Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Ya Gotta Watch Out

My philosophy in life is that we can all learn something from the people we encounter every day, but, a recent climbing trip to Portero Chico, reminded me that checking the facts with reliable sources is sometimes a good way to make sure what you are learning is, in fact, correct. When climbing with other experienced (yes) climbers, I noticed a number of gaffes being made which a less experienced climber could have mistaken for "best practices" - which they certainly were not.

Among the gaffes witnessed were:
  • The climbers who studiously put rubber bands on the bolt end of their quick draws and wondered why that handy rubber stabilizer wasn't put on both ends of the quickdraw in the factory;
  • The climber who used an ATC guide in auto-block mode to belay the second but used only one bolt of a two bolt anchor;
  • The climber who tried to "belay" himself as he was climbing using static dyneema sling;
  • The climbers who clipped the bolts with the bent gate carabiner on their quickdraws. 
 Seconding a three pitch route

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