rambler-joe
10-14-2007, 09:41 PM
We had an incident on the weekend where a student got himself all locked up.
He was practicing a self rescue, had attached his short Prusik to the rope and sat back in his harness. Unfortunately he did not check the position of the carabiner attached to the Prusik and jammed the gate against the attaching loop of the harness. The combination of his weight and a fairly quick sit down caused the aluminium screw to slide down the gate and become jammed over the gate pivot. This resulted in the gate being locked shut and he was unable to remove the Prusik. As the student was becoming agitated it was necessary for us to come down a spare rope and cut the Prusik free. While the situation was not, in this case, dangerous it could quickly become so if allowed to progress. Once on the ground it took a large pair of pliers to free the screw. The screw was damaged by the force and we now have an extra snap lock carabiner.
Rambler-joe
He was practicing a self rescue, had attached his short Prusik to the rope and sat back in his harness. Unfortunately he did not check the position of the carabiner attached to the Prusik and jammed the gate against the attaching loop of the harness. The combination of his weight and a fairly quick sit down caused the aluminium screw to slide down the gate and become jammed over the gate pivot. This resulted in the gate being locked shut and he was unable to remove the Prusik. As the student was becoming agitated it was necessary for us to come down a spare rope and cut the Prusik free. While the situation was not, in this case, dangerous it could quickly become so if allowed to progress. Once on the ground it took a large pair of pliers to free the screw. The screw was damaged by the force and we now have an extra snap lock carabiner.
Rambler-joe