I used to tie into TR's with a single locking biner. I was quite satisfied that the equipment was strong enough for the task at hand, regardless of what axis was loaded. I remain convinced. However, I no longer use this tie in method and here's why...

Angus and I were repeating a climb called Stu-pendous at Sonora Pass. It's a one pitch granite climb up above Deadman's Creek (an appropriate name for this story) that currently goes at 5.10c, A0. Stu and I bolted the FA on the lead with a Bosch a couple of years earlier in a tag team effort. A one bolt aid move bypasses a likely hard 5.12 (or harder?) move to gain a dead-vertical black water streak dotted with knobs. There are two separate 5.10 cruxes and several hard 5.9 + moves on this very cool route. Angus and I were attempting to free it.

I tried first and repeatedly attempted to boulder out the opening moves. I just couldn't do it and spent myself in the attempt. Angus tried once and conceded it was hopeless. I had already led the remainder of the route, so I told him to finish it if he wanted. He did, falling at the 10c crux, then climbing through to the top.

I started to follow, but Angus asked me to bring some water up. The packs were out of reach, so I untied. When I tied back in, I just did a quick figure-eight on a bight and clipped it to the locking biner on my harness. I was using a big BD pear shaped biner with a screw-lock sleeve. Not sure if they make it anymore. I was also using a BD Bod Harness at the time. The screw lock biner I was using had a bug in it that I knew about and will describe shortly.

I got back on the route and simply aided past the bolt. Then up a short 85 degree ramp with some thin 5.9 moves. Then into the vertical water streak, past the first (or 2nd, counting the un-freed aid move) crux at 10 a or b. The 2nd crux is a difficult mantle onto a knob with almost no overhead holds for assistance. It is really a hard move on the brink of nothingness, one of those classic granite-type moves. As I pressed the mantle, my foot popped off the knob. Somehow I caught myself on the very same knob as I fell (about 60 - 80 feet above large talus, or thereabouts), nearly pulled my shoulder out of the socket to hang on, then repressed the mantle with what little energy remained and stood up. There was no resting here, but 2 moves higher a wide 5.9 stem offered the opportunity to at least let go with one hand at a time. When I got there, and I remember this exchange as if it were yesterday and not several years ago, Angus said...

"Dingus, is that your KNOT?"

I looked down in confusion and my heart froze.

The knot I tied into the end of the rope was completely disconnected from the biner and was hanging in free space at about chest height. The biner was stuck open and hanging from my harness by the notch in the gate. This being a Bod harness, without a biner to hold it together, the piece that comes up through the legs was dangling down between my legs (knee height). The biner was hanging off this piece of webbing. The buckle was intact (no Stallone movies here) and properly doubled back. I instantly realized what had happened. I looked up at Angus.

"Lock it off." I said with urgency. I grabbed the knot. Angus thought I wanted to pull it back down to clip it in again, but I had other things in mind. He began to give me slack, which I wasn't ready for. I almost fell again.

"LOCK IT OFF!" He locked it. I quickly wrapped the rope around my wrist twice and weighted it. I figured I could at least hang on like this should everyting else fail. I then (and here was an act of trust and faith like no other) let go with my other hand, reached down, grabbed the biner, pulled it back up and reassembled the harness. With it back where it belonged, I regrabbed the rock, asked for a little slack and then reclipped the knot into the biner (wrist still wrapped up tight). Finally, I untwisted my wrist from the rope and regrabbed the rock with the other hand. All of this took only a few seconds (and nearly an eternity for me). I finally looked at Angus again. His eyes lasered into mine...

"I love you Dingus."

"I love you too man. Now I'm gonna get the #$%& outta here"

(or words to that affect). I climbed the last few feet of rock to the belay with a loud buzz in my brain. I was through for the day, needless to say.

Here's what happened...

The biner (a pearbiner, now I remember, one of the first big pear shaped biners) had a screw gate that was reversed, you tightened it counter-clockwise. BD adevertised this was intended to be used with a munter hitch, which would tend to unscrew normal screw sleeves. This particular biner (mine, not the model in general) had a bug, probably due to wear. If you unscrewed it all the way and a little more, the gate would not close properly because the sleeve jammed the gate on the hinge end. I knew this biner had the problem and just dealt with it. Welllllllll...

When I reattached to the TR I obviously forgot to lock the biner. I had unscrewed it too far and the gate jammed open (that's the condition I found it in on the route). It was NEVER attached correctly in the first place! I assume the knot had only just completelely fallen off the biner when Angus noticed it. Ialso assume that it would have failed if needed. Remember, I fell on that friggin route! I caught myself with a miracle save. I am a walking dead man in a manner of speaking. This is the absolute closest call I have ever endured in the mountains!

Of couse, it was all my fault; several small errors.
1.    I was knowingly using faulty equipment.
2.    I failed to lock the biner.
3.    I failed to safety check my harness one last time before I started climbing.

I almost died. I had a newborn child and her mother waiting for me at home when this happened. In the subsequent weeks I went through a lot of soul-searching about the incident, climbing, my family, my future and how I wanted to die. I firmly decided I was still a climber, I was still willing to test myself on hard routes, I was still willing to do alpine climbs, simul-climb in select circumstances, even solo from time to time on very easy routes, ice climb, etc. But I was not and am not willing to die while climbing (but I still have insurance just in case). I also undertook an almost religious-like ritual of safety checking myself and everything around me. For a few years (the urge has only recently left me) I would recheck my harness several times mid-pitch on almost every climb.

And I never, I repeat, never, tie in with a biner anymore. I don't blame the tie-in method at all. Rather, I recognize that this method has more potential failure or #$%up points than a straight tie in method. It's so quick that it's easy to get complacent about it, as I did.  By tying in directly, the climber is forced to look at things directly. Sure, as Lynn Hill and others have since demonstrated, it's possible to #$% this up as well, with dire consequences. But I decided to use one tie in method for rock climbing and thereby reduce my exposure.

I would still use the biner method for glacier travel and might use 2 biners to switch ends of the rope if speed climbing and doing all the leading (but I haven't).

I agree with Bob... forget about convenience and tie in directly, so you won't have to worry (and you should worry about it... if you don't worry, you may eventually find yourself in similar circumstances).

DMT