At the Dark Horse Rendezvous we went down to do Morocco with a bit of a crowd, spending some time working on deadman anchors at the start. Then we had a mishap at one of the pools…
Well, actually, this one was the next day in No Kidding, doing the SandTrap thing.
One of the SandTrap pulls was especially difficult. Even with two people, it would not pull from the bottom of the rappel. Oscar walked the pull rope out away from the base, to the next spot in the canyon large enough to allow good pullage, and then pulled really hard…
Those experienced with SandTraps will know what happened next. When pulling the trap, it takes the most force to get it to start, and then the force required drops sharply. Oscar fell backwards onto a fin of rock. Coulda been nasty, but thankfully he was wearing a pack. Result – a bit of bruising.
Analysis:
Please. When doing a hard pull — rope, fiddle or especially SandTrap — have a spotter on the puller to prevent them cratering when it pulls. I shoulda managed this, but I did not.
Tom
Scott Byington
Tom,
I’ll share a personal mishap along the lines of your Mishaps #1,2,&3.
There was a rock overhang over a crack in the canyon floor where the canyon was starting to open up. I gingerly leaped over the crack, hit my helmet on the rock overhang and it knocked me off balance. I stepped wrong on my landing and hit the side of my face on the opposite side thus knocking myself out cold. Amazingly as my limp body started to slide into the crack my partners who where behind me raced up after seeing me fall and were able to catch me from falling 20 feet.
Moral of the story, situational awareness and cost benefit analysis of every scenario since then.
Scott Byington
Good reminder to anticipate outcomes.
-What are my falling directions?
-What are my backups?
-Am I wearing clean underwear?
-Which news media outlet will this feature on first?