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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

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Upside down 7-Jun-2007 At 3:42:14 PM shamus

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Massive blood loss and internal injuries? Yes, quite a feasible way to die. More so in a car crash than in a climbing accident. Break a leg? Easy enough, and it'll lead to a fair bit of internal bleeding, but not enough to kill you, especially if theres a bit of first aid applied. Break two and an arm? Well, you're pretty buggered up, but even then not in a way that will kill you rapidly unless you've got serious open fractures. The same forces applied directly to a skull will cave in the skull, destroy whatever tissue is under there, create haemorrhage that will cause further problems very rapidly (ie seconds to minutes). Whereas a helmet will spread the force out over much larger areas, take the initial blow thus absorbing more energy.

And as far as 'indirect' head injuries, falling rocks could stun you much more effectively if you weren't wearing a helmet. Unconscious, originally minor head injuries, halfway up a climb... Starting to look worse by the minute. If you're leading a new climber who doesn't know any rescue, any loss of consciousness could be fatal.

And how the hell are you gonna get major soft tissue injuries in the torso while climbing? Barring tying the rope around your waist (wasn't that left in the 60s - 70s for a reason?) or impaling yourself on an unfortunately placed piton, I'd say abdominal injuries are the least of your concern. Broken ribs? Fair enough, they suck, but much less life-endangering than a shattered skull. Even pneumothorax / sucking chest wound / whatever you want to call it, can be handled if you know what you're doing.

You know which side of this fence I sit on. 2 deaths in 15 years is still 2 immediate families, many many relatives and god knows how many friends and acquaintances. Your call.