There we were, having a great time. Our group had climbed all morning and had just moved to a new location. We had rigged our top rope and one of our merry band decides to rap off. Anchor is bomber. ATC is rigged and the crab is locked. Time to cast off. A pause just over the lip...POP! WTF was that?!? In my life I have never seen eyes get that big. The story has a happy ending. The "rapper" is one of the strongest humans I know. "Jet boat waterski racing strong." He grabs both ropes and halts his decent. My other partner and I haul him back over the lip.

When we started breathing again we were all staring at a perfectly good harness completely open and hanging down around the secured leg loops.

My partner failed to double back his harness. I failed my partner by not giving him the triple check.

It was a cold, damp day. Layers of tee shirts and sweatshirts were hanging out. We were only at the top of a 40 foot cliff. Between the four of us we had nearly 90 years of firefighting/rescue experience between us. We had all been laughing so damn hard, having such a great time...I mean really, what could go wrong?

I will never fail my partner like that again. I will never fail my partner like that again
I will never fail my partner like that again.

Peace,

Tad

Glad he was able to grab the rope. Triple check, every time. Thanks for the reminder.

I have small hips, and normally never unbuckle my harnesses-- I just pull one on and do some adjustments from there if needed. I thought this process was good, as it made sure I would never unbuckle it. I guess I got lazy.

Last summer I loaned one to a friend, got it back, then didn't use it for two months, forgetting all about the loan. I pulled it on, and it seemed snug. Then 10 minutes later I noticed that the harness was looser than normal-- the strap was passed just once through the buckle, not doubled back.

I'm about to lend a harness out again. You may have saved my life. Now I'll check always, no matter if I was the last user.

This is a reminder to me that I've been meaning to put red nail polish on the parts of the buckles that are covered when the harness is doubled back. My belay biners have the red-unlocked warning on them, and it helped me catch my partner once before a long rappel. Similar factors that led to us not adequately checking each other, but the red was visibly obvious even a ways back from the ledge.

Darija, can you lend us some red nail polish?