Accident report on Facebook

Ok. Glad dude is ok albeit banged up. But gear inspection by a qualified person could have saved this dude all this pain. No way that bridge should be in service. It is 10 years old minimum. Lordy. Bridges are easy to inspect....feel its length for diameter change, and any lumps. Never ever use self abraiding materials for a bridge....like technora or aramids. That cougar bridge recall is 11 years ago. That harness should have been destroyed 6 years ago. Damn I wear out a TM every 2 years..in that time I change a bridge 4 to 6 times.
 
LordFarkwad said:
Is it absolutely necessary that, leading up to this failure, the bridge had some sort of lumpiness to it, where the inner strands had begun successively failing? Or is it possible that this very old bridge did indeed go from ratty-looking to every single stand failing in a cascade, more or less immediately upon load application?

In the latter case, is this how aged textiles fail? Do they become this brittle?
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There is actually nothing "invisible" before a bridge failure. Every climb, pre-cimb inspection just before you clip in (at the latest), run the bridge through your fingers, feel for lumps, changes in cordage diameter etc. should feel consistent throughout. Visually inspect for frayed/worn cover fibers and core showing through in any way.

Note: it is normal for a compression area "kink" to appear on the OG Tree Motion where the bridge cordage goes through the attachment opening on the front D's. You can pull the stopper knot back and inspect that area, the cover will be compressed by the constant bend but should not be frayed and no core should be showing. For "double-braid" polyester bridges on similar stopper knot bridge anchors probably an important area to inspect since the cover is part of the cordage strength as opposed to the core strength only TM style bridge cordage.

Obviously as Steve C. mentioned the reports always say "probably" (damage visible before fail) but it is guaranteed it was visible and detectable on hand inspection.

That was a specific Technora fiber core, yes that's how Technora fails, very poor "focal point" flex fatigue characteristics. It's like side-loading a carabiner spine on a rock or cement corner as I'm sure you can imagine. Takes many more cycles to failure than alloy but ultimately the same idea.
-AJ
 
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moss said:
Note: it is normal for a compression area "kink" to appear on the OG Tree Motion where the bridge cordage goes through the attachment opening on the front D's. You can pull the stopper knot back and inspect that area, the cover will be compressed by the constant bend but should not be frayed and no core should be showing. For "double-braid" polyester bridges on similar stopper knot bridge anchors probably an important area to inspect since the cover is part of the cordage strength as opposed to the core strength only TM style bridge cordage.
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This has concerned me before, and this thread brought it again to my mind. It looks lumpy in that area, so I'm wondering what an internal failure at this point would look like as compared with the normal lumpiness.
 
I’m sure we all saw this, but the wear on this spot alone tells how old and ratty this bridge was. Who knows what the center of the bridge looked like before he left the ground.
 

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LordFarkwad said:
This has concerned me before, and this thread brought it again to my mind. It looks lumpy in that area, so I'm wondering what an internal failure at this point would look like as compared with the normal lumpiness.
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There isn’t going to be internal core failure there without the cover showing fiber abrasion/strand breaks/failure. I’ve dissected a few of them at retirement after longer than normal service life and even though the intact cover is heavily compressed at the side D opening pinch point the Dynerma core was in excellent condition in that part of the bridge in all cases that I inspected.
-AJ
 
moss said:
There isn’t going to be internal core failure there without the cover showing fiber abrasion/strand breaks/failure. I’ve dissected a few of them at retirement after longer than normal service life and even though the intact cover is heavily compressed at the side D opening pinch point the Dynerma core was in excellent condition in that part of the bridge in all cases that I inspected.
-AJ
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Great to know. Thanks, @moss!
 
I hope he gets good attention and has a thorough healing. I've heard of too many cases of men getting hurt or even killed where the assumption is they did something wrong, especially when electricity was involved, sometimes yes sometimes no.
 
Stumpsprouts said:
no. This is not what you should take away from this discussion. Think about it a second, metabolize what you’re reading, and try again.
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both my bridges are fine

what issue is there with backing stuff up?

I can, it doesnt affect my climbing, but it halves the chance I fall from a broken bridge

p.s I inspect my stuff every climb, its still a good idea to back up what I can
 
also, do you think the only thing I took from this is what I mentioned?


LOL


what I took from this: inspect yer shit
dont climb on damaged/worn out gear
backup anything you can (I.E Climbline AND lanyard for saw work)
and dont say your opinion on a public forum, because everyone will bitch about it
 
treesap said:
also, do you think the only thing I took from this is what I mentioned?


LOL


what I took from this: inspect yer shit
dont climb on damaged/worn out gear
backup anything you can (I.E Climbline AND lanyard for saw work)
and dont say your opinion on a public forum, because everyone will bitch about it
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I wouldn’t take it personally, it could be read by the concise statement that doubling up is the takeaway.

Similarly this idea has been gone over a fair bit in the Twin Line debate threads, so it’s an easy conclusion to make on what was stated.
 
Chaplain242 said:
I wouldn’t take it personally, it could be read by the concise statement that doubling up is the takeaway.

Similarly this idea has been gone over a fair bit in the Twin Line debate threads, so it’s an easy conclusion to make on what was stated.
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yeah
 
Stumpsprouts said:
The issue is that you need to trust in and believe in your gear. Inspect it, but trust it. Use it.
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yes

and I trust my gear
BUT, this is litterally a thread where a guy fell and almost died due to trusting his gear too much

I can back stuff up, weather I trust it or not


and, im going to replace on of my bridges, because although it passes inspection, I got my saddle used, and I have zero clue of the history of that bridge, for all I know its 30 years old and stored in a tub of bleach all those years
 
treesap said:
yes

and I trust my gear
BUT, this is litterally a thread where a guy fell and almost died due to trusting his gear too much

I can back stuff up, weather I trust it or not


and, im going to replace on of my bridges, because although it passes inspection, I got my saddle used, and I have zero clue of the history of that bridge, for all I know its 30 years old and stored in a tub of bleach all those years
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That’s the danger of second hand gear. I started the same way buying second hand And got stung - I had to replace about a third of my second hand gear within a month as it started falling apart - then got prudent and retired another third of the software within another month. Was handy to get started but cost me more than buying new straight away
 
Chaplain242 said:
That’s the danger of second hand gear. I started the same way buying second hand And got stung - I had to replace about a third of my second hand gear within a month as it started falling apart - then got prudent and retired another third of the software within another month. Was handy to get started but cost me more than buying new straight away
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agreed, working on buying new gear for anything possible as we speak
 
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