R-Factor is proud to be a 2025 Petzl Foundation grant recipient. This support is fueling our multi-year research initiative applying grounded theory to Accidents in North American Climbing (ANAC) data spanning 2005–2024 — the most systematic analysis of the human factors behind climbing accidents ever undertaken.

The grant funds core elements of our work: data cleaning and analysis of over 1,000 U.S. accident records, primary interviews with incident participants and search and rescue professionals, and fieldwork at major climbing sites including Grand Teton National Park and Red Rock Canyon. Our goal is a validated human factors framework that is analytically rigorous and practically usable — the kind of tool that helps a areal climber make a better decision on a real route.

The Climber's Mind: Grand Teton Field Immersion

Supported by the American Alpine Club Research Grant, this two-week field expedition to Grand Teton National Park (August 2–14, 2025) combined ethnographic observation, structured SAR interviews, and experiential climbing to validate the human factors patterns identified in ANAC data. The expedition included climbs on the East Ridge of Disappointment Peak, the Lower Saddle approach, and Curtis Canyon alongside ANAC editor Pete Takeda. 

Click on the image for an overview of the research findings.

Before the grants, before the fieldwork, before Know the Ropes — there was a cold email to Pete Takeda and two graduate students staring at a flatbed scanner. This is the origin story of the entire AAC research program: the systematic digitization of every print ANAC from 1948 to the present, and the methodical application of grounded theory to identify the human factors patterns that would eventually be published in ANAC 2025. The work began as a UMass Boston graduate Qualitative Lab project and grew into the analytic foundation for everything R-Factor has built since.

Click on the image for a link to the full article.