In 2006 a rappelling accident (abseiling for Australians) on the famous NW Ridge of Sir Donald resulted in a fatality. Fatalities are not unknown on Sir Donald. At almost 3300 metres high, all routes on the mountain are technical and the NW Ridge, an outstanding climb for it’s grade (5.4 or Ewbank 10/11), is sought after by both beginner and experienced alpinists alike. In 2009, Doug and I soloed the route, on a two day climbing trip which also included an ascent of the shorter but very similar south ridge of Uto Peak. In the 700 metres of exposed and sustained climbing up the NW Ridge of Sir Donald I recall touching only one loose rock! The route is simply superb, airy but easy for competent climbers, in a stunning location surrounded by the high glaciated peaks of the Selkirk Mountains.
The fatality accident was entirely preventable by the simple expedient of knotting the abseil rope and/or using a prussic back up. Contributing to the fatality was the use of two 8 mm (twin) ropes paired with a standard ATC belay device. With the climbers entire weight (pack plus body) on the rope, the ATC provided minimal friction and the climber was unable to hold on to the rope and fell off the end. There is a rather harrowing first person account here.
I thought about the Sir Donald accident when I read a Malaita Wall abseil report recently. Canyoners and abseilers in Australia seem to be almost psychotically averse to the use of simple safety measures such as knots in the ends of ropes or prussics. They will argue that knots in the end of ropes get caught in the wind (this is simple to prevent by using the classic mountaineering saddle bag technique) and prussics on the rope have the potential to be pulled into the belay device. Both of these things are true but neither of these complications are guaranteed to result in either death or severe disability. If you abseil off the end of the rope because you lose control serious complications are virtually guaranteed.
There are simple ways to add friction to an abseil set up. You can use two carabiners instead of one, or you can add a prussic – which has the added benefit of allowing you to take both hands off the rope if needed – you can even wrap the brake strand of the rope across your body behind your back as in a body belay. If a complete stop is needed to sort yourself out (would have been useful in the linked report) you can wrap the brake strand of the rope around your leg a few times. This, of course, won’t help much if you cannot keep yourself upright, but, by the time you are struggling to stay off horizontal so many things have already gone wrong that it is actually getting difficult to error correct.
Ironically, of course, many abseilers have very expensive abseil devices. Instead of spending over $300 on kit, $3 on a piece of accessory cord can work. Another quick, easy and inexpensive technique that could be used in this instance is the simple expedient (used frequently by ski mountaineers with heavy packs in crevassed terrain to avoid being flipped upside down in the event of a fall into a crevasse) is to loop a sling or cord around the shoulder straps of your pack where the sternum strap sits and clip a carabiner from this sling into the abseil rope above your abseil device. This will slide easily down the rope and hold the climber upright at the same time. Again, this will cost you a few bucks at most but may save your life. As always, the most fabulous, expensive and hyped gear is no substitute for hubris free thinking.
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