Rock Climber falls 80ft in BGC

[jman]

Source: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12588657

Edit: BGC=BCC.
Ouch!

BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON --A 22-year-old rock climber was injured when he fell nearly 80 feet in Big Cottonwood Canyon Sunday.

According to James Blanton with the Unified Police Department's Canyon Patrol, the man was climbing with friends during a University of Utah rescue training class in the Dogwood Park area around 4 p.m. Blanton says the man's carabineer was improperly fastened and broke during descent.

"With that weight and with him pushing off as much as he did, he fell approximately 80 feet," Blanton said. "Halfway down he was able to catch himself on the rope, slow his descent down."

Blanton says the man hit a tree on the way down, possibly breaking several ribs. In addition, he suffered severe burns on his hands from grabbing the rope.

The man was taken to Intermountain Medical Center in serious condition. His name has not been released.

[Don]

Carabiner broke? KUER said it broke too. How does that happen?

Also, "Halfway down he was able to catch himself on the rope, slow his descent down."
Holy shit. :eek2:

[trackrunner]

Carabiner broke? KUER said it broke too. How does that happen?

I heard on a news report (ksl i think )it broke from improper rigging. perhaps break the gate from cross loading was the first thing that came to my mind

[Cirrus2000]

Hopefully this guy is able to have a full recovery - sounds like things could have been much, much worse. A fellow I know, with whom I have worked, had an accident on rappel many years ago while out rock climbing, and fell about 50 feet, breaking his spine. Lost the use of his legs (though he's still one of the most amazing athletes I know, taking part in paralympic racing, kayaking, etc.) One of those people who has risen to the challenge, rather than being defeated.

[Brian in SLC]

I heard on a news report (ksl i think )it broke from improper rigging. perhaps break the gate from cross loading was the first thing that came to my mind

Was TRing and instead of tying into the rope, clipped into a locking biner. Must have minor axis loaded the biner, and, my bet is the biner wasn't locked. Gate opened then "hyperextended". A side load will do that (I can do it to more than a few carabiners by hand). There's a photo of the carabiner on mtn project.

Accident report below. Speedy recovery!

-Brian in SLC

The University of Utah, Remote Rescue Training’s High-Angle Rescue Technician class got an amazing hands on practical experience during a field session this weekend. During a practice scenario at the top of the Dogwood crag in Big Cottonwood Canyon Sunday afternoon, a nearby climber not associated with the class fell approximately 80 feet to the ground. The class immediately stopped the scenario and switched in to “real” rescue mode. The lead instructor delegated 2 students to stay at the top of the cliff where cell phone coverage is more reliable and call 911 to initiate the Emergency Medical System. A hasty team with 2 instructors (both EMT’s) and 2 students (also both EMT’s) were immediately dispatched to the base of the cliff where the fallen climber landed. Two students went to the road to help efficiently direct EMS personnel to the patient. The remaining students and instructor packed up all equipment that seemed likely to be helpful, including medical equipment and the stokes litter and went down to the base of the cliff, on standby to assist as needed.

The hasty team arrived at the patient approximately 3 minutes after the fall. The patient, a 22-year old male, was found sitting up with his hands clenched to his chest. A full patient assessment was completed by the hasty team leader and Remote Rescue Training instructor, Nate Ostis. Due to the mechanism of injury, spinal precautions were maintained. As information about the patient came to light it was relayed via radio to the top of the cliff and then on to EMS dispatch. EMS arrived on scene, approximately 10 minutes after the fall, Unified Fire (the first EMS medical personnel on scene) packaged the patient on a backboard and used the Remote Rescue Training stokes litter and people power to help move the patient across the creek to the ambulance. The litter evacuation was non-technical and took approximately 2 minutes.

The rescue was initiated by University of Utah, Remote Rescue Training staff when they noticed a rope, which was fed through anchor chains on a nearby ledge, moving unusually quickly. When a knot at the end of the rope (not tied into anything) wedged up against the anchors with more force than one would expect in a normal climbing situation, lead instructor Andy Rich looked over the edge to see if the party below was okay. Initial verbal contact with the party below, made it clear that there had been an accident.

We know a few facts about how the fall occurred, gathered from our observations and interviews. The climber was top roping with his rope fed directly through the anchor chains. Rather than tying into the end of the rope with a figure 8 follow through, the climber had tied a figure 8 on a bight and clipped the bight into his harness with a locking carabiner. When the climber neared the top of the climb (approximately 80’ from the ground) he leaned back expecting to be lowered by his belayer to the ground. At that moment his attachment to the knot failed (for some reason the carabiner gate “hyper-extended” and the bight of the knot came free from the carabiner) and he began to free-fall. Realizing the dire situation he was in, the climber reached out and grabbed the only thing he could- the strand of rope between the belayer and the anchor. Initially there was no counter balance on the rope and he continued to free fall, but after a few feet the knot at the end of the rope wedged up against the chains providing resistance so that he was able to slow his descent by gripping the now “fixed” strand of rope. Approximately 15 feet from the ground, he hit and broke through a tree, which further slowed his descent- and may have caused some minor injuries in the process.

It is difficult to extrapolate exactly why the locking carabiner that he was clipped into failed to maintain his connection to the rope. The carabiner was found at the base with the gate “hyper-extended”- opened outward beyond the normal range of motion of a carabiner gate. There was no evidence of failure of the locking mechanism, although it seemed that the screw gate locking mechanism was in the unlocked position when it was found at the base. It is unclear how the carabiner was attached to the harness- into the single point of the belay loop or to the strong point(s) of the waist loop and/or leg loops.

For the students in the High-Angle Rescue Technician class, being on scene to assist in the response to this accident underscored the relevance and importance of proper training. It was a powerful learning moment to suddenly be the first on scene to a real climbing accident that happened to a nearby climbing party. They were glad to have been in place to be able to help out and learn in the process.

The High-Angle Rescue Technician class blends technical rope rescue skill with wilderness medicine and aims to analyze and understand current research as well as utilize practical techniques in scenario based learning. Students are required to have wilderness medicine training as a prerequisite and some climbing or rope rescue experience is recommended. At the time the course responded to this accident, they already had upwards of 60 hours of instruction and practice with personal on-rope skills, self-rescue, single and double rope systems, systems analysis, patient assessment, musculoskeletal injury management, spinal patient management, suspension trauma, packaging patients in a litter, raising and lowering litters, technical pick-offs, and more.

Seeing the accident at Dogwood and being in the position of first on scene bumped up the motivation- in an already exceptional group- to learn the skills presented in the class; the course went back up to the crag after the patient was evacuated by EMS and practiced more scenarios until after night fall.