Tragic Sport Climbing Death, 12-Year-Old Tito Traversa - EpicTV Climbing Daily

Welcome to Epic TV Climbing Daily. Today's show is dedicated to 12 year old Italian climber Tito Traversa who was tragically killed last week in a sport climbing accident at Orpiers in France. Tito was a super talented climber, has been climbing really hard since the age of eight and at 12 years old he'd already climbed several 8b plus sport routes. Unfortunately although he was sport climbing, which can be one of the safest forms of climbing, his quickdraws were threaded incorrectly, they all failed and Tito hit the ground. When sport climbing you clip your rope to bolts that are fixed into the rock. You clip it on with two carabiners and a sling in between the carabiners. Sometimes to make the quickdraws, the slings and carabiners, easier to use the carabiners are fixed at the end of the sling with a piece of rubber or an elastic band. This elastic band doesn't hold the climber, it just holds the quickdraw in place. Unfortunately in Tito's case what seems to have happened is that the slings were threaded incorrectly and his weight was only held by the elastic band. A few years ago a similar accident happened in the UK and I made a video covering how it might have happened, you can watch that here. There's another video online covering a similar topic, it's really important that you watch these videos and understand the safety implications of this situation. That's it for today but check back tomorrow on Epic TV Climbing Daily for more climbing news and if you've got something you want to see on our show let us know on Facebook or Twitter.