Don't let yourself be distracted!

Re: Don\'t let yourself be distracted!

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, I believe that the cold temperature and my bulky clothing contributed to the chain of events that led to this close call. Especially given the position of all the clutter. As we know... an accident is a series of events.

[/ QUOTE ]

No doubt the complexity of the climbing system increases the odds of an oversight. Glad you double checked and caught it!

A similar close call:
Several years ago I was top roped and leaned back in my lanyard and it felt a little funny on my hip. I looked down and I had clipped into the beaner holding my zubat to a tool clip on my belt. It held but it was quite an awakening. Winter clothing made visibility difficult but I have no excuse for not doing a visual check......except complacency!
 
Re: Don\'t let yourself be distracted!

Yeah distractions can be deadly. I had a scary situation yrs ago. I was air mailing the tip on this big old maple. Well the guy I was working for he always stayed tied in when he made his knotch for the record I always was against it. For a lot of reasons . You could cut to deep ,piece could be hollow etc. Well one day I got tired of hearing come on try it he always said it was easier to hang on line and get around front. Well I let my disgust get the better of me I figured if I do it once he would forget it. Well I made my box and somebody yelled something from the ground they wanted to change the direction alittle after alittle discussion . I started the saw to make my back cut thank god I always give everything a second look before I commit well low and behold my stupid a$$ didn’t untie. Now even though the piece would probably touched the ground before it pulled me in this situation ,but man that could have been bad.needless to say after a lot of swearing and hollering when I came down he never suggested it nor did I consider it again.I probably had only been in the saddle maybe 5yrs at the time. There is one thing I still say today I don’t care what or who it is or whats going on if something doesn’t look or feel right by all means say something ask lets re look at the situation, I would rather take a couple of extra minutes if there is any doubt and have a good out come then a sad or tragic ending. Keep it safe
 
Re: Don\'t let yourself be distracted!

TC1,

A tip that Laz shared a while ago when making the face cut while being tied into the piece you're facing bears repeating here.

Besides all of the usual inspection and awareness issues that only the climber can take care of this is one time when the climber has a groundie doing nothing but observing the climber. The groundie holds the tail of the climber's rope and tails the rope out of the drop zone. The groundie makes sure that the climber unties and reties before cutting off the top.

When climbing systems get more complex the level of inspection needs to increase.
 
Re: Don\'t let yourself be distracted!

Thanks for sharing Taylor. Do you think walkie talkie connection to the ground would have helped? We use them on crane jobs and other weird removals and I think they are great. Not to mention the universal hand signal for, "hang on just a second while I ignore you and take care of my own stuff" - the middle finger.
 
Re: Don\'t let yourself be distracted!

[ QUOTE ]
"hang on just a second while I ignore you and take care of my own stuff" - the middle finger.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really, and all this time I thought the guy on the ground was saying I was Number 1. Damn that guy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom