# close call



## treeman82 (Jun 29, 2005)

I am sure that several of you have recieved this already, but I figured that I would put it up anyways. I got this from Melissa LeVangie yesterday.

"Steps to Avoid a Future Serious Event 
Our Learning Experience...
Southbury, Connecticut A learning experience for all who were present - one that can be prevented in the future. 

On Saturday, May 21, 2005, Connecticut held their first Tree Climbing Competition. Greg Lukos and Larry Dvorsky, with the help of many volunteers and judges, organized an excellent day of skilled tree climbing at Heritage Village in Southbury, Connecticut. In the afternoon the Secured 50-foot Footlock Event was held. The event gave the climbers, judges and spectators a very serious educational situation to learn from. A situation which we are sharing this information with you. Information we, as an industry, can use to improve upon the safety of our future tree climbing competitions.

The situation: While climbing, a new climber fatigued when footlocking up the rope. Determined to finish, they continued to climb using the 'sit and hang' method. A method more new climbers to tree climbing competitions are using. The 'sit and hang' method describes when a climber will sit in their saddle while being suspended from the prusik. They lean back in the saddle to take another lock with their feet, lean forward to stand on the lock, then slide up their prusik and will then will repeat the steps.

While advancing their knot the climber had unknowingly slightly undressed the prusik. When the climber went to sit back on the knot the prusik slipped about 6 inches. With the distance lost on the rope, the belay stopped the climber from falling while wearing a Kline fall arrest harness buffered the short fall. The climber was wearing the harness over their climbing saddle. However, during the short fall the fall arrest harness readjusted itself so that the dorsal Dee-ring attachment holding the climber was situated directly behind the climber's helmet and pinned the individual's head in a bent down and forward position.

The sternum strap had slid from chest position to directly beneath the climber's neck and therefore began to choke the individual. With the dorsal Dee- ring attachment directly behind the climber's head, they could not reposition their head backward to alleviate the pressure being applied by the choking sternum strap and the situation quickly became serious.

The climber tried to alleviate the choking but couldn't and the spectators realized the climber's foot was entangled in the rope from the previous lock. The individual couldn't look down at their foot to untangle their foot because of the restricted head position and choking of the sternum strap.

The climber understood the situation had become critical and yelled "just let me down" recognizing the need to be lowered on the belay line. However, the climber could not be lowered due to the prusik knot applying overhead friction to the climbing line and, therefore, with their foot entangled in the rope created a trapped position the victim couldn't be lowered from without increased choking of the individual.

The climber was talked through, step by step, as to how to untangle their foot from the line. With their foot free, they took another lock on the rope, stood up and alleviated the choking. They retrieved their prusik from above their head and, in combination with the belay was lowered safely to the ground.

The incident nearly crossed the line to becoming a serious accident. This is one of those lessons where steps can be taken to easily prevent this from happening again in the future to any other climber.

Many trained and experienced climbers as well as safety trainers from companies witnessed the situation. Through many lengthy conversations involved individuals offered suggestions to ensure this from happening again. Our thoughts behind why the particular Kline fall arrest harness choked the climber:

The extension and contraction of the climber's body while footlocking initiated continual vertical movement and adjustment to the original intended position of the sternum strap. The combination of the sternum strap moving, the final resting location of the dorsal Dee-ring attachment and the climber's entangled foot were the three reasons why the climber was choked. 

The Kline fall arrest harness was not designed for that particular application of Footlock Event. 
The extension and contraction of the climber's body while footlocking initiated continual vertical movement and adjustment to the original intended position of the sternum strap. 
The combination of the sternum strap moving, the final resting location of the dorsal Dee-ring attachment and the climber's entangled foot were the three reasons why the climber was choked. 

Our suggestions to discourage the situation from happening again:


We derived that if the Footlock Event is set up on a false crotch, in an emergency situation the entire system and climber could be lowered from the ground. The response time would expedite assistance and first aid the climber. 
If a tree cannot be specifically be selected to meet the criteria as a stand alone event then combine the use of the Work Climb tree to host both events individually. The Footlock Event is one of the fastest to setup, break-down and complete by climbers. 
Fall arrest harnesses should be selected to best fit each individual climber. If the selected harness has a sternum strap ensure it has a means of limiting its ability to move vertically (by means of Velcro etc.). 

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Our goal is to share this with the arboricultural industry to mitigate situations that might threaten a climber's safety. Please share this with people whom you may feel would benefit from our experience. Knowledge is power"


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## Newfie (Jun 30, 2005)

treeman82 said:


> The incident nearly crossed the line to becoming a serious accident.



I think that this incident certainly qualifies as serious even though the climber was lucky enough to escape without serious injury. The line that didn't get crossed was tragic or catastrophic.


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## TimberMcPherson (Jun 30, 2005)

Having the entire rigging system lowerable is standard operating practice in some sectors of industrial abseiling and in running recreational abseiling. I had a lady get her breast stuck in a figure 8 (believe me, we were made VERY aware of it by her) . If it wasnt for the lowerable rigging system we would have had a mare getting her down.

I got stuck hanging from a pylon when I got caught by wind which twisted my lines up real bad. I spun one way, then the other over and over. Someone tried to help me from the ground, unfortunately by that time I was feeling sick and threw up on him. I was left spinning for a long long long time.

Lowerable systems are tougher to set up but in set situations like climbing comps they are worth while.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jun 30, 2005)

TimberMcPherson said:


> Lowerable systems are tougher to set up but in set situations like climbing comps they are worth while.



I use them in rigging at least twice a month (twice this week). I just dont see why it's not done now. I think I had a talk w/ Tom D. on the subject of rescue of a climber on a prussik.


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## darkstar (Jul 1, 2005)

*preach*

i freaking preached the advantage of having a entire lowerable system to the canyon guides in the blue mountains australia all year long to naught ...... and when someone gets stuck abseiling/ repelling down a waterfall things get serious really fast .... i rigged always, straight off a gri gri.... and with one quick motion ...i could safely lower the drowning, hypothermic ,soon to be victum down ....all i had to do was ...... just untie the back up knot [which is non loaded anyway ] because of the gri gri ....and lower ......... crazy the pros are not using a completely lowerable system .. we had a bad situation while abesieling the dog face in the bluies ,a 450 foot rotton sandstone wall the client freaked and got his clothing caught up in his rack ... all the other guides did not know what to do eccept rap down and rescue ... ..well i had the system set up so i just lowred him in less than 30 seconds ..... he was on the ground from about 200 foot ..............makes me think the pros who set up these comps are whacked in the head  im pissed hate to be harsh but screw the comps


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