Climbing is dangerous. Every time you climb you have to remember how dangerous it is—no matter how much fun you’re having. Yesterday I went out to the Garden of the Gods on the west side of Colorado Springs to evaluate a climbing accident that happened on the afternoon of December 30, 2008. I first heard about the accident that evening when a local TV news station reported that a climber had fallen after “his spike had broken.”
An older man in his early 50s, apparently a novice climber, made a serious rookie mistake but fortunately lived to climb another day. He was out climbing with his brother, a total beginner, on The Practice Slab, a smooth...read more
Photo above: The broken bolt that caused the accident.
Photograph © Stewart M. Green
There's been a lot of comments raving on the Web at MountainProject.com and RockClimbing.com about this accident and article. There are basically 2 schools of thought:
1. That the old bolt should have been chopped regardless of its historic value.
2. That everyone climbs at their own risk and makes their own evaluative decisions about their safety.
What are your thoughts? Should I have chopped the old bolt? Is the climber that fell totally responsible for his own safety? Go to the The Climbing Forum, log in, and post your thoughts and comments.
Comments
Hi Stewart. Thanks for your analysis and comments about the accident with the old bolts. And you, what did you learn about the accident. May I suggest you something. Go back the the anchor and cut the last old bolt. I don’t know why you didn’t do that when you install your knew anchor. I live In Québec and when the people install knew anchor, they make sure to leave nothing that could be dangerous. If you put knew bolt it’s because you don’t trust anymore the old one. Second, the fact about using the old bolts for a sort while (like for the moment that you install a anchor with the know bolts). Well I climb everywhere in the USA and Canada and it’s not a real problem if I clip the bolts and using them for the anchor. Of course it’s a bit jam once in a while but at least I using good bolts. Thanks to read me. Sylvain.
Sylvain, thanks for your thoughts about the bolts. You’re right that we should go back and cut out the other old bolt to avoid this again. As I have replaced old anchors and fixed pitons and bolts in the Garden of the Gods, I have tried to be sensitive to the historic value of some of the gear since the Garden is one of the older climbing areas in the US. While most of us climbers know that we should never trust our lives to a single piece of gear, some beginners are not aware of that, instead figuring if it’s there, it must be good. Thanks again.
Just read about the accident in the Garden & your write-up. Overall a very good thought on being vigilant about using anchors while on technical terrain.
One point to make is that you can have a single point be adequate, say a big f’n tree or rock. Usually a single point is totally obvious; load distribution is not so much. The trouble in rig choices seems to come from the thinking that load distribution is not important to be educated about and just go for a single point and “call it solid” (I have seen this in other applications aside from recreational climbing); aside from choosing bad bolts over good ones, decision making is a far more overarching — I guess — concept??.
Maybe it is also important to say: never trust a single marginal anchor; or, go for a solid anchor, or learn to distribute a load adequately among marginal anchor points and make a solid anchor. Anyway, just a thought, anchor concepts can get very complex; thanks for caring enough to write up a post accident analysis.
Have a happy new year — i’m playing in ouray getting my butt kicked on the ice!!
Hi Stewart,
Kust wanted to say that your blog is really good, gave me some good info.
Thanks
Paul