Climbing Technology & Technical Training

In a very last minute change of plan, due to a cancelled course, I was asked to put on a training day for Rock Climbing and Caving Instructors today. With only a few hours notice (and thanks to a  couple of persuasive phone calls), the good people of DMM Climbing (thanks a million Jim!) set the scene by putting on an equipment testing session at their factory headquarters in Llanberis.

The equipment that we use for safeguarding ourselves when hanging from a cliff all undergoes a rigorous testing and design process. Jim talked us through how the metal work is produced and updated us on recent developments in design and maintenance of the gear. Using a Newtonmeter to record the tensile strength of a piece of kit, we tested some of our gear to destruction. Reassuringly, the oldest bit of equipment that we had (a 35 year old caving belt), still only failed after well exceeding it's designed limit (a limit that is well above any force that a falling human could generate!).

The process of how a karabiner is made was literally laid out for us to see.

The Caving belt taking the strain -

The right-hand karabiner failed under a load of 25KN, but before it did, the whole thing completely stretched! (It was the same size as the red one).

From DMM, we continued on to the Beacon Climbing Wall and looked at the new developments in belay plate design, specifically, those in the 'assisted breaking' category. Use of lanyards for personal protection and standardisation for tying in and belaying were also discussed in depth, demonstrated and then discussed some more! To finish off, we also got to climb a few routes too! Lots of learning!