Ice Climbing Accident and How to be Safe

by vinutha
(Ooty)

On Oct. 27th, while ice and mixed climbing, a friend of mine came very close to experiencing a life changing accident. As he re-lead a mixed line, he fell 25 ft to the horizontal ice where his belayer was standing. Thanks only to luck and a very attentive belayer he narrowly missed massive bodily trauma and or death.

He re-lead a climb that I had previously led. It is a mixed climb that can be protected with gear, but in this case I had only placed ice screws. About 20 min had passed between sends. When my friend fell he was on an over-hang about 3 feet above the screw. The first screw to him (which was drawn with a shock absorbing screamer that partially deployed) pulled. The second screw (the first one placed), which also was drawn with a screamer, held. That screamer also partially deployed.

Ice screws are not meant to be trusted 100%, even with shock absorbing draws. I had 90% confidence that the screw would have held me during the first lead. Our theory is that during the time past between leads the screw conducted enough heat to wallow out the surrounding ice just enough to weaken the thread grip.

This is a theory that we were all familiar with prior to this incident. Our complacency that day was almost fatal. We are lucky that we now have an incident that will stick with us and always remind us that when it comes to safety precautions in climbing, seriousness and thoroughness is absolutely necessary.

New screws should have been placed and rock gear should have been implamented. I am just glad I did not loose a good friend that day and he is still here to benefit from our shared lesson.