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25-26/12/2019 Candlestick accident 3-Sep-2020 At 8:14:51 PM kieranl

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Yes, the 6mm abseil cord is a red flag. Colin Haley might rap on 6mm cord but he's in a different class to any of us, and, this is really important, he practises. According to the instructions for the Edelrid rap line it's meant to be used doubled or with another rope for abseiling, and for any other human load except for glacier travel. If they were rapping on it as a single it was out of scope and it's a wonder they got away with only a case of rope-burn. Likewise using it as a single for a tyrolean is also way out of scope. If people are going to use technical gear like this they have to understand its limitations and train with it before going into the wild. Given there were 7 climbers in the party there was no pressing need to save weight on the walk-in.

The team size and mix is another red flag. Five people, including novices on the Candlestick? That's a benightment waiting to happen. And there appears to have been some unease apart this as they re-jigged the team membership to change the experience mix. I guess they made the mistake of not being hard-nosed enough to tell some of their friends that they couldn't come.