In connection with the fatal accident on the Greek island of Kalymnos, where a anchor failed while a Czech climber was lowering and unclipping quickdraws on a route, readers commented below the article about the tragedy, suggesting way to reduce the risk of a serious fall on sport routes with unreliable anchor.

The climber places a prusik knot on the rope leading to the belayer, clips it into its harness, and slides the prusik as they descend; any fall should then be only about the same length as a typical fall when lead climbing. Watch the videos to see how it’s done:

Instructions:



Testing, including a fall:




Articles about the accident on Kalymnos:

Tragedy on the Island Kalymnos