Tie the knot! 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
While some may argue that the sport of rockclimbing is inherently darwinian, there are many perfectly sane and sensible people (myself (?) included) who derive a lot of pleasure from it. However, every year there are a few people who manage to injure or kill themselves while climbing, or performing that closely related task, abseiling. While many of these are genuine accidents, a depressing number are caused by ignorance, carelessness or plain stupidity.
Zac Veteres, an experienced climber known by many in the Australian climbing community, displayed one or both of the latter two traits when he abseiled of the end of his rope at Mt Arapiles, in western Victoria.
To understand completely the magnitude of his error, a description of the situation is needed. The climb in question, Kachoong, is a steeply overhanging rock formation, about 50m high. Since most standard climbing ropes are 50m long, it is possible to abseil off it - I myself have done this. However, for reasons that remain unclear, Zac didn't throw off 50m of rope - he threw more like 40m. This was mistake number one. He discovered mistake number two at approximately the same time as he discovered mistake number one. He had neglected the most basic rule when abseiling - ALWAYS tie a knot in the end of your rope.
Our hapless hero proceeded to plummet approximately 10-15 metres down the steeply sloping slab at the base of the cliff before his fall was arrested by a tree. Luckily for him, he escaped with a bump on his head, a dislocated shoulder and a very large collection of bruises.
Hopefully now Zac has learned the lesson he should have learned the easy way years ago. If not, he may very quickly find himself upgraded from an honorable mention to a full Darwin. Submitted on 01/21/2003
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
4 Jan '03
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