Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Oct 21, 2010 - 03:00pm PT
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Glad she's got a great prognosis. The surgeries sound like hell though. Best wishes!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 21, 2010 - 03:44pm PT
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Focusing is good when buckling your harness and tying your knot (and when setting up a rappel).
When belaying / lowering, it is more of a communication issue between the partners.
I was part of a similar accident a few years ago - I could not see or hear my partner who had led a pitch > 100 feet. I thought he knew to make a rappel, but he started lowering himself and then he thought I was lowering him, so he let go of the rope. He started accelerating, but fortunately it was not vertical and he managed to regrab the rope and stop himself. It could have easily been fatal. The problem could have easily been solved if I had not taken him off belay until I could reliably communicate with him. But I was trying to speed up the process of his pulling up the rappel rope by taking the rope out of my ATC. Not a good shortcut to take. My mistake.
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labrat
Trad climber
Nevada City, CA
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Oct 21, 2010 - 09:28pm PT
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Thanks for the update!
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 21, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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Lots of healing thoughts going her way. Glad there was quick response and a good medical team for her surgeries.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Oct 22, 2010 - 09:25am PT
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Significant wake up call bump.
Look alive people!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 22, 2010 - 10:48am PT
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So, she's in a bay area hospital, now?
Thanks for that vignette, Clint, it Can happen to anyone.
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 26, 2010 - 03:06pm PT
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Update anyone?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 26, 2010 - 09:10pm PT
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10/23 update: 3rd spinal surgery went well. Still in Reno. Hope to transfer to a rehab facility in the bay area in a few weeks.
11/2 update: Last planned surgeries went well. Took some steps around the room with a walker. :-)
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FRUMY
Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
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Oct 26, 2010 - 10:41pm PT
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thanks for the up date.
my best thoughts to her.
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 26, 2010 - 11:57pm PT
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Healing thougbts and prayers going her way
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Tahoe climber
climber
Davis these days
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Oct 27, 2010 - 09:27am PT
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Best wishes and speedy recovery to the accident victim.
Respectfully request her to post details so we can all have one more reminder on how to prevent what happened.
TC
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Tradtimbo
Trad climber
Danvers, MA
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Nov 19, 2010 - 05:00pm PT
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All the best!!! She's is the sister of my friends girlfriend! Glad we're seeing some updates!!!! I'm sure we'll eventually hear about how it actually happened. She has an angel on her shoulder...
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Dec 17, 2010 - 03:50pm PT
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any updates?
Edit: wondering how she is doing with her rehab
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Dec 17, 2010 - 04:57pm PT
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Clint wrote:
I was part of a similar accident a few years ago - I could not see or hear my partner who had led a pitch > 100 feet. I thought he knew to make a rappel, but he started lowering himself and then he thought I was lowering him, so he let go of the rope. He started accelerating, but fortunately it was not vertical and he managed to regrab the rope and stop himself. It could have easily been fatal. The problem could have easily been solved if I had not taken him off belay until I could reliably communicate with him. But I was trying to speed up the process of his pulling up the rappel rope by taking the rope out of my ATC. Not a good shortcut to take. My mistake.
Being self-critical in any analysis is good, and that sounds like the kind of thinking I'd want in a partner.
But in the situation you've described, as much or more fault lies with your partner, who probably now will remember to never, ever take his hand off the rap unless he's 100% certain his belayer is lowering him.
Really glad to hear about any time a near accident is avoided. My partner very nearly killed himself while rapping off of Goodrich the other week. Distracted, he didn't clip into the anchor when he hit a bolted belay on a tiny stance (top of p3). Took his ATC off the ropes, pulled the lines, and chatted for a good two minutes before either of us realized he was attached to nothing.
If he had leaned back, he would have gone three hundred feet.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 17, 2010 - 07:19pm PT
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Thanks, Bruce. It is a communication issue, but I still feel largely at fault for the older accident because I took my partner off belay without clear communication.
And it was for convenience - to help speed up the process of his pulling rope up to the anchor.
Now I keep people on when I'm uncertain. Often they pull up rope at about the same rate I can feed it through my ATC, so there is no real loss of speed.
For an update on my friend's condition - she transferred from Reno to a rehab ward in San Jose, was there for a few weeks, and then was discharged around December 1. She has full strength in one leg, and significant weakness and numbness in the other. She has a lot of pain due to the broken pelvis and fractured sacrum. She described it late November as level 7/10 when sitting, and never less than 5 when lying down. She moved into a ground floor apartment near the rehab hospital, so she does not have to travel far for physical therapy. It is still early in the recovery process, so she is adjusting to some of the complications, and hopefully she will regain some more function. Her friends are in contact and we use a google spreadsheet to plan visits so that we can provide a little entertainment to distract her from the pain while she is healing up.
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TheLittleUnit
Trad climber
SF Bay Area
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Hello, all.
It has taken 2+ years for me to recover emotionally and physically enough to read, let alone post on ST again. I am the girl who fell 140 ft to the ground and survived.
I know it was 140 ft because I had just linked 2 pitches with a 70m rope. It is true, it is quite miraculous that I survived, let alone escaped without a Traumatic Brain Injury. What saved my life, probably, was the fact that about half-way down, one end of the rope coiled around my left leg, braking my fall momentarily, before I continued to fall the rest of the 70+ ft. I was also wearing a helmet.
The result of the accident was "burst" (that is the medical term) vertebrae i.e. I don't have a L2 vertebra any more, just a cage in its place, a torn spinal cord (T-10 incomplete, I was lucky there, a complete tear would have resulted in complete paralysis as opposed to my partial paralysis), a shattered sacrum and pelvis. 8 surgeries later, months of rehab, PT, time in a wheel chair, countless questions and weird looks from people as I first learned how to live life in a wheelchair, then moved on to a clunky leg brace, I am now what you would call a "walking paraplegic". With more blood, sweat and tears than I can convey, I have managed to learn to walk somewhat normally again, without a leg brace, and if I am walking on flat ground, most people would have difficulty noticing anything different about me. I know I got away lucky, but most of the time I wished I had died that day, rather than deal with the other physical and emotional effects of the accident.
I have not tried to climb since that day, even though I have not been able to bring myself to sell my climbing gear. I cut myself off from the climbing world because it was too hard to hear people talk about their wonderful adventures/trips, see places I used to climb, see this celebration of one's physical abilities. Perhaps the biggest challenge in recovering has been the emotional one, rather than the physical. One result of my accident is that I quit my job as an engineer because I decided I wanted to try and become a doctor! Haha, how many 30 year olds make that kind of career move? :) It has been hard to find new hobbies to replace climbing. Well, nothing will ever replace climbing.
My friends, family and rescuers know how much gratitude and love I have for them. They really pulled me through some very very dark times.
Best wishes and stay safe,
Wendy Ong
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eKat
Trad climber
BackInTheDitch BackInTheDirt BackInTheDay
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WOW, Wendy!
Thanks for the nice, informative post.
Miraculous!
Welcome back!
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oh my Wendy......an amazing story. Incredibly courageous in sharing the reality of what you have gone through and are going through. I'm glad you have not cut yourself off from the crazy, poignant and moving ST.
Susan
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locker
Social climber
state of Kumbaya...
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Wendy, real glad to see you back posting and super happy for you that you are doing so well...
As far as a career change???...
Why the hell not???...
As far as climbing and quitting???...
Don't sweat it if you don't get back on the rock...
So MANY other things in life to enjoy...
Again, happy for you to be doing so well...
:-)
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