Worn Fixed Gear

[slinky]

Worn lowering biners on anchors aren't the problem as there won't be any falls on them, if you always see worn lowering biners, and it alarms you, why don't you pluck one of your own biners off your harness and replace it!! always bring one or two of your booty biners or those crappy budget biners you don't use anymore just for this purpose.

For the time being it seems like fixed quickdraws are here to stay, even if you took an initiative to remove fixed quickdraws they would start to reappear on popular steep sport routes as, beleive it or not, just leaving an old set of quickdraws up on your proj is much more appealing than back cleaning especially on very steep terrain like the Big Show at Chek or the Amphithatre at Horne. The perma-draws that have been used to replace the decaying mank at Chek feature stainless plated biners which will resist wear longer than regular biners but will still eventually get grooved out. A good solution here would be periodic rotation of these permadraws especially the first draw and the crux draws. Again just like the lowering biners, this maintenance won't be done by the 'Biner Fairy. Bring a crescent wrench with you next time you go to the Circus and trade the crux permadraw on Face the Music with another "lower air traffic" draw. Better yet organise a grassroots initiative through your favorite climbers access group and have a permadraw maintenance day.

[tobyfk]

As I understand it, the new batch of permadraws at Chek were installed by the Squamish Access Society. The recent fatality in Switzerland caused by a worn permadraw was discussed briefly at the SAS annual meeting a month ago. My impression is that there is a high awareness of the need to monitor wear on them. In an email exchange since then Jeremy Smith said he hoped that people would report unusual signs of wear to SAS via their site (here, I think: http://squamishaccess.ca/?page_id=524 ).

[tobyfk]

thanks for the link ... i see the table hasnt been updated since 2 years ago though ....

Yeah I am not 100% if that is the right page or whether the reference was to a resource that hasn't yet been created. Maybe someone more knowledgeable on this can clarify.

[bertinw]

Nice link. Mammut seems most worried about wear on the draw on the first bolt. I wonder if it makes more sense then, instead of having a blanket ban on permadraws, to have climbers use one of their own draws on the first bolt, and leave the rest fixed.

In any case, I think it's worth mentioning that belayers should try to stand so the rope runs straight through the first bolt when they lower their partners, regardless if the draws are fixed or not.

[bret]

Maybe this was touched on and I missed it; alas.

Shouldn't permadraws should always be steel carabiners? I have noticed multiple accident reports where the first or crux aluminum worn biners cut the rope.

I am not familiar with the routes discussed hear, are they steel or aluminum biners? But either way permadraws require attention and maintenance, a lacking quality among climbers if not nonexistent

I guess what I am saying is a ban on permadraws will ensure fewer accidents because of worn gear, however the problem may also be remedied with attention and volunteer maintenance.