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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 30, 2009 - 11:33am PT
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Ropes are for pansies! How 'bout some real ones?
Quin "The Kone-head", after whom the Darrington "Kone" route is named, bounced down a fairly steep face (40 degrees overall I'd say) in the Cascades for at least 1000' and walked away! Rough intro to winter soloing! He wasn't called "The Kone-head" for nothing!
Al Givler's free-fall to the deck out of a rescue chopper (which I think has been chronicled here) was at least 230'. He didn't walk away but he was walking within a couple of days!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2009 - 11:40am PT
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These are supposed to have happy endings!
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scuffy b
climber
Sinatra to Singapore
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Jun 30, 2009 - 11:49am PT
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I took a 30-footer from the ground the other day.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Jun 30, 2009 - 11:54am PT
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Don't know the distances but I would guess Hephaestus' drop from Olympus into the sea or Lucifer would be high on the list.
But neither of them were particularly happy events, although Hephaestus did make it back into Hera's good graces an go on to craft some mighty good hardware. Lucifer packed it in for a life of debauchery and posting on Internet climbing forums.
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Ain't no flatlander
climber
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Jun 30, 2009 - 12:00pm PT
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Charlie Fowler fell off Broadway on the Diamond. 600 feet or so. Good thing it was in the winter.
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Miwok
Trad climber
Mi Wuk Village
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Jun 30, 2009 - 12:01pm PT
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Clint can confirm but I'm guestimating from the Zeus roof to savior ledge.... 120ft. Stupid move on my part and not proud but this is how I'm reminded of my stupidity.
Tim and Clint Cummings had been jugging their fixed lines to work on Zeus, a major new 5.10 A3 line. It cut across the old Rowell route Sean was “resurrecting,” and shared the third pitch before heading off into the striking Hetch Hetchy dihedral. Hundreds of feet higher, the fixed line zagged sharply left under a small roof. That’s where Tim’s ascenders abruptly came off his rope, sending him into freefall. With moments to think or die, he reached out and barely managed to grab the line. But, now, he was rocketing down the wall. He clamped down so hard on the line that skin burned off his palms. The pain was intense, but so was the acceleration. “I would ease up my grip, then clamp down again,” he says. “There’s only so much meat on a hand.” He holds up his mitts, and you can see where the whole pad of his little finger got torqued sideways. You can also see a big scar inside the elbow.
While the rope burned through his arms and hands, Tim fell. Guided by the grace of “the great Miwok Spirit,” as he credits it, Tim crash-landed on a 4x4 platform on the wall, now more than aptly dubbed Savior Ledge. Crumbled and broken, but alive, Tim yelled up to Cummings, at the top of the lines above him, that he didn’t need any help. In fact, in his adrenalized state, Tim had become so concerned about the two of them rapping off a still-unfinished anchor that he insisted Clint keep drilling. Tim settled in with burned paws for a long wait, then hobbled out of the Fjord to recover.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jun 30, 2009 - 12:02pm PT
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I bought allot of Quinn "Kone-head" Connicks gear back in the late 70's when he quit the sport, I think sometime right after that fall. Still got his old Pterodactyl ice tool but quit using it as its a finger smashing dinosaur, ha!
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jun 30, 2009 - 12:41pm PT
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If Anders (mighty hiker) is around he could probably tell a story here. If I remember things correctly, a friend of his went through a cornice somewhere in the Coast Range and free-fell rather a long way. Finally made contact on a very steep snow slope and slid to a stop relatively unharmed.
Hundreds of feet I think, but Anders will have the details.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2009 - 01:09pm PT
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I was going to stipulate climbers only but a thrill's a thrill, eh?
A USAF pilot did the same in early 60's (?) and came down onto a steep powder-filled chute in the Sierras.
Actually, there are lots of sky-diver tales like this.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Jun 30, 2009 - 01:18pm PT
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Two brothers I knew back in the 70's John and Bruce(?) Markel, both big downhill racers, were climbing the Maroon Bells near Aspen. After doing the traverse from North to South Maroon, they were decending down a steep wind slab on S. Maroon. Bruce went into a slide and went over-the-edge of the East face. John yelled and screamed but heard no answer. Dejected and stunned, thinking he'd lost his brother, John decended only to find him over a thousand feet down. My recollection is that he had painful but relatively minor injuries like lots of bruises, sprain or dislocation and maybe a small break.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 30, 2009 - 01:26pm PT
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(Names omitted to protect the guilty.)
Yes, I know two, possibly three, people who've walked through cornices, fallen a long way, and lived to walk away. One person on Hudson's Bay Mountain near Smithers, who fell 200+ m, another who did so on Mount Overlord (east of Whistler) and fell 100+ m. And another who fell a long way down steep snow.
Someone else took an unroped slide down the two upper pitches of Sickle, on the Apron at Squamish, and walked away. A slab climb, but still...
But then, I've known several who took relatively short unroped falls, on rock or snow, and didn't survive.
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lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jun 30, 2009 - 02:04pm PT
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Following Roger's thread, I nominate Icarus, though he came to a bad end.
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maui_mark
climber
under a coconut tree
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Jun 30, 2009 - 04:47pm PT
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Back in 1986 I believe someone "fell" from a hot air balloon from 120,000 feet. They broke the sound barrier with their body and lived.
sounds like the winner to me :)
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jun 30, 2009 - 04:57pm PT
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What about Charlie F's fall in the himalaya where he slid for ever and told his clients to go on without him and leave him for Dead? I think that was more than 600', maybe multiples of it ? he crawled out over days, or something, and lost most of his toes. He had to lieback cracks at Indian creek for a season. He was back on his game the next fall, though , "Jay you're not gonna believe how far 've come."
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 30, 2009 - 05:54pm PT
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Yeah Jay,
I was just gonna say- Even Charlie has fallen farther than a mere tumble down the N Chimney.
But ropes aren't always a GOOD thing to have in a fall.
Kind of depends on what (or WHO!!) they are tied TO.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Jun 30, 2009 - 07:17pm PT
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45 footer for me.
Don't know which left the bigger crater, the ground where I hit or the one in my wallet from the bills.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Jun 30, 2009 - 07:18pm PT
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I'm still falling
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Jun 30, 2009 - 07:26pm PT
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Not a vertical fall, but a few years ago a skier somersaulted 2600' down the Orient Express on Denali, was badly bruised but basically walked away from the fall. Two climbers died falling on this route a few weeks ago.
http://www.adn.com/354/story/175682.html
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