What usually causes climbing accidents?
Most climbing accidents are the result of one of the following: Overconfidence. You’ve been climbing with more experienced leaders, and now you think you know what it’s all about. So you buy a rope, and take a few friends out for a good time, without realizing that there are big gaps in your knowledge. Carelessness. Your first time on a belay ledge, you’ll double-checkthat you’re clipped to the belay, before you lean over the edge. Your two-hundredth time, the height no longer intimidates you as much. You got interrupted just as you were about to clip in, and it never happened. Now you lean over the edge, your foot slips, and you fall. Bad luck. A freak storm moves in when you’re half-way up a full-day, exposed cliff. A climber above knocks a rock onto you. An apparently solid rock below you gives way. You can reduce these risks by checking weather reports, noting escape routes as you climb up, wearing a helmet, not climbing below another party on a cliff known for loose rock, and so o
