1st of Feburary, 2023. I went indoor rock climbing, everything went okay initially. Then a few hours in, my partners up on a route, he’s taken a few breaks on-route already so i knew he was a bit tired. I’ll admit i wasnt at my sharpest tho, neither was i prepared for what happened next. Right after securing his rope into a carabiner, his grip gave away, and he started falling. Normally i always keep a good check on him, i can tell when he’s just about done for. But i wasnt looking this time, i wasnt paying attention. It took him not a milisecond before he’d fallen more than the slack i’d given the rope, but i wasnt securing the brake, so it kept on giving. Not even 2 seconds had passed and he’d fallen 4, maybe 5 meters already on a wall thats no higher than 12-13. By then i get my s*** together and tug the ever loving hell out of the other end of the rope on the brake. The speed he’d accumulated falling brought me 2 and a half meters into the air with him, slowing his fall down and eventually stopping him barely 2 meters to the ground. He could’ve gotten so very seriously injured, and i would’ve been 100% to blame. The sound of a rope going that speed through a carabiner lets you know immediately someone was basically free falling. People came over, and one of the trainers started quiestioning what had happened. The ashamed coward i was, stumbled over my words in an attempt to make it seem like equipment failure or something else, whatever to shift the blame away from me. I could not admit right then and there that i was slacking on duty, on duty to be THE only thing keeping another human from suffering serious, if not life threatening injuries. Sure, you cant always know when someone is about to fall, but i had nearly gone off a trail in my own head, i wasnt even looking up at him. This man fell 90% of the way to the ground, people commented they were sure he’d hit the ground. Had he done so, i’d never ever touch the sport of climbing again out of shame and guilt. I feel awful, nearly sick. I hate this day, i wish i and everyone else could forget it ever happened.
