Olivier Obin has sent us news about some recent accidents in the Gorges du Tarn. In 2015 there were four serious accidents caused when people lowered off the end of the rope and many minor ‘lucky escapes’.
The CAF Causses et Cévennes have placed signs near the crags (above). He points out that the routes in the Gorges du Tarn are long but this is the case in many sport climbing areas nowadays so the warning is equally applicable at other crags.
Remember:
- Always tie a knot in the end of your rope when sport climbing. It doesn’t matter if you are on a crag where the routes are obviously short, tying a knot is a good habit to develop every time you go sport climbing. Add it to your buddy check ritual.
- Make sure you know how long your rope really is. When you buy a rope it may be up to 5m or 6m longer than advertised, but it may not be. Just because someone else’s ’60m rope’ is long enough for a route you are about to try, doesn’t mean your rope is.
- Make sure you keep track if you start cutting sections off the end of your rope as it wears.
- Use your own judgement when deciding how long a route is, not information from guidebooks which may be out of date.
