This is very sad news and my condolences go out to Todd’s friends and family.

Fatal Fall at Yosemite Shocks Climbing World

But this may be the single scariest assessment of a climbing accident I’ve ever heard. The idea that a piece of equipment as crucial as your belay loop could suddenly break while rapping down a face after a successful climb…  yow, that’s freaky.

Other rapelling accidents involve human error: bad anchor, rapping off the end of a rope, badly-dressed double-fisherman’s knot, etc., but a simple no-rhyme-or-reason thing like a breaking harness leaves me feeling oogy.