safety gear/ top ropes

Question
I am on a high school mock trail team in California and this year's case deals with a girl who was killed while rock climbing, either by accident or by another person.  According to the defendant, this girl was climbing when he left her.  However, no ropes were found at the scene.  What kinds of ropes would one use while climbing a 40 foot high  rock face? The body was found with carabiners- what are they used for?

Answer
Hi there Tyler,

Interesting case.  If it is a real world situation, one that actually happened, her partner is going to suffer a lifetime of bad karma!  When it comes to climbing, you and your partner are a team, through good and bad situations you stick by your partner.

Now, if they were climbing together and he was belaying her and allowed her to deck?Hit the ground), then he is fairly liable (depending on the circumstances, ie: how much rope she had run out between her and the ground with protection placed).  If she ran out the climb (long distance between gear her and her last piece of protection) then she is at fault for her death, NO GREY AREA.  There would be nothing he could have done to keep her from decking.  If she was being ersponsible and placing gear in a responsible fashion and he dropped her, then he is at fault.  Whether it be lack of attention or inexperience, he should have done everything he could to lock her off so she be caught safely by the rope.  Then there is the slim possibility of gear failure (EXTREMELY SLIM if they were using the gear correctly!) in which case the manufacturer is at fault.  This is most likely not the case!

The above scenario implies that she was even roped in at all.  Many people, including myself from time to time, have or do climb without ropes (called free soloing).  Even if she were wearing a harness, this doesn磘 mean that she wasn磘 free soloing the climb.  One thing to look at at this point is the experience level of the deceased and the difficulty at which she climbs.  If she is a solid 5.11 climber and she is found dead at the base of a 5.9 route, there exists a strong possibility that she was free soloing the route since it was well within her level of difficulty.  On the other hand, if she was a solid 5.11 climber found dead at the base of a 5.11 route, then I would suspect that more than likely she was in fact tied in when she fell, since very few people are foolish or confident enough to free solo at the peak of their abilities, and her partner fled the scene.  Now, this brings up an interesting question.  Why did he flee?  Was he going to get help?  Did he untie her from the rope in a desperate attempt to help her out of the area, realize he couldn磘, then grab the gear and run for help?  Maybe he grabbed the gear and ran afraid of the reprecussions of her having died?  A very possible solution (one I have scene before, except without the dead body) is that some bastard came by and stole the gear while he was going for help, in which case may that guy be stricken with BAD, BAD karma for all eternity.  I knew a girl who got severly injured while climbing at Sand Rock, Alabama, and while my friends helped the girl to an ambulance some thief stole all her gear.  These are all questions that come to mind.

As for the ropes used on a 40 foot climb, you would use the same ropes as any other climb at any length.  Climbers use dynamic rope, intended to stretch to absorb the shock of a fall.  Typical ropes are between 9 and 11 mm in diameter with an over all length of 50 to 70 meters (165 to 225 feet).  Carabiners are high strength aluminum rings with a "gate" on them to clip into bolts placed into the rock, passive protection like nuts or cams, and also to clip the rope into for protection.  First you would clip into the piece of protection (bolt, cam, or nut) then clip the rope into it.  This way if the climber falls, the gear fixed in the rock catches the rope when the belayer locks off the rope in their belay device, and ultimately keeps the climber from hitting the ground.  

The fact that the climber had carabiners on her when they found her would lead me to believe that thieves didn磘 steal the gear.  If I were going to take the time to untie a rope from a dead body (sick thought), then I would definitely have the time to remove a couple carabiners from her harness.  Likewise, I doubt that her partner snagged the gear and ran for the same reason.  Especially if her were trying to hide from the event and untied the rope.  I would, under this sick circumstance and probably having nothing but time to hide the event, would have untied the rope, taken her harness off, and ran with the whole package.  Make it look like she was alone if you understand where I am going here.  So that brings me to my conclusion that she was probably free soloing the route before any gear had been taken from the back packs, fell, and then the guy fled for help or from fear.  Either way, there is nothing he could have really done to save her and is not at fault other than if he didn磘 call for assistance.  This could very easily be proven with a little forensic research since falling in a harness would have left slight (very slight, but identifiable) bruising around the hip bones and between the legs from the waist belt and leg loops.  Also, fibers from the harness padding would more than likely be present.

Like I said, interesting question.  I hope I have been of some help with this, and I would be glad to offer other info as the trial unfolds.  I would be interested in hearing the outcome as well...  Let me know if you need more info!  Until then, good luck with your assignment!

Off Belay,
Alan Nelson