Finger caught in prussik

[Wolverine]

Once while rappeling out of a redwood on a single line,I got to the last branches losened my tension off my device to get around. When I sat back I let go hoping to stop to fix things and my finger got stuck in my prussik knot. So I freefell and bounced off the ground melted the top of my finger and nail off, turned black and blue from my shoulder down to me feet and was pretty shook. Well the next day I gimped up the rope and stayed off the ground for a couple weeks before rappeling again. Still climb almost everyday fortunatly, love to sleep in the branches.
Haven't made that mistake since.

 

[Remedy]

Ouch!! That sounds painful! How far did you fall?

Remedy

 

[Tom Dunlap]

What rap system were you using? Did you have a friction device backed up by a prusik? Did you use a brake-hand as a back-up?

It's hard for me to imagine a fall if a rap device were backed-up and a brake hand were used. This sort of near-miss accident enforces the statistic from mountaineering that more people are killed during descents/rapeling than ascending.

Glad to hear that you bounced and only lost a finger nail, not your life.

Tom

 

[Wolverine]

I fell from the last branch on Marvalous on Fri. the 13th 50 or so ft I was black and blue from my shoulder down to my knees that was along time ago.Rrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Wolverine]

I was using a large 8 might as well been a surf board, backed up by a chest prussik, but I let go to try an emergency stop.Thats when Newtons theories came into my life.

 

[RescueMan]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
This sort of near-miss accident enforces the statistic from mountaineering that more people are killed during descents/rapeling than ascending.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tom,

I've also heard this assertion any number of times, but when I looked at the statistics that's not what I found.

A compilation of mountaineering accident statistics from 1951 to 1997 shows that 59% of accidents occur on ascent compared to 36% on descent and that the overwhelming majority of mountaineering accidents are due to slips, trips, and falls on either rock or snow and ice (about 12 times the number of rappeling accidents). Falling rock incidents are also about double the number of accidents on rappel. While rappeling accidents are more likely, perhaps, to be lethal they are rare in the annals of mountaineering.

Another compilation I just read of Australian mountaineering and climbing accidents from 1954 to 2004 showed about 10% of overall serious accidents were falls during rappel (and that included canyoneering and other purely rappeling activities). Of the 204 rock-climbing accidents tallied, only about 6% were from falling on rappel. Lead falls represented 60% of the significant injuries and deaths, while being unroped accounted for nearly 12%. In mountaineering, rappeling accounted for less than 2% of serious incidents - most were falls and avalanches (about 30% each).

What was perhaps more interesting was that of those incidents in which helmet use was known, all the fatalities were not wearing helmets.

For the full report:
Accidents in Australia

- Robert

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Thanks for sharing what you've read. It shows, once again, that things can get repeated often enough to take on urban myth status.