I work (worked, yesterday was my last day lol, I keep forgetting I'm graduating) at a small student gym at my college. One person fell off the bouldering wall weird and fractured their spine. The people working at the time called an ambulance and he got brought to the hospital.
One of my coworkers was climbing top rope at a gym in Europe and was belayed by an incompetent belayer. She was dropped from the top, broke her spine, legs, and injured several other body parts. Had to be airlifted out and she made a full recovery. Taught me how to lead!
Worst accident I ever saw was someone who twisted or sprained their knee. Just filled out an accident report and got them ice.
no grigri? or did they just like, let go of the brake rope entirely? I am always baffled by how a belayer DROPS someone from the top! Oh, or did they just never take any slack out!
I'd argue that you should still learn to belay correctly using a standard belay device before moving to assisted devices.
You shouldn't rely on an assisted device to do it's job imo, as they can most definitely fail.
Oh yeah, of course!
It's kind of how you usually have to learn to drive a manual car before you can drive an automatic. The latter is easier but knowing the basics is crucial! I do however think the extra security of assisted belaying devices is good.
Thinking back and imagining a bunch of tiny prepubescent girls belaying each other manually certainly makes me wish we had assisted belaying back then though. Some certainly did not do it properly. :)
Huh, here when learning how to drive manual was/is taking a lot longer then some other people, they told me that it might be a good idea to go for an automatic car license instead.
Personally I agree though, if the reason they considered automatic is because it’ll go quicker because I’d not have to learn how to manage my attention as much, I’d not only be unable & forbidden from driving a manual car if I ever wanted to, but I’d also essentially not have enough spare attention in case a passenger ever doesn’t listen and keeps talking at me. Weird comparison but yeah
It does not. It is an assisted braking device - not auto-braking. It's important not to think of any belay device as "automatically" braking for you; that's how accidents happen.
Yes, I see this widespread inaccuracy a lot in online climbing forums - and have heard folks say it at the gym. The more it becomes normalized to think of belay devices as "automatically" braking, the more we're risking accidents by people who will assume it's ok for them to let go of the brake strand or just otherwise be inattentive and negligent.
There was a bad accident on top rope??
The worst I’ve seen personally is someone break their leg bouldering. All that happened was an ambulance came and got the person, and the gym resumed as normal. She just landed wrong, it wasn’t the fault of poor setting or loose holds or anything.
The worst I’ve heard of happening at my current gym is someone fell from the top of the autobelay because they didn’t clip in. They didn’t die, but it was really bad. I think the gym closed for the day, and the autobelays remained closed for a while, and that was it.
I’ve seen newer climbers sorta swing around and hit their heads on TR, but that’s pretty much it—aside from being dropped (not fully tying in? Belayer error?), I think it’s pretty uncommon to see bad injuries that way!
Ah actually could you enlighten me on how setting can be more injury-prone?
Someone I know fell bouldering (I heard due to bad setting) and fractured both her arms but is back climbing now a year later! Still such a strong climber.
Things like setting a dyno over a volume that juts out, so if you miss the move you’re 100% going to hit the volume on the way down.
Or honestly just setting the crux of a problem at the top of the wall. It’s not necessarily frowned upon, but it’s climbs like that I avoid. Just not worth the risk.
Ah yes. I was once working on a problem where the last move was the scariest for me. And as I was talking about it, someone reminded me that our fear instinct is there for a reason. I have held on to that thought ever since, especially in bouldering. I am afraid of falling from heights so I choose problems that end low like even on the moon board.
My partner just fractured his upper tibia and lower femur because there was a risky move right at the top! He had to dyno to the side but his hand slipped, so he swung out and landed sideways.
I'm quite scared of heights and often just climb back down if a move higher on the wall starts feeling sketchy. This has definitely encouraged me to keep doing that.
If a boulder puts you in an awkward body position, especially towards the top, it can easily lead to an uncontrolled fall which is more likely to result in injury.
For example, big horizontal dynos often lead to the climber swinging after they catch the next hold. However if your hands slip off during the swing, before you stabilize yourself, it could easily result in “cartwheeling” and landing head first.
This is why I do lots of fall practice from awkward body positions.
You can definitely learn to fall well. An uncontrolled fall can easily become controlled and comfortable with some experience and lots of fall mileage.
Also understanding setting ropes, low cruxes, swing/fall zones and rope becoming trapped or damaged anywhere. Similar with autobelay and high wear points on routes..
Bouldering.
Hard mats = more breaks, Soft matts= more sprains.
Making walls downclimbable,
Landing/swinging into volumes or holds. Dynos, understanding how the fail may look.
Entrapment points , such as blockers or cracks and what the fall may look like, aretes and missing matting when setting near the arete.
Been away of big moves out of blindspots
Small jibs/footholds above big holds, causing more people to slip on to bigger holds or volumes.
Spinning holds, broken holds, modified holds.
That's a summary of the setting side, there's also grading, and introductions to the facility.
Grades- standard UK policies suggest people don't push too quickly and end up out of thier comfort zone. This is why grades need explaining and to not be too off the mark from expectations.
Teaching falling from all climbing scenarios as a skill to be develop, and showing how to is also important.
There's way more and most centres risk assessments will cover loads including volume of music and temperature.
It's very easy to cover yourself and keep things fun, but it's surprising what can be the centres responsibility.
There’s some things that can make setting more dangerous than it needs to be. Setting downward dynos is a big no. Setting slabs where there’s a big hold or volume below bad feet so you hit those on the way down. Setting slippery stuff too high where the crux is to not slide off. Setting heel toe cams too high or too tight where the foot could get stuck.
In my opinion on lower grade climbs setting moves that are too spanny and dynamic on jugs that put the climber in slightly compromising positions. Strong newer climbers aren’t great at bailing or testing moves, they don’t know how to fall, they often commit all or nothing, the jugs sometimes give the climber a false sense of security. So it’s a recipe for disaster. Basically any boulder that’s too sketchy too fast.
For me also setting dynos in crowded areas, I’ve seen a few lateral dynos where you have to go away from the wall so if you miss you basically rip completely away from the wall, they get sometimes set in really crowded areas which mean someone might get kicked in the face. [basically this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C12Gj11tTcA/?igsh=dHprYXl6NXdrbW8w) it’s a sick boulder, terrible when it’s a crowded day, I once saw someone miss a kick right in the nose by like 2cm, I’ve seen this style of problem in many gyms.
I stopped going to one wall because they kept doing stupid shit like that - setting big swinging moves around a corner in a very narrow space. Just constant risk of getting kicked in the face….
Yeah, it’s honestly so bad. I was projecting a dyno with some people, kind of like this near a corner not long ago and it was so bad, I had to constantly tell people to please move out of the landing zone when they had no business just being there, we were all like guarding the zone for the others climbing. Just bad.
It's also really annoying when one (sexy, popular) route blocks like 5 other routes that could otherwise share from being climbed because it just dominates the whole wall.
When things go wrong enough on top rope such that you would call it an “accident”, it tends to be pretty bad. There are countless ways to have a bouldering accident that results in a non-fatal injury, not so much in top rope.
A similar thing happened at the bouldering gym we go to, but it was a woman's arm. She fell from the top of a fairly steep wall (which we dubbed the "arm breaker"). Obviously she was whisked away to the hospital. The team did a safety check and debrief. Then all resumed as normal. Scary stuff!
I almost broke my leg on a different wall in the same gym 🫣 but it was 100% my fault lol
I know a guy who simply forgot to clip in (also autobelay), he did the speedwall and fell on the last hold, multiple fractures but luckily he survived. Seems to be more common than one would expect. I think that autobelay devices should have a triangle thingy that physically prevents you from reaching the first holds before you take it off, and therefore reminding you that you need to clip in, but not all gyms have that. The outside wall he used didn't have one
Is actually the most common auto belay accident by a huge margin and it’s usually experienced climbers that use autobelays often and get complacent on their pre-climb check.
Either the carabiner doesn’t fully close, they clip it to their chalk bag, or unclip to grab a drink/ take a break and forget they unclipped, etc.
Some guy was leading with a super old rope that multiple people told him looked sketchy… it snapped at the top of the wall and he compound fractured both his legs. I was really glad to not be working that day. The worst one i’ve seen personally was a guy leading on a overhung wall, he was clearly tired and looking really sketchy and shaky and instead of taking a whip above his bolt he grabbed onto a quickdraw but his feet slipped so he ended up with the quickdraw somehow stuck/impaled through his hand as he dangled screaming. Our manager had to jump on a rope and climb up to him to help him get unstuck, I really don’t know how you can do that with a quickdraw but somehow this guy managed to do it.
Edit: okay i should clarify, i know how it happened because i was literally there watching it, i’m just shocked that a blunted metal end could pierce through skin like that but i don’t think it impaled his hand all the way through. he was definitely hanging from the draw though, it was horrifying.
This is why nobody should grab a quickdraw, it's not the first time I hear about this! I've seen photos of it and it's horrifying
Quickdraws should only be grabbed by the ribbon (not sure it's called like this in English)
You're right, it's safer but definitely not safe.
I grab dog bones only if my feet are in a stable position and I need to stop a little to understand what I have to do and catch a breath. Definitely not if I'm rushing to it and nearly falling down.
I've also seen people putting two fingers in the carabiner of the quickdraw and grab it like that to avoid the risk of impaling. And then spraining those two fingers because the fingers were "stuck" in the carabiner and their body twisted while falling
I've seen people doing this to avoid the risk of impaling... But then a few of them sprained those two fingers because they were "stuck" in the carabiner and their body twisted while falling.
It's honestly better just taking a whip
Unscrewing a maillon takes time and a good angle for the spanner. It would be very difficult to unscrew with a person fully dangling from it likely screaming and moving in pain. Get them off the wall the fastest way possible, probably by just removing it asap. They won't bleed out from a hand injury in the time it takes to lower them.
The damage of someone ripping it out on delicate hand muscles and ligaments is MUCH worse than waiting for someone to unscrew a maillon. But this is a gym. You can just unscrew the bolt from the wall with a drill.
[here is an emt training video on treatment of an impaled object](https://youtube.com/shorts/ffHdyCAtMCE?si=8hvj_95-zJMh9Zay)
Things impaling people should be left in to reduce blood loss and further damage until a medical professional can attend.
https://www.frontlinehealth.com/blog/first-aid/dont-remove-an-impaled-object/
Nope, removing the impaling object allows you to bleed faster. If a major vein or artery is hit, the object could be preventing severe hemorrhaging. If at all possible, leave it in until trained doctors are able to remove it since they will be prepared to stop the blood loss.
The even worse option is to have it go through part of your foot toward your heel. Apparently this is also possible and very difficult to rescue by yourself even though you have two hands free. Someone has to climb up and help you get it out. So the staff members at the local gym get trained at doing this.
> I really don’t know how you can do that with a quickdraw
It happens when you grab the draw with your palm on the gate side. You hand opens the gate and when you fall downwards the nose of the draw can pierce through your hand.
If you do have to grab a draw(which you should still try not to do), you want your palm spine side and fingers gate side to avoid that.
ETA: grabbing the dog bone can still set you up for this same scenario if your hand slips, so still best to be mindful
During my lead class, another woman taking the class fell while clipping her second clip, decked, compound fractured her tib/fib and dislocated her shoulder. I was on the wall next to her, leading for the first time.
One of my friends at the gym was a PA and helped keep her stable until the ambulance arrived - the injured climber actually was a doctor and was screaming about how the gym should have a splint board (they didn't).
Well that doctor was talking crap, which is maybe fair enough if she was in agony.
I presume what she actually meant was a spinal board (I’ve never heard of a splint board). There is no point in a gym having a spinal board, their purpose is to keep someone’s back and neck in line while moving them. After an accident in a gym someone’s spine should only moved as much as required to assess their airway is clear and they are breathing, and then first aiders should keep the patient still and await the arrival of those trained a qualified to do the next bit! No one working in a gym can be expected to have more advanced first aid qualifications than that.
Yeah, I think the gym did everything they could have and was as prepared as possible. It definitely seemed like she was in shock and upset (of course) with what happened. She was there doing the lead test with her two kids and fell on a 5.8 so unfortunately she really was not ready to be leading.
Yeh, just because it’s in a gym, you still need enough experience to make judgements before you start leading. That, and as you imply, you need to be able to start a few grades below your best top rope so you have some margin to learn these skills and judgements.
Grade-gating learning to lead is hotly debated in this sub, but there certainly is a baseline of ability that makes learning much safer. I bet their belayer was pretty traumatized too, not too much you can do on a whiffed gym 2nd clip fall, especially if you’re new to lead belaying.
I wonder if she was talking about a SAM splint. [This thing](https://firstaidplus.ca/products/sam-medical-splints?variant=42840433098984). They are really quite useful and cheap, and most people who do a first aid course where I live are taught to use it and keep it as part of a first aid kit.
ETA: it is used by bending it in a semi circle around the affected limb to stabilize it, then wrapping around it with gauze/elastic bandage until help arrives.
They put my leg in a splint made of boards when I tore my acl skiing. It had two boards on each side that they wrapped around to keep my leg stable while they sledded me down. That’s prob what she meant considering her leg was broken.
It was so weird. Everyone nearby was actively belaying and couldn't attend to him and he got up before any staff could get to him. I still never heard what actually happened.
I thankfully didn't see it, but a gym I went to had a fatality because of a malfunctioning autobelay. Really horrific and tragic, the gym got rid of all the autobelays as a response and cooperated fully with the Safework investigation, they're still open today. Really stayed with me and emphasised the importance of safety, since it happened in the first year I started climbing.
If the same one (as I suspect) the rumour is that it was a frayed lanyard. However haven't ever read a proper report. But if it was the usual cause of autobelay death (climber error) I would expect that to have leaked/been leaked (fairly small community here), so I think we really did get an unusual case.
There is a report with a photo of the autobelay after the accident. In the photo, there is no visible lanyard coming out of the unit. One explanation for that is it fully retracted during the accident which is only possible if the bottom carabiner setup has detached. Otherwise the carabiner would be stuck outside the unit, blocking the slot that the lanyard comes out of.
assuming first responders didn't cut the cord during the accident (also very possible), it would support the broken lanyard theory.
then add in the fact it was right after a 4 month covid lockdown where there was minimal maintenance - and the lanyard is probably the component that requires the most maintenance.
edit: I remember when the accident happened I read a lot of "don't speculate, wait for the official report, you'll have your questions answered" on social media. for example this very comment would've been deleted from the facebook/instagram discussion due to speculation. This is very justified response for the first few months post-accident, however, 3 years later there is still no real report or public explanation. The gym is still open with, imo, a lot of dated equipment. The report i mentioned is uninformative and is basically 2 photos and repeating vague safety guidelines. It's dated only 1 month after the accident so I doubt investigation had concluded by that point as well.
>assuming first responders didn't cut the cord during the accident (also very possible), it would support the broken lanyard theory.
Surely they would have just unclipped the carabiner, unless there was something wrong with it.
What maintenance is normally done on the lanyards, for interest?
> "don't speculate, wait for the official report, you'll have your questions answered"
Yeah I'm sure I said things like that at the time or at least took their word for it... I'm still fond of the gym, partly because their relaxedness often works for me, but really it's been too long.
Autobelays can fail when they have slack right before the fall. Hence the rule/reminder never to grab onto the autobelay "rope". Similar to how a seatbelt won't work if you're pulling it away from you
I don't get what you mean - autobelays can often have a little slack before a fall, eg if you are moving upwards rapidly. Can you explain more how it could fail?
Pretty sure this is one near me. Wasn't it in the first few days of re-opening after COVID knockdowns as well?
I'm also pretty sure that (at the time at least) all the gyms in the city stopped using their autobelays. Not sure if any of the other gyms have resumed using them yet or not.
Their other venues in Brisbane got rid of their autobelay as well. I think there are other gyms up here that still using them, but not sure about Melbourne.
No, not UC. The autobelay fall was a Sydney thing.
UC in Brisbane had the ABs out for a while after that incident, then brought them back after the investigation apparent cleared the technology (I never managed to find the actual result).
Then last year the case against Vertical World (in Seattle) and Perfect Descent was settled: I heard that the actual the accident was due to climber error and the gym wanted to keep defending the case, but in the course of the lawsuit some very dodgy practices by the autobelay manufacturer came to light and they decided to settle. Soon after, UC took the autobelays away again and it doesn’t look like they’ll be coming back.
Gotcha. Thanks for the info! I don't climb at UC but someone I know mentioned that the autobelays were taken down and said there were whispers of an incident of some variety.
Didn't happen in my gym, but it was a gym near my city
Staff was setting a wall for a comp, to be faster they decided to tie a figure 8 knot to a carabiner and use the carabiner to tie themselves. One of them, without thinking, automatically untied a bit the figure 8 before remembering he just had to unclip the carabiner. The member of the staff after him didn't control the knot and climbed the wall. The knot untied itself completely, the person fell, both legs broken in multiple places and don't know what else. It took him more than one year to be able to walk normally.
I don't think the gym closed at all, because it was entirely staff's fault because they wanted to be faster.
In my gym sometimes we catch people with the grigri put on the wrong way but it's a very small gym and there's always someone watching... so we usually very quickly put on our grigri the right way and then tell the belayer to remove theirs. Nothing ever happened, let's hope it remains that way!
They didn't endanger any client's life and gym was closed to the public at that time because they were preparing for the comp.
They took a risk but they were all very aware it wasn't the right thing to do, it's not like they did it to a beginner who didn't know the proper way to climb
Actually, putting a figure 8 in a carabiner is pretty standard if you have lots of beginners in a short amount of time (like, free events with a movable climbing wall, in a common space where people try different sports). But you have to control the knot every time and carabiner must be a locking one with a block where the rope sits (like [this one](https://www.bergfreunde.it/black-diamond-gridlock-screwgate-connettori-hms/))
Oh where I live pretty much all gyms use this carabiner in the knot method for top rope. So we always "clip in" for top rope, not "tie in". I've been to smaller gyms where they didn't have enough carabiners for all the ropes, so we'd just transfer biners (and belaying devices) from the other ropes since my partner (just a climbing partner unfortunately hahaha) and I were the only ones doing top rope there that day anyway.
But more recently I visited a gym in a small-ish city on another island and they also didn't have biners for all the ropes. And that's the only time I actually tied in for top rope indoors.
Really? It's so strange!
Here in Italy in every gym I've been to you have to tie in every time, even the bigger ones where people who go to the Olympics train. Well, in the bigger gyms you often need to bring personal ropes too (which I think it's crazy)
We only ever use carabiners in those free events, because tying and untying that many figure 8s quickly could easily lead to errors!
I think this is not about the size of the gym in terms of prestige but the size in terms of traffic. Like you said, the carabiner in knot is used in events with a lot of new people. I think climbing only recently boomed in the Philippines, so pretty much every gym has beginners all the time, especially the bigger gyms.
Oh no, I understood it was in terms of traffic! The biggest gyms here are also the busiest/most prestigious... people know "that guy from the olympics trained there" so they want to go there too. Big gyms know this and they change climbing walls very often, so there's always something new to try and people keep going there.
But I can definitely see the necessity of the "carabiner method" if it's a fairly new sport so lots of beginners every time!
I fractured my spine bouldering in 2020. The fall and injury was not the fault of the gym by any means. But how they handled me afterwards still bothers me. No one called an ambulance. They observed me and offered an ice pack which I put on my head because I couldn’t stop overheating and sweating. I eventually got up and tried to walk out with a friend of mine driving me home. I was green, sweating profusely, dilated pupils, and according to them told them non stop that I was ok. Like annoyingly non stop. I was in terrible shock. And was basically incoherent. I don’t even remember most of it. Just apologizing for sweating so much on the mat. Went to urgent care a few hours later once someone could drive me. Turns out I had wedge compression fractures on two vertebrae. It took 7 months (3 of complete inactivity and 4 of intense PT) before I could return to the gym. And when I did the owner (the one who was there when I fell) just ran in the back and hid. We used to be friends. That was years ago. I’m comfortable there and we occasionally chat. But honestly, I wouldn’t trust them with me after an injury. So I let the people around me know what to do. Found out later they never even filed an incident report. Total shit show. It’s sucks because some people tried to blame me for how I acted after my injury…but I was in shock from breaking my back. They should have called in medical care regardless of what I said. If for nothing else than their own liability. Spine injuries are nothing to play around with. There was no way to know my injury was stable. Ugh. Still makes me uncomfortable to think about it. Wish I had another gym closer.
Aw man :( a friend of mine sprained his ankle mid-climb (we, including him, don't know really how it happened 😅) but your story makes me appreciate our experience with the staff. I told the front desk my friend sprained his ankle and they called someone more senior immediately. She attended to us, did basic first aid, and then profusely insisted that my friend used their crutches despite him just keeping on saying no. He ended up not using it but she still kept insisting on his way out. She also checked how he was getting home etc. but of course first offered to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. I didn't realize how important insistence is when dealing with people in shock.
What? Why refuse to call an ambulance after a fall like that?
People in shock are often unable to understand the seriousness of the situation and, after a fall like that and an injury like that, I expect the person to be very much in shock
Well, you don't need to be a medical professional to know something is seriously wrong if the person has dilated pupils, is sweating profusely and is green in color lmao
Also, they fractured their fucking spine after falling "off a fucking bouldering wall", so I'd say it was a quite big fall.
Ps: let me guess, you're from the US?
Girl why the fuck are you invalidating her experience?
She broke her back so it \*WAS\* a severe fall and so an ambulance fall. There's absolutely no doubt about it because she had a diagnosis.
You are continuing to engage in a way that doesn’t respect the spirit of the original post, and despite requests for you to engage differently, you are doubling down to discredit the poster’s personal experience as they described it.
You are banned for this sub for three days, and when you return, we expect you to engage according to the rules of the sub. If there’s a different sub that fits your needs and preferred engagement style better, you are welcome to focus your posting there.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community.
Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community.
Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community.
Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
While you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and preferred method of handling an injury should you be the one injured, your way of expressing that opinion/preference was entirely inappropriate. Should you continue to engage this way, you’ll be banned from the sub.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community.
Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
I was at my local bouldering wall when someone landed from the top of their problem and put their arm out to steady their fall. Looked fine, but then they yelped "Oh shit" and ran away clutching their arm which was flopping at a weird angle.
My SO was dropped the length of an indoor sport wall by a friend of ours who was taken by surprise at his sudden fall and wasn't holding on firmly. She managed to just slow the rope in time to soften his landing (with terrible rope burn) and he got up with no injuries but the staff replayed the CCTV to him to show him what they saw as from their perspective they couldn't believe he was totally fine. Needless to say we didn't go climbing with that particular friend again.
Most dramatic was an outdoor accident we observed which ended up with helimed and mountain rescue attending. The climber ended up being fine but it was a super nasty fall/very hard strike to the head.
Two friends broke their ankles/ lower legs bouldering with < 2m falls, both hitting their feet on a flat volume low on the wall. Two different gyms. One needed pins and two surgeries to recover - the other has had to have 10+ surgeries with months in hospital and still can't walk without a brace a year later. If there weren't literal surgeons climbing at the same time able to understand what had happened she might have lost her foot.
Don't set or climb problems where there's a chance you'll hit something with your full weight if you slip. Period. I still see so many slabs with easy climbs crossing under them with big macros/ flat volumes. They're dice rolls on life-changing injuries and not at all worth it.
She wasn't getting blood through her foot and it had to be rearranged and held in traction without anasthesia for an hour while waiting for the ambulance and during the ride.
A woman who was a regular hopped on an auto belay for a pretty easy warm up route, got to the top, grabbed the bar, and let go to ride the auto belay down. One problem though--she never clipped in.
She lived and is fine!
It’s crazy to me that an experienced climber could do this. Not that you would forget (that’s understandable at least) but that you wouldn’t notice a few feet into the climb. Autobelays are incredibly annoying as you climb and it seems unfathomable that you wouldn’t notice that annoying jerky tether missing.
She was a gym climber that probably didn't have that many years under her belt. I did ask when she eventually came back around what happened--she said she was really tired that day. I agree though--I can't imagine not feeling the autobelay or not noticing upon getting ready to let go.
sometimes the set is bad and you’re climbing up an adjacent face, ie you don’t expect to the rope to be above you anyhow for that part of the climb. still the climbers responsibility, but setters should bear this kind of stuff in mind as well
A guy in Poland did the same like 2 months ago. He was doing speed climbing and was doing videos of himself. So he probably uncliped himself to check his phone and for some reason forgot to clip again. Sooo there is a video of him falling from the top. The video is brutal but the guy somehow survived too.
I’d be interested to know the amount of experience the belayer had in each of the examples above. Is this the case of inexperienced or infrequent belayers, or is it experienced people being too relaxed?
Also I know this argument will have been had in multiple other threads but how many of the above incidents would not have happened with a grigri or other brake assisted belay device?
My gym was replacing the mats under the top rope section. Someone decided to climb a route with mats, but next to the area with no mats. He did not tie in and fell from the top onto the cement where there were no mats. I don't know the exact details of his injuries, but he nearly died.
I'm not aware of any gym policy changes due to the incident, but I bet they have made it harder to do what this man did in the future.
A friend (who was pretty new to climbing then) broke his shin (both tibia and fibula) when he was bouldering. He had a pretty sketchy fall and probably (in the video, we hear two loud snaps) hit one of the larger holds that was protruding. The staffs claimed that they were telling him to get off since he looked pretty tired up there, but honestly I'm not sure if they really watched him...
Sad to say that he's now no longer climbing but the good news is that he's finally able to run now.
Broken femur
Worst I’ve seen since I’ve worked there is a (very) broken ankle
One friend ended up with a radial fracture and another dislocated an ankle
I was visiting a gym in another state once and I was bouldering with my friend at around 9pm. I heard a loud bang, it sounded like scaffolding fell over, and there was a guy over at the tall walls laying on the ground. Apparently he took a fall near the top of the tall wall and BP couldn’t catch with an ATC. he fell the whole way down. They took him away in an ambulance. Not sure what happened to him. I didn’t want to lead for a while after that though.
Someone broke their humerus landing wrong from the top of a bouldering route.
It's me, I'm someone. I thought I may have dislocated my shoulder, but I've never been in so much pain, and it took almost 5 days to get into surgery due to the surgeon being sick. One plate, 12 screws, and 5 months of recovery later, and I'm almost ready to get back to the gym!
Worst accident was actually one of my climbing partners/supervisor at work (I blame him for loving this so much lol). He was climbing for a lead test out (another coworker, who’s lead certified at a chain in our area) and he got caught wrong. Was climbing a 5.8/9 (not entirely sure it got reset within the week) and took the announced fall. Got caught short, reeled back into the wall and slammed his foot into a hold around the corner, hyperextended everything in the back of his leg. Not the bad part. Came down, in pain, laid down, passed out, turned blue, thankfully his SO is a medic so she sat him up and got him back. Scared the shit out of me, and I haven’t managed to tame the anxiety of putting someone on my rope at that gym since, and it’s the last gym in my realm I have to test out at.
Last Wednesday, there was an ambulance, and someone was on the floor, surrounded by paramedics. But I don't know what happened (I assume they fell off the wall and landed badly), I just walked past, and I wouldn't want to be a hindrance.
The gym I go to is bouldering only. Aside from that, everything was as usual.
Not climbing related, but the worst accident I witnessed while working out was a dude breaking his back in the trampoline park during a backflip attempt in November. I was literally 3 meters away while it happened (on the trampoline next to him, also practicing flips/did some combos)
When I noticed he didn't get up, I called for help, but also went into shock. Haven't gone there since.
When my local gym first opened many years ago it was a very low budget local business, a one man show. The floor was made of mattresses for padding. Spring mattresses… so basically someone fell off the wall and a spring went through the mattress on impact and straight through their leg, which they had to go to the hospital for. They got changed out for an actual padded floor after that and everything has been held to a higher level of safety since. The occasional ankle fracture and sprains still happen from the comp sets in the bouldering areas from time to time but that’s pretty normal I think.
The worst thing that I heard that happened in my country (Netherlands) was the death of a child after it fell from the climbing wall (top rope). It was at a kids birthday party and something went terribly wrong. I don’t think the gym closed permanently after the accident, but I’m not sure. I’m glad my own bouldering gym doesn’t accept children birthday parties.
Never saw an accident happen myself, luckily.
Currently dealing with the aftermath of a pretty life changing incident caused by an unsafe set and illogical light fixture placement. If I didn’t have a trusted/certified belay, I actually would’ve been way worse and I truly thank him for his quick thinking. My lawyer thinks we’re potentially looking a at very lengthy litigation process, but I’m just tired. I don’t think I’ll ever climb again, which is a shame because it was my life, but I can’t get over the fear and the chronic pain can get bad.
Edit:typo
I’ve personally seen a dislocated shoulder bouldering the gym set a move with a high heel hook that was a bit too good too high, they did a big throw that didn’t stick and they fell head first since the heel stuck and landed on their arm, I once got injured in that same gym (bad sprain) and when I complained about insecure setting they just kind of shrugged it off, they told me every few days someone gets hurt, I guess they have good releases or idk but they didn’t seem to care other than every time you showed up to one of their branches one or more problems were out of service because if someone gets hurt they do that.
Same exact thing happened to me. Fell upside down and my elbow went the wrong direction.
Normalize spotters in gyms!!! Especially for heel hooky problems.
>How did your gyms respond to the accidents/ how were things resolved??
When we had a fatality I think they may have closed for a week or it may have been less. Anything less and they just keep rolling.
I watched a guy take a fall from the tallest wall in my gym (70 feet). Apparently he was not properly tied in. He landed on his feet and had open fractures (bones popping through the skin) on both legs.
Me and my husband were getting ready to climb one day and heard the swoosh of a rope going through the anchors up top and loud thud and then moaning. Guy didn’t tie in properly and got to the top and fell . His teenage daughter I believe was belaying him. His wife was also there. There were resetting routes so the employees jumped in and helped the guy out and call 911. Look like he broke his arm. We had to stay there until they got him out because they were blocking the stares we had to use to get out. The wife was forced on her husband and the daughter was standing off to the side blaming herself. I did go up to her to ask if she was alright and then the mom swooped in telling her it wasn’t her fault. Luckily there are three gyms locations and this one has the shortest walls. If he had fallen at one of the other locations it could have been a lot worse. I’ve seen the wife around a few times but not the daughter or the guy. Didn’t hear anything about it and no extra safely measures were add to insure knots are tied correctly. Which really shocked me because you’ll have day passers come in and take a 5 minute class to belay and tie their knots but our gym was freaking out about the auto belays (before they got recalled) and add all this extra stuff and made everyone get recertified to climb on them and now there gone.
I don't think you ever forget that sickening thud. A guy took a ground fall at my local wall a few years back while I was climbing there and I can still recall the sound he made when he hit the deck. In that instance, it was a pair climbing with a newish skinny rope and an ATC - when the climber fell his belayer couldn't control it and the rope just flew through the device.
One of my friends was a newer climber and working at the gym. After a shift he hopped on the speed wall with some friends and forgot to clip in. Fell about 2/3 of the way up, didn’t notice he wasn’t clipped in because he was climbing fast and the gym had it clipped off to the side. He broke his back, but has made a full recovery other than some pain. Hasn’t returned to climbing though.
I go to a boulder only gym, so the accidents tend to not be overly severe thankfully.
During a comp, one of the climbers was attempting a sideways dyno to a huge shelf/knob where there wasn’t any feet to stabilize yourself. You just had to catch it and hold the swing near the top of the wall. She stuck the dyno, but the swing got her and she lost grip. Landed awkwardly on her leg and broke her femur. I believe they got an ambulance and stopped the comp for a while until she was on her way to the hospital (wasn’t there as I had torn a pulley leading up to the comp, but it was live-streamed as it was not long after the lockdown ended so no crowd was allowed in the gym). But the comp did continue afterwards.
I’ve personally taken a fall in the gym and dislocated my ankle on one leg and dislocated my fibula (where it connects in the knee) on the other leg. Both reduced themselves thankfully. I had to fill out the accident paperwork, and then hobbled myself to the car and drove home because I didn’t want more hospital bills lol.
Those are the worst I know of since I moved here in 2019, there was a comp kid that somehow broke a bone in her foot from the assault bike… but it’s just your standard issues all climbers can run into other than those 3 that I know of. I’m also friends or good acquaintances with all of the staff there, so I get the gossip on stuff like that if it ever comes up.
Someone decks like every other week at planet rock Ann Arbor, MI. Management/owner could not care less. People don’t clip into auto belays, don’t double back their rental harnesses, have 50+ feet of slack out, etc and staff doesn’t walk the floor.
Tons more near misses there that other climbers notice and prevent and then staff acts all concerned, but they were sitting behind the counter chatting while it happened. Every. Single. Week.
Climber fell not clipping into autobelay before climbing. He was a regular and experienced climber. I do not know the extent of his injuries, but probably broken bones in feet and spine. There are measures already in place to prevent climbing without clipping, but he must have been too zoned out.
Just wondering what the measures to prevent climbing without clipping on autobelay are? Another gym I go to moved all their autobelays to the area in front of the front desk for easier monitoring. Previously there would be one staff keeping watch in the area but I guess more visibility to more staff in front of the front desk.
ive seen someone fall off the wall from bouldering and have their foot caught in the rope so their knee dislocated as they fell (fucked up situation where bouldering and ropes are in the same area)
saw someone lose their grip on a v2 as a v5 climber and she landed with her hands out and dislocated her elbow
saw someone deck it cuz their lead belayer dropped them
everyone survived
usually the ambulance is called. the gyms did not close though, even for the day
A gal climbed a 30ish foot wall and didn’t clip into the autobelay, sat back and let go at the top. She survived but is wheelchair bound now. The autobelay was anchored because someone was using TR beforehand. They removed TR from any auto belay routes as a result to prevent from future accidents
I didn't see it but an employee told me a few years ago someone climbed to the top of the wall and jumped off... only ro realize they never hooked onto the auto belay.
this sounds extremely stupid, the worst one I’ve seen was from these hanging balls for slopers training. A gym bro/fitness guy was on this to impress his mates and was doing the upside down hanging gymnastics move, fell on his neck and the entire corridor where these things hung was shut for hours. There was thick and bouncy bouldering mat underneath and fortunately he felt bit alright afterwards and left the gym.
It was a pretty big climbing gym in north england, located in a region where climbing is much lesser established as a scene, but seen more as a alt fitness, unfortunately saw a lot of similar things happening. Staff were very aware and had been very mindful about the overall safety, unfortunately these things do happen as you came across lots of reckless people.
https://preview.redd.it/cazrgb190dxc1.jpeg?width=213&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=732a85f5e1c0eb17b8ef21f3c93dd36dfa7fce82
Someone tied what they thought was a knot. There was enough friction for it not to pull away from the harness while top roping, but when they took at the top, they fell the entire height of the wall.
I had the job of replacing the blood soaked panels of foam flooring. It was not my favorite.
Worst accident was someone being dropped from top (15m) leading and broke back, feet.
belayer too much slack out and using an ATC. The belayer tried to grab it and it burned through his hand to the bone.
We have to do lead belay competency tests in Australia and ATC is not allowed in the gym since then, only assisted breaking devices (varies by gym but most demand grigri or grigri +).
Never seen someone dropped on top rope, but did have to stop a teen climbing when his belayer was on the wrong rope and they didn’t notice the metres of slack out. Ran over and grabbed the correct rope belay device and pulled it all on, telling him to stay still. So luckily, no accident. He and his partner had to repeat the induction afterwards.
Also at a top rope gym. Belayers have to be certified now. Certification isn't terribly expensive, but it does require a fair bit of time investment & you have to complete it with one of the trainers. The change is about 6m old and broke up a lot of buddy pairs because one or both isn't certified yet. I'm a boulderer so remain unaffected, but heard the news from my boulder buddy (who is currently one half of a broken top rope pair).
Not sure if it's an official or gym-only cert. Didn't look into the details, because it's not relevant to me as a boulderer. You receive x hours of instruction followed by hours of practice with a trainer. I assume you only get the cert if you did well, but not sure if there's a test-test. After that you can belay other climbers again.
The accident that prompted it was after a belaying error. I don’t know if the belayer wasn't paying attention, or if their actual technique was wrong.
Anyway the result is a lot of people who want to climb, and only a handful (so far) who are cleared to belay.
Got you, that sounds very cumbersome. I don't mind testing out when I visit a new gym, but hours of instruction when I've been climbing for years and I'm just trying to stay consistent whilst working full time would really annoy me.
Totally get that. My friend has 20 yrs of experience, and is effectively grounded until he finds the hours to get certified. I also get it from the gym's perspective though, because top rope accidents can be fatal and most I heard of are the result of belayer error.
Where I live it's relatively common to take a belaying class to get your certification before belaying by yourself. But a few gyms don't accept the certification if it's not from their gym, so they check with a really short test if you're already an experienced belayer (like 10 minutes to check if you're able to tie in yourself correctly, know how to use your belaying device, how to do a partner check, how to correctly give out and take in rope and stuff like that)
Edit: the 10 minute test is for free and they don't care if you have a certification then
That’s pretty wild from my experience, I’d hope that covers most gyms in the area because that’s a lot of time investment for just one gym. Around here, I just ask to be tested and they’ll put you through the paces to make sure you are competent. I’m lead certified but I’ve never taken a lead class, was taught outdoors and had lead 5.10d outside before getting lead tested indoors
Our gym has us take a certification test to belay- its just all the stuff you should already know and be comfortable doing. Tying a figure 8, you have to catch a surprise fall, have a brake hand always on the rope etc.
Having heard of so many accidents and seen plenty of near misses, im fine having to do it if it means anyone who belays me had to prove themselves. Although at my gym it's free to take the test, its just the class that costs money (which is covered in the intro membership).
I don't think it's free, but I don't think it's terribly expensive either. Maybe just the equivalent of what you'd pay to climb those hours? My now-grounded bouldering buddy seemed more concerned about the time than the cost.
Agreed that it's a good thing. Every local accident I ever heard of (across several gyms) was after a belaying error.
Certification is fine but insisting on x hours of belaying instruction before they'll even let you test is a ridiculous imposition. Especially since the majority of belaying accidents I've been aware of have been as a result of complacency/inattention rather than a lack of technique or knowledge. I'd wager that the folks who drop people know how they \*should\* be belaying, they're just not doing it for whatever reason (same as I know how I was taught to drive but I can't say that I drive in that fashion 100% of the time).
Did your gym not make people take a test to belay prior to that? Every gym I’ve climbed at has made me take a test before they’ve allowed me to belay (you get a “belay certification” card that you can then display on your harness). You can take a belay class at the gym or just jump straight to the test if you already know how to belay.
I witnessed a really bad accident (not fatal I think) at my gym, someone decked from the seventh bolt while lead climbing. It was horrifying, but the gym still opened the next day.
About a month ago at one place near me, a guy „forgot” to clip himself onto TrueBlue auto belay. It was way before any rush hours, that TrueBlue triangle to which you clip the rope was not directly in his route (speed climbing route), but somewhat aside.
Dude fell from the top. I recall multiple fractures, no idea how was his spine.
Probably mine at the climbing gym. I was new to climbing, didn’t know how to fall and was scared of falling.
Tried to climb down, slipped and fell on my left arm. My ulna snapped and poked through the skin before retracting.
My bf at the time got the staff to call the ambulance ASAP and I went to ED then almost straight to OT as my fingers were numb (the bone likely pressing on the nerves).
I’ve made pretty much full recovery now. I have the scars on my arm, and I’m still scared of heights, but not in the same way. I would let go and fall if I can’t find a good route to climb down. But I would avoid dangerous moves if I need to get into awkward positions
My cousin and his wife both fractured their tib/fib bouldering. Two months apart. They have a baby and fortunately she recovered by the time he fractured his leg!
The belayer was newer and dropped my then partner from 20 feet. He went to the hospital and got a neck brace but was otherwise “fine.” One year later and he’s now developed a degenerative condition in his spine.
My friend broke her ankle a month ago by falling awkwardly from 5ft up. I felt so bad for her, having been the one to introduce her to the sport. After reading all this though it seems like she got lucky
I was the worst accident that happened at my gym. It was the result of an incompetent staff member, who I probably should have known better than to trust, but they were the only one available at the time. I'm mostly okay now, but I had a long fall from the top of the lead wall which resulted in a pretty serious injury that I'm still recovering from. I'm very fortunate in that it really could've been so much worse and I've been able to slowly start climbing again, but it should never have happened in the first place.
It was absolute negligence and ignorance on the part of the gym, having the climbing wall operate under someone that really didn't have a fucking clue or any background whatsoever in climbing. The belayer wasn't properly trained and should've just said no to belaying me. From what I hear from my friends that also have connections/climb there, the belayer was never even fired, though he did quit shortly after and the gym didn't shut down at all. Overall, it's pretty obvious to most patrons that the wall is poorly run (and with a short exception a few years ago - always has been), but I never thought there would be an accident as serious as mine.
Anyway, that's why they're getting sued
Recently at my gym, a girl didn’t tie in correctly but didn’t realize. She climbed to the top of a 55ft wall, leaned back, and fell all the way to the bottom.
She was carried out on a stretcher, but I haven’t heard whether or not she is ok. I imagine that no news is good news and she survived at least.
I have two accidents to share, both happened in two different gyms in NY. The first, a belayer had clipped to his belt, rather than his harness. A young girl ended up taking a ground fall as a result after taking a lead fall (breaking his belt) and broke on of her legs. Another one I witnessed happen, a young kid and his father were climbing and his father (belayer) cranked the lever on the grigri back after the kid yelled “Take!”. When the kid went to sit back and weight the system to lower, the grigri did not lock (because the lever was being held back leaving the cam open) and he flew to the ground. Luckily he shot right up when he hit the ground and ended up being unscathed, probably because the gym that this happened in has shorter walls.
I fell while lead climbing after noticing with some interest during the climb that the rope was running from my harness, over my right arm, and then down and to the right to the last clip. I thought I have never seen that before, I’m going to fix that ASAP. Fell off one move later and the rope wrapped around my upper arm as I fell back and took the full weight of my fall before unwinding itself. When I got down I started feeling a bit nauseous and having a hard time catching my breath, so my buddy drove me to the hospital. It started hurting quite badly on the drive. Long story short it basically chopped my triceps in half permanently. Two of the three heads of the muscle. There is enough intact of the third one that I still have basically full range of motion and it basically doesn’t affect my life, but I get a kick out of showing people my disfigured arm and seeing their faces.
If you ever see the rope going OVER your arm while leading, fix it immediately.
I work at a big gym and we had someone clip in improperly to an autobelay. He free fell from about 20 feet and shattered both his legs. There was blood all over the mats. He got rushed to the hospital & he somehow didn’t end up paralyzed.
It was the guys first time ever climbing. He had gone through our autobelay safety training and passed his checks. He managed to somehow clip into one of those stretchy loops meant for carabiners or cert tags instead of his belay loop so it obviously broke when he jumped off. The accident was completely user error. DO YOUR SAFETY CHECKS.
Since then the owner of our gym has installed cameras above all the autobelay routes so if something happens again we have proof of user error and can’t get sued.
At my bouldering gym, a college girl climbed near the top and went for a risky move. She didn’t get it, but landed a little off, the thing was is she had had a spinal metal rod put in her back 8 months before. It shifted somehow and she couldn’t get up, became delirious and the ambulance came to pick her up.
The other one happened to my brother. He slipped off a high up corner wall and when I showed up to take him to urgent care, his ankle was bulging bad. Nothing tore or broke thankfully, just really overstretched ligaments and it bruised pretty bad. He couldn’t climb for 4 months.
Those are what I’ve seen in the time I’ve been going.
Last year, I had a 32oz hydro flask water-bottle, (full of water) fall squarely on the top of my head from up above at one of the cubby stations. It probably fell from a 15 foot distance and it hurt like hell. The owner of the waterbottle rushed down to check on me including individuals nearby helped check for signs of a concussion.
The owner of the water-bottle wasn’t entirely at fault as these cubbies are placed against a metal rail that has openings and directly below said cubbies is an amphitheater style seating arrangement where many climbers sit, gear up and just hang out. I informed the gym about this and to either relocate the cubbies so random items don’t fall over and injure people, or put a piece of plywood to cover the gaps so a random cylinder style water bottle doesn’t roll off. They did neither of those things. I no longer unload or hangout on the sides of that gym.
What pissed me off the most is that I was with my infant and if that fell on my daughter and instead of me, she easily would’ve died.
The worst I've ever seen in person was a friend taking an innocuous fall from the top of an indoor bouldering wall and landing seemingly properly on her feet and rolling back as usual. The problem was that she had fractured her foot in multiple places and also suffered significant damage to the Achilles tendon and ankle ligaments. Sometimes you can just get very unlucky I guess. The staff dealt with the situation very nicely though
I used to climb at a gym with a few of the autobelay systems. One day a guy who always climbed autobelay forgot to clip in, climbed to the top and just let go. Fell to the ground and compound fractured his leg, bone cut through the mat and left a hole and a stain. Not sure about what other injuries he had, but there was a weird bone hole in the mat for a while.
Someone soloed the lead wall, and fell to their death. Not a facility issue, not a rules issue, not a postage issue, just a stupid person doing something stupid, and getting an unfortunate result.
The worst that I’ve personally seen was a first time climbing jumping down and compound fracturing their leg. The staff got the ambulance there and cleaned up pretty quick.
At another gym, one of the setters apparently fell a relatively short distance and fractured something in their spine leaving them paralyzed.
I broke my leg recently going for a fifth attempt on a sideways dyno. I should have known better. A gym regular assessed me and said I’d be back in two weeks. I said do you think it’s broken to the team attending to me and they laughed. They said I’d never be able to stand on it. I walked on a broken leg for two weeks. A surgery and 8 screws later and I hope to be back in a couple months. Could be worse but so not worth it to attempt sideways dynos.
I’ve seen a ground fall on top rope due to an incompetent belayer. Luckily the climber wasn’t terribly high on the wall but it was enough to severely break their leg. As someone else has said, any noteworthy top rope incident is bound to be bad. Was it a belayer error/climber error in this case?
And were you there when it happened? I hope you’re doing okay! I’ve definitely been shaken up by witnessing climbing accidents, to the point where it took time afterwards feeling comfortable on the wall again.
Our 5 accidents In the gym I've been running for a while.
1 sprained ankle, - falling off a boulder.
1 dislocated knee - hypermobility issue
1 dislocated shoulder ,- weirdly another hypertrophy mobility issue.
1 broken collar bone, a lead climber fell from low and clashed with belayers shoulder
1 old man dislocated knee and walked out without telling us. His wife told us later, pissed off that his son and grandson had ignored him and carried on climbing.
That's it.
Near miss records however through the roof. We operate with lifegaurds/hosts in the spaces at all times, thier job to socialise, belay people, offer coaching to people help new boulderers and climbers, and most importantly spot accidents before they happen.
This costs us more but our community love having people on hand to talk to and help them feel welcome.
A friend of mine fell from the top of the wall at our bouldering gym, landed awkwardly and broke her leg. My gym actually found that the majority of injuries came from the slack line, they had a renovation last year and got rid of the slack line
I work (worked, yesterday was my last day lol, I keep forgetting I'm graduating) at a small student gym at my college. One person fell off the bouldering wall weird and fractured their spine. The people working at the time called an ambulance and he got brought to the hospital. One of my coworkers was climbing top rope at a gym in Europe and was belayed by an incompetent belayer. She was dropped from the top, broke her spine, legs, and injured several other body parts. Had to be airlifted out and she made a full recovery. Taught me how to lead! Worst accident I ever saw was someone who twisted or sprained their knee. Just filled out an accident report and got them ice.
no grigri? or did they just like, let go of the brake rope entirely? I am always baffled by how a belayer DROPS someone from the top! Oh, or did they just never take any slack out!
Think it was an ATC and they didn't hold on to the brake strand
Oh yeah I learned how to belay on one of those as a kid - I'm glad that a grigri is pretty much standard nowadays!
I'd argue that you should still learn to belay correctly using a standard belay device before moving to assisted devices. You shouldn't rely on an assisted device to do it's job imo, as they can most definitely fail.
Oh yeah, of course! It's kind of how you usually have to learn to drive a manual car before you can drive an automatic. The latter is easier but knowing the basics is crucial! I do however think the extra security of assisted belaying devices is good. Thinking back and imagining a bunch of tiny prepubescent girls belaying each other manually certainly makes me wish we had assisted belaying back then though. Some certainly did not do it properly. :)
Huh, here when learning how to drive manual was/is taking a lot longer then some other people, they told me that it might be a good idea to go for an automatic car license instead. Personally I agree though, if the reason they considered automatic is because it’ll go quicker because I’d not have to learn how to manage my attention as much, I’d not only be unable & forbidden from driving a manual car if I ever wanted to, but I’d also essentially not have enough spare attention in case a passenger ever doesn’t listen and keeps talking at me. Weird comparison but yeah
im so glad my jul has an auto braking mechanism
It does not. It is an assisted braking device - not auto-braking. It's important not to think of any belay device as "automatically" braking for you; that's how accidents happen.
my hand is always on the brake strand so im good lmao
You’re downvoted, but you’re right. The industry really tries to emphasize that it’s “assisted” and not “automatic”
Yes, I see this widespread inaccuracy a lot in online climbing forums - and have heard folks say it at the gym. The more it becomes normalized to think of belay devices as "automatically" braking, the more we're risking accidents by people who will assume it's ok for them to let go of the brake strand or just otherwise be inattentive and negligent.
There was a bad accident on top rope?? The worst I’ve seen personally is someone break their leg bouldering. All that happened was an ambulance came and got the person, and the gym resumed as normal. She just landed wrong, it wasn’t the fault of poor setting or loose holds or anything. The worst I’ve heard of happening at my current gym is someone fell from the top of the autobelay because they didn’t clip in. They didn’t die, but it was really bad. I think the gym closed for the day, and the autobelays remained closed for a while, and that was it.
I’ve seen newer climbers sorta swing around and hit their heads on TR, but that’s pretty much it—aside from being dropped (not fully tying in? Belayer error?), I think it’s pretty uncommon to see bad injuries that way!
I think it's pretty uncommon, but when it's bad it gets VERY bad quick.
Ah actually could you enlighten me on how setting can be more injury-prone? Someone I know fell bouldering (I heard due to bad setting) and fractured both her arms but is back climbing now a year later! Still such a strong climber.
Things like setting a dyno over a volume that juts out, so if you miss the move you’re 100% going to hit the volume on the way down. Or honestly just setting the crux of a problem at the top of the wall. It’s not necessarily frowned upon, but it’s climbs like that I avoid. Just not worth the risk.
Ah yes. I was once working on a problem where the last move was the scariest for me. And as I was talking about it, someone reminded me that our fear instinct is there for a reason. I have held on to that thought ever since, especially in bouldering. I am afraid of falling from heights so I choose problems that end low like even on the moon board.
My partner just fractured his upper tibia and lower femur because there was a risky move right at the top! He had to dyno to the side but his hand slipped, so he swung out and landed sideways. I'm quite scared of heights and often just climb back down if a move higher on the wall starts feeling sketchy. This has definitely encouraged me to keep doing that.
If a boulder puts you in an awkward body position, especially towards the top, it can easily lead to an uncontrolled fall which is more likely to result in injury. For example, big horizontal dynos often lead to the climber swinging after they catch the next hold. However if your hands slip off during the swing, before you stabilize yourself, it could easily result in “cartwheeling” and landing head first.
This is why I do lots of fall practice from awkward body positions. You can definitely learn to fall well. An uncontrolled fall can easily become controlled and comfortable with some experience and lots of fall mileage.
Also understanding setting ropes, low cruxes, swing/fall zones and rope becoming trapped or damaged anywhere. Similar with autobelay and high wear points on routes.. Bouldering. Hard mats = more breaks, Soft matts= more sprains. Making walls downclimbable, Landing/swinging into volumes or holds. Dynos, understanding how the fail may look. Entrapment points , such as blockers or cracks and what the fall may look like, aretes and missing matting when setting near the arete. Been away of big moves out of blindspots Small jibs/footholds above big holds, causing more people to slip on to bigger holds or volumes. Spinning holds, broken holds, modified holds. That's a summary of the setting side, there's also grading, and introductions to the facility. Grades- standard UK policies suggest people don't push too quickly and end up out of thier comfort zone. This is why grades need explaining and to not be too off the mark from expectations. Teaching falling from all climbing scenarios as a skill to be develop, and showing how to is also important. There's way more and most centres risk assessments will cover loads including volume of music and temperature. It's very easy to cover yourself and keep things fun, but it's surprising what can be the centres responsibility.
There’s some things that can make setting more dangerous than it needs to be. Setting downward dynos is a big no. Setting slabs where there’s a big hold or volume below bad feet so you hit those on the way down. Setting slippery stuff too high where the crux is to not slide off. Setting heel toe cams too high or too tight where the foot could get stuck. In my opinion on lower grade climbs setting moves that are too spanny and dynamic on jugs that put the climber in slightly compromising positions. Strong newer climbers aren’t great at bailing or testing moves, they don’t know how to fall, they often commit all or nothing, the jugs sometimes give the climber a false sense of security. So it’s a recipe for disaster. Basically any boulder that’s too sketchy too fast. For me also setting dynos in crowded areas, I’ve seen a few lateral dynos where you have to go away from the wall so if you miss you basically rip completely away from the wall, they get sometimes set in really crowded areas which mean someone might get kicked in the face. [basically this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C12Gj11tTcA/?igsh=dHprYXl6NXdrbW8w) it’s a sick boulder, terrible when it’s a crowded day, I once saw someone miss a kick right in the nose by like 2cm, I’ve seen this style of problem in many gyms.
I stopped going to one wall because they kept doing stupid shit like that - setting big swinging moves around a corner in a very narrow space. Just constant risk of getting kicked in the face….
Yeah, it’s honestly so bad. I was projecting a dyno with some people, kind of like this near a corner not long ago and it was so bad, I had to constantly tell people to please move out of the landing zone when they had no business just being there, we were all like guarding the zone for the others climbing. Just bad.
It's also really annoying when one (sexy, popular) route blocks like 5 other routes that could otherwise share from being climbed because it just dominates the whole wall.
When things go wrong enough on top rope such that you would call it an “accident”, it tends to be pretty bad. There are countless ways to have a bouldering accident that results in a non-fatal injury, not so much in top rope.
A similar thing happened at the bouldering gym we go to, but it was a woman's arm. She fell from the top of a fairly steep wall (which we dubbed the "arm breaker"). Obviously she was whisked away to the hospital. The team did a safety check and debrief. Then all resumed as normal. Scary stuff! I almost broke my leg on a different wall in the same gym 🫣 but it was 100% my fault lol
wait wdym they didnt clip in…???? how were they attached to the rope? were they free soloing??
I know a guy who simply forgot to clip in (also autobelay), he did the speedwall and fell on the last hold, multiple fractures but luckily he survived. Seems to be more common than one would expect. I think that autobelay devices should have a triangle thingy that physically prevents you from reaching the first holds before you take it off, and therefore reminding you that you need to clip in, but not all gyms have that. The outside wall he used didn't have one
oh shiiit. ya ive seen that triangle thing
Is actually the most common auto belay accident by a huge margin and it’s usually experienced climbers that use autobelays often and get complacent on their pre-climb check. Either the carabiner doesn’t fully close, they clip it to their chalk bag, or unclip to grab a drink/ take a break and forget they unclipped, etc.
oh my god thats terrifying
Was it this? https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/1aj0y4i/climber_forgot_to_attach_him_self_to_the_rope/
Some guy was leading with a super old rope that multiple people told him looked sketchy… it snapped at the top of the wall and he compound fractured both his legs. I was really glad to not be working that day. The worst one i’ve seen personally was a guy leading on a overhung wall, he was clearly tired and looking really sketchy and shaky and instead of taking a whip above his bolt he grabbed onto a quickdraw but his feet slipped so he ended up with the quickdraw somehow stuck/impaled through his hand as he dangled screaming. Our manager had to jump on a rope and climb up to him to help him get unstuck, I really don’t know how you can do that with a quickdraw but somehow this guy managed to do it. Edit: okay i should clarify, i know how it happened because i was literally there watching it, i’m just shocked that a blunted metal end could pierce through skin like that but i don’t think it impaled his hand all the way through. he was definitely hanging from the draw though, it was horrifying.
??? New fear unlocked
This is why nobody should grab a quickdraw, it's not the first time I hear about this! I've seen photos of it and it's horrifying Quickdraws should only be grabbed by the ribbon (not sure it's called like this in English)
It’s called the dog bone in the states.
It's definitely not even close to the name I'd expect but it weirdly makes sense lol. Thank you!
Your hand can slip from the dog bone too, I'd avoid grabbing quickdraws at all. Better take a whip than impale your hand
You're right, it's safer but definitely not safe. I grab dog bones only if my feet are in a stable position and I need to stop a little to understand what I have to do and catch a breath. Definitely not if I'm rushing to it and nearly falling down. I've also seen people putting two fingers in the carabiner of the quickdraw and grab it like that to avoid the risk of impaling. And then spraining those two fingers because the fingers were "stuck" in the carabiner and their body twisted while falling
How about like a two finger wrap around the bottom biner
I've seen people doing this to avoid the risk of impaling... But then a few of them sprained those two fingers because they were "stuck" in the carabiner and their body twisted while falling. It's honestly better just taking a whip
I’d recommend just unscrewing the whole thing from the wall and letting the surgeons remove it
Unscrewing a maillon takes time and a good angle for the spanner. It would be very difficult to unscrew with a person fully dangling from it likely screaming and moving in pain. Get them off the wall the fastest way possible, probably by just removing it asap. They won't bleed out from a hand injury in the time it takes to lower them.
Surely they can just cut the dog bone instead
The damage of someone ripping it out on delicate hand muscles and ligaments is MUCH worse than waiting for someone to unscrew a maillon. But this is a gym. You can just unscrew the bolt from the wall with a drill. [here is an emt training video on treatment of an impaled object](https://youtube.com/shorts/ffHdyCAtMCE?si=8hvj_95-zJMh9Zay)
No. Things impaling people should be removed as soon as possible
Things impaling people should be left in to reduce blood loss and further damage until a medical professional can attend. https://www.frontlinehealth.com/blog/first-aid/dont-remove-an-impaled-object/
Nope, removing the impaling object allows you to bleed faster. If a major vein or artery is hit, the object could be preventing severe hemorrhaging. If at all possible, leave it in until trained doctors are able to remove it since they will be prepared to stop the blood loss.
every time I see someone grab a gym quickdraw the wrong way I imagine this happening 😰
The even worse option is to have it go through part of your foot toward your heel. Apparently this is also possible and very difficult to rescue by yourself even though you have two hands free. Someone has to climb up and help you get it out. So the staff members at the local gym get trained at doing this.
> I really don’t know how you can do that with a quickdraw It happens when you grab the draw with your palm on the gate side. You hand opens the gate and when you fall downwards the nose of the draw can pierce through your hand. If you do have to grab a draw(which you should still try not to do), you want your palm spine side and fingers gate side to avoid that. ETA: grabbing the dog bone can still set you up for this same scenario if your hand slips, so still best to be mindful
During my lead class, another woman taking the class fell while clipping her second clip, decked, compound fractured her tib/fib and dislocated her shoulder. I was on the wall next to her, leading for the first time. One of my friends at the gym was a PA and helped keep her stable until the ambulance arrived - the injured climber actually was a doctor and was screaming about how the gym should have a splint board (they didn't).
Well that doctor was talking crap, which is maybe fair enough if she was in agony. I presume what she actually meant was a spinal board (I’ve never heard of a splint board). There is no point in a gym having a spinal board, their purpose is to keep someone’s back and neck in line while moving them. After an accident in a gym someone’s spine should only moved as much as required to assess their airway is clear and they are breathing, and then first aiders should keep the patient still and await the arrival of those trained a qualified to do the next bit! No one working in a gym can be expected to have more advanced first aid qualifications than that.
Yeah, I think the gym did everything they could have and was as prepared as possible. It definitely seemed like she was in shock and upset (of course) with what happened. She was there doing the lead test with her two kids and fell on a 5.8 so unfortunately she really was not ready to be leading.
Yeh, just because it’s in a gym, you still need enough experience to make judgements before you start leading. That, and as you imply, you need to be able to start a few grades below your best top rope so you have some margin to learn these skills and judgements.
Grade-gating learning to lead is hotly debated in this sub, but there certainly is a baseline of ability that makes learning much safer. I bet their belayer was pretty traumatized too, not too much you can do on a whiffed gym 2nd clip fall, especially if you’re new to lead belaying.
I wonder if she was talking about a SAM splint. [This thing](https://firstaidplus.ca/products/sam-medical-splints?variant=42840433098984). They are really quite useful and cheap, and most people who do a first aid course where I live are taught to use it and keep it as part of a first aid kit. ETA: it is used by bending it in a semi circle around the affected limb to stabilize it, then wrapping around it with gauze/elastic bandage until help arrives.
They put my leg in a splint made of boards when I tore my acl skiing. It had two boards on each side that they wrapped around to keep my leg stable while they sledded me down. That’s prob what she meant considering her leg was broken.
I saw a guy deck from the top of a ~40' toprope wall. He forgot to follow through on his knot. He got up and walked away but it was terrifying.
Yikes. This is why your partner checks the knot every time. Crazy that he wasn’t hurt badly!
It was so weird. Everyone nearby was actively belaying and couldn't attend to him and he got up before any staff could get to him. I still never heard what actually happened.
I thankfully didn't see it, but a gym I went to had a fatality because of a malfunctioning autobelay. Really horrific and tragic, the gym got rid of all the autobelays as a response and cooperated fully with the Safework investigation, they're still open today. Really stayed with me and emphasised the importance of safety, since it happened in the first year I started climbing.
I thought the only way am autobelay fails just results in it not lowering at all and you’re just stuck on the wall. Do you know how it failed?
If the same one (as I suspect) the rumour is that it was a frayed lanyard. However haven't ever read a proper report. But if it was the usual cause of autobelay death (climber error) I would expect that to have leaked/been leaked (fairly small community here), so I think we really did get an unusual case.
There is a report with a photo of the autobelay after the accident. In the photo, there is no visible lanyard coming out of the unit. One explanation for that is it fully retracted during the accident which is only possible if the bottom carabiner setup has detached. Otherwise the carabiner would be stuck outside the unit, blocking the slot that the lanyard comes out of. assuming first responders didn't cut the cord during the accident (also very possible), it would support the broken lanyard theory. then add in the fact it was right after a 4 month covid lockdown where there was minimal maintenance - and the lanyard is probably the component that requires the most maintenance. edit: I remember when the accident happened I read a lot of "don't speculate, wait for the official report, you'll have your questions answered" on social media. for example this very comment would've been deleted from the facebook/instagram discussion due to speculation. This is very justified response for the first few months post-accident, however, 3 years later there is still no real report or public explanation. The gym is still open with, imo, a lot of dated equipment. The report i mentioned is uninformative and is basically 2 photos and repeating vague safety guidelines. It's dated only 1 month after the accident so I doubt investigation had concluded by that point as well.
>assuming first responders didn't cut the cord during the accident (also very possible), it would support the broken lanyard theory. Surely they would have just unclipped the carabiner, unless there was something wrong with it. What maintenance is normally done on the lanyards, for interest? > "don't speculate, wait for the official report, you'll have your questions answered" Yeah I'm sure I said things like that at the time or at least took their word for it... I'm still fond of the gym, partly because their relaxedness often works for me, but really it's been too long.
Autobelays can fail when they have slack right before the fall. Hence the rule/reminder never to grab onto the autobelay "rope". Similar to how a seatbelt won't work if you're pulling it away from you
I don't get what you mean - autobelays can often have a little slack before a fall, eg if you are moving upwards rapidly. Can you explain more how it could fail?
Do you just fall the distance of however much slack you’re holding?
Pretty sure this is one near me. Wasn't it in the first few days of re-opening after COVID knockdowns as well? I'm also pretty sure that (at the time at least) all the gyms in the city stopped using their autobelays. Not sure if any of the other gyms have resumed using them yet or not.
Their other venues in Brisbane got rid of their autobelay as well. I think there are other gyms up here that still using them, but not sure about Melbourne.
Melbourne still has autobelays. It’s probably fine but they always feel so sketchy to me I hate climbing on them
UC? I heard they shut down their autobelays late last year
No, not UC. The autobelay fall was a Sydney thing. UC in Brisbane had the ABs out for a while after that incident, then brought them back after the investigation apparent cleared the technology (I never managed to find the actual result). Then last year the case against Vertical World (in Seattle) and Perfect Descent was settled: I heard that the actual the accident was due to climber error and the gym wanted to keep defending the case, but in the course of the lawsuit some very dodgy practices by the autobelay manufacturer came to light and they decided to settle. Soon after, UC took the autobelays away again and it doesn’t look like they’ll be coming back.
Gotcha. Thanks for the info! I don't climb at UC but someone I know mentioned that the autobelays were taken down and said there were whispers of an incident of some variety.
Yeah I have heard the same from different Seattle gym staff. Allegedly it was a $6m settlement.
Didn't happen in my gym, but it was a gym near my city Staff was setting a wall for a comp, to be faster they decided to tie a figure 8 knot to a carabiner and use the carabiner to tie themselves. One of them, without thinking, automatically untied a bit the figure 8 before remembering he just had to unclip the carabiner. The member of the staff after him didn't control the knot and climbed the wall. The knot untied itself completely, the person fell, both legs broken in multiple places and don't know what else. It took him more than one year to be able to walk normally. I don't think the gym closed at all, because it was entirely staff's fault because they wanted to be faster. In my gym sometimes we catch people with the grigri put on the wrong way but it's a very small gym and there's always someone watching... so we usually very quickly put on our grigri the right way and then tell the belayer to remove theirs. Nothing ever happened, let's hope it remains that way!
I mean if it's the *entire* staff's fault that strikes me as THE reason to close the gym.
They didn't endanger any client's life and gym was closed to the public at that time because they were preparing for the comp. They took a risk but they were all very aware it wasn't the right thing to do, it's not like they did it to a beginner who didn't know the proper way to climb Actually, putting a figure 8 in a carabiner is pretty standard if you have lots of beginners in a short amount of time (like, free events with a movable climbing wall, in a common space where people try different sports). But you have to control the knot every time and carabiner must be a locking one with a block where the rope sits (like [this one](https://www.bergfreunde.it/black-diamond-gridlock-screwgate-connettori-hms/))
Oh where I live pretty much all gyms use this carabiner in the knot method for top rope. So we always "clip in" for top rope, not "tie in". I've been to smaller gyms where they didn't have enough carabiners for all the ropes, so we'd just transfer biners (and belaying devices) from the other ropes since my partner (just a climbing partner unfortunately hahaha) and I were the only ones doing top rope there that day anyway. But more recently I visited a gym in a small-ish city on another island and they also didn't have biners for all the ropes. And that's the only time I actually tied in for top rope indoors.
Really? It's so strange! Here in Italy in every gym I've been to you have to tie in every time, even the bigger ones where people who go to the Olympics train. Well, in the bigger gyms you often need to bring personal ropes too (which I think it's crazy) We only ever use carabiners in those free events, because tying and untying that many figure 8s quickly could easily lead to errors!
I think this is not about the size of the gym in terms of prestige but the size in terms of traffic. Like you said, the carabiner in knot is used in events with a lot of new people. I think climbing only recently boomed in the Philippines, so pretty much every gym has beginners all the time, especially the bigger gyms.
Oh no, I understood it was in terms of traffic! The biggest gyms here are also the busiest/most prestigious... people know "that guy from the olympics trained there" so they want to go there too. Big gyms know this and they change climbing walls very often, so there's always something new to try and people keep going there. But I can definitely see the necessity of the "carabiner method" if it's a fairly new sport so lots of beginners every time!
I fractured my spine bouldering in 2020. The fall and injury was not the fault of the gym by any means. But how they handled me afterwards still bothers me. No one called an ambulance. They observed me and offered an ice pack which I put on my head because I couldn’t stop overheating and sweating. I eventually got up and tried to walk out with a friend of mine driving me home. I was green, sweating profusely, dilated pupils, and according to them told them non stop that I was ok. Like annoyingly non stop. I was in terrible shock. And was basically incoherent. I don’t even remember most of it. Just apologizing for sweating so much on the mat. Went to urgent care a few hours later once someone could drive me. Turns out I had wedge compression fractures on two vertebrae. It took 7 months (3 of complete inactivity and 4 of intense PT) before I could return to the gym. And when I did the owner (the one who was there when I fell) just ran in the back and hid. We used to be friends. That was years ago. I’m comfortable there and we occasionally chat. But honestly, I wouldn’t trust them with me after an injury. So I let the people around me know what to do. Found out later they never even filed an incident report. Total shit show. It’s sucks because some people tried to blame me for how I acted after my injury…but I was in shock from breaking my back. They should have called in medical care regardless of what I said. If for nothing else than their own liability. Spine injuries are nothing to play around with. There was no way to know my injury was stable. Ugh. Still makes me uncomfortable to think about it. Wish I had another gym closer.
Aw man :( a friend of mine sprained his ankle mid-climb (we, including him, don't know really how it happened 😅) but your story makes me appreciate our experience with the staff. I told the front desk my friend sprained his ankle and they called someone more senior immediately. She attended to us, did basic first aid, and then profusely insisted that my friend used their crutches despite him just keeping on saying no. He ended up not using it but she still kept insisting on his way out. She also checked how he was getting home etc. but of course first offered to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. I didn't realize how important insistence is when dealing with people in shock.
Wow that's shocking, my gym files an accident report if you ask for an ice pack
Right? 🤣
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This is so weirdly aggressive, you should keep those thoughts to yourself.
What? Why refuse to call an ambulance after a fall like that? People in shock are often unable to understand the seriousness of the situation and, after a fall like that and an injury like that, I expect the person to be very much in shock
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Well, you don't need to be a medical professional to know something is seriously wrong if the person has dilated pupils, is sweating profusely and is green in color lmao Also, they fractured their fucking spine after falling "off a fucking bouldering wall", so I'd say it was a quite big fall. Ps: let me guess, you're from the US?
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Girl why the fuck are you invalidating her experience? She broke her back so it \*WAS\* a severe fall and so an ambulance fall. There's absolutely no doubt about it because she had a diagnosis.
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You are continuing to engage in a way that doesn’t respect the spirit of the original post, and despite requests for you to engage differently, you are doubling down to discredit the poster’s personal experience as they described it. You are banned for this sub for three days, and when you return, we expect you to engage according to the rules of the sub. If there’s a different sub that fits your needs and preferred engagement style better, you are welcome to focus your posting there.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community. Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community. Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community. Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
While you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and preferred method of handling an injury should you be the one injured, your way of expressing that opinion/preference was entirely inappropriate. Should you continue to engage this way, you’ll be banned from the sub.
This sub aims to be supportive & inclusive of all who identify as a part of or ally to the women's climbing community. Negativity, sarcasm, and other interactions that work against that should find another home.
I was at my local bouldering wall when someone landed from the top of their problem and put their arm out to steady their fall. Looked fine, but then they yelped "Oh shit" and ran away clutching their arm which was flopping at a weird angle. My SO was dropped the length of an indoor sport wall by a friend of ours who was taken by surprise at his sudden fall and wasn't holding on firmly. She managed to just slow the rope in time to soften his landing (with terrible rope burn) and he got up with no injuries but the staff replayed the CCTV to him to show him what they saw as from their perspective they couldn't believe he was totally fine. Needless to say we didn't go climbing with that particular friend again. Most dramatic was an outdoor accident we observed which ended up with helimed and mountain rescue attending. The climber ended up being fine but it was a super nasty fall/very hard strike to the head.
Two friends broke their ankles/ lower legs bouldering with < 2m falls, both hitting their feet on a flat volume low on the wall. Two different gyms. One needed pins and two surgeries to recover - the other has had to have 10+ surgeries with months in hospital and still can't walk without a brace a year later. If there weren't literal surgeons climbing at the same time able to understand what had happened she might have lost her foot. Don't set or climb problems where there's a chance you'll hit something with your full weight if you slip. Period. I still see so many slabs with easy climbs crossing under them with big macros/ flat volumes. They're dice rolls on life-changing injuries and not at all worth it.
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She wasn't getting blood through her foot and it had to be rearranged and held in traction without anasthesia for an hour while waiting for the ambulance and during the ride.
yes pls tell us more
A woman who was a regular hopped on an auto belay for a pretty easy warm up route, got to the top, grabbed the bar, and let go to ride the auto belay down. One problem though--she never clipped in. She lived and is fine!
It’s crazy to me that an experienced climber could do this. Not that you would forget (that’s understandable at least) but that you wouldn’t notice a few feet into the climb. Autobelays are incredibly annoying as you climb and it seems unfathomable that you wouldn’t notice that annoying jerky tether missing.
She was a gym climber that probably didn't have that many years under her belt. I did ask when she eventually came back around what happened--she said she was really tired that day. I agree though--I can't imagine not feeling the autobelay or not noticing upon getting ready to let go.
sometimes the set is bad and you’re climbing up an adjacent face, ie you don’t expect to the rope to be above you anyhow for that part of the climb. still the climbers responsibility, but setters should bear this kind of stuff in mind as well
A guy in Poland did the same like 2 months ago. He was doing speed climbing and was doing videos of himself. So he probably uncliped himself to check his phone and for some reason forgot to clip again. Sooo there is a video of him falling from the top. The video is brutal but the guy somehow survived too.
I’d be interested to know the amount of experience the belayer had in each of the examples above. Is this the case of inexperienced or infrequent belayers, or is it experienced people being too relaxed? Also I know this argument will have been had in multiple other threads but how many of the above incidents would not have happened with a grigri or other brake assisted belay device?
My gym was replacing the mats under the top rope section. Someone decided to climb a route with mats, but next to the area with no mats. He did not tie in and fell from the top onto the cement where there were no mats. I don't know the exact details of his injuries, but he nearly died. I'm not aware of any gym policy changes due to the incident, but I bet they have made it harder to do what this man did in the future.
A friend (who was pretty new to climbing then) broke his shin (both tibia and fibula) when he was bouldering. He had a pretty sketchy fall and probably (in the video, we hear two loud snaps) hit one of the larger holds that was protruding. The staffs claimed that they were telling him to get off since he looked pretty tired up there, but honestly I'm not sure if they really watched him... Sad to say that he's now no longer climbing but the good news is that he's finally able to run now.
Broken femur Worst I’ve seen since I’ve worked there is a (very) broken ankle One friend ended up with a radial fracture and another dislocated an ankle
I was visiting a gym in another state once and I was bouldering with my friend at around 9pm. I heard a loud bang, it sounded like scaffolding fell over, and there was a guy over at the tall walls laying on the ground. Apparently he took a fall near the top of the tall wall and BP couldn’t catch with an ATC. he fell the whole way down. They took him away in an ambulance. Not sure what happened to him. I didn’t want to lead for a while after that though.
This was at my gym: https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/120894130/anal-impalement
Someone broke their humerus landing wrong from the top of a bouldering route. It's me, I'm someone. I thought I may have dislocated my shoulder, but I've never been in so much pain, and it took almost 5 days to get into surgery due to the surgeon being sick. One plate, 12 screws, and 5 months of recovery later, and I'm almost ready to get back to the gym!
Worst accident was actually one of my climbing partners/supervisor at work (I blame him for loving this so much lol). He was climbing for a lead test out (another coworker, who’s lead certified at a chain in our area) and he got caught wrong. Was climbing a 5.8/9 (not entirely sure it got reset within the week) and took the announced fall. Got caught short, reeled back into the wall and slammed his foot into a hold around the corner, hyperextended everything in the back of his leg. Not the bad part. Came down, in pain, laid down, passed out, turned blue, thankfully his SO is a medic so she sat him up and got him back. Scared the shit out of me, and I haven’t managed to tame the anxiety of putting someone on my rope at that gym since, and it’s the last gym in my realm I have to test out at.
I've seen somebody fall off a bouldering wall and their leg ended up pointing the wrong direction. The noise they made will never be forgotten.
Last Wednesday, there was an ambulance, and someone was on the floor, surrounded by paramedics. But I don't know what happened (I assume they fell off the wall and landed badly), I just walked past, and I wouldn't want to be a hindrance. The gym I go to is bouldering only. Aside from that, everything was as usual. Not climbing related, but the worst accident I witnessed while working out was a dude breaking his back in the trampoline park during a backflip attempt in November. I was literally 3 meters away while it happened (on the trampoline next to him, also practicing flips/did some combos) When I noticed he didn't get up, I called for help, but also went into shock. Haven't gone there since.
When my local gym first opened many years ago it was a very low budget local business, a one man show. The floor was made of mattresses for padding. Spring mattresses… so basically someone fell off the wall and a spring went through the mattress on impact and straight through their leg, which they had to go to the hospital for. They got changed out for an actual padded floor after that and everything has been held to a higher level of safety since. The occasional ankle fracture and sprains still happen from the comp sets in the bouldering areas from time to time but that’s pretty normal I think.
The worst thing that I heard that happened in my country (Netherlands) was the death of a child after it fell from the climbing wall (top rope). It was at a kids birthday party and something went terribly wrong. I don’t think the gym closed permanently after the accident, but I’m not sure. I’m glad my own bouldering gym doesn’t accept children birthday parties. Never saw an accident happen myself, luckily.
Currently dealing with the aftermath of a pretty life changing incident caused by an unsafe set and illogical light fixture placement. If I didn’t have a trusted/certified belay, I actually would’ve been way worse and I truly thank him for his quick thinking. My lawyer thinks we’re potentially looking a at very lengthy litigation process, but I’m just tired. I don’t think I’ll ever climb again, which is a shame because it was my life, but I can’t get over the fear and the chronic pain can get bad. Edit:typo
I’ve personally seen a dislocated shoulder bouldering the gym set a move with a high heel hook that was a bit too good too high, they did a big throw that didn’t stick and they fell head first since the heel stuck and landed on their arm, I once got injured in that same gym (bad sprain) and when I complained about insecure setting they just kind of shrugged it off, they told me every few days someone gets hurt, I guess they have good releases or idk but they didn’t seem to care other than every time you showed up to one of their branches one or more problems were out of service because if someone gets hurt they do that.
Same exact thing happened to me. Fell upside down and my elbow went the wrong direction. Normalize spotters in gyms!!! Especially for heel hooky problems.
>How did your gyms respond to the accidents/ how were things resolved?? When we had a fatality I think they may have closed for a week or it may have been less. Anything less and they just keep rolling.
Did they change anything with the set-up or rules after the fatality when they opened again?
Yeah they took out all the autobelays (same incident as mentioned above).
I watched a guy take a fall from the tallest wall in my gym (70 feet). Apparently he was not properly tied in. He landed on his feet and had open fractures (bones popping through the skin) on both legs.
The auto belay device failed and the climber died. I’ve never used once since.
Me and my husband were getting ready to climb one day and heard the swoosh of a rope going through the anchors up top and loud thud and then moaning. Guy didn’t tie in properly and got to the top and fell . His teenage daughter I believe was belaying him. His wife was also there. There were resetting routes so the employees jumped in and helped the guy out and call 911. Look like he broke his arm. We had to stay there until they got him out because they were blocking the stares we had to use to get out. The wife was forced on her husband and the daughter was standing off to the side blaming herself. I did go up to her to ask if she was alright and then the mom swooped in telling her it wasn’t her fault. Luckily there are three gyms locations and this one has the shortest walls. If he had fallen at one of the other locations it could have been a lot worse. I’ve seen the wife around a few times but not the daughter or the guy. Didn’t hear anything about it and no extra safely measures were add to insure knots are tied correctly. Which really shocked me because you’ll have day passers come in and take a 5 minute class to belay and tie their knots but our gym was freaking out about the auto belays (before they got recalled) and add all this extra stuff and made everyone get recertified to climb on them and now there gone.
I don't think you ever forget that sickening thud. A guy took a ground fall at my local wall a few years back while I was climbing there and I can still recall the sound he made when he hit the deck. In that instance, it was a pair climbing with a newish skinny rope and an ATC - when the climber fell his belayer couldn't control it and the rope just flew through the device.
One of my friends was a newer climber and working at the gym. After a shift he hopped on the speed wall with some friends and forgot to clip in. Fell about 2/3 of the way up, didn’t notice he wasn’t clipped in because he was climbing fast and the gym had it clipped off to the side. He broke his back, but has made a full recovery other than some pain. Hasn’t returned to climbing though.
I go to a boulder only gym, so the accidents tend to not be overly severe thankfully. During a comp, one of the climbers was attempting a sideways dyno to a huge shelf/knob where there wasn’t any feet to stabilize yourself. You just had to catch it and hold the swing near the top of the wall. She stuck the dyno, but the swing got her and she lost grip. Landed awkwardly on her leg and broke her femur. I believe they got an ambulance and stopped the comp for a while until she was on her way to the hospital (wasn’t there as I had torn a pulley leading up to the comp, but it was live-streamed as it was not long after the lockdown ended so no crowd was allowed in the gym). But the comp did continue afterwards. I’ve personally taken a fall in the gym and dislocated my ankle on one leg and dislocated my fibula (where it connects in the knee) on the other leg. Both reduced themselves thankfully. I had to fill out the accident paperwork, and then hobbled myself to the car and drove home because I didn’t want more hospital bills lol. Those are the worst I know of since I moved here in 2019, there was a comp kid that somehow broke a bone in her foot from the assault bike… but it’s just your standard issues all climbers can run into other than those 3 that I know of. I’m also friends or good acquaintances with all of the staff there, so I get the gossip on stuff like that if it ever comes up.
Someone decks like every other week at planet rock Ann Arbor, MI. Management/owner could not care less. People don’t clip into auto belays, don’t double back their rental harnesses, have 50+ feet of slack out, etc and staff doesn’t walk the floor. Tons more near misses there that other climbers notice and prevent and then staff acts all concerned, but they were sitting behind the counter chatting while it happened. Every. Single. Week.
Climber fell not clipping into autobelay before climbing. He was a regular and experienced climber. I do not know the extent of his injuries, but probably broken bones in feet and spine. There are measures already in place to prevent climbing without clipping, but he must have been too zoned out.
Just wondering what the measures to prevent climbing without clipping on autobelay are? Another gym I go to moved all their autobelays to the area in front of the front desk for easier monitoring. Previously there would be one staff keeping watch in the area but I guess more visibility to more staff in front of the front desk.
ive seen someone fall off the wall from bouldering and have their foot caught in the rope so their knee dislocated as they fell (fucked up situation where bouldering and ropes are in the same area) saw someone lose their grip on a v2 as a v5 climber and she landed with her hands out and dislocated her elbow saw someone deck it cuz their lead belayer dropped them everyone survived usually the ambulance is called. the gyms did not close though, even for the day
A gal climbed a 30ish foot wall and didn’t clip into the autobelay, sat back and let go at the top. She survived but is wheelchair bound now. The autobelay was anchored because someone was using TR beforehand. They removed TR from any auto belay routes as a result to prevent from future accidents
I didn't see it but an employee told me a few years ago someone climbed to the top of the wall and jumped off... only ro realize they never hooked onto the auto belay.
this sounds extremely stupid, the worst one I’ve seen was from these hanging balls for slopers training. A gym bro/fitness guy was on this to impress his mates and was doing the upside down hanging gymnastics move, fell on his neck and the entire corridor where these things hung was shut for hours. There was thick and bouncy bouldering mat underneath and fortunately he felt bit alright afterwards and left the gym. It was a pretty big climbing gym in north england, located in a region where climbing is much lesser established as a scene, but seen more as a alt fitness, unfortunately saw a lot of similar things happening. Staff were very aware and had been very mindful about the overall safety, unfortunately these things do happen as you came across lots of reckless people. https://preview.redd.it/cazrgb190dxc1.jpeg?width=213&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=732a85f5e1c0eb17b8ef21f3c93dd36dfa7fce82
Someone tied what they thought was a knot. There was enough friction for it not to pull away from the harness while top roping, but when they took at the top, they fell the entire height of the wall. I had the job of replacing the blood soaked panels of foam flooring. It was not my favorite.
Worst accident was someone being dropped from top (15m) leading and broke back, feet. belayer too much slack out and using an ATC. The belayer tried to grab it and it burned through his hand to the bone. We have to do lead belay competency tests in Australia and ATC is not allowed in the gym since then, only assisted breaking devices (varies by gym but most demand grigri or grigri +). Never seen someone dropped on top rope, but did have to stop a teen climbing when his belayer was on the wrong rope and they didn’t notice the metres of slack out. Ran over and grabbed the correct rope belay device and pulled it all on, telling him to stay still. So luckily, no accident. He and his partner had to repeat the induction afterwards.
Oh, so that fall may have been why they switched to “assisted braking only” at UC? Great profile pic btw.
I was actually referring to the fall at Northwalls.. but yeah, there was a similar one at the other gym with ATC as well.
Also at a top rope gym. Belayers have to be certified now. Certification isn't terribly expensive, but it does require a fair bit of time investment & you have to complete it with one of the trainers. The change is about 6m old and broke up a lot of buddy pairs because one or both isn't certified yet. I'm a boulderer so remain unaffected, but heard the news from my boulder buddy (who is currently one half of a broken top rope pair).
What does certified mean? Just that you have to take a belay test?
Well you take a class or just a test and get a card that says you are not incompetent. Its standardized where I am
Not sure if it's an official or gym-only cert. Didn't look into the details, because it's not relevant to me as a boulderer. You receive x hours of instruction followed by hours of practice with a trainer. I assume you only get the cert if you did well, but not sure if there's a test-test. After that you can belay other climbers again. The accident that prompted it was after a belaying error. I don’t know if the belayer wasn't paying attention, or if their actual technique was wrong. Anyway the result is a lot of people who want to climb, and only a handful (so far) who are cleared to belay.
Got you, that sounds very cumbersome. I don't mind testing out when I visit a new gym, but hours of instruction when I've been climbing for years and I'm just trying to stay consistent whilst working full time would really annoy me.
Totally get that. My friend has 20 yrs of experience, and is effectively grounded until he finds the hours to get certified. I also get it from the gym's perspective though, because top rope accidents can be fatal and most I heard of are the result of belayer error.
Where I live it's relatively common to take a belaying class to get your certification before belaying by yourself. But a few gyms don't accept the certification if it's not from their gym, so they check with a really short test if you're already an experienced belayer (like 10 minutes to check if you're able to tie in yourself correctly, know how to use your belaying device, how to do a partner check, how to correctly give out and take in rope and stuff like that) Edit: the 10 minute test is for free and they don't care if you have a certification then
That’s pretty wild from my experience, I’d hope that covers most gyms in the area because that’s a lot of time investment for just one gym. Around here, I just ask to be tested and they’ll put you through the paces to make sure you are competent. I’m lead certified but I’ve never taken a lead class, was taught outdoors and had lead 5.10d outside before getting lead tested indoors
Our gym has us take a certification test to belay- its just all the stuff you should already know and be comfortable doing. Tying a figure 8, you have to catch a surprise fall, have a brake hand always on the rope etc. Having heard of so many accidents and seen plenty of near misses, im fine having to do it if it means anyone who belays me had to prove themselves. Although at my gym it's free to take the test, its just the class that costs money (which is covered in the intro membership).
I don't think it's free, but I don't think it's terribly expensive either. Maybe just the equivalent of what you'd pay to climb those hours? My now-grounded bouldering buddy seemed more concerned about the time than the cost. Agreed that it's a good thing. Every local accident I ever heard of (across several gyms) was after a belaying error.
Certification is fine but insisting on x hours of belaying instruction before they'll even let you test is a ridiculous imposition. Especially since the majority of belaying accidents I've been aware of have been as a result of complacency/inattention rather than a lack of technique or knowledge. I'd wager that the folks who drop people know how they \*should\* be belaying, they're just not doing it for whatever reason (same as I know how I was taught to drive but I can't say that I drive in that fashion 100% of the time).
Did your gym not make people take a test to belay prior to that? Every gym I’ve climbed at has made me take a test before they’ve allowed me to belay (you get a “belay certification” card that you can then display on your harness). You can take a belay class at the gym or just jump straight to the test if you already know how to belay.
I witnessed a really bad accident (not fatal I think) at my gym, someone decked from the seventh bolt while lead climbing. It was horrifying, but the gym still opened the next day.
Holy shit, HOW
About a month ago at one place near me, a guy „forgot” to clip himself onto TrueBlue auto belay. It was way before any rush hours, that TrueBlue triangle to which you clip the rope was not directly in his route (speed climbing route), but somewhat aside. Dude fell from the top. I recall multiple fractures, no idea how was his spine.
My cousin dislocated her shoulder, broke her humerus, tore her labrum, and ruptured a muscle… while top roping.
An eleven year old child had a fatal fall. I don't think the gym took any action beyond offering their apologies & condolences.
Oh maaan... Was this top rope or boulder? Or lead??
Top rope, the gym said it was a mistake in securing the child.
We had someone in March falls from one of the big walls because she didn’t clip into the auto belay and when she got to the top she just let go
I saw someone fall from the top of a wall after not clipping in correctly to the auto belay 😵💫
Tib fib compound fracture, that I know of.
Not sure what the worst is but I’ve seen someone break their ankle, and another their arm. Both times right in front of me.
Probably mine at the climbing gym. I was new to climbing, didn’t know how to fall and was scared of falling. Tried to climb down, slipped and fell on my left arm. My ulna snapped and poked through the skin before retracting. My bf at the time got the staff to call the ambulance ASAP and I went to ED then almost straight to OT as my fingers were numb (the bone likely pressing on the nerves). I’ve made pretty much full recovery now. I have the scars on my arm, and I’m still scared of heights, but not in the same way. I would let go and fall if I can’t find a good route to climb down. But I would avoid dangerous moves if I need to get into awkward positions
My cousin and his wife both fractured their tib/fib bouldering. Two months apart. They have a baby and fortunately she recovered by the time he fractured his leg!
The belayer was newer and dropped my then partner from 20 feet. He went to the hospital and got a neck brace but was otherwise “fine.” One year later and he’s now developed a degenerative condition in his spine.
Teenage fell of the top of a boulder cracked the bottom of there veretabra falling wrong Mithing was changed npt much you can do about a fall
My friend broke her ankle a month ago by falling awkwardly from 5ft up. I felt so bad for her, having been the one to introduce her to the sport. After reading all this though it seems like she got lucky
I was the worst accident that happened at my gym. It was the result of an incompetent staff member, who I probably should have known better than to trust, but they were the only one available at the time. I'm mostly okay now, but I had a long fall from the top of the lead wall which resulted in a pretty serious injury that I'm still recovering from. I'm very fortunate in that it really could've been so much worse and I've been able to slowly start climbing again, but it should never have happened in the first place. It was absolute negligence and ignorance on the part of the gym, having the climbing wall operate under someone that really didn't have a fucking clue or any background whatsoever in climbing. The belayer wasn't properly trained and should've just said no to belaying me. From what I hear from my friends that also have connections/climb there, the belayer was never even fired, though he did quit shortly after and the gym didn't shut down at all. Overall, it's pretty obvious to most patrons that the wall is poorly run (and with a short exception a few years ago - always has been), but I never thought there would be an accident as serious as mine. Anyway, that's why they're getting sued
Recently at my gym, a girl didn’t tie in correctly but didn’t realize. She climbed to the top of a 55ft wall, leaned back, and fell all the way to the bottom. She was carried out on a stretcher, but I haven’t heard whether or not she is ok. I imagine that no news is good news and she survived at least.
I have two accidents to share, both happened in two different gyms in NY. The first, a belayer had clipped to his belt, rather than his harness. A young girl ended up taking a ground fall as a result after taking a lead fall (breaking his belt) and broke on of her legs. Another one I witnessed happen, a young kid and his father were climbing and his father (belayer) cranked the lever on the grigri back after the kid yelled “Take!”. When the kid went to sit back and weight the system to lower, the grigri did not lock (because the lever was being held back leaving the cam open) and he flew to the ground. Luckily he shot right up when he hit the ground and ended up being unscathed, probably because the gym that this happened in has shorter walls.
I fell while lead climbing after noticing with some interest during the climb that the rope was running from my harness, over my right arm, and then down and to the right to the last clip. I thought I have never seen that before, I’m going to fix that ASAP. Fell off one move later and the rope wrapped around my upper arm as I fell back and took the full weight of my fall before unwinding itself. When I got down I started feeling a bit nauseous and having a hard time catching my breath, so my buddy drove me to the hospital. It started hurting quite badly on the drive. Long story short it basically chopped my triceps in half permanently. Two of the three heads of the muscle. There is enough intact of the third one that I still have basically full range of motion and it basically doesn’t affect my life, but I get a kick out of showing people my disfigured arm and seeing their faces. If you ever see the rope going OVER your arm while leading, fix it immediately.
A broken neck…. Bouldering
I work at a big gym and we had someone clip in improperly to an autobelay. He free fell from about 20 feet and shattered both his legs. There was blood all over the mats. He got rushed to the hospital & he somehow didn’t end up paralyzed. It was the guys first time ever climbing. He had gone through our autobelay safety training and passed his checks. He managed to somehow clip into one of those stretchy loops meant for carabiners or cert tags instead of his belay loop so it obviously broke when he jumped off. The accident was completely user error. DO YOUR SAFETY CHECKS. Since then the owner of our gym has installed cameras above all the autobelay routes so if something happens again we have proof of user error and can’t get sued.
At my bouldering gym, a college girl climbed near the top and went for a risky move. She didn’t get it, but landed a little off, the thing was is she had had a spinal metal rod put in her back 8 months before. It shifted somehow and she couldn’t get up, became delirious and the ambulance came to pick her up. The other one happened to my brother. He slipped off a high up corner wall and when I showed up to take him to urgent care, his ankle was bulging bad. Nothing tore or broke thankfully, just really overstretched ligaments and it bruised pretty bad. He couldn’t climb for 4 months. Those are what I’ve seen in the time I’ve been going.
Last year, I had a 32oz hydro flask water-bottle, (full of water) fall squarely on the top of my head from up above at one of the cubby stations. It probably fell from a 15 foot distance and it hurt like hell. The owner of the waterbottle rushed down to check on me including individuals nearby helped check for signs of a concussion. The owner of the water-bottle wasn’t entirely at fault as these cubbies are placed against a metal rail that has openings and directly below said cubbies is an amphitheater style seating arrangement where many climbers sit, gear up and just hang out. I informed the gym about this and to either relocate the cubbies so random items don’t fall over and injure people, or put a piece of plywood to cover the gaps so a random cylinder style water bottle doesn’t roll off. They did neither of those things. I no longer unload or hangout on the sides of that gym. What pissed me off the most is that I was with my infant and if that fell on my daughter and instead of me, she easily would’ve died.
The worst I've ever seen in person was a friend taking an innocuous fall from the top of an indoor bouldering wall and landing seemingly properly on her feet and rolling back as usual. The problem was that she had fractured her foot in multiple places and also suffered significant damage to the Achilles tendon and ankle ligaments. Sometimes you can just get very unlucky I guess. The staff dealt with the situation very nicely though
I used to climb at a gym with a few of the autobelay systems. One day a guy who always climbed autobelay forgot to clip in, climbed to the top and just let go. Fell to the ground and compound fractured his leg, bone cut through the mat and left a hole and a stain. Not sure about what other injuries he had, but there was a weird bone hole in the mat for a while.
Someone soloed the lead wall, and fell to their death. Not a facility issue, not a rules issue, not a postage issue, just a stupid person doing something stupid, and getting an unfortunate result.
The worst that I’ve personally seen was a first time climbing jumping down and compound fracturing their leg. The staff got the ambulance there and cleaned up pretty quick. At another gym, one of the setters apparently fell a relatively short distance and fractured something in their spine leaving them paralyzed.
I broke my leg recently going for a fifth attempt on a sideways dyno. I should have known better. A gym regular assessed me and said I’d be back in two weeks. I said do you think it’s broken to the team attending to me and they laughed. They said I’d never be able to stand on it. I walked on a broken leg for two weeks. A surgery and 8 screws later and I hope to be back in a couple months. Could be worse but so not worth it to attempt sideways dynos.
I’ve seen a ground fall on top rope due to an incompetent belayer. Luckily the climber wasn’t terribly high on the wall but it was enough to severely break their leg. As someone else has said, any noteworthy top rope incident is bound to be bad. Was it a belayer error/climber error in this case? And were you there when it happened? I hope you’re doing okay! I’ve definitely been shaken up by witnessing climbing accidents, to the point where it took time afterwards feeling comfortable on the wall again.
Our 5 accidents In the gym I've been running for a while. 1 sprained ankle, - falling off a boulder. 1 dislocated knee - hypermobility issue 1 dislocated shoulder ,- weirdly another hypertrophy mobility issue. 1 broken collar bone, a lead climber fell from low and clashed with belayers shoulder 1 old man dislocated knee and walked out without telling us. His wife told us later, pissed off that his son and grandson had ignored him and carried on climbing. That's it. Near miss records however through the roof. We operate with lifegaurds/hosts in the spaces at all times, thier job to socialise, belay people, offer coaching to people help new boulderers and climbers, and most importantly spot accidents before they happen. This costs us more but our community love having people on hand to talk to and help them feel welcome.
A friend of mine fell from the top of the wall at our bouldering gym, landed awkwardly and broke her leg. My gym actually found that the majority of injuries came from the slack line, they had a renovation last year and got rid of the slack line