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My very first ground fall. 12-May-2010 At 9:48:05 AM cruze

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I am just trying to visualise how the fall occurred. Out of interest, were you using floppy draws - ie not rigid sports draws?

If I feel that a piece of gear (especially passive) is a little unidirectional (say only really good for downwards forces) then I use a 30 or even 60 cm draw. It is amazing how much difference this can make to a marginal piece - especially a top piece. That way if you fall equal with the piece, the slack in the system allows the force only to be applied in a generally downward direction, thereby hopefully helping prevent any gear experiencing a hard outwards force which can happen especially if your belayer is possibly being a little over-attentive (ie rope is too tight). I also extend marginal pieces clipped equal with me or above me to reduce the amount of rope in the system if ledge or ground fall is a possibility, and where I can see a better placement up higher.

I guess you have learnt a pretty hard lesson here and am glad you are OK. I think that the plug and go mentality is overused (I see it all too often with people naivly pushing grades when they are starting out - not saying you are in this category I don't know you at all) especially at Araps where ledges abound on easier routes.