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worst near accidents I've seen 21-Sep-2010 At 2:30:05 PM f_abe

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Climbing at Morialta years ago with some mates who didn't climb much, the dude climbing (110kg and I'm erring on the polite side) reaches the top and gets lowered rather quickly. A few seconds after reaching the ground they erupt into maniacal laughter. I thought it was just cos they were so stoned but it turns out he had been belayed off a gear loop. I since rate black diamond harnesses.
A year or so later, I got the same belayer to belay me at spurt in the arvo after driving over. Trying to clip the second bolt, I turn around to see why I'm not getting any slack despite my calls. I see him on his knees about 5 metres back from the cliff holding onto the rope with both hands. "I got you, man!" he lets me know. I clip straight into the bolt with draws. Turns out he'd had a bender on the hard stuff, hadn't slept for a couple of days, and was experiencing a little difficulty interpreting what was and what wasn't.
There must be thousands of near miss stories out there...so long as you can laugh about them you can learn from them...