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Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
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Jun 16, 2015 - 07:16pm PT
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Yikes....
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Jun 16, 2015 - 07:46pm PT
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And no helmet.
Poor thing. It's pretty aweful watching someone get hurt.
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dindolino32
climber
san francisco
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Jun 16, 2015 - 07:48pm PT
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Helmets are for losers.... and for people that don't want to be a vegetable for the rest of their lives. I used to skateboard, kids would make fun of me for wearing knee pads saying "Do you wear pads on your vagina too?" I was always the last one walking away injury free because I could slide out on my knees every time.
I got made fun of for wearing a helmet while climbing once too.... Makes you realize who the real losers are.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Jun 16, 2015 - 07:55pm PT
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The take away, I mean besides the value of a helmet...
During ascents with any horizontal component, it's easy / easier to lose situational awareness of where that rope's running.
I think he was lucky it wasn't worse.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jun 16, 2015 - 08:17pm PT
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I think he was lucky it wasn't worse.
No sh#t. Slightly different orientation going into the rock and he'd be lucky to be alive. Or maybe unlucky, depending on whether being a vegetable is a good thing.
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Jun 16, 2015 - 11:24pm PT
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Belayer could have prevented that. Maybe overhangs are not their strong suit.
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dindolino32
climber
san francisco
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Jun 16, 2015 - 11:46pm PT
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no belayer could keep a rope from catching the climber's heel.
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COT
climber
Door Number 3
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Jun 16, 2015 - 11:57pm PT
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Yup, operator error for the foot behind the rope and a helmet is always a good call. But watch the belayer's braced left leg, it never moves nor does his body get pulled forward. Belayer gave a really hard catch. Belaying roof such as this one actually takes some skills to give a safe soft catch.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Jun 17, 2015 - 02:58am PT
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the cool crowd who always say it was operater error are full of sh#t. Almost every accident has some operator error in it and it can happen to anyone hence the reason it's called an accident. Watch the petzl vodeo on how to belay with a gri gri. Its full of expert morons jumping in the air giveing soft catches while their bare heads come inches from a solid rock overhang......
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Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
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Jun 17, 2015 - 06:25am PT
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"Do you wear pads on your vagina too?"
So do you?
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Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
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Jun 17, 2015 - 06:31am PT
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it's hard to say a soft catch would have helped. He may have hit something protruding a foot lower (etc.) and really gotten hurt.
Let's just say he was lucky to not have gotten it a lot worse.
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overwatch
climber
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Jun 17, 2015 - 08:25am PT
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Maybe he was pushing out but his harness may not fit right. Perhaps the tie in point is too low so that it causes you to be top heavy, so to speak, in a fall?
While my experience is nothing compared to many on this site, I have taken some falls on sport and gear routes and have never whipped upside down like that.
Glad he is relatively o.k.
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overwatch
climber
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Jun 17, 2015 - 10:20am PT
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missed it on the slomo first time through.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2015 - 10:24am PT
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I certainly didn't mean to post the video for sadistic reasons (although the shock value of seeing the result is important, I think). For me the lesson is that falling (even on sport climbs) can be dangerous and should always be taken very seriously. I really don't see anything that could easily have been done after the fall which would have made this safe. A "softer" catch and he might have whacked his head against the rock. And the flip at the leg comes violently at the last instant ... a difficult thing to avoid in such a short fall. While it's true that a helmet could make things safer in such situations, it wouldn't have helped this kid in this situation. However, the kid does seem to fall rather casually, as if he is expecting nothing will happen ...
Be careful out there kids!
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Jun 17, 2015 - 12:17pm PT
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About 10 years ago I was making a redpoint attempt on a new route in the Kern Canyon (Buzz Killer.) The crux is steep, super thin and sequential. There is no way to make a clip, so you have to pull the crux a body length or so above the last bolt and be very patient to get a thin rail with your left hand just so to make the next clip at waist level on the right side. I was feeling really strong, did the crux, but got a little careless about getting the rail just right. I tried to clip and peeled. I looked down and watched as the rope formed a loop in the air and my foot entered said loop as I fell. For what seemed like a long moment I waited for the violent flip which would smash my melon against the rock (no helmet.) But I didn’t stop, I just kept falling. The climb traverses out over an overhanging section which was way below the last bolt. World class belayer Guy Keesee saw what was happening and fed out as much rope as he could as fast as he could and by the time he caught my falling ass I was below the overhang. I spun and flipped at the same time, but his soft catch saved my bacon.
The belayer screwed up on that fall plain and simple. Just locked off the rope. The poor guy hit the wall with much more force than he would have were Mr. Keesee manning the belay. Ropes can end up in odd places in the heat of the moment on hard climbs. A nice soft catch, and that guy would probably been making another attempt later on.
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Rolfr
Trad climber
La Quinta and Penticton BC
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Jun 17, 2015 - 06:55pm PT
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The belayer screwed up on that fall plain and simple. Just locked off the rope. The poor guy hit the wall with much more force than he would have were Mr. Keesee manning the belay. Ropes can end up in odd places in the heat of the moment on hard climbs. A nice soft catch, and that guy would probably been making another attempt later on.
I totally agree, short roped, a preventable impact, it could have been worse.
I was short roped on a fall at Queens Creek 4 years ago and sprained both ankles, 4 months no climbing, on the first day of a road trip. Just f..ing bad belaying!
Belaying on sport climbs is a learned skill , he would have never caught his foot if the belayer had thrown more slack into the catch.
I took a similar fall twice, on the same climb in Skaha, with two different belayers, the first fall was a soft catch with lots of slack, the second time a few weeks later, a belayer of the same weight locked off the device and I flipped over and I tapped my head on the rock. Always wear a helmet now.
Sport climbing and gear climbing belaying are two totally different animals.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2015 - 07:37pm PT
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First off I want to say thet I have literally belayed hundreds of falls on all different kinds of climbs and no one has ever impacted the wall like this, but IMHO. after watching this video, I think I've been lucky that this has never happened to me, as a belayer.
So to anyone who thinks the injury was completely preventable because the belayer was in error, can you please tell us precisely what the belayer should have done to prevent this, considering ...
1) There is exactly 1.5 seconds of time between when the fall begins until the kid impacts the wall (I measured this on the video). That means even if the belayer was paying very close attention he had about 1 second of time between when he realized the kid was falling to when the kid impacted the wall.
I seriously doubt 1 second is much time to yard out more than a handfull slack before catching a fall ... maybe a two handfulls, I don't know. Or are you saying I'm wrong about this? On the other hand I don't see that a handfull of slack would necessarily have helped. With the severe rotational force caused from the flip it looks to me that this might have only caused the kid's head to impact against the wall. By doing this, it seems to me belayer might have killed the kid
2) Another thing I have been known to do in a fall is walk, step or even jump towards the wall when I am belaying (there was certainly enough time to respond like this) but once again, it seems to me, by looking at the forces of the fall, that in doing this I might have just killed the kid by allowing the large force of the rotational vector caused by the flip to simply smash his head against the wall.
3) Are you saying the belayer should have maintained a much larger loop of slack in the rope before the fall began? In general I don't necessarily do this in similar types of circumstances, but perhaps you have some reason to think this could have prevented injury (please convince me this is true, if you think this is so).
In conclusion, if you think the belayer is at fault, please tell us exactly what he should have been doing either before the fall or in the 1 second he had to respond to the realization that the kid was falling that would have prevented this injury.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Jun 17, 2015 - 07:43pm PT
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From the very second the video starts, look at the rope leading to the first draw.
I knew what was coming.
When the kid falls the belayer actually takes in an armload.
The flipping would've still happened but the whipping would not have.
The rope was too tight.
please tell us exactly what he should have been doing either before the fall or in the 1 second he had to respond to the realization that the kid was falling that would have prevented this injury.
Before- keep a bit more slack...SOME...in the line.
In the one second- jump or let a little out.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2015 - 07:55pm PT
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Yeah, I looked more carefully this time, drljefe, and it does look like the belayer actually yards in slack when he realizes a fall is happening. Not a good idea. I'm getting tired of watching this, but I think it's worth the effort
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