Chip Chick
Fort Collins, Colorado. A single mom was climbing indoors at Ascent Studio Climbing & Fitness when something terrible happened.
This poor woman somehow fell around 40 feet to the floor below, and she sadly did not survive the injuries she sustained in the accident.
“We are sad to say that on Saturday there was a tragic event at the gym,” Ascent Studio Climbing & Fitness wrote on June 15th in a Facebook post.
“The climber died as a result of the injuries received following a fall from height. Our hearts go out to this person’s friends and family.”
“Many of our staff are also quite shaken by this event and we are all still trying to cope. We closed the gym on Sunday to help with this, but did reopen on Monday to help get back to some normalcy.”
“Please know that the safety of our patrons is always top of mind. There was no apparent equipment failure, but out of an abundance of caution we decided to take our auto belays out of service at least until a full investigation is completed.”
“We do not know how long that will take, but will update with new information as it becomes available.”
Someone in the comments of the post noted that the woman who fell had somehow gotten unhooked from the auto belay she was using, but that hasn’t been confirmed by the gym yet.
An auto belay is a gadget that helps a climber get back down on the ground without needing another person to step in and help them get there safely.
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