Raglan Rock would like to speak with our Raglan community and clear up mis-information from certain sources that might give you the impression that our safety standards have slipped.
On January 27 Gareth Jones decided, on his day off, to go and partake in a day of recreational rock climbing. We are not talking the type of climbing we lead our clients on, we are talking full on adventure climbing, otherwise known as traditional climbing. This is where the climber free climbs the rock until they can find an area on the rock whereby they can attach protection to connect their rope to.
Now climbers from all over the world climb in this accepted style. Gareth likes to push and test his ability which means he likes to climb blank faces with not much protection on offer. Call it high risk, high reward. On the day he was attempting to climb a notoriously hard climb, he fell three metres onto micro gear that he had placed. He hadn’t place it deep enough in the crack and it ripped out, resulting in Gareth falling another three metres to land on his back and breaking it. Oops – a bad day, but no real difference than somebody having a nasty tumble at the skate park like many this summer.
This is where we’d like to point out that there has been some confusion in our concerned and caring community.
1. None of Raglan Rock’s safety anchors failed as this was nothing to do with the business of Raglan Rock.
2. The confusion is from mis-information from a newspaper claiming that my safety anchors failed (what they meant is my traditional climbing protection ripped out)
Unfortunately, we did have a workplace accident last Wednesday, whereby a client broke a bone in their foot. I cannot comment about this incident at present, as it is under investigation. Workplace accidents do happen (fact), they then need to be investigated and steps put in place to ensure it does not repeat itself. What I can comment on is that it was nothing to do with the failure of our equipment or safety systems but more to do with human error. The local emergency services were amazing and we all worked well together to get our patient out of the canyon and into care.
The media got a hold of it, twisted and embellished the facts to create a dramatic story.
Time to put it into perspective. We are an adventure company that offer activities that place clients in a thrill seeking activity with potential known risks. Our job is to mitigate those risks to a reasonable and acceptable level. Our systems are one of the most checked systems in the world and approved by government agencies. We are proud to be a registered safety audited company and in five years of operating we have safely guided nearly 10,000 clients on wild adventures. So it’s safe to say you can trust us.
Raglan Rock
