Following a serious incident at a climbing wall in Germany, Entre-Prises UK Ltd have issued a notice detailing how the incident happened and their advice. Entre-Prises UK Ltd are the UK distributors of the product involved – Fixe Stainless Steel Products. The BMC are also in the process of informing climbing walls in this country about the issue.

The full text of the Entre-Prises notice is produced below

Full text of notice issued by Entre-Prises UK Ltd
A serious incident has recently occurred in Germany in which a climber on a climbing wall has sustained a fall as a consequence of his rope breaking. It would appear that the climber only partially clipped the FIXE karabiner at the top of the climbing route. The rope did not drop in to the base of the karabiner but became trapped between the stainless steel wire gate and the notch within the karabiner’s nose. When the climber loaded the rope to start his descent the rope remained trapped in between the nose and the wire gate. The climber was lowered down by his controlling belayer. In the course of the descent the rope broke and the climber fell to the ground. Subsequent investigations have shown that the rope broke because it passed over a sharp edge within the notch of the nose whilst the rope was loaded.

Advice
Like all climbing equipment, it is imperative that the FIXE karabiner is used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. The rope should be set within the karabiner with the gate fully closed before any load is imposed on the rope or the karabiner. It is strongly recommended at the top of routes on climbing walls that there are two independent karabiner attachment points, or at a minimum, a screwgate karabiner and that the karabiner or karabiners are correctly clipped before a climber descends. The revised EN12572, the European Regulation for Artificial Climbing Structures, which is currently in its final stages of completion stipulates that individual top protection points are fixed to the supporting structure by two or more fixation points.

FIXE are currently evaluating the karabiner that they supply for the top of climbing walls and will shortly be making a statement. Entre-Prises UK Ltd are the distributors for FIXE in the UK. If anyone has any queries about any points on this notice or any other issues relating to FIXE products please contact Entre-Prises UK.

Contact details for Entre-Prises UK Ltd are: telephone, 01282 44800; email, info@ep-uk.com  

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