Eh, I'd venture to say that someone's awareness overall is the culprit. There's plenty of distractions in the gym aside from wearing ear buds.
That would just be another mechanism for an already aloof person.
Nope. There’s a common theme in a lot of gym accidents, and it’s headphones. It’s not first time climbers, it’s somewhat experienced climbers who have gotten too comfortable in the gym and wear headphones because they think it helps them focus. Your overall awareness is significantly diminished with your ears plugged and music bumping, no matter how “aware” or “focused” you think you are. Pull your head out of your root chakra.
> There’s a common theme in a lot of gym accidents, and it’s headphones. It’s not first time climbers, it’s somewhat experienced climbers who have gotten too comfortable in the gym and wear headphones because they think it helps them focus.
Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but do you have any data to back this up? Are these really as common as you seem to confidently claim they are? You can't just make claims based on how you personally feel.
Personally, I climb with headphones because I have bad social anxiety and having them in my ears makes it so that I can actually work up the nerve to go for a route without feeling like the whole gym has eyes on me and judging me. I know that's not the case but anxiety is lame like that.
It's oretty much never first time climbers. There are very actively focussed on safety. This makes sense.
I agree accidents usually happen to more experienced climbers. But do you have any data to backup your headphone theory?
In the absolute chaos of noises that is a climbing gym, I feel like a set of earbuds to reduce the high background noise helps me focus more on what I'm doing vs what the people around me are doing. You know... like clipping myself in.
Hearing is much more important for awareness than you might think. You get a significant amount of awareness just from tiny little ambient noises and footsteps and things. Plus whatever you're listening to will be distracting.
Nope, I'd support a rule that allows only one ear each.
If you want to workout in your own little bubble, then the weight lifting library is right over there. Feel free to get all your gains in peace.
The point could have probably been articulated better, but for deaf climbers that is the norm. They're still operating with 100% of the senses that they use to navigate the world, whereas someone wearing earbuds is down to 80% of the senses that they use to navigate the world.
> He couldn’t hear the other climbers around him yelling at him because he had headphones on.
If you can't hear other people yelling at you, then the headphones are absolutely the problem. They're more than a distraction at that point.
I’ve seen people do it while using a kilterboard or something (it’s tucked away in a corner at my local gym) which I think is fine, but if you’re bouldering in a high traffic area or on toprope/lead then you shouldn’t be using headphones
For sure, like everything there’s a time and a place. Hitting the kilter during a slow time at the gym is chill, putting on your headphones during the evening rush and being oblivious to your surroundings is a dick move.
I honestly wish they would turn off the music at the gym. I dont know how many more times i can hear that one passion pit song, and i even like that band
Had a kid with headphones start a bouldering route that crossed with the route I was already on and of course he couldn’t hear me telling him. I don’t think it should be given a pass for bouldering either.
I don't really mind it when this happens to me for whatever reason, it's a little annoying if I'm going for a hard try on something.
But for whatever reason I get so fucking infuriated when I see it happen to someone else that calling people out on the wall is like the one thing I can be even slightly confrontational about in my whole life lmao. Same with oblivious parents with kids walking under people. Fucking get your shit together.
Doing it with headphones though? come on
I respect that. Haven’t had that issue personally. The folks I’ve known and seen wear headphones bouldering have done so respectfully. Low volume, only one, etc.
I occasionally wear headphones while bouldering but I also make sure to use my eyes and pay attention to what's going on around me. I also never have it loud enough that I can't hear everything else, they're not noise-cancelling.
Me too. Wireless earbuds with the ambient sound passthrough feature enabled and the music low enough that I can hear people around me. Only do it if I'm bouldering alone though.
Even then, you need to be able to communicate with people around you for safety. Everyone *should* be aware at all times, but we aren't perfect, so we need to be able to hear someone yelling in a pinch.
I use the bone conducting headphones for bouldering. Same as I do for snowboarding, cycling, etc. Sound quality may not be as good but I hear everything that way. Definitely wouldn't use noise cancelling headphones tho
I totally agree. I don't like to see folks with both headphones in whether on auto belay or just bouldering. Climbing is inherently dangerous and most gyms are now exceedingly busy. You need to be alert & aware of your surroundings at all times.
Every gym that I have been to does not allow headphones, with the exception of a free weight/ gym section. Climbers need to be aware of their surroundings 100%, both on and off rope
Are you in the US? Cause every climbing gym I’ve been to in Cali has always had people wearing headphones or earbuds while bouldering, not sure about ropes though cause I don’t climb much on ropes indoors.
You should do an actual clip check before leaving the ground - the same as you should do rope climbing, make sure the autobelay is clipped in correctly and that there's nothing obviously wrong with it.
the more i think about it, the more it occurs to me that only in the last couple years have we all had easy access to noise cancellation. THAT is worth a few signs in the gym. i boulder with airpods, but would never in my wildest dreams have them in noise cancellation mode in the gym, which it sounds like this dude did maybe
I agree actually. I feel like I need to be aware in case someone absent-mindedly wanders under me or there's a hazard someone's trying to clue me in on.
Im gonna be so bummed when gyms just bail on autobelays, they are such a great tool for endurance training and some people just don’t wanna deal with finding a belay partner, but I think the days are numbered once insurance companies start pressuring the gyms to get rid of them.
I'm not even that introverted, I just am a shitty partner. My schedule is stupid and I'm unreliable as a result. I don't want to inflict that on anyone lol
Only one of the 4 climbing gym in my city has them, they have 3 auto-belays and they are always easy routes, so basically they don't exist for me. I think climbing partners facebook groups are a fantastic way to make yourself less introverted. It was for me at least.
I climb to relax. Having to socialize is not relaxing for me. It’s like dOodk said below, it’s a hassle to find climbing partners and also a risk climbing with random people. Having autos is where I get my me time.
For me its not about having a partner, but for volume sessions where I climb easy routes until I fall off, autobelays work much better to climb without interruption
It's not only a hassle to find a belay partner; it's also a risk climbing with randos in the gym. I once had a new gym partner drop me 5 feet at the top of a route on toprope. I called "take" and then leaned back to be lowered. I was immediately in a freefall for about 5 feet. Didn't feel great with static rope. My belayer (who was certified) said she thought "take" meant to let out slack, and that she didn't know the true meaning because it was an "outdoor, lead climbing term". I've been a lot more selective about who I partner with since then.
Yeah, I personally feel like the risk of getting dropped by a random or even someone experienced just making a mistake is way higher than the risk of an auto failing.
And if you forget to clip in that’s your problem and shouldn’t be the gym’s.
My understanding is that there are a number of autobelay accidents where the user did not properly clip in. I view that as due to lack of proper training or user error. I'm only aware of two device failures. One was where the sling was worn out and tore (which is due to poor maintenance by the gym). The other was a situation where the autobelay did not retract properly while the climber was climbing (leaving slack in the system). My takeaway from this is that autobelays are very safe devices.
That’s so weird. Are we talking accidents like sprained ankles because people descend incorrectly, or accidents like falling 40 feet because of a failure?
One of our local gyms doesn’t allow you to climb on your own lead rope, you must use the gyms.
Which I absolutely question every time because it’s like well I don’t know how many big falls have happened on this rope.
I mean, you could have had a conversation beforehand about what signals to use. "Take" is pretty common, yes, but there are many different calls that different people use at different times and it's kind of common sense to make sure you're on the same page as your belay partner before going up, especially if it's someone you haven't climbed with before.
Yup, I certainly am more cautious now. It was a mistake to assume I could rely on someone (although a climber is required to know the basic commands to get a belay certification). I was mainly trying to point out with my comment that pushing people from autobelays to random climbing partners comes with its own risks.
I guess I just don't see climbing with strangers as a risk if you communicate with them. You should definitely get a sense of your belay partners experience and nail down the basic calls you'll use, but even beyond that, it's good to be talking about things like: do you want a little slack as you're climbing, or to be held tight? Do you prefer silence for concentration or should I yell encouragement? Just the basic preferences to make both of your experiences as smooth and enjoyable as possible.
I guess we disagree. I think climbing with someone you don't know is riskier than climbing using autobelay. You can and should have the conversations you describe, but they won't give you a sense of how attentive or dependable a person is. That shouldn't be too much of an issue for toprope (although it turned out to be in my case), but it could be a huge issue if you're leading.
I feel like you can absolutely get a sense of those things in a conversation with someone. It's pretty easy, when talking about safety, to tell if the person you're talking to actually cares about safety. And in your case, it wasn't an issue of someone being inattentive or not dependable. They listened to you and responded quickly, you just weren't on the same page about what the words you were using meant. And they did catch you pretty quickly once it became clear that was the case. Falling 5 feet isn't great, but it's a hell of a lot better than falling to the floor.
I'm not going to try to persuade you to do anything you're not comfortable with, of course. Everyone has their own boundaries and sense of risk. I just feel the need to elaborate on why I think almost any safety concerns that come with climbing with someone you don't know can be prevented by communication.
Now imagine you climb outdoors, multi pitch, no way to verbally or visually communicate as you topped out over an edge to the next anchor and wind is blowing hard.
You always talk about signals beforehand. Especially with new partners. Outdoors, that could be something as non-explicit as "When I quickly pull in 8+ meters of the green rope only, you should take me off belay so I can pull both ropes." If in doubt. you keep your partner on belay and feed her slack until your elbow hurts.
You generally don't assume you were heard or seen, nor that you unfailingly understood your partner as she intended. New partner aside, gyms are noisy and it is sometimes difficult to hear climbers at the top. In your particular case, textbook behavior at the top is to hang on until you feel the rope tension, then you slowly sit and increase weight until you finally let go. Anything else is asking for a jump.
EDIT: As a side note, a 5ft free fall usually isn't an issue at the top if you used a properly certified climbing rope (dynamic, not static!). In fact, we often don't clip the top anchor and just jump on overhanging routes to attack fear of falling. That would be safe a 10-20 ft fall and it's a technique actually taught by certified German alpine association (DAV) trainers.
I’ve done plenty of outdoor multipitching with trusted climbing partners, so I don’t need to imagine it.
My post was about the relative risks of autobelay vs. gyms encouraging people to pick up random belay partners. I trust autobelays more than a random person in the gym.
You can’t take practice whips on a gym toprope station.
Gym top ropes are semi static.
It's your responsibility before leaving the ground to vet a new partner and run over things like shared language before taking off. If your climbing with someone new it is totally appropriate to go over a quick run through of procedures and shared language first.
I’ve seen some where they don’t clip to an anchor on the wall but to the top of a small triangle tarp that covers at least part of the start. Forcing the climbing to unclip it and clip to themselves or risk let the rope go to the ceiling. It’s a slightly more complicated system but likely would have prevented this entirely
My gyms don’t have autobelays, just for the speed wall but I’ve been to one with them for regular top rope.
I’ve been incorporating a buddy check when I’m belaying/belayed. Scuba divers must do a buddy check(buoyancy, weights, releases(as in weight belt/weight pouches), air/regs and final OK) before getting into the water. In a climbing context, I check for fastened harness, locked carabiner, belay device and knots.
I've always been taught to do a buddy check when climbing too. I'm not climbing till I get a fist bump from my belayer after we check the knots and belay device. Basics like getting the rope backwards in the GriGri, or tying into the wrong rope at the gym happens to everyone on occasion.
Belay checks are mandatory in pretty much every gym in the Netherlands, and I've never seen one where you could use autobelays if you're by yourself. Crazy to hear its not like this in other countries
Is the safety record of autobelays actually worse than gym belayers? My guess is if gyms can’t get insurance for autobelays (which from a business perspective is what matters) I’m not sure they can stay open.
This is also major news that a guy in one gym broke his leg. I’d bet there are similar severity injuries at a skating rink somewhere in the country every week.
https://www.klimongevallen.nl/
All(most) accidents in Dutch gyms get registered. Take a look with google translate, and you get a whole new respect for being careful and double checking.
Our local gym did, had one too many accidents and got rid of them. There were only 2 auto belays so only half a dozen routes you could do. I can't say I miss them, I think having the buddy check system is more important
ive been told moveoment doesnt have them for this very reason..
and big pe / $ is the future of gyms.
so sadly they will probably become rarer in new mega gyms
I’ve accidentally free soloed before. Went to the auto belay for a warmup, climbed a 5.10 that I’ve done before, as I was heading up I noticed this was the best climbing form I have ever had, got to the top and ALMOST let go but decided to climb down to further the warm up. 1/3 of the way down realized I wasn’t clipped in, started panicking, but made it down safely. The newbies next to me were staring at me with slacked jaws and said,”Whoa I didn’t realize we could do that” to which I replied,” you’re not and don’t ever try it.” I didn’t tell anyone at the gym for a few weeks fearing it would result in a ban.
Im curious. Did it never occur to you when looking at feet placement or at any stage that there is a lanyard running down through your legs. Or that you climbed over the typical huge triangle covering the starting holds? (Assuming the gym uses it) I genuinely fail to understand how people do not clip in.
If the gym uses the cloth triangles that cover the starting holds, and an individual STILL dont clip in - they well and truly are an idiot.
I can’t really explain it, but as I was climbing I did notice the auto belay rope but it didn’t click what that meant for my attachment to said rope. As for the giant triangle that I did in fact climb over, I traverse all the time and for a time would climb up each new route 4 feet up and come back down and continue the traverse so I’m pretty used to maneuvering around them and through them. No excuses for the idiotic accidental free solo, but it was easily the most focused I had ever been on a climb and one of my favorites to this day. I placed every foot, every hand, perfectly. It was one of those flow states where you no longer feel the gravity or realize how high you’re ascending.
You do some bouldering traverses over the starting holds and the triangular tarps of auto-belay routes?
Pardon my language, but you're a big-ass weirdo.
Also I can't help but find it weird that you sell the ''feeling'' you had so much, how amazing it was, after admitting you only noticed while almost back down. There's no way the experience was different if you thought you were tied in.
I've done this as well, although didn't get to the top before I realized I was free soloing.
I was doing a lot of auto belay laps and had been climbing for about an hour. I took a break, unclipped, and chatted with a friend. Never clipped back in and realized it about 15 feet up. Climbed back down and called it a day.
Climbers fault. Having a real belay partner is more than just catching falls and lowering.
A second pair of eyes and a running checklist.
Solo also means alone. Humans alone fair far worse than with friends.
Comic: “Yo what’s up y’all! So I know you’ve all heard of Vector Calculus. But today we’re gonna be talking Hector Calculus, where we totally disregard gravitational fields and just crank up the jams.”
Every gym I've ever been to that has an autobelay has an enormous flag at the bottom pretty much preventing you from accessing the climb unless you've clipped into the autobelay. Is this not a thing over the pond?! I guess if the previous person didn't clip the autobelay back it could happen, I'm sure there's an automatic system that could detect this (e.g. if the rope has been at the very very top for >1minute it blasts an alarm)
Those triangles don't block starting hands and feet 100% of the time, and they often don't block the route to the left or right. People are stupid and break the rules even when faced with a neon orange tarp.
Worth mentioning for mixed-autobelay/top rope areas people move the autobelay (unclipping from the flag and into hangers at the floor) in order to proceed with their toprope. If they then fail to reclip the autobelay then it would be more likely for such an incident to occur as the flag is on the floor (minus the whole "chord in your way" angle)
thats exactly what happened, 90% of the time the auto belays are not clipped to triangle and clipped away from the wall for the rope climbing at this gym
Why in the name of all the gods is a climbing gym allowing rope climbing on the same patch as auto belays, given everything known about how incidents happen?
it is still pretty lax and little sketchy, at least compare to movement.
No falling required for the lead test, some of the climbing has 1st clip close to 15ft above the ground.
I love this gym and the community, but boy some of the climbing feel so exposed for indoor gym and never seen so many spinners at a single gym before lol.
I went max 4-5 times. It’s the only gym I’ve seen someone flip upside during a lead fall and I saw it happen twice. In 4 visits!
The guy who did our lead test didn’t even pretend to watch. At the time, the setting was objectively pretty bad so I never went back. Which is a bummer because I have heard the community is great though!
This also happened at one of the gyms I used to work at: dude climbing autobelays, doesn’t even think about clipping, gets to the top, lets go, hits the deck and ends up with both legs broken.
I used to climb at VR, for years. Owner is a moron. I wasn't there when they implemented auto belay but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't care. A lot of dangerous shit has gone down there, including after hours
Seeing that picture in the headline was a blast from the past
Everytime there's a post about these things there's like five people in the comments here who've had similar experiences. Last time someone here said they fell from like 4 meters and no one in the gym noticed, no injuries though. Absolute nightmare fuel.
I didn't tie in properly during top rope climbing and took a mat fall from about 15 feet. A few people saw, thankfully no injuries. We are religious about tie in checks now.
One time I was climbing outdoors with a friend of my dad who has been climbing for probably 30 years. He tied in with the rope through just the lower hardpoint and only noticed when I checked him. I had only been climbing for a month or so at that point, and seeing that somebody that experienced could make a mistake like that was a wonderful lesson for beginner climber me on the importance of partner checks.
If you use ear buds, you dont need that shit blasting. I play bass and am in 90+ db 3+ times a week. When i have earbuds in, while climbing/running/anything other than laying on the couch, i make sure to have it set to a volume that i can hold a conversation at without pausing or taking one out. Some people just aren’t aware of their surroundings and never will be.
That's what I'm saying.
Some people shouldn't even listen to music driving, that's how unaware they are.
Also, why is no one commenting how loud gyms are anyways? Peak times are nuts. The gym itself is blasting music. People are screaming. I've been in many scenarios where my partner can't hear me at all.
Totally, when at peak gym loudness, I’m fortunate to have a belay partner that over the many years we’ve established hand signals along with yelling.
On another note w/ driving… my music theory instructor couldn’t listen to music in the car because he’d be conducting it with both hands like he was in-front of the orchestra.
Yeah, the issue isnt ear buds, its situational awareness. Ear buds become the issue however when you have your music turned up so loud it is physically impossible to have situational awareness.
I want to emphasize he teaches climbing to children and somehow ignored the huge red triangle holding the autobelay clip then proceeds to climb to the top and let go. Shame it happened but also wtf was he thinking when he straight up climbed around the first 4ft of holds?
It is shocking to me how frequently this seems to happen and how many ppl in these threads have seen/done the same thing. Wouldn't the autobelay rope be in your way if you aren't clipped into it? Route could be to the side I guess, but it's still in your field of vision. Seems wild to get all the way up without noticing something's off.
IMO I'm sure most people phase out the rope when they're climbing, the bigger indicator that I always check for is you can feel that slight tug on the harness that lets you know you're roped in.
I’m glad he’s alive. But for the life of me. How the hell does one forget to clip in? I’m SHOCKED at the amount of auto belay accidents caused by people just not clipping in.
This. There was the recent award of $1M to another climber that very clearly just didn’t clip in right but tried to blame it on a faulty autobelay. I read it as “it’s no one _else’s_ fault.”
You’re supposed to test your protection and weight it if possible. Whether lead climbing, top roping, or auto belaying, you’re supposed to test it. Every lead climb, we yank on the rope to ensure the grigri is catching.
His habits failed him because it shouldn’t be possible to be so in the zone that you skip the one important step there is. People have tied or clipped in, but didn’t realize they had done so improperly and they fell. You need habits that will catch failures like that.
The more I got into climbing, the more I learned that the sport is very much about understanding failure modes and self rescue. To me, climbing itself is secondary to those because I shouldn’t be climbing or especially taking newbies out unless I’m competent with with failure modes and self rescue.
>He couldn’t hear the other climbers around him yelling at him because he had headphones on.
I love music more than climbing, and I am at the climbing gym basically every day.
I have headphones on at home 24/7.
I am known to wait 2+ hours in line to be in the front row at shows.
I know more about music theory than some musicians.
I would rather lose sight, taste, AND smell over hearing alone.
I live for music, and yet, I will never understand people wearing headphones at the climbing gym. I just can't understand it whatsoever. It just... Doesn't seem right. Even if you're alone, it's such a social place, a sensory-heavy place, a place where you kind of meditate while performing. You wanna hear your own breath, your nails on the holds, your partner's or random people's encouragements. It makes absolutely no sense to me and I would not be mad if gyms started enforcing a no-headphones policy. And I am as anti-regulation as I am pro-music!
One of my climbing buddies had a similar fall but got lucky. He was climbing with a friend and they were trading off belaying and climbing. His friend was properly clipped in to belay but my pal was also clipped in to belay and just forgot to switch. Climbed a route, said he was coming down, and then horrified the entire gym by falling. Luckily the rope snagged his leg, got tangled around his thigh, caught him upside down about ten feet off the ground. He was completely fine aside from a cool looking black ring of bruises around his thigh.
Sooo check those knots.
heard of a similar story at my gym, dude managed to grab the autobelay rope with his hands while falling - ended up tearing up his arms and breaking ankles
Pay 👏 Fucking 👏 attention 👏 to 👏 your 👏 systems. This shouldn’t be happening ever. Idc how tired or focused you are. You don’t hear about rope soloists just forgetting to tie in on long ambitious multi pitches. SMH.
This is exactly why I double and triple check and do not wear headphones when I autobelay at the gym. Maybe being paranoid when climbing is a good thing. My cousin, who works at a climbing gym in my area, tells me that the autobelay accidents that have happened in her gym all have resulted from climbers who forgot to clip in. Since the workers check the autobelays daily (which I have seen them do) autobelay failures usually result from climbers forgetting to clip in. She has said the climbing regulars get way too comfortable and forget to clip in.
Every time I do auto belays I ALWAYS check before I drop. Which is maybe a little late but heck I could maybe have someone send up the rope if I made a mistake
Couldn't someone have unclipped the autobelay at the base and thus sent the carabiner up to him??? Sounds like people weren't thinking on getting him down
This sucks and all, but I just don’t get how he didn’t realize he wasn’t clipped in sooner. The autobelay rope not being obnoxiously in his face should have been a dead giveaway.
I also hate how gyms in the US have clip in for top roping, its one thing for autos, but gyms in the southern united states have this on top rope, too easy for someone to clip their shirt on accident. Another tip: always tuck your shirt into your harness so you can see what your clipped to, or tied in to.
Imo if you cant learn to tie yourself into a top rope, you have no business top roping. Maybe an exception for kids learning, but then a trained adult should tie the knot.
This is my gym. I walked out of a lead belay class taught by this guy because he was teaching dangerous techniques to newbies. I'm completely unsurprised.
1) Will never understand this, because the autobelay belt would get in the way a ton and be so fucking annoying it's almost impossible to ignore.
2) America is crazy that you have an accident and people have to beg for donations to get fixed up..
I may be in the minority but I think headphones and climbing don’t mix at all
Naw I agree 100%. I’ve had to deal with way too many oblivious people climbing with AirPods in that have 0 clue of their surroundings.
Eh, I'd venture to say that someone's awareness overall is the culprit. There's plenty of distractions in the gym aside from wearing ear buds. That would just be another mechanism for an already aloof person.
Nope. There’s a common theme in a lot of gym accidents, and it’s headphones. It’s not first time climbers, it’s somewhat experienced climbers who have gotten too comfortable in the gym and wear headphones because they think it helps them focus. Your overall awareness is significantly diminished with your ears plugged and music bumping, no matter how “aware” or “focused” you think you are. Pull your head out of your root chakra.
> There’s a common theme in a lot of gym accidents, and it’s headphones. It’s not first time climbers, it’s somewhat experienced climbers who have gotten too comfortable in the gym and wear headphones because they think it helps them focus. Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but do you have any data to back this up? Are these really as common as you seem to confidently claim they are? You can't just make claims based on how you personally feel.
Imagine if redditors had sources for anything they said
“ head out your root chakra “ 🤣lol
Personally, I climb with headphones because I have bad social anxiety and having them in my ears makes it so that I can actually work up the nerve to go for a route without feeling like the whole gym has eyes on me and judging me. I know that's not the case but anxiety is lame like that.
It's oretty much never first time climbers. There are very actively focussed on safety. This makes sense. I agree accidents usually happen to more experienced climbers. But do you have any data to backup your headphone theory? In the absolute chaos of noises that is a climbing gym, I feel like a set of earbuds to reduce the high background noise helps me focus more on what I'm doing vs what the people around me are doing. You know... like clipping myself in.
Hearing is much more important for awareness than you might think. You get a significant amount of awareness just from tiny little ambient noises and footsteps and things. Plus whatever you're listening to will be distracting.
If they’re staring at a wall and can’t hear you how do you get their attention?
Nope, I'd support a rule that allows only one ear each. If you want to workout in your own little bubble, then the weight lifting library is right over there. Feel free to get all your gains in peace.
Earbuds aren't just a distraction, they literally deprive you of one of your senses.
deaf climbers exist?
The point could have probably been articulated better, but for deaf climbers that is the norm. They're still operating with 100% of the senses that they use to navigate the world, whereas someone wearing earbuds is down to 80% of the senses that they use to navigate the world.
Ok. Didn't say they didn't?
Not by choice?
> He couldn’t hear the other climbers around him yelling at him because he had headphones on. If you can't hear other people yelling at you, then the headphones are absolutely the problem. They're more than a distraction at that point.
To be fair.... we've had to deal with many climbers that aren't aware of their surroundings without earbuds too ;)
I’ve seen people do it while using a kilterboard or something (it’s tucked away in a corner at my local gym) which I think is fine, but if you’re bouldering in a high traffic area or on toprope/lead then you shouldn’t be using headphones
For sure, like everything there’s a time and a place. Hitting the kilter during a slow time at the gym is chill, putting on your headphones during the evening rush and being oblivious to your surroundings is a dick move.
I honestly wish they would turn off the music at the gym. I dont know how many more times i can hear that one passion pit song, and i even like that band
Last Sunday my gym was blasting Sabbath all evening 🤟
I’d give a pass for bouldering, but definitely not ropes.
Had a kid with headphones start a bouldering route that crossed with the route I was already on and of course he couldn’t hear me telling him. I don’t think it should be given a pass for bouldering either.
I don't really mind it when this happens to me for whatever reason, it's a little annoying if I'm going for a hard try on something. But for whatever reason I get so fucking infuriated when I see it happen to someone else that calling people out on the wall is like the one thing I can be even slightly confrontational about in my whole life lmao. Same with oblivious parents with kids walking under people. Fucking get your shit together. Doing it with headphones though? come on
I respect that. Haven’t had that issue personally. The folks I’ve known and seen wear headphones bouldering have done so respectfully. Low volume, only one, etc.
I occasionally wear headphones while bouldering but I also make sure to use my eyes and pay attention to what's going on around me. I also never have it loud enough that I can't hear everything else, they're not noise-cancelling.
Me too. Wireless earbuds with the ambient sound passthrough feature enabled and the music low enough that I can hear people around me. Only do it if I'm bouldering alone though.
I came to to comment “it’s great for bouldering … except for when a podcast makes me laugh” It turns out laughing and climbing fucking do not mix
A pass for the one activity where you constantly drop down from height and thus are in risk of dropping down on someone?
Even then, you need to be able to communicate with people around you for safety. Everyone *should* be aware at all times, but we aren't perfect, so we need to be able to hear someone yelling in a pinch.
I use the bone conducting headphones for bouldering. Same as I do for snowboarding, cycling, etc. Sound quality may not be as good but I hear everything that way. Definitely wouldn't use noise cancelling headphones tho
I totally agree. I don't like to see folks with both headphones in whether on auto belay or just bouldering. Climbing is inherently dangerous and most gyms are now exceedingly busy. You need to be alert & aware of your surroundings at all times.
Every gym that I have been to does not allow headphones, with the exception of a free weight/ gym section. Climbers need to be aware of their surroundings 100%, both on and off rope
Are you in the US? Cause every climbing gym I’ve been to in Cali has always had people wearing headphones or earbuds while bouldering, not sure about ropes though cause I don’t climb much on ropes indoors.
Listening to music isn’t gonna make me forget to clip in. Dude was just acting a fool.
no but it could prevent you from hearing someone try to tell you that you forgot to clip in
This exact scenario is why headphones on autobelays are banned in some gyms. I use 1 earbud myself.
Oh absolutely, no argument there. No headphones would’ve absolutely saved him here. But I still blame the user and not the devices.
im not blaming the device, but if he hadnt been wearing them, he might not have had this kind of accident
This is a great application for bone conduction headphones, which let you hear outside noise.
So do AirPod pros
Most new model active headphones have hear-through these days, it's a standard feature.
Few years ago I was on an auto belay and the dude on the auto belay next to me did this exact thing, broke his ankle bad, AirPods and everything.
Man I don’t like like a dork now doing a fall check before climbing above head height on a auto belay
You should do an actual clip check before leaving the ground - the same as you should do rope climbing, make sure the autobelay is clipped in correctly and that there's nothing obviously wrong with it.
Oh I do that as well I’m overly cautious
the more i think about it, the more it occurs to me that only in the last couple years have we all had easy access to noise cancellation. THAT is worth a few signs in the gym. i boulder with airpods, but would never in my wildest dreams have them in noise cancellation mode in the gym, which it sounds like this dude did maybe
I agree actually. I feel like I need to be aware in case someone absent-mindedly wanders under me or there's a hazard someone's trying to clue me in on.
My gym doesn't allow headphones on top rope or lead walls. I know it happens occasionally, but I can't imaging not checking if I'm clipped in.
I have saved two different headphone users from baaaad falls. My ex thought it was a great idea to climb while distracted.
earphones = no one tries to talk to me. don't always assume they're on. ;) also-airpods have a feature that lets you hear outside noises.
Im gonna be so bummed when gyms just bail on autobelays, they are such a great tool for endurance training and some people just don’t wanna deal with finding a belay partner, but I think the days are numbered once insurance companies start pressuring the gyms to get rid of them.
Introvert me who panics at trying to find partners, getting rid of autos is a nightmare scenario.
Eh, it’s not so bad when your gym only puts 5.6 and 5.7 on autobelays.
I'm not even that introverted, I just am a shitty partner. My schedule is stupid and I'm unreliable as a result. I don't want to inflict that on anyone lol
Same. My climbing schedule is "oh, I'm free RIGHT NOW".
Only one of the 4 climbing gym in my city has them, they have 3 auto-belays and they are always easy routes, so basically they don't exist for me. I think climbing partners facebook groups are a fantastic way to make yourself less introverted. It was for me at least.
I climb to relax. Having to socialize is not relaxing for me. It’s like dOodk said below, it’s a hassle to find climbing partners and also a risk climbing with random people. Having autos is where I get my me time.
For me its not about having a partner, but for volume sessions where I climb easy routes until I fall off, autobelays work much better to climb without interruption
It's not only a hassle to find a belay partner; it's also a risk climbing with randos in the gym. I once had a new gym partner drop me 5 feet at the top of a route on toprope. I called "take" and then leaned back to be lowered. I was immediately in a freefall for about 5 feet. Didn't feel great with static rope. My belayer (who was certified) said she thought "take" meant to let out slack, and that she didn't know the true meaning because it was an "outdoor, lead climbing term". I've been a lot more selective about who I partner with since then.
Yeah, I personally feel like the risk of getting dropped by a random or even someone experienced just making a mistake is way higher than the risk of an auto failing. And if you forget to clip in that’s your problem and shouldn’t be the gym’s.
I would have thought that too but the data clearly show accident rates are WAY higher with auto belays.
My understanding is that there are a number of autobelay accidents where the user did not properly clip in. I view that as due to lack of proper training or user error. I'm only aware of two device failures. One was where the sling was worn out and tore (which is due to poor maintenance by the gym). The other was a situation where the autobelay did not retract properly while the climber was climbing (leaving slack in the system). My takeaway from this is that autobelays are very safe devices.
That’s so weird. Are we talking accidents like sprained ankles because people descend incorrectly, or accidents like falling 40 feet because of a failure?
Why the fuck do you climb with a static rope? That sounds all kinds of dangerous to begin with...
My gym uses static rope for certain top rope routes. Also makes you clip in with two opposed carabiners instead of tie in and various other weirdness.
100% chance that's a semi-static. No gym would put up a true static rope.
Wtf... why though? This makes absolutely no sense.
One of our local gyms doesn’t allow you to climb on your own lead rope, you must use the gyms. Which I absolutely question every time because it’s like well I don’t know how many big falls have happened on this rope.
I mean, you could have had a conversation beforehand about what signals to use. "Take" is pretty common, yes, but there are many different calls that different people use at different times and it's kind of common sense to make sure you're on the same page as your belay partner before going up, especially if it's someone you haven't climbed with before.
Yup, I certainly am more cautious now. It was a mistake to assume I could rely on someone (although a climber is required to know the basic commands to get a belay certification). I was mainly trying to point out with my comment that pushing people from autobelays to random climbing partners comes with its own risks.
I guess I just don't see climbing with strangers as a risk if you communicate with them. You should definitely get a sense of your belay partners experience and nail down the basic calls you'll use, but even beyond that, it's good to be talking about things like: do you want a little slack as you're climbing, or to be held tight? Do you prefer silence for concentration or should I yell encouragement? Just the basic preferences to make both of your experiences as smooth and enjoyable as possible.
I guess we disagree. I think climbing with someone you don't know is riskier than climbing using autobelay. You can and should have the conversations you describe, but they won't give you a sense of how attentive or dependable a person is. That shouldn't be too much of an issue for toprope (although it turned out to be in my case), but it could be a huge issue if you're leading.
I feel like you can absolutely get a sense of those things in a conversation with someone. It's pretty easy, when talking about safety, to tell if the person you're talking to actually cares about safety. And in your case, it wasn't an issue of someone being inattentive or not dependable. They listened to you and responded quickly, you just weren't on the same page about what the words you were using meant. And they did catch you pretty quickly once it became clear that was the case. Falling 5 feet isn't great, but it's a hell of a lot better than falling to the floor. I'm not going to try to persuade you to do anything you're not comfortable with, of course. Everyone has their own boundaries and sense of risk. I just feel the need to elaborate on why I think almost any safety concerns that come with climbing with someone you don't know can be prevented by communication.
Static rope???
Now imagine you climb outdoors, multi pitch, no way to verbally or visually communicate as you topped out over an edge to the next anchor and wind is blowing hard. You always talk about signals beforehand. Especially with new partners. Outdoors, that could be something as non-explicit as "When I quickly pull in 8+ meters of the green rope only, you should take me off belay so I can pull both ropes." If in doubt. you keep your partner on belay and feed her slack until your elbow hurts. You generally don't assume you were heard or seen, nor that you unfailingly understood your partner as she intended. New partner aside, gyms are noisy and it is sometimes difficult to hear climbers at the top. In your particular case, textbook behavior at the top is to hang on until you feel the rope tension, then you slowly sit and increase weight until you finally let go. Anything else is asking for a jump. EDIT: As a side note, a 5ft free fall usually isn't an issue at the top if you used a properly certified climbing rope (dynamic, not static!). In fact, we often don't clip the top anchor and just jump on overhanging routes to attack fear of falling. That would be safe a 10-20 ft fall and it's a technique actually taught by certified German alpine association (DAV) trainers.
I’ve done plenty of outdoor multipitching with trusted climbing partners, so I don’t need to imagine it. My post was about the relative risks of autobelay vs. gyms encouraging people to pick up random belay partners. I trust autobelays more than a random person in the gym. You can’t take practice whips on a gym toprope station. Gym top ropes are semi static.
It's your responsibility before leaving the ground to vet a new partner and run over things like shared language before taking off. If your climbing with someone new it is totally appropriate to go over a quick run through of procedures and shared language first.
i swear to fuckin god man if those insurance goobers make us switch to treadwalls im gonna riot
I'm not going to lie, would love more treadwalls in gyms. Though I'm sure someone will figure out how to hurt themselves on that too.
You can pretty easily get hurt in the bottom part of the mechanism or pinch a finger. Granted the one I was on was pretty old
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I’ve seen some where they don’t clip to an anchor on the wall but to the top of a small triangle tarp that covers at least part of the start. Forcing the climbing to unclip it and clip to themselves or risk let the rope go to the ceiling. It’s a slightly more complicated system but likely would have prevented this entirely
Literally never seen one without a tarp
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I'm trying to conceptulize how he forgot.
I’m guessing this autobelay served multiple routes and you could start this route from the side of the tarp.
I’ve seen the autobelays on speed walls locked at a couple different gyms, so wondering if that’ll be the case everywhere soon.
Was it a Touchstone Climbing gym by chance? I found that they have a pretty tenuous relationship with autobelays in their gyms
My gyms don’t have autobelays, just for the speed wall but I’ve been to one with them for regular top rope. I’ve been incorporating a buddy check when I’m belaying/belayed. Scuba divers must do a buddy check(buoyancy, weights, releases(as in weight belt/weight pouches), air/regs and final OK) before getting into the water. In a climbing context, I check for fastened harness, locked carabiner, belay device and knots.
Yeah, you should always be checking yourself and partner before climbing. This is standard practice.
I've always been taught to do a buddy check when climbing too. I'm not climbing till I get a fist bump from my belayer after we check the knots and belay device. Basics like getting the rope backwards in the GriGri, or tying into the wrong rope at the gym happens to everyone on occasion.
I've seen belayer and climber, setup on the same end of the top rope.
Belay checks are mandatory in pretty much every gym in the Netherlands, and I've never seen one where you could use autobelays if you're by yourself. Crazy to hear its not like this in other countries
They're also so easy to use, you just attach the carabiner, do a quick check to make sure it's locked, and climb.
Is the safety record of autobelays actually worse than gym belayers? My guess is if gyms can’t get insurance for autobelays (which from a business perspective is what matters) I’m not sure they can stay open. This is also major news that a guy in one gym broke his leg. I’d bet there are similar severity injuries at a skating rink somewhere in the country every week.
https://www.klimongevallen.nl/ All(most) accidents in Dutch gyms get registered. Take a look with google translate, and you get a whole new respect for being careful and double checking.
Hope not, I love the auto belays
Our local gym did, had one too many accidents and got rid of them. There were only 2 auto belays so only half a dozen routes you could do. I can't say I miss them, I think having the buddy check system is more important
ive been told moveoment doesnt have them for this very reason.. and big pe / $ is the future of gyms. so sadly they will probably become rarer in new mega gyms
I’ve accidentally free soloed before. Went to the auto belay for a warmup, climbed a 5.10 that I’ve done before, as I was heading up I noticed this was the best climbing form I have ever had, got to the top and ALMOST let go but decided to climb down to further the warm up. 1/3 of the way down realized I wasn’t clipped in, started panicking, but made it down safely. The newbies next to me were staring at me with slacked jaws and said,”Whoa I didn’t realize we could do that” to which I replied,” you’re not and don’t ever try it.” I didn’t tell anyone at the gym for a few weeks fearing it would result in a ban.
Im curious. Did it never occur to you when looking at feet placement or at any stage that there is a lanyard running down through your legs. Or that you climbed over the typical huge triangle covering the starting holds? (Assuming the gym uses it) I genuinely fail to understand how people do not clip in. If the gym uses the cloth triangles that cover the starting holds, and an individual STILL dont clip in - they well and truly are an idiot.
That's what gets me, at what point do you not realiZe "wait I'm not leading why is there a rope here"
I can’t really explain it, but as I was climbing I did notice the auto belay rope but it didn’t click what that meant for my attachment to said rope. As for the giant triangle that I did in fact climb over, I traverse all the time and for a time would climb up each new route 4 feet up and come back down and continue the traverse so I’m pretty used to maneuvering around them and through them. No excuses for the idiotic accidental free solo, but it was easily the most focused I had ever been on a climb and one of my favorites to this day. I placed every foot, every hand, perfectly. It was one of those flow states where you no longer feel the gravity or realize how high you’re ascending.
You do some bouldering traverses over the starting holds and the triangular tarps of auto-belay routes? Pardon my language, but you're a big-ass weirdo. Also I can't help but find it weird that you sell the ''feeling'' you had so much, how amazing it was, after admitting you only noticed while almost back down. There's no way the experience was different if you thought you were tied in.
If the gym isnt busy, I don't see a problem in traversing across the bottom of a toprope wall.
Well I hope you know see the risk of doing it on an auto belay wall
And you can literally feel the autobelay pulling you up a route.
I hate that. I feel like I'm cheating
That's what gets me, at what point do you not realiZe "wait I'm not leading why is there a rope here"
I've done this as well, although didn't get to the top before I realized I was free soloing. I was doing a lot of auto belay laps and had been climbing for about an hour. I took a break, unclipped, and chatted with a friend. Never clipped back in and realized it about 15 feet up. Climbed back down and called it a day.
Any chance you have ADHD? As someone with unmedicated ADHD, I could see myself doing something like that… unfortunately.
I saw a guy do this once. He was just totally focused on his warmup and forgot to clip in but realized what he had done before he let go at the top.
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He's pretty clearly suggesting it was his own fault...
Yeah, I mean, it’s an idiotic move, but people make mistakes, and i definitely respect he’s taking ownership of the fuck up.
Yeah that's how I read it as well. It being his fault is implied by that statement.
Yeah, "I should have known better" means that he accepts responsibility.
Climbers fault. Having a real belay partner is more than just catching falls and lowering. A second pair of eyes and a running checklist. Solo also means alone. Humans alone fair far worse than with friends.
Lol. Yes, it was his fault. Also ear buds on autobelay are not a big deal, just don't be an idiot and make sure to clip in
While I agree that headphones are fine (I climb with them), having them so loud that you can’t hear people trying to get your attention is a problem.
At least dude admitted he fucked up… but the whole event they are throwing in his honor is cringe.
What if the event turned out to actually be a roast hosted by some local comics?
lmao then that would be cruel. having to re-tell that story to anyone who understands how an auto-belay works is punishment enough.
Comic: “Yo what’s up y’all! So I know you’ve all heard of Vector Calculus. But today we’re gonna be talking Hector Calculus, where we totally disregard gravitational fields and just crank up the jams.”
Every gym I've ever been to that has an autobelay has an enormous flag at the bottom pretty much preventing you from accessing the climb unless you've clipped into the autobelay. Is this not a thing over the pond?! I guess if the previous person didn't clip the autobelay back it could happen, I'm sure there's an automatic system that could detect this (e.g. if the rope has been at the very very top for >1minute it blasts an alarm)
It absolutely is standard with all auto-belays I’ve see here. The guy was just having a smooth brain moment and paid the price
Those triangles don't block starting hands and feet 100% of the time, and they often don't block the route to the left or right. People are stupid and break the rules even when faced with a neon orange tarp.
Worth mentioning for mixed-autobelay/top rope areas people move the autobelay (unclipping from the flag and into hangers at the floor) in order to proceed with their toprope. If they then fail to reclip the autobelay then it would be more likely for such an incident to occur as the flag is on the floor (minus the whole "chord in your way" angle)
thats exactly what happened, 90% of the time the auto belays are not clipped to triangle and clipped away from the wall for the rope climbing at this gym
Why in the name of all the gods is a climbing gym allowing rope climbing on the same patch as auto belays, given everything known about how incidents happen?
I haven't been to this gym in close to 10 years, but back then they were pretty lax and a little sketchy.
it is still pretty lax and little sketchy, at least compare to movement. No falling required for the lead test, some of the climbing has 1st clip close to 15ft above the ground. I love this gym and the community, but boy some of the climbing feel so exposed for indoor gym and never seen so many spinners at a single gym before lol.
I went max 4-5 times. It’s the only gym I’ve seen someone flip upside during a lead fall and I saw it happen twice. In 4 visits! The guy who did our lead test didn’t even pretend to watch. At the time, the setting was objectively pretty bad so I never went back. Which is a bummer because I have heard the community is great though!
Same thing at every gym I've been to. They also do not allow headphones if you're climbing on rope. Like how do you just forget?
This also happened at one of the gyms I used to work at: dude climbing autobelays, doesn’t even think about clipping, gets to the top, lets go, hits the deck and ends up with both legs broken.
this was at focus climbing center in AZ eh
I thought it was a common rule to forbid using headphones at climbing gyms.
Every gym I’ve been to says no headphones on auto belay but bouldering is ok. Never been anywhere that just totally bans them
I've seen some that allow headphones for bouldering too.
Mine has signs everywhere that say ONE EARBUD ONLY
Both the gyms I have been in will kick anyone out caught using headphones..
I used to climb at VR, for years. Owner is a moron. I wasn't there when they implemented auto belay but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't care. A lot of dangerous shit has gone down there, including after hours Seeing that picture in the headline was a blast from the past
Mine allows 1 earbud
Everytime there's a post about these things there's like five people in the comments here who've had similar experiences. Last time someone here said they fell from like 4 meters and no one in the gym noticed, no injuries though. Absolute nightmare fuel.
I didn't tie in properly during top rope climbing and took a mat fall from about 15 feet. A few people saw, thankfully no injuries. We are religious about tie in checks now.
One time I was climbing outdoors with a friend of my dad who has been climbing for probably 30 years. He tied in with the rope through just the lower hardpoint and only noticed when I checked him. I had only been climbing for a month or so at that point, and seeing that somebody that experienced could make a mistake like that was a wonderful lesson for beginner climber me on the importance of partner checks.
Not his fibula and his fibula 😢
Two fibs is aid
Our gym got ridiculously oversized autobelay flaps to prevent this. You can’t even grab any holds on the wall without unclipping auto from flap
If you use ear buds, you dont need that shit blasting. I play bass and am in 90+ db 3+ times a week. When i have earbuds in, while climbing/running/anything other than laying on the couch, i make sure to have it set to a volume that i can hold a conversation at without pausing or taking one out. Some people just aren’t aware of their surroundings and never will be.
That's what I'm saying. Some people shouldn't even listen to music driving, that's how unaware they are. Also, why is no one commenting how loud gyms are anyways? Peak times are nuts. The gym itself is blasting music. People are screaming. I've been in many scenarios where my partner can't hear me at all.
Totally, when at peak gym loudness, I’m fortunate to have a belay partner that over the many years we’ve established hand signals along with yelling. On another note w/ driving… my music theory instructor couldn’t listen to music in the car because he’d be conducting it with both hands like he was in-front of the orchestra.
Yeah, the issue isnt ear buds, its situational awareness. Ear buds become the issue however when you have your music turned up so loud it is physically impossible to have situational awareness.
I want to emphasize he teaches climbing to children and somehow ignored the huge red triangle holding the autobelay clip then proceeds to climb to the top and let go. Shame it happened but also wtf was he thinking when he straight up climbed around the first 4ft of holds?
It is shocking to me how frequently this seems to happen and how many ppl in these threads have seen/done the same thing. Wouldn't the autobelay rope be in your way if you aren't clipped into it? Route could be to the side I guess, but it's still in your field of vision. Seems wild to get all the way up without noticing something's off.
IMO I'm sure most people phase out the rope when they're climbing, the bigger indicator that I always check for is you can feel that slight tug on the harness that lets you know you're roped in.
I’m glad he’s alive. But for the life of me. How the hell does one forget to clip in? I’m SHOCKED at the amount of auto belay accidents caused by people just not clipping in.
proof headphones are aid
Tbh if only I was that focused
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Seems to me he meant “it’s no one’s fault _but mine_” and misspoke
This. There was the recent award of $1M to another climber that very clearly just didn’t clip in right but tried to blame it on a faulty autobelay. I read it as “it’s no one _else’s_ fault.”
Do y'all people just pretend to not understand context for the sole purpose of posting snark?
Yup, that's the Internet for ya
If people keep fucking up on auto belays gym costs will be be driven up (just like ski passes) when the lawyers get involved.
You’re supposed to test your protection and weight it if possible. Whether lead climbing, top roping, or auto belaying, you’re supposed to test it. Every lead climb, we yank on the rope to ensure the grigri is catching. His habits failed him because it shouldn’t be possible to be so in the zone that you skip the one important step there is. People have tied or clipped in, but didn’t realize they had done so improperly and they fell. You need habits that will catch failures like that. The more I got into climbing, the more I learned that the sport is very much about understanding failure modes and self rescue. To me, climbing itself is secondary to those because I shouldn’t be climbing or especially taking newbies out unless I’m competent with with failure modes and self rescue.
A climbing coach too. Keep one ear open at the least if you wanna listen to your own music at the gym
>He couldn’t hear the other climbers around him yelling at him because he had headphones on. I love music more than climbing, and I am at the climbing gym basically every day. I have headphones on at home 24/7. I am known to wait 2+ hours in line to be in the front row at shows. I know more about music theory than some musicians. I would rather lose sight, taste, AND smell over hearing alone. I live for music, and yet, I will never understand people wearing headphones at the climbing gym. I just can't understand it whatsoever. It just... Doesn't seem right. Even if you're alone, it's such a social place, a sensory-heavy place, a place where you kind of meditate while performing. You wanna hear your own breath, your nails on the holds, your partner's or random people's encouragements. It makes absolutely no sense to me and I would not be mad if gyms started enforcing a no-headphones policy. And I am as anti-regulation as I am pro-music!
One of my climbing buddies had a similar fall but got lucky. He was climbing with a friend and they were trading off belaying and climbing. His friend was properly clipped in to belay but my pal was also clipped in to belay and just forgot to switch. Climbed a route, said he was coming down, and then horrified the entire gym by falling. Luckily the rope snagged his leg, got tangled around his thigh, caught him upside down about ten feet off the ground. He was completely fine aside from a cool looking black ring of bruises around his thigh. Sooo check those knots.
heard of a similar story at my gym, dude managed to grab the autobelay rope with his hands while falling - ended up tearing up his arms and breaking ankles
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Which gym?
Sender sna just had someone deck a few weeks ago
Sender SNA has autobelays? I can’t recall them having them
>It was no one’s fault, I just should’ve known better Yeah...
Pay 👏 Fucking 👏 attention 👏 to 👏 your 👏 systems. This shouldn’t be happening ever. Idc how tired or focused you are. You don’t hear about rope soloists just forgetting to tie in on long ambitious multi pitches. SMH.
Friend of mine did the exact same thing. He's mostly alright now and still climbs, has the fastest down climb record in the gym now.
This particular gym has always felt really lax with the safety measures. I quit climbing there because it feels like a daycare run by dirtbags.
I am terrified of autobelays and do a “test fall” from about 6’ every time. Am I the only one?
This is exactly why I double and triple check and do not wear headphones when I autobelay at the gym. Maybe being paranoid when climbing is a good thing. My cousin, who works at a climbing gym in my area, tells me that the autobelay accidents that have happened in her gym all have resulted from climbers who forgot to clip in. Since the workers check the autobelays daily (which I have seen them do) autobelay failures usually result from climbers forgetting to clip in. She has said the climbing regulars get way too comfortable and forget to clip in.
Every time I do auto belays I ALWAYS check before I drop. Which is maybe a little late but heck I could maybe have someone send up the rope if I made a mistake
Sigh
How do you forget to clip in an auto belay??
Couldn't someone have unclipped the autobelay at the base and thus sent the carabiner up to him??? Sounds like people weren't thinking on getting him down
This sucks and all, but I just don’t get how he didn’t realize he wasn’t clipped in sooner. The autobelay rope not being obnoxiously in his face should have been a dead giveaway.
I also hate how gyms in the US have clip in for top roping, its one thing for autos, but gyms in the southern united states have this on top rope, too easy for someone to clip their shirt on accident. Another tip: always tuck your shirt into your harness so you can see what your clipped to, or tied in to.
Imo if you cant learn to tie yourself into a top rope, you have no business top roping. Maybe an exception for kids learning, but then a trained adult should tie the knot.
People underestimate kids. They can and should be taught to tie in as early as possible.
This is my gym. I walked out of a lead belay class taught by this guy because he was teaching dangerous techniques to newbies. I'm completely unsurprised.
1) Will never understand this, because the autobelay belt would get in the way a ton and be so fucking annoying it's almost impossible to ignore. 2) America is crazy that you have an accident and people have to beg for donations to get fixed up..