Fall arresters are known to be movable along a guide rail of a climbing protection system and to have a rotatably mounted pawl which, in the event of a fall, engages against catching stops in the guide rail, whereby the fall arrester is stopped in the guide rail to arrest a user from falling further. A connecting element of the fall arrester transmits force to the pawl from the user that is secured to the connecting element by a lanyard or other suitable attaching device. The connecting element can be formed as a deformable damping element, such as shown in PCT/EP2006/067469. While such fall arresters work well for their intended purpose, there is always room for improvement.
One issue with at least some current commercially available fall arresters is that they can fail to arrest a fall under certain conditions. More specifically, at least some current commercially available fall arresters can fail to properly arrest the fall of a user when the user falls in a direction that doesn't actuate the pawl of the fall arrester into a position to engage the stops in the guide rail, such as can happen when falling from a squatted position or while leaning towards the fall arrester such as when a user becomes unconscious or dizzy.