Earthtreks about 2 weeks ago:

A climber began climbing an auto belay route forgetting to hook in and got to the top forget he wasnt hooked in and let go. Fell broke his back both legs and an arm.

I believe thats the whole story no one really knows how the person forgot to hook in...

I never forget to flush the toliet.

maybe I'm just slow or something, but how does someone forget to clip into an autobelay? [ . . ]really, I'm curious what was going through the two posters' minds as they climbed. You forgot to clip the locking biner? so, you just basically climbed up without clipping anything to yourself?

so it's not like, say, with a knot, where you could pull a "Lynn Hill" and not rethread or something.

Maybe you need to read Lynn Hill's book.

....
"Okay, climbing," I said to Russ, using the simple verbal signal all
climbers use to tell their partner they are setting off.
But this time the system had a glitch in it: pilot error. I had poked the
rope into the loop in my harness, but, distracted by the actions of fetching
my rock shoes and chatting with the japanese girl, I had not tied the knot.
The end of the rope hung at my waist, hidden underneat my jacket, like a
ticking time bomb. Neither I nor anyone else at the cliff noticed my
potentially fatal mistake.
....
At any point in the 72 feet of Buffet Froid's steep face, the rope could
have slipped out of my harness and snaked down the cliff through the
carabiners to land in a pile on the ground.
...
But the rope did not detach from my harness and Russ did not get the
opportunity to come scampering up the rock to rescue me. Had that happened,
we would have engaged in one of those caring-yet-chiding husband-wife tiffs
that end in laughter.
....
And then I reached the end of the climb, about 72 feet above the ground....
To descent safely, I only had to lean back and Russ would hold me, carefully
letting the rope slide through his belay device... I leaned back, expecting
the rope to hold me. Instead, I felt the rush of air against my cheek.
.....
Climbers at the cliff and in the valley that day described a "bloodcurdling
scream" that echoed off the walls. My scream -an involuntary shout of
horror- was even heard by Pierre, the mayor of Buoux, who sat in the library
of his house half a mile away. Looking toward the source of the scream,
climbers on neighboring routes saw a figure free-falling down the cliff,
carving an outward arc through the sky. All told, I covered the 72 feet in
less than two seconds.
....
It is not true that in a fall one sees one's life flash before one's eyes.
There is not enough time for even a single formed thought. But survival
instincts are wired on a faster pathway that any other mental process, and
when I saw the approaching tree I knew instinctively that my best chance to
live was to land in it. If it could be said that I aimed myself at any
landing zone, it was toward that short, stunted green oak tree.
Speeding toward it, I tucked my body into a ball, blasted through its
brances, then my left buttock slammed into a lattice of tree roots sprawling
on the ground. The impact jarred the senses out of me.
Jennifer Cole, an american climber at the cliff that day, said that when I
hit I bounced three feet into the air like a rubber ball, then I released my
tuck with the flail of arms and smacked onto the ground, face first into the
limey dirt.

Maybe the guy was just stupid and didnt know what the hell he was doing. Did he have a harness?

If you are talking about the fall at Earthtreks 2 weeks ago, I saw it happen. The climber fell, got up and walked around immediately after while moaning in agony/pain. ET Employees jumped to his aid and he left in an ambulance. I heard he sustained no major injuries despite falling a solid 35 feet. I do not know where you got this broken leg, back thing from, but if it is the incident I WITNESSED he surely did not do that much damage to himself.

I heard from a friend of a guy whose sister's boyfriend was there that the guy topped out the climb, and the auto-belay device severed the rope..... and chopped off his hand.

you will eventually forget. in your girlfriends house. while her parents are visiting. murph's rules, you know.

Well, at the risk of sounding stupid, I'll 'fess up: I forgot to clip in on autobelay and managed to get about 30 feet up before I realized my mistake. Coincidentally, I happened to be at azontherocks. I was pretty shaken, mostly 'cause I couldn't figure out how I could possibly forget to clip in. But the fact is, I'd had a long day at work, I was preoccupied, and I spaced out. The space out factor can happen any time and any place.

Believe me, I check and recheck before I climb on autobelay now!

I can understand forgetting to lock a 'biner or forgetting to double back or whatever, but just climbing over an autobelay route on a regular belay is always annoying as hell, 'cause the stupid autobelay rope is in the way, clipped in taut at the bottom!

Auto belay devices are bad. Auto Belay devices kill people when they dont work, and People kill themselves with auto belay devices when they have a brain fart. Its better to just never use auto belays

Auto-Belays Don't Kill People. People Kill People.

Bet he won't do that again...

Gotta agree with that. If this report is correct and the climber just simply didn't clip or tie in at all, it's 100% pilot error. Sucks when it happens and surely no one is immune, but any time there's a safety system present and you don't use it, it's no one's fault but your own.

I'll just wish the climber a speedy recovery and suggest he (she?) not do that again. :P

Rob

ET Columbia or ET Timonium?

Once I reached about 20-25 feet up, well above the overhang, I realized that I was free soloing. I downclimbed without difficulty, but shaken, more worried about being seen unbelayed than about falling.

you will eventually forget. in your girlfriends house. while her parents are visiting. murph's rules, you know.

The 3rd incident was after the big signs were put up in front of the auto belay routes. These signs obscured the starting holds of the auto belay route and had the rope clipped into the top of the sign. You had to unclip the rope to get the sign out of the way to get to starting moves. Evidently the guy forgot to clip in and climbed around the starting moves, then finished 35 ft. up and sat back to be lowered and fell.

there's not much you can do to prevent someone incomprehensibly stupid from hurting themselves.

1. you can put up a sign 10 feet up that says "are you clipped in?" to remind people to double check. that won't save stupid people though.

I understand he was listening to music on ear buds (or whatever) and those have now been banned at the gym under certain circumstances.

The auto-belay accidents continue of course ... Our gym had one about two weeks ago. Poor fellow decked and drove the end of one of his tibia's into the foam padding leaving a hole. I understand he was listening to music on ear buds (or whatever) and those have now been banned at the gym under certain circumstances.

http://www.nicros.com/safety.cfm

Likely expensive, but IMO worth it. It really is a shame you don't see this setup more often.

Well, the real solution is to have gym staff that actually supervise the floor. In my area this doesn't happen often making this seem like a decent 'replacement' for a competent human. There would be no need for any sort of 'solution' to the problem if gym staff didn't sit behind the desk and ignore what is happening on the floor.

You won't fix the laziness you'll find in most smaller gyms. People just aren't paid enough to give a shit.