Here is my concern and I was wondering if any of you are in the same situation and can share advice/experience.
I trad climb weekly at around VS/HVS, cragging and multipitch.
I am quite a tall fella (6'4) and weighs a bit more than 100 kg. With gear, backpack clothing and you would easily end up with a mass of around 115kg.
I was trying to understand what kind of force a falling mass would generate on a piece of gear in a fall and came across this :
http://www.safeclimbing.org/education/Heavy_Climbers_Beware.pdf
According to their tests, a falling climber weighing 114kg on a typical dynamic rope, with a factor 0.9, would generate 8.2KN on the falling climber, multiply by 2/3 to find the approfimate force on the runner, and you find 13.7 KN !
Most small cams and small nuts fail at 7kn or less, medium ones at 12KN, and big ones at 14KN.
This is right at the limit of almost any piece of gear I have. judging by their tests, the only piece of gear able to hold a guy like me in a fall factor above anything more than 1 would be a sling around a massive flake.
Scary.
Until now every fall I took the gear held, but looking at these tests and the scientific evidence I am wondering whether my confidence is simply misplaced, and whether I am simply too heavy to lead hard multipitch routes where a fall facor above 1 is a likely possibility without putting my partner at risk.