Last night (25th September, 2008), a top rope climber on XXXX (grade 25) at Kangaroo Point cliffs fell about 15 metres after their anchor failed. The climber is currently in a critical condition.

Although not confirmed officially, the anchor failure may be due to having no redundancy (single setup) and using a sling (or webbing) which has no core like a static rope. The multiple falls on the dyno crux may have caused the sling to be sawn off against the sharp rock edge at the top of the cliffs.

This type of failure has been reported twice, initially by me way back in 2003. Suhail and I were top roping on the Olos slab (grade 26). We were using slings with no rope protectors but had redundancy in the top rope anchor system. One of the slings snapped but the other held. We reported this to the local climbing forum, where for many years people have taken heed and used rope protectors and static rope as opposed to slings or webbing. Before this it was commonplace to see slings used.

The next reported anchor failure was the same as last nights incident: no redundancy and using slings in the top rope anchor system. The climber also was left in a critical state.

The moral of the story: NEVER USE SLINGS and HAVE REDUNDANCY in your top rope anchor system. Urban Crag also recommends using ROPE PROTECTORS when top roping at Kangaroo Point cliffs.

Our best wishes go to the climber who fell and we hope this never happens again.

Climb safe!

--Dennis