Fall in Deadeye Dick

Tom, your comment about the pinch point between the rope bend within the device and the abrasive sandstone edge is pretty much the direction I’ve been going as far as identifying the cause of rope failure. I’ve had the opportunity to review anchor photos from a couple of different angles and believe (the strongest word I’ll ever use here) that I focused on translating my load carefully onto the anchor, but neglected to consider how my device was going to run over the edge immediately below when I resumed rappelling. I know that it is not uncommon to have the (insert rap device name here) require a bit of finessing to get over a protruding edge without trapping fingers/rope/whatever, and this scenario adds in the impact of abrasion on the rope at a sharp bend. One could find a similar situation arising with most devices (CRITR, ATS, Totem, Pirahna, SQWRL, etc), so it is worth knowing the extreme outcome of a sharp bend running over an abrasive, but not necessarily sharp edge.

One thing I would like to note here is that while there are many things that could be done differently, the root cause (so to speak) that I’ve been coming back to is the decision to proceed when a potentially significant change in conditions was identified (the presence of flowing water in the canyon). Technical soloing has much slimmer margins and that factor is enough to create risks that extend beyond my personal tolerances.