refer to it as the tennis of climbing. Its technical, and exhausting, but never really dangerous. Whilst I’m sure you get the point, the statement is not exactly true, as although I’d agree that the chances of serious injury whilst sport climbing are slim, any time you are climbing high above the floor, you are at potential serious risk.  

Accidents when sport climbing can be split into two categories, gear related or technique related. Technique problems come when you don’t know how to correctly manage the fall situation, whereas gear problems are caused by failure of any piece of equipment. Let’s first look at the possible technical issues…

• “Bad falls” can be both too far (you might hit the ground, or a ledge) or too short (these can be very harsh because of little stretch in the rope), and are mainly a problem of the belayers technique. Again communication is key, and it’s up to you to discuss the potential areas of concern with your belayer, both before, and during the climb. Generally speaking, the more rope you have out, the softer the fall will be, but the more risk you have of hitting something along the way. Every route is different.  
• You are also in charge of managing the rope, to minimise the chance of it flipping you upside down. Stepping over or under the rope at the wrong moment can quickly find you filpping backwards in the event of a fall. One of the worst situation you can find yourself in is being short roped with the rope behind your leg. The short fall time gives you little time to react, and the harsh catch accentuates the movement, bringing your head towards the rock even faster. This can be especially dangerous when sport climbing as people are often not wearing a helmet!

©Coll. Ciavaldini/Pearson

When it comes to gear, our own personal equipment is so over engineered that failures are almost unheard of, without some huge error or oversight on your part (storing your rope and harness next to nasty chemicals in the shed, and trapping your rope in the lock when closing the car are two examples I’ve personally heard about that lead to serious failure).

• When sport climbing however, especially on the continent, you might often find yourself relying on on gear that is not your own, usually in the shape of in-situ quickdraws. These draws might make your life easy when climbing/lowering off in big caves, but you’ve no idea about who placed them, how long they have been there, and how they were even treated before they were left. Most of the time, they are probably fine, but problems with climbing equipment are very black or white. If something fails, even if it’s just one piece out of several, you risk being seriously injured, or worse!

• The first and most common point of failure with in-situ draws is the sling. Whilst the carabiners themselves stand up fairly well to the elements, the strength of slings decreases rapidly with constant exposure, UV light being the worst offender. I remember Ben Bransby testing the old fixed draws from the route Mecca at Ravens Tor, using the test rig at DMM. Ben was able to break the draw taken from the 4^th bolt with only 6kn (the draw would originally rated to more than 20kn), which is obviously a tiny percentage of its original strength. Whilst falls of 6kn are rare, they are not unheard of (I’ve personally broken small wires rated at 7kn during Trad falls), especially when sport climbing due to the common use of “locking” belay devices. What makes this case even more alarming is that the 4^th draw on Mecca protects the crux, and it was common for people to skip the 3^rd draw just before it.  If it had ever broken in the route, the climber would have hit the floor from 20ft.  

• More drastic still are the many in-situ carabiners worn down from the passage of hundreds of dirty climbers ropes. With enough wear, the carabiners themselves can snap during a fall/lowering, with consequences starting at those similar to a broken quickdraw, and quickly rising to much worse if it happens to be the belay carabiner.
  Worse still however is that a long time before the carabiner breaks, the grove formed within can become so sharp it can actually cut your rope. The worst affected carabiners are often those close to the floor, where the rope from the belayer makes the greatest angle before heading up into the route, and sadly, those are often the most overlooked of in-situ protection as they just dont seem that significant. The truth however is quite the opposite, and a sharp edge on the first quickdraw can mean a ground-fall at any moment in the route.

Obviously there are a ton of if’s, but’s, and maybe’s, but when your life is on the line I’d suggest airing on the side of caution. Perhaps it will make your On-sight physically a little harder, but placing your own draws will also stop all of your stressing, leaving your mind free to focus on the moves rather than worry if you might die if you fall off! 

• The other main failure point is the bolts themselves, but that subject is a black hole for opinions and solutions and in need of several articles in itself. What I will say here is that bolts can and do fail, and if you are unsure, even a little bit, then its better to back off. Look out for rust, and discolouration, check the integrity of the surrounding rock, and never, ever, lower off on a single bolt! Better to leave a few of your own biners than to take the risk. Is your life really worth less than ￡10?

Trad

Unlike sport climbing, most people who climb trad routes seem to have a grasp on the dangers it can involve, and pace their climbing accordingly. A lot of trad climbers, especially beginners, climb like they can never fall off, treating their gear and rope like a last resort backup. In doing so they progress slowly, or often not at all, as they are never pushing their physical performance levels nor testing and improving their gear placements. Finally when the time comes where they do go for something, or simply they slip and fall unexpectedly, its a little like playing Russian Roulette!

In my opinion it is crucial to work on, and ideally “master”, gear placements as early as you can, as it is only with an accurate understanding of the quality of your placements that you will be able to safely decide whether to push on or back off. You should be able to grade each of your placements, know what is good, what is bad, what you can happily fall on to and what is purely psychological. I say “master”, but learning to place protection is a process that is never really finished, you simply get better, quicker, more efficient and imaginative with time. 

Once you are competent at keeping yourself safe and you are happy pushing yourself at grades a little below your max “sport” on-sight level, you should never underestimate the difficulty and danger of “easy” routes, as even a warm-up can bite, and gravity works just as hard! Warm ups for trad should be warm ups for trad, not sport. I’ve personally been victim of my own overconfidence, trying to warm up on a grade that should be easy at a sport cliff, only to find myself run-out far above the last gear, and pumped out of my mind from being terrified and over gripping. Not a fun place to be. Most accidents trad climbing happen on easy terrain, rarely in harder routes when the climber is focused.

Just like sport climbing, pay serious attention to any fixed gear you find on your route, especially if climbing close to the sea. What might have once been a solid thread offering salvation at the end of a long run-out, can rot away to a worthless bit of tat in no time at all. Get as much information on the fixed gear in your route before setting off, and if in doubt, abseil in to inspect and replace anything crucial.

Yeah, you blow your on-sight, but you’ll live to tell the tale in the pub another day. I’ve personally snapped both pegs and threads, in routes the guidebooks called “clip-ups, when testing them on abseil with bodyweight only!“ If I’d gone for the route as the guide suggested, I’m not sure I’d be typing this today!

This is obviously a subject that could go on and on and on. Safety at the cliff should be our main priority, always, and forever, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up on having fun. With a few well thought out rituals and reminders, you can have a great, safe day out at the cliff, focussing the rest of your energy on what’s really important.