Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - May 1, 2008 - 10:19pm PT
|
Stories of gear-popping, nut wrenching, zips and whips.... Post about falls you took, held, tried to hold, etc. where the gear wasn't so bomber after all....
I don't have much, but know that others do. Mine is belaying a guy on Hang Ten at the Gunks. he was a self-professed 5.8 leader, but had followed this route and had it stuck in his craw as a good test piece lead. he talked about it each time we climbed together. He wanted that lead....
And so, we ended up down there with him trying to snag some pro with small wires and aliens, working his way not so confidently up the short route.
He gets to the upper area and the crux, a step-over sort of deal on a rooflike chunk of rock. His gear below is suspect and he knows it, so he has to commit and make it stick. He knows the move.....but it's a stretch for him.
Up, down, up and down as he psyches himself for the go. One more time and.....ummm, no.
Now he's getting tired and decides maybe he will need to find a better stance to rest.
He's hanging by both arms, and has one foot on the slightly overhanging face below, and the other on some little ledgy foothold. He decides he'll slot another alien in somewhere and hang on it.
He sets the alien, but in order to do so, he had to move upward to place it. He gets the pro and is going for the rope to make the clip.....
For some reason, as he later told me, he thought he had that foot on the ledge.... Well, he didn't. It was in mid air and he'd been hanging off the arms with a foot smear for balance.
So, when he lets go with one arm for a handful of rope.....there's not much to keep him up.
It was almost as if the cliff had disintegrated beneath him....Crimble, crash, bang...
Thar she blows! I lock off. As he comes onto the system, a slight pause. Then....
TWING!!!! Out flies that alien like a clay pigeon out of the skeet shoot.
Falling again....uh oh. This isn't really a very long pitch. i sure hope the rope stretch isn't....
THWWWWWWACK!
Out rips a microwire, which races down the rope trying to beat him to the next piece....
Uh oh......Not much left between him and terra firma.... "What if the next piece pulls?" I ask myself. "Does it even matter? Can I spot this guy and at least cushion the impact? I don't think I WANNA!!!" I hear myself silently whining. "This is gonna hur..... Oh, thank f'ing god; he's stopped."
Maybe 5 feet above my head. Dangling halfway upside down, looking like a wild boar in a snare; eyes wide and nostrils flared. No concept whatsoever as to how he had got there.
|
|
alpinerockfiend
Trad climber
Jackson, WY
|
|
That has GOT to be Looking Glass...what route?
|
|
The Alpine
Big Wall climber
Tampa, FL
|
|
Good eye. Its the roof pitch on Glass Menagerie.
|
|
The Alpine
Big Wall climber
Tampa, FL
|
|
Here's one that was substantially more serious:
boooiiiinnnnggggg
pop!
The first pitch of Glass Menagerie Direct. Goes at something like 5.hard d+++, but as far as I know this was the last free attempt it saw. I guess not too many kids these days are psyched to whip onto equalized rurps and circleheads.
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
those photos are wild, thx for posting.
|
|
k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
|
|
Is/was that dude OK?
|
|
Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
|
|
I was on the ground watching one of Huber brothers yo-yo the Nipple pitch (one pitch below?) on Zodiac a few years ago. He was taking 40-50 foot falls, swinging into a corner, falling from the same place again and again and again. I never did see him finally make it. It got so boring, I gave up and drove the bridge.
|
|
alpinerockfiend
Trad climber
Jackson, WY
|
|
Awesome photos! Is that Laban Swafford in the GM Direct picture?
|
|
TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
|
|
Rgold is always wondering about this.
Add to database.
When tested, one out of three placements was adequate.
He would have had much better odds loading a single bullet in a revolver (5 out of 6 were safe).
Maybe he should quit while he is ahead?
|
|
happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 2, 2008 - 09:30am PT
|
"
When tested, one out of three placements was adequate.
He would have had much better odds loading a single bullet in a revolver (5 out of 6 were safe)"
....ummmm, yeah, but..... I suppose that's only accurate if you take into account that when firing the gun, sometimes you'll not point in at your temple, but shoot into the open air. Or that some caring individual won't give you a belay and yard that gun away from the target(your melon)....
Isn't the term "variable" part of math and statistics?
|
|
TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
|
|
Happie,
I guess maybe that was a little terse - and a bit of a hijack.
Sorry.
Carry on with historical tales of survival. Maybe I will start a related thread soon on this.
|
|
The Alpine
Big Wall climber
Tampa, FL
|
|
Yes that is Laban. Luckily he walked away with only a scratched elbow and sprained wrist.
|
|
Derek
climber
|
|
Bump...come on, I KNOW there's more out there...
|
|
frodolf
climber
Sweden
|
|
I had a stupid, unglamorous, deadly close one.
I was on the top of my home crag setting up a top rope. I had done it a thousand times and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I walked towards the edge. A few feet from the anchor I trip and stumble forward, and in the few steps I have left towards death I step on my untied (stoopid!) shoe laces and dive forward towards the edge. It's 60' down and the landing is the worst imaginable, just rocks and boulders.
I land with the very edge at my waist, my hole upper body out in the air, hands on the rock in some weird inverted mantle move trying to push myself back. For a second or so I sway and feel like I have a pound or so to many on the air side, but then I start to sway back. And all of a sudden I'm in balance, I won't fall. Danger averted. I crawl back to breathe for a few minutes.
Lesson: tie your shoes, kids!
|
|
LittlePinkTricam
Trad climber
Providence, RI
|
|
The only gear I ever saw rip was a girl climbing in Acadia up at Precipice this August taking a bad ground fall after popping a good number of placements out of a perfect finger-to-hand crack. I stuck around long enough to make sure she was stabilized(ish) and help was arriving, but I never found out what went wrong. That route eats pro, and I can't imagine there should have been any sketchy placements.
The worst whipper I saw was also, strangely, at Precipice--this time my partner. She fell about 20-25 ft onto her gear, which held. On the way down, her feet hit a ledge and flipped her upsidedown onto her head (no helmet). She lost a couple cotton tshirts-ful of blood, was carried out and ended the day with two layers of stitches in her scalp, but with her skull and spine miraculously intact. Lesson: Use 3ft slings only when necessary (the pro was more or less at her feet, but the 'biner was far below. Wear a helmet.)
I myself have taken just one little lead fall, pseudo-planned, on an easy route in Josh. I'd been walking towards one of the campsite climbs--I want to say Dogleg or Double Cross--when the boy leading it took a nice whipper onto his one piece of gear and messed up his ankle. I helped get him RICEd and back to camp, and the whole while he was telling me he usually free soloed up to .9s or .10s (which is my leading limit, if I'm pushed) and knew this route like the back of his hand (I had climbed my first crack ever two or three days before). I got a little spooked, and asked my belayer to hold a small fall so I could get out of my head. Lesson: Don't climb things you've just seen people whip on. Or man up and gun 'em. One of the two.
I can't tell if I just haven't been leading long enough (3 years) or if I got too used to sketchy placements in South African rock when I was learning and now will move heaven and earth (including downclimbing entire pitches) to avoid falling, but either way I've been blessed to be whipper-free.
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
I was on the top of my home crag setting up a top rope. I had done it a thousand times and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I walked towards the edge. A few feet from the anchor I trip and stumble forward, and in the few steps I have left towards death I step on my untied (stoopid!) shoe laces and dive forward towards the edge. It's 60' down and the landing is the worst imaginable, just rocks and boulders.
I land with the very edge at my waist, my hole upper body out in the air, hands on the rock in some weird inverted mantle move trying to push myself back. For a second or so I sway and feel like I have a pound or so to many on the air side, but then I start to sway back. And all of a sudden I'm in balance, I won't fall. Danger averted. I crawl back to breathe for a few minutes.
that's something out of a movie! trip out!
|
|
snowey
Trad climber
San Diego
|
|
Earlier this year I got on Coarse and Buggy out at Joshua Tree for the onsight. I got up the thin dihedral, which actually takes great gear, without any problem and got to the part where it gets steep and you have to enter into sort of a lieback. I placed a bomber nut and rested a while from a stance before committing. As I got into the lieback I blindly shoved a yellow TCU into the crack, I peered around the corner and saw that it was a bit umbrellad but the pump in my arms was telling me that it was good enough. I clipped it and went for it.
Two feet above me on the right side was a little ledge, if I could only get my foot on it, it would be over, glory would be mine. I threw my right foot up high but I was an inch below the ledge and stretched way too far. Retreat!!! I smeared my right foot back down and on my last ounce of strength lunged for what looked like a positive hand hold.
Down I went and sure enough the yellow TCU came along for the ride.
Its amazing how easily the distances accumulate. The yellow TCU was at around my feet and the nut was 4 feet below that. With slack and rope strength, I actually ended up falling around 20 ft.
Clean fall, good fun, even though I was a bit bummed about blowing the onsight. Nonetheless, I yarded up on the rope and finished the route without a hitch, this time placing a bomber ORANGE TCU.
Photo taken from MP (its not me)
|
|
JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Stoney Point
|
|
Lessons in how not to belay!
Juan
|
|
fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
|
|
I did my share of hanging on Hang-Ten at 200+ pounds. Takes bomber C-3's/Aliens and small nuts that's for sure. Aside from a very runout start there's no reason to come close to decking on that one if you make the lip. I want to say the yellow C-3 was critical if I remember....
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!