AF Get-Togethers

[CapnAwesome]

Rock climbing can be a totally safe sport. Lots of people just toprope, where the rope is pre-set up above them at all times. This basically eliminates all danger. Even your normal climbing is 99% safe.

See? Even if you fall one out of a hundred times, you'll only be 1/100 dead. What could be safer than that?

Well it's not a matter of being dead. I think the risk of death is extremely low, especially from a fall. I mean I've taken hundreds of rock climbing falls. Maybe even a thousand and I've only been injured from one of them and that was fairly minor. You can get injured however. I watched an ex-girlfriend fall with the rope behind her leg and flip upside down not wearing a helmet. The back of her head impacted into the rock and she had to have 12 staples put into it. But that's not a situation that you have to put yourself in, in order to climb. It was human error and poor judgement on her part. You can be totally safe and rock climb. Most climbers I know have never had a major injury and most injuries are from strain or overuse rather than from bad falls.