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September 25, 2006
New River Gorge: Quickdraws Breaks at the Cirque!
Ana at the Meadow, Photo by Photo by Will Niccolls© 2006Fayetteville, WV.- From Endless Wall, Mad Matt and Tantrikclimber report witnessing a climber falling off an undone project and breaking a sewn webbing quickdraw. Remember that the the worst enemy of webbing is the sun--ultraviolet rays damage nylon and severely weaken it. Matt mentions that the next quickdraw down held the climber's fall but was torn halfway through!
-If you fix quickdraws on a route, use chains. At a sundrenched crag, nylon webbing will degrade to unsafe conditions quickly.
-Use steel biners on the end of a chain, not standard aluminum ones. Ropes will wear sharp grooves in aluminum biners, which can damage your rope and weaken the biner.
-Paint the hangers and chains. Doing so can almost make the draws disappear from the view of casual observers. Colorful webbing stands out like the trash that it is.
Here at the WiredNut world headquarters, we think fixed webbing is a disgrace. Thanks to the folks at NRAC, many routes at Summersville and the New are being reequipped with chain draws and steel biners. Apollo Reed, Mercy Seat, and most of the routes at the Hole are sporting chains.
Posted by WiredNut at September 25, 2006 05:45 PM