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Araps accident 17th April 2014 25-Apr-2014 At 8:13:46 PM nmonteith

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On 25/04/2014 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>Yeah?
>Cascade failure of a marginal belay?
>Not a certainty, but worth considering...

I don't understand. Why would you have a marginal belay??!

>I can see how an auto-lock belay device could have minimised the (almost,
>as it turned out), adverse result in this particular accident. However
>I also see how kieranl's suggestion would be a greater mitigating factor
>in the same incident.

Think about it like this. A leader is going to take an unexpected huge fall directly onto his belayer's harness. The belayer will sustain a dislocated shoulder and be thrown upside down. If the belayer fails to hold the rope the leader will fall 15m down a cliff. These are the facts.

Now ask the leader - he has the option to have a self-locker or a ATC. One will (almost) guarantee to hold him no matter what, the other relies on his belayer to hold him, even though she will have a dislocated shoulder and be thrown upside down.

Which belay device do you choose? I know I'd take the GriGri every time as I don't expect to survive a 15m fall uninjured. And I certainly wouldn't expect my belayer to hold that fall.