UKC

Anyone at the westway last night ?

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 spartacus 30 Sep 2005
A strange incident at the Westway last night. I turned corner in the main hall to see a large crowd under the Alto belay pannel. Hanging on at the top was a climber who wasn't attached to anything. It appears, although I didn't witness it he soloed pannel. The staff reacted very well and seemed calm and quick with mats deployed underneath. He was told to clip into the alto belay which he did. When the staff member who had made his way to the top of the pannel via the back noticed his harness buckle had not been doubled back. Not his night realy.
I have heard of other accidents and near accidents with alto belayers due to lack of concentration by user. Any comments?
roblo 30 Sep 2005
In reply to Mr Burns:

did he solo it or unclip himself? was the belay at the top of the wall or still clipped into the floor? what time did this happen? seems like a strange one, auto belays are often used by novices and should be idiot proof, but it seems not. maybe it was a suicide attempt...
In reply to roblo:

I asked a member of staff what had been going on, and he said the bloke had soloed up the wall. The staff member unclipped the auto-belay from the floor and attached a rope so he could pass it up to him. The staff member had no idea what had got into the bloke.

I have a friend who witnessed an incident at Milton Keynes lat year, where a woman just forgot to clip in to an auto belay and climbed up to the top and let go and was quite badly injured. Maybe one problem with auto-belays is that people get too blase about them and forget to check.
roblo 30 Sep 2005
In reply to Alison Stockwell:

strange, what time did it happen? that will be an intresting one for health and safety - how do we stop nutters soloing the walls?
 zephr 30 Sep 2005
In reply to Mr Burns:

Yeah, that was really bizarre,
no one really saw him go up, it seems, a climber going up is not exactly out of the ordinary- and the fact there wasnt a belayer wasnt particularly noticable either- he was on the self-belay wall.

I think i saw the guy earlier on in the night talking to an instructor, as if it was his first time at the wall (but not the first time climbing),
it seems that he just climbed up the wall and got to the top without attaching onto anything.
bizarre.

Also, the instructors were going round doing the saftey nazi thing- which is not a bad thing at all- even before the incident, but missed a guy soloing up the wall.

odd.
In reply to roblo:

It was about 8:00pm I think. I suppose since no-one was actually hurt and the guy was sorted out successfully, there won't be a health and safety enquiry. I don't think the bloke was thrown out or anything.
 namod 03 Oct 2005
In reply to zephr: Is the use of the word "nazi" necessary!
Wingman@work 03 Oct 2005
In reply to namod:

nothing wrong with it - a commonly used phrase. Safety nazi, clipboard nazi etc....

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