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Re: [cracklover] Help Convert Me! :
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rescueman
Jul 12, 2011, 6:51 PM
Views: 5339
Registered: Mar 1, 2004
Posts: 439
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cracklover wrote: I could toprope 5.10 in the gym before I learned to lead. I knew that my physical skills were way ahead of my technical skills, so I worked very hard to learn the technical skills and gain the experience I needed to become a competent leader. I'd have to be an idiot not to. I can see how someone who is lacking intelligence or sound judgment himself could fail to understand that others might make better choices. In short, your conclusions speak more about you than they do about me.
Well good for you. But what you fail to understand is that most people in today's world are "lacking intelligence or sound judgment".
As the saying goes, sound judgement comes from experience - and that means experience in the real world. Not in the virtual world of a climbing gym.
My assessment about the increase in climbing accidents came from discussions with rescue rangers and climbing guides.
But here are some US mountaineering accident statistics (which includes rock climbing):
Not until the 1990s and 2000s did NY State join the western mountain states as the location of most mountaineering accidents. By age, most accidents occur in the 15-30 year age range. More accidents occur on the ascent than on descent (54% to 41%), contrary to popular myth, and 63% occur on rock rather than snow or ice. The largest percentage of injuries are fractures, and most significant contributing causes are climbing unroped (16.9%), exceeding abilities (15.1%) and no or inadequate protection (12%). And the overwhelmingly largest direct cause is "fall or slip on rock".
And from one source on climbing accidents:
"Lack of proper training is the leading cause of climbing accidents, followed by equipment failure or the lack of proper equipment maintenance. Many people simply drive to a climbing area and try their hand at it with little or nothing in the way of training and almost no equipment—and then they are surprised when they suffer an accident."
"Accidents are also caused by simple overconfidence; climbers think they know more than they actually do and suddenly find themselves in a dangerous situation with no idea of what to do."
"Carelessness is another cause of climbing accidents. Equipment must be maintained and checked (and re-checked) before each climb. Carelessness ties in with overconfidence many times. New climbers check and re-check knots and the set up of their belayer…but as climbers gain more experience and become too confident in their climbing abilities, these things tend to become less important – and that’s when accidents happen."
(This post was edited by rescueman on Jul 12, 2011, 6:52 PM)
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Post edited by rescueman
() on Jul 12, 2011, 6:52 PM
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