Clyde_Soles

Another point of clarification. "Static rope" is a convenient misnomer. In truth, they are all "low-elongation ropes" since they do stretch and absorb forces. In tests by one rope company using an 80kg mass falling 10 feet (FF =1), a 10.5mm dynamic had an impact force of 1225 lbf while a 10mm static reached 2085 lbf. In this fall, the top piece would feel about 1.6 times that or 1960 lbf on the dynamic and 3336 lbf. If the rope were truly static, the forces would be much higher. But with any rope these forces can only be achieved if there is no slippage in the belay device. While there is a lot of concern here about the rope, the belay is the limiting factor unless there is a lot of rope drag, which does not appear to be the case. It's highly unlikely that anyone could give a static belay in this scenario. So check out the rope but I don't think that was the real issue. To be honest, I don't think there's much mystery left about this unfortunate accident. Don't let me discourage further investigation, since I could be wrong and more knowledge is always good. But everything seems quite plausible.

Not having climbed in the PNW, I’ve just discovered this thread. First, I’m truly saddened by the loss of Göran. However, I think this information is valuable to many people and some good may come out of it. Let me clarify a few technical details. I’ve been rather involved with climbing gear testing for many years and wrote a book, Rock & Ice Gear, that can explain my comments further. The Camalots Erden is describing are the old-style U-stem model discontinued about 7(?) years ago (took 8 pages to figure this out). These had relatively narrow 7075 cams where the current single stem models are wider 6061cams. The small surface area made these more likely to track out and it sounds like this rock would be prone to that. Alloy hardness is relatively insignificant in this application but I won’t get into that. A careful examination of the crack should show the track marks and possible blowout at the edge. While this doesn’t apply to older ropes, the current standard states that a static rope has a solid color with a single strand wrapping around the rope and a dynamic has multicolors with crisscrossing strands. It is possible to have static ropes that feel like dynamics but most have a rougher sheath for durability; not necessarily stiffer but there’s often a tactile difference. They aren’t really static anyhow, though not as soft as dynamics in falls. Furthermore, the belay system is usually the limiting factor on forces in a fall like this (minimal rope drag??), not the rope. Still haven’t figured out the distances involved (initial fall and distance between pieces) but he was a 100kg so that made things worse. From the descriptions, it sounds like he was 15 ft above the #3?? The Petzl Meteor passes a tougher standard than a bike helmet and offers better side impact protection than most hard shells climbing helmets. It’s among the best choices for this type of climbing but can only do so much. Certainly looks like an open gate failure for which there could be numerous explanations — it doesn’t surprise me. The short, stiff quickdraw may have contributed since it would be more likely to get whipped around as the top piece came under tension. It’s quite possible for forces to build up in extremely unfortunates circumstances as this appears to be. If much of a ropes’ elasticity is used up in the initial fall, there isn’t much time to recover if the top piece fails. In the UIAA test, they wait 5 minutes between drops and do not report the peak force on the second fall. I’ve seen second drop data and it doesn’t appear to correlate to the first drop (a softer rope can give a harder second catch than a harder rope on it’s second drop). Plus by the time the second piece is impacted, all of the natural give in the system is used up. So the next piece gets a hefty load, nearly static. I suspect it’s more of a problem with skinnier ropes (less nylon) in general than particular models. Age is another factor that reduces rope elasticity, not strength. I certainly don’t have a definitive answer but, judging from afar, it sounds like many things compounded in the blink of an eye. This is the reality of climbing. The vast majority of times, it’s a very safe activity. But all the little details that most of us don’t think about (or know about) can add up to catastrophe. My condolences again, Clyde.

quote: I suppose there is something like a speed of elasticity/rebound factor that might be measurable. It seems to me, though that the rope in a completely unweighted senario would rebound very, very quickly. In theory yes, in reality no. Dynamic ropes absorb the energy of a fall both with the stretch of molecular bonds of nylon 6, which generates heat, and a physical untwisting of the fibers (this is a broad oversimplification). While some of this is recovered immediately, it takes time for a rope to completely restore it's elasticity (I've heard a range of one to 24 hours), which is why sport climbers working a route are supposed to rotate ends of the rope occassionally (not that anybody listens). But in a scenario like this, it's less than 2 seconds till the second impact and the first piece pulling may not have slowed him down much. At that point, all the slack is gone (belayer tight, runners all tight, device locked) with an increasing fall factor. So the actuality is the forces can be higher than might be expected on subsequent pieces. Usually this isn't a huge concern but when things go wrong they can pile on fast.