Kropp investigation complete, published

[pindude]

Received today the latest issue of R&I (#126, July 15), and see that Gator's investigation and analysis is now officially published.

 

Gator, thanks for all the hard work you put in—and especially for your thorough, objective investigation and sound analysis. The article appearing in R&I I expect will be the same to appear in ANAM when it’s available later this summer, and obviously is a synopsis of your much more comprehensive study.

 

Erden, we knew before you did everything and more a climbing partner and friend could—may you find peace on your journeys, and good luck on summiting Denali.

 

Rest in Peace, Göran.

----------------

 

As appearing in Rock and Ice, #126:

 

Pro Pulled, Air Guitar (5.10a), Frenchman Coulee, Washington

 

Source: Mike Gauthier, edited by Jed Williamson

 

On September 30, 2002, the famed adventurer Göran Kropp died from a fall while rock climbing. He was leading Air Guitar, a 65-foot 5.10a crack that requires precise nut and cam placements. Kropp was near the top of the route when he fell some 60 feet to a rock ledge. Though wearing a helmet, he sustained fatal head injuries.

 

During the morning and early afternoon that day, Kropp and his partner took turns leading sport routes. After climbing four or five bolted aretes, Kropp took advantage of an opportunity to toprope a crack, Pony Keg (5.10a). Although Kropp looked solid in the crack he told his partner that he found the climb challenging. Kropp then decided to lead Air Guitar.

 

Kropp started up the route, placing, in order, a small nut, two micro cams, and three small to medium cams. He fell near the top of the climb, the crux, shortly after placing a three-inch cam. That cam pulled, and the wire-gate carabiner clipped to the rope on the next cam broke, causing Kropp to fall to the ledge.

 

Analysis:

This accident resulted from a series of combined incidents. Kropp was relatively inexperienced at placing natural gear and, though a powerful athlete, was at his lead limit. The fact that the top cam pulled indicates that it was either placed incorrectly or walked to an insecure position, which is possible since he clipped all of his protection with short, stiff quickdraws. Another scenario is that Kropp dislodged the piece by himself by kicking it with his foot as he climbed past it. Regardless, experienced natural-gear leaders are able to get solid protection at or near the same place Kropp's cam pulled.

 

Subsequent studies of the broken carabiner revealed that the wire gate was not distressed; in other words the carabiner appears to have failed because its gate was open. While a gate-closed carabiner failure is rare, carabiners with their gates open lose as much as two-thirds of their strength, making failure in a fall a real possibility.

 

What caused the gate to open? It could have become wedged or constricted inside the crack because its short quickdraw would not let it lie outside the crack. Jammed in the crack, the carabiner could have had its gate pinned open. The short, stiff quickdraw could also have let the carabiner rotate into a cross-loading orientation, another extremely weak orientation.

 

Leading Air Guitar pushed Kropp’s crack-climbing abilities that day. Air Guitar and other 5.10a basalt column cracks like it are steep and require technical crack-climbing skills. Mastering good crack-climbing skills takes extensive practice and training, which Kropp did not have.

 

Air Guitar also requires the precise placement of natural protection. Learning how to properly size and place rock protection before attempting routes with hazardous fall exposure is important. Short quickdraws are best suited for sport climbing. When using natural protection, many climbers prefer slightly longer and more flexible quickdraws or slings, which provide for a smoother rope movement and decrease the chance of protection being displaced.

 

Sidebar: Safety Tips

Get in the habit of placing two pieces of protection just below the crux moves, and anywhere your protection is suspect. Doubling up also gives you an extra measure of safety in the event one piece fails in a fall. Also, when you place gear in a crack, be sure its quickdraw or sling is long enough to let the rope-end track outside of the crack. This will keep the carabiner from wedging in the crack, and having its strength compromised.

 

[catbirdseat]

No surprises. Heard it all before, but now it's official.

[pindude]

Darn right. It was all in the thread here on cc.com, for those that could wade through the chaff. But someone had to make sense of it all. Cheers to you, Mike.

[Retrosaurus]

That crack is so straight and vertical that you don't even have to add a sling to cams if you are careful as you climb past them.

[lummox]

werent there some questions of static versus dydnamic rope or sumpin? the carabiner breakage is kinda freaky rare ifn you know what i mean. even with no gate theyre not exactly weak.

[pindude]

I wasn't part of the investigation team, but provided some of the older-style Camalots to test (that destroyed #2 left in the crack was originally mine--is it out yet?) and in return was able to see the comprehensive report Gator originally wrote.

 

Rope was dynamic.

 

Biner in question was thoroughly tested and was not defective. While rare, biners do break, especially when open...Goran weighed about 100 kilos and the fall factor was tremendous.

 

While the crack is indeed pretty darn vertical, it widens up at the top such that a rope-end carabiner, when used with a short, stiff "dogbone"-type sport draw, *can* be allowed to lay in the crack sideways such that the gate stays open...the crack was the right size around the #2 Camalot for this to happen.

 

Older style double-stemmed Camalots such as what Göran used are not pre-slung, and the manufacturer recommended from the beginning of their use in the 80s that they should be clipped with a quickdraw when clipping in the rope. As the Air Guitar crack widens at the top, placements can be made further away from the face and back in the crack, or they can walk back further, and are more likely to do so with a short, stiff draw.

[catbirdseat]

Retrosaurus said:

That crack is so straight and vertical that you don't even have to add a sling to cams if you are careful as you climb past them.

"Careful" is the word. That's something a more experienced climber would do and the report emphasized that, although Kropp was very strong, he wasn't experienced.

[iain]

pindude said:

the fall factor was tremendous.

could you explain why the fall factor was tremendous? Seems there was a lot of rope out already.

[Rodchester]

I am curious about the use of the phrase "natural protection." I have always referred to it as Trad or Traditional protection or gear.

 

To me, natural protection means the use of things natural, like slinging horns and chockstones...maybe even a tree.

 

Am I incorrect? (Not trying to be an ass, or be too technical in the use of language).

 

[sobo]

You are correct in your belief of what "natural protection" is. Or at least I agree with you. Trees, bushes, shrubbery, chockstones, horns, etc. etc.

[catbirdseat]

Now I am all confused. Trask told me that "natural protection" is made using sheepskin.

[pindude]

iain said:

pindude said:

the fall factor was tremendous.

could you explain why the fall factor was tremendous? Seems there was a lot of rope out already.

 

Iain,

Poor choice of words on my part. It would be better to say impact force--not fall factor--was tremendous. On a practical level, Gator during his drop tests with 100 kilos duplicated the breaking of an open biner on a #2 Camalot at the same location it was believed Göran placed his.

 

Quick Fall Factor estimate on the #2 Camalot was about 25' length of fall / 55' of rope out = 0.45, not insignificant. I don't know how to calculate impact force, so will leave it to you guys. Peter Puget in a related thread linked to this PMI article at the ASCA website, What heavy climbers need to know. There's a table near the bottom showing "Relationship between Impact Forces, Fall Factors, and Masses," but it shows higher Fall Factors that are closer to one or above. Maybe someone can extrapolate or calculate on their own...

 

--Steve Reynolds

 

[catbirdseat]

Found this dissertation by Idea_Guy. Some may want to go back and reread it. The Kropp investigation report made no mention of the belay. Idea_Guy pointed out that dynamic belay can have a huge effect on impact force. I can't remember whether Erden was using an ATC or a GriGri, but after reading Idea_Guys post I've decided I would only ever want to use a GriGri on bolted routes.

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB9&Number=66231&Forum=All_Forums&Words=impact%20force&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=66231&Search=true#Post66231

[catbirdseat]

Okay, found it. It was a Petzl Reverso. That should give a belay as dynamic as an ATC. Right?

[mattp]

I don't think many of us really will want to wade through all of that, Catbird, and it is really not necessary. The imporant points here are largely covered by Mike's report and related issues which were noted by Mitch in another thread: learn what you are doing before you launch out onto challenging leads on trad pro, consider using longer and more flexible slings than a short and stiff quick-draw for trad gear, keep track of where you are on the rock and where there is potential to hit something if you fall and your pieces hold or if they fail, double up the pro when you expect difficult climbing even if you think the first piece is solid, etc.

 

You should do these things despite the fall factor you might calculate with your palm pilot, and you should do all these things whether you are climbing on ice floss or an 11 mil super-rope.

[catbirdseat]

I couldn't agree more.

[E-rock]

lummox said:

werent there some questions of static versus dydnamic rope or sumpin? the carabiner breakage is kinda freaky rare ifn you know what i mean. even with no gate theyre not exactly weak.

 

That whole argument started because dumb-asses who didn't know what they were talking about pulled that extremely unlikely scenario out of thin air.

 

[erik]

what about removing the cam from the crack?? isnt that important as well?

 

 

[Lambone]

I'm reluctant to make this comment here, but...

 

I'd say that the "dyamicness" of a ATC versus a Reverso is about the same. A belayers body position and rope handeling would have much more effect than the type of belay device most cases. A munter hitch, and Gri-Gri are the two most static belay methods. One wonders why aid climbers allways use gri-gris while climbing on bodyweight placements...lazy belayers I guess.

 

I wasn't there to see Erdens belay technique, so I am not making any judgements about the incident. It's all just a sad mystery to me...

[billcoe]

It's been almost 3 years to the day that Gorans accident occured.

 

Just remembering.

[RocNoggin]

as I read the report Goran had placed at least 6 pieces of pro, maybe more if the 3" cam that was his last piece was not part of the "3 small to medium cams" he had placed enroute to the crux. the top two pieces failed and therefore the 4th piece was too low to prevent him from decking. since he was a big boy I am sure there was a lot of rope stretch but wouldnt his 4th piece been more than half-way up the climb? it is that run-out at the top that the 4th piece couldnt do enough to soften his impact on the ledge?

[TrogdortheBurninator]

It's a str8 in crack the whole way. The runout is dictated only by your rack and ability to place pro.