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The death of a climber on the Coromandel in August 2018 has been attributed to the poor condition of a nylon rope he was using to secure it to a rock.
Photo: 123RF
Lauren Kimiyo Worrell, a 28-year-old American citizen living in New Zealand, fell 120 meters to her death at Castle Rock, where she was climbing with her partner.
The coroner’s report said a police investigation at the scene recovered a nylon rope that appeared to be worn and evidence of fatigue.
The lower end of the rope was also frayed, indicating that it was possibly broken.
Coroner Michael Robb found that Worrell’s death likely would have been prevented if he hadn’t used the rope to descend the rock ledge.
Worrell and his partner made it to the top of Castle Rock Pinnacle and then planned to use the Quiet Land route down.
Two bolts are drilled into the rock face at the top. A nylon rope was hooked to the bolts that climbers could use.
The coroner’s report said that Worrell’s partner believed the nylon rope was more than capable of supporting a person’s weight, although he noted that it looked badly worn.
His partner said he saw Worrell four or five meters below him on the ledge about to pass the steepest part towards a repellent station.
He said it then appeared to slip, fall over the edge and disappear from sight.
Then he heard a scream that stopped with a thud.
The report said that Worrell had a 70m dynamic rope with her, however based on the speed at which he saw her descend, it appeared to him that she was not hooked to the bolts with her own ropes.
He believed it was most likely tied with the fixed nylon rope, which he could have done to save time.
A police officer, with 36 years of search and rescue experience, said the rope should not have been used as an anchor point or safety line in and of itself.
A climbing rope expert also told the coroner that using a fixed point nylon rope alone was not good climbing practice as they should use their own ropes to avoid the possibility of single points of failure.
The coroner has accepted two recommendations from the Alpine Club of New Zealand that the installation of fixed ropes, slings, and other soft equipment is discouraged and that climbers report safety issues associated with climbing themselves.
