Check Your Jammers

[David Gibson]

The current issue of Descent (190) reports an incident where a Petzl ascender came of the rope whilst self-lining a climb. Fortunately the caver was not seriously injured despite slipping 7m.

This type of incident is more likely to happen with the first series of ascenders having a nylon trigger, introduced in 1998. Specifically, those with the following serial numbers:

B17 R from 97206 to 99109,
B17 L from 97253 to 99091,
B18 from 97308 to 99112.

The safety catch was redesigned in 1999, so recent models do not have this problem nor do the earlier models with metal safety catches.

The Petzl website reports the same incident thus:

Improper loading was the likely cause of a recent incident in which a caver was ascending a flowstone slope. He was using an ASCENSION (attached to a lanyard) for self-belay/aid on a fixed rope, walking up the slope with his feet while using the ascender as a hand hold to pull himself up. At some point during the climb, the ascender slipped down the rope and the caver fell 7 meters (without serious consequences).

NB Petzl seem to down play the problem by talking about slipage, whereas Descent reports that the ascender actually came off the rope.

For further information see the above link and Descent 190.