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Trusty Rusty
Social climber
Tahoe area
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 31, 2007 - 09:18pm PT
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Here we go. . ."Lead Piton" award runner-ups!
Years ago I was leading some vertical kitty litter in the Boy Scout rocks area of Mnt. Diablo. Having forgot my 2" swami, I tied on with what I thought was a "Bowline on a coil" (few wraps around the waist with a bowline knot through all) Wrong. At about 60'during a strange down-move traverse between cracks I felt tickling un-goodness on my calves. .. looked down to see two wraps of loose rope around my legs and the rope end hanging a few inches below my quivering EB's. Did some highball Kung Fu moves, got retied and left my loaded trowsers in a bush on the summit. Sorry.
Getting cork screwed into oblivion due to bad knot tying would be a pathetic epitaph.
Summary: Smoke less weed, and for that no-swami/harness condition: Bowline is an awesome knot, but it can work loose and fall apart. Its pretty cheap & easy to follow the end out along the lead line & back up with a dbl overhand. Profoundly enough, its called a "strengthened bowline".
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Stoney Point
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Jan 31, 2007 - 09:19pm PT
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I lead up past the crux and twenty feet up I realised I forgot the rack.
JDF
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Jingy
Social climber
Flatland, Ca
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Jan 31, 2007 - 09:55pm PT
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Climbing with a new climbing partner out at Mickey's Beach, Ca. Was doing some traversy 11D thing out on the sea side of the rock. At the end of the travers I reached for the rope and didn't notice that the piece I was grabbing was behind the last bolt and ended up "Z" clipping.
This is when my buddy Tom chimed in and told me of my problem.
I thought no problem, I'll just unclip this one, let it loose and clip in correctly. But the real problem was that I was beyond pumped and could not do the simplest of tasks.
So I yelled 'take'. Waited for the pump to go away. Made many valiant attempts but only ended up somehow tying more knots between the two or three draws.
20 to 30 minutes later my buddy Tom is yelling up to me, something about the tide coming in. Great, just what I need... A deadline!
Thank God I had a patient climbing partner. He stayed hydrated with sea water and eventually talked me out of my mess.
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The Wretch
Trad climber
Forest Knolls, CA
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I was in JT. My wife and I were going to do the Eye, maybe 5.3.
We then say some guy who decked doing Balderdash. He was being
carted out on a litter and had an oxygen mask on. I lost all
enthusiam for placing gear so we wandered over to a bolted route
I had led, Psoriasis at 5.9. There is a bolted climb next to it
called Exit Stage Right and it is also a 5.9.
I headed up. I got to the second bolt, I think, remember this
is maybe fifteen years ago, I am at work with no guide book.
I clipped the bolt and made it about three feet and fell. That
actually relaxed me. I had gotten it out of my system, tested
the bolt as I am wont to do. I led up about twenty feet
above the bolt. I did the math and figured I had better find
the third bolt soon or I faced a ground fall.
Just then my friend Eric Beck showed up. He glasses the climb
with his binoculars (ominously, ones he had retrived from a
dead body). I quavered, "Can you see the third bolt?"? He
said yes, up and left about ten feet in a black stain. I saw
the stain and headed toward it. Ten feet further up, now definately facing about a 65 foot ground fall, I had the stain
at chest height. "I can't see it. Where is it"?
Then after a loooooooooooooong pause, Eric says, "Ah, David,
I see itabout twenty five feet down and off to the right".
I suddenly becomes crystal clear to me. I am about to get
hosed. I am climbing a 5.9 becasue I was afraid to climb a 5.3.
I have already fallen once. This route is named Exit Stage Right
because it veers right above the second bolt. I cannot down
climb and who knows what is above me. The climbers who did the
first ascent, no doubt bettern that I am, obviously thought the
direct rout would not go.
Oh, well. In for a nickel, in for a dime. Very slowly and very
carefully I inched upwards. Not known for my foot work, I
was as focused as I have ever been. Up and up I worked. It
took perhaps a half an hour to gain aother 20 feet. Then the
angle began to ease off. I finally resorted to plastering my
stomach on the rock and inch wormed my way until I reached a
ledge. There, following thrity minutes of gasping I recovered
enough to cram a camelot into a crack and the odeal was over.
The cold beer that night tasted exceptionally well.
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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Getting suckered onto the "Moose's Tooth(?)" on the ER of the Grand. Great climb, but way off route when you are out of water and very much need the snow in the notch below--as the sun sets and the dark comes forth.
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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I was doing fine, then I found out about these internet climbing web sites. Worst climbing mistake I ever made!
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Here's stupid...
I was leading an easy 5.5 bolted route in Courtright with my wife so she could top-route something easy. I lead up past about 8 bolts or so about 150'. I get to the top, set the rope through some chains and re-tied in so she could lower me. She starts lowering and about half-way down yells up, "do you know there's only about 6 feet of rope left?". Doh! It's a 2-rope top-rope. I had to 'anchor' in to one bolt, pull the rope through, and have her lower me off one bolt and a biner I left behind. Stupid!
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G_Gnome
Boulder climber
Sick Midget Land
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The Wretch, great story. When we put that thing up we expected to go straight up. But then that was one of those Josh daze that makes you lazy and when the climbing got hard I bailed and took the easy way to the top. Only after screwing up the route did we decide to name it 'Exit Stage Right'. Heavens to Mergatroid!
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ChrisW
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Climbing the First few piches of Never Never Land with Pass the Piton's Pete. Actually we never technically roped up with eachother....Hahahahaaha.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Without a doubt; choice in certain partners.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Hopefully it's already been made...
but there was the time I finished the pitch, pulled up all the slack so Shaggy wouldn't have to jug with it, and tied it off to a fixed pin next to the anchor. If that had blown he would've dropped about 70 feet until my tie-in caught him , who knows what happens when jugs bite down after a 70' free-fall. He was pissed.
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Lando
climber
Tulsa
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Backcountry snowboarding a few years ago in the spring with a friend near Washington pass in the North Cascades of Washington State we decided to check out the west couloir on South Early Winter Spire(near to Liberty Bell).....maybe we'd ride down we thought. As we got higher it was quite apparent that the couloir was WAY too steep and icy to ride.....so I asked my friend if we should just stash our boards(mine carried on a vertical carrier on my pack) and continue to the summit. He didn't want to stop.....I pestered him at least a couple more times about ditching the boards....anyway we continued to the summit, boards and all, via the perfect steps someone had kicked when the chute was still soft....we were wearing snowboard boots, so this was lucky for us. Anyway.....we get to the summit and my friend continues up this massive rounded summit snow blob and I walk around to the left of it on the snow next to the rock......next thing I know my whole lower half of my body punches through....the only thing stopping me from taking a BIG drop is that snowboard digging in the snow behind me! Well....my friend extracts me and we look in the hole and down the several hundred foot east face of the spire.....as we got quickly on to the rock we realized that the snow slope was a massive cornice, and my friends "summit" was well out past the lip. Whoops! We had a snack and went back down after that....I don't think we said much....but we both felt like we dodged a substantial bullet.
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hobo_dan
Trad climber
Minnesota
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I was soloing a short ice route in St.Paul not vertical but still steep. i was watching the real men climb it w/out tools-so i decide to give it a try. No tools no rope. i get up about 45 feet off the ground and there is a bulge that is vertical for 4 feet. too high for me to step up on. So I kick in my front points for my right foot and balance up carefully with my mittens on the top of the bulge for balance but no grip. That was my sole point of connection and if they skated out I was going to bounce down.
they held but that was the end of the no tools game for me
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Berkeley
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Oh yea, bowline on a bite; that one got me once too. I hardly ever use it but one time I tied in with one, about to lead off. My partner insists on checking the knot. I am annoyed. "I've got it, don't worry". He gives it a yank anyway and my knot dissolves and the rope falls free. I guess I gave the twist of the loop in the wrong direction. It's one of the few serious technical mistakes I can remember making. Don't use that knot anymore.
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WBraun
climber
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"Your worst climbing mistakes. . .what happened/why?"
I joined the Supertopo forum and now my mind has become warped.
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noshoesnoshirt
climber
hither and yon
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I got injured and let myself get out of shape and addicted to internet porn and cheap booze.
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clustiere
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Climbing at Suicide a route called Iron Cross. Two of my buddys had gone up and had lowered down. I was in the woods petting my dog and napping. They call down and ask for me to try the pitch out. I hike up to find a black alien as the highest piece and the crux shortly there after all the three pins that were supposed to be there were gone. I pass the alien and figgure out the crux. Standing at an overlap I find a pin scar, place a HB offset and per lack of confidence in my feet fail to set the stopper, clip a draw then mantle on a chip to clear the overlap. As I mantle onto the overlap I hear then see the most terrifying site; the nut has fallen down the rope and the last piece is not high enough to protect me from the taco making/back breaking gap (created by a huge flake/spike of rock) directly below me. I yell then shake, then a voice floats up "pretend like it never happened Ryan" ok I can do this. I grab a knob and finish the 5.10 moves above to a ledge and a quesy feeling in my stomach. My pals get up to the ledge and want to bail but the next pitch looks like a relative clip up so I opt to finish. I have never experienced a feeling like that sickness watching the nut swing down, I hope never to again. God I love climbing.
Ryan
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Anastasia
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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I have done many mistakes. They all evolve around two things, getting distracted and getting nervous.
I now just take my time to breath and concentrate.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Worst climbing mistake...I went up to do the Nose with two chicks.
(Do I need to explain more?)
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