Reminder, check your safety gear!

G

ghostguy6

Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
457
Just a reminder to everyone to check and double check your safety gear before you go out. I had a carabiner on my safety strap fail today that resulted in a 20 ft fall out of a tree. Two bruised ribs, chipped tooth, bit tongue and a lot of scratches could have been saved had I taken some more time to check over my gear.
Hopefully someone besides me can learn from my mistake.

It was actually a military issue carabiner that failed. Snapped at the gate. Supposedly rated to 2500 KG. I know Im a big boy but Im no where near close to that weight. The markings are "DIBBLEE - 2500 KG M.B.S" on one side and "8465-21- 896-8280 W8486-6-JXOC" on the other side.
 
Good heavens, dude, you're lucky not to be hurt worse! Good advice, though. Of course, the only safety gear I use is a lifting belt and some knee/wrist wraps ;)
 
steel or aluminum? aluminum caribiners can get micro-fractures from repeated impacts (I've made people "kiss better" gear they've dropped to drive home the point of being careful) Not saying that was the cause, but its a possibility to think about.

Glad you are Ok, and its a great reminder for everyone else, plus good on you for using a harness up a tree-stand (i assume thats what you were up to) far too many people still don't!

the MEC store in Edmonton would be a great place to look for a replacement, a few bucks for the membership, but MEC is a great supplier of climbing gear, and I know they try to keep knowledgeable people behind the desk in their climbing departments.
 
Well I decided to go back today to get the gear I couldn't carry out with me and found the remains of the carabiner. It was a steel carabiner. From the looks of it there may have been some crack from the forming process. I actually have several extra biners and next time I will be using them in tandem. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words......

IMG_0290.jpg


IMG_0291.jpg
 
That's nuts man! I've never seen a steel biner fail, let alone like that! Was it locked closed when you loaded it? or do you know? looks from the pic that the lock sleeve failed as well. how far did you fall before you hit the tether?
I know some guys who keep failed aluminum biners as reminders for other people, but its hard to find failed climbing gear that didn't end in a fatality......
Standard operation procedure when attaching a harness to rope or tether with biners is to put two of them so the gates are opposed, that way if by freak accident one gets unlocked and pushed open, that same movement can't get the other one as well, which has happened. (wasn't there, got the post incident memo)
I'm not sure I'd trust any of those biners if you have more of the same. Given the low comparative cost of new hardware, it might be worth looking into.
 
The biner was locked. I rigged up a rappel from the tree using some 1" tubular webbing and that biner as an anchor. The gate was placed to the outside of the tree and locked. I undid the safety tether after fixing the ATC to the rappel line and taking up the slack. I stepped off the platform of the tree stand expecting the rappel line to take my weight. (Ive done that hundreds of times without a problem) I heard a loud "twang" sound then realized I was in total free fall until I hit the ground. I think because I was in a semi sitting position at the start of the fall my feet must have hit the ground first breaking my fall but I cant be sure. I do remember laying flat on my back struggling to breath in intense pain.

Judging by the damage I'm assuming the spine of the biner failed first at an internal crack then all my weight was being held by the lock sleeve which immediately failed as well. The locking sleeve measures 0.106" at its thickest point so there is no way it could hold my weight. I'm going to call a metal lab tomorrow to see if they would be willing to take a look without charging me a fortune for their services.

All these biners have been taken out of my gear already and have been replaced. Next time I go up the stand Im going to be using 2 auto locking biners on the anchor.
 
wow scary stuff, You are very lucky to be alive a 20' fall is a long one, just be glad you did not land on something at the bottom. I do safety for a living and know the importance of checking gear. Unfortunately, in some cases a visual inspection will not reveal compromised equipment. I have some cheaper climbing biners that I just use for non load bearing activities and use higher end Biners for keeping safe. I like petzle but there are other good ones, still they can fail, there are risks when climbing 20-24 feet up a tree. I like to wear a lineman belt which wraps around the tree and is attached to the hip D rings on your harness. This reduces the load on the equipment. If you fall it just puts you against the tree hard and you might sing soprano for a while. Glad to hear you made it to hunt another day, have a good season.
 
I second using several in tandem, especially when you have the luxury of not actually climbing and needing to conserve equipment for use later up the rock.
 
From looking at the pictures, I can say that in my opinion, it looks like there was an impurity that weakened the metal and caused the carabiner to fail.
 
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