Abseiling is Dangerous (22 Dec 2001)
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
The January 2002 issue of High Mountain Sport (the official magazine of the British Mountaineering Council) contains an article by Andy Kilpatrick (mentioned elsewere in the same magazine as a new leading light in the British climbing establishment) in which, he states on page 66: “Forget all the old twaddle about joining ropes with reef knots and double fishermans, just go for the simple overhand knot…”
Abseiling is probably the the most dangerous aspect of climbing when, all of the equipment is stressed. Too many climbers have been killed whilst abseiling including, too many ‘famous’, very experienced climbers. To a man, they made a basic mistake – please don’t make the mistake of following Andy Kilpatrick’s potenbtially dangerous instructions when tying two ropes together… Regardless of who’s advice you follow – your decision, abseiling is one of the most dangerous aspects of climbing. Recently, advise was given by a UIAGM guide (on ukclimbing.com 19 July)) regarding abseiling on the Matterhorn. be extra careful: One of the two climbers ahead of me stepped forward and dropped his abseil rope over a two foot metal spike, positioned himself but failing to keep his weight low, leaned backwards and his rope flipped off the spike and his fall was witnessed for – too long. Be careful when abseiling on the Matterhorn – it is avoidable – you can down climb quite safely.
In 2000, two climbers were killed by rockfall after reaching the foot of a sea-cliff in Ireland. Rock, which may have been loosened by them, fell whilst they were still in the line-of-fire from above. They were taking part in a Charity Abseil.
Category : Misc
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.