290lb (131kg) Climber Falls for Science
Tanner is 290lbs or 131kg and he climbs. We wanted to know what forces he gets when he falls on his gear so I sent him 3 LineScale3s and showed him how to film an episode. This was an amazing experiment of a test being done for HowNOT2 without me there. Tanner worked so hard to make this happen and Gritstone Climbing Gym was gracious enough to not only let him do this but Chris and Matt, the owner and manager, helped film and fall for science. Thank you Celine Gissot for this graph below.
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Behind the Scenes
Tanner reached out to me in February 2022 after I said "ideally no one is over 1kn". I didn't realize how many bigger than 160-180lb or 72kg to 82kg climbers there were until I said that and got the lash back. I didn't mean to say no one should be heavier than a kN as a general statement. Context is important. When sport climbing, the gear is likely super good enough; however, when trad climbing, the forces attained in these tests are at or above the MBS of some pieces of gear, so you have to be mindful of that in order to be safe. I think understanding what forces are like in a real world context can help people make decisions about the gear they trust their lives to. Since Tanner was willing and so many were curious, we decided to test it. It took 4 months to get him LS3s and have him do the tests and I expedited the edit. It's a lot of work to put these together but so worth it. Put in the comments of the video what you want to see tested next.
After Posting Thoughts
People loved it. I'm glad this helped heavier climbers who were concerned about the forces. There is a limit to gear but you don't have to fear it. Check out our other gym fall videos.
