Discussion Topic |
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James
climber
My twin brother's laundry room
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 15, 2011 - 01:09pm PT
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Who's taken 100 foot climbing falls and part of the club?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 15, 2011 - 01:21pm PT
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Roped or unroped?
My farthest on rock - slab, to be exact - is about 20 m. Free falling, perhaps 10 - 12 m. I've had a much longer slide/fall on snow, but not sure that really counts.
Hi James!
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James
climber
My twin brother's laundry room
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2011 - 01:30pm PT
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Either way- just want to hear who's taken the big plunge
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 15, 2011 - 01:32pm PT
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I took one that Werner said was 130+. We(myself & partners) guessed it at about 100.
I didn't see a club. Kinda felt like I was clubbed, though.
Ouch.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 15, 2011 - 01:42pm PT
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Mighty,
Snow counts as the consequences can be the same. The first time I went on a
real climb with my brand new ice axe I went for one that would have been
better measured in kilometres. I finally stopped about .02 kilometer above
an undoubtedly terminal drop. And that wasn't due to the knowledge I'd gained
in the previous larger portion of a kilometer but rather because I crashed
into some rocks sticking out of the snow. Luck o' the Irish or does God
truly have a special fondness for us with special needs?
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James
climber
My twin brother's laundry room
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2011 - 02:18pm PT
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What happened skully and ron?
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 15, 2011 - 02:28pm PT
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Leading an aid pitch, back clipped a string of copperheads. The last one was a deadhead. I beaked it & the beak popped the deadhead. I always clean deadheads carefully now.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Aug 15, 2011 - 02:29pm PT
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If snow counts, then I'm in. Finally managed to get it under control with a ski-pole self arrest, which is a good thing, cuz it probably would have been terminal otherwise.
Lots of long falls on rock up to 50 feet, but nothing close to 100.
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Dirka
Trad climber
SF
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Aug 15, 2011 - 04:28pm PT
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In south Africa an outfit advertized bungi jumping off a bridge. My buddy and I signed up. I was surprised when they geared me up in a Yates harness and a Yates Chest harness. 11mm line (don't know the brand). Yup all Climbing gear. Funny, I trusted it way more than some rubberband.
Off I jumped for 160' fall. Felt like it was forever!
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Barbarian
Trad climber
The great white north, eh?
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Aug 15, 2011 - 04:41pm PT
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I'm in (snowfield, not rock).
Up the ante:
Who here has taken a 100"+ grounder and is still here to tell the story?
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Gene
climber
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Aug 15, 2011 - 04:53pm PT
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Snow? You bet. I'll always remember the laser-cut groove my ice axe made in the Sierra slush. Just above Catherine Lake coming down from Ritter/Banner saddle.
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max factor
Trad climber
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Aug 15, 2011 - 04:59pm PT
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I took a 130 footer back in the eighties. Our rope was 150 feet at that time and I fell from the second pitch of a route until I ran out of rope and finally came tight on my belayer. Belayer error is why I went so far, he did not have his break hand on the rope when I fell and the device did not lock up. With knots on either end and the figure eight connecting him to the anchor I figure there must have been 130 feet or so of rope out. The rope slowed me down but then I hit the ground. Broke both ankles pretty badly, tore up a hip and compressed my spine a bit. Had a nice 4 months in a wheelchair!
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Aug 15, 2011 - 05:13pm PT
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Do 100' horizontal falls off motorcycles count?
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Prod
Trad climber
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Aug 15, 2011 - 05:39pm PT
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Wow Max,
Where were you climbing, and have you ever roped up with the belayer again?
Prod.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 15, 2011 - 05:43pm PT
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In 1957 fell about 200' on steep snow in the Idaho Sawtooths along with my fishing partner, Carl Donovan. We used the butt end of our our fly rods to self arrest.
In 1963 fell about 300' on steep snow in a storm on Mt Edith Cavell East Ridge with Margaret Young's son Colin strapped to my back. Jim Richardson had been belaying me and ran out of rope; so I told him to just let go of the end...big mistake. Managed a self arrest with my new wood-handled Charlet Moser ice axe before hitting some rocks.
In 1963 fell about 100' with a Swami Belt on the East Face of Tepee's Pillar in the Tetons; trying to repeat one of Royal's newest routes that might not actually exist. I was free climbing above a row of RURPs that all pulled out. My belayer, Jim Mays, was sitting on a huge boulder on a ledge with pitons under it. The fall pulled him off and burned his hands badly and sent the boulder down so I had to dodge it. We were left hanging from the only remaining hardware in the rock, a knife blade piton about 15 feet up the pitch. Then we were chased off rappelling in a July thunderstorm with snow and hail.
In 1964, fell about 100' with a Swami Belt, pulling a long row of RURPs on El Cap Tree Direct with Frank Sacherer. We went back the next day and completed the climb; with me sporting a tin cap on my newly broken front tooth.
In 1964, again with Frank Sacherer, fell about 200' on the slabs at the top of Glacier Point; managing a Kronhofer klettershuen self-arrest just at the brink of the long plunge.
In 1984 I was soloing at night on a frozen waterfall in Connecticut; when the whole thing creaked and groaned and fell off the cliff. I jumped a long ways down and sideways onto a big ledge covered with deep snow. Not sure how far it was...
In 1985 fell about 140' when a slider nut let go at 2am near the top of the pitch leading to Camp 5 on El Cap Nose; stopping at the same level as my belayer, Claire Mearnz. She looked over at me and asked what was I doing there? "I fell from the top of the pitch." She said, "No you didn't; I didn't feel anything; you just woke me up!" So I showed her the string of pulled hardware hanging on the rope. Then I went right up and completed the pitch, (ever since avoiding the use of slider nuts).
Edit: Left out the one where i actually got hurt, at SkyDive Spaceland, Rosharon TX. I was first out of the Twin Otter, just ahead of the world champion team, Anomaly. I didn't want to hold them up, so just stepped out as soon as the green light came on. Started out as one of the most amazingly beautiful jumps in my life; tracking back and forth in the 12,000' canyon between two tall cumulus clouds. Had a normal opening and headed for the DZ, but gradually realized the wind had come up and I wasn't going to make it back. Realizing my choices between busy highways with powerlines on both sides; or a swampy lake with alligators, or dense forest; I chose a small patch of open land with a goat pen and assortment of farm machinery. I swooped around to it and thought all was well until a stray branch at the top of a tree caught a corner of my chute and collapsed it right at the edge of the clearing. I fell free from the top of the tree and landed very hard on my butt. The rain had stopped a few days before and most of the ground was rock hard. However the spot where I hit was protected from the sun by the trees and still muddy, which helped cushion my fall. I lay there in the mud thinking, "Oh no, I'm hurt!" Then I tried to move and my next thought was, "Oh, I'm really hurt!" A couple of passing motorists ran over to me and called 911. Then the DZ owner and his son pulled up in a van and ran over to me. I couldn't stand up on my own and I reached up with both hands and asked them to pull me upright. They helped me get out of my rig and tossed it into the van and then drove me back to the DZ parking lot next to my car. I managed to hoist myself from the front seat of the van into my car; while they threw my rig into the back seat. As I drove off from the DZ; an ambulance and sheriff's car came zooming in past me with their sirens. I took an out-of-the-way route back to my apartment near NASA Johnson and crept up the stairs to my futon. It was about two weeks before I engineered some climbing slings around a post so I could stand up and visit a doctor for an MRI. Turns out it was a very bad sprain with nothing broken in my spine. Meanwhile I luckily had no mandatory meetings at NASA and conducted my work from my cell phone and laptop on the floor next to my futon. I told everyone I'd slipped in a mud puddle and wrenched my back. It took a couple of months before I could go back to jumping. They still call me 'Goat Boy' over there at Rosharon.
Edit: recognizing this was a 'jump' up to the point of the twig. then it became a 'fall'. the twig was found inside one of the cells of the chute when it came around time to repack it. i still have the twig in my collection of treasured artifacts; along with a couple of reserve closure tags, a Salathe piton, a couple of RURPS, a slider nut, a Bedayn carabiner stamped YC that Yvon dropped on my head, and a Friend given to me by a teenage Lynn Hill after we rescued her from the top pitch of The Vampire in a hail storm.
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tinker b
climber
the commonwealth
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Aug 15, 2011 - 05:45pm PT
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james does yours count since it was 60 and then 40 after a brief intermission? i guess you do get cred for hitting the ground and being such a beast.
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Aug 15, 2011 - 05:55pm PT
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For slabs, I've maxed at ~40 feet.
For air-then-splat, my max was 30 feet - bounce - 30 more feet to a gulley (but rope stretch took some force for second part).
If you add that up, it's 100 :)
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 15, 2011 - 10:06pm PT
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I've led such a sheltered life.
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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Aug 15, 2011 - 11:26pm PT
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If snow counts, I've had two big falls.
Tuckerman's Ravine, probably 400 feet down the bowl. Concussion and a dreadful ski out. I stopped falling three feet from lunch rocks where my husband was snacking on cheese and wine. He greeted me with "Meet my wife, the snow ball."
Mt. Hood, 640 feet lost elevation from the triangular moraine over the lip and down the glacier. I've practiced self arrest a bunch, but never from the cartwheel position. Finally got the ax to stick and avoided the remainder of the gully plus rocks poised a couple hundred feet below me. I had a free micro-dermabrasion and a ring of welts around my head where the helmet made contact. I climbed back up to my party who were hotly debating if I was dead and how to get back to Timberline Lodge in the fog. Oddly one person died before me and after me with much shorter falls that season. While I walked away unscathed, one of my friends landed in the emergency room that night with sun-burnt corneas. It was at that moment I believed that I do indeed possess strong bones, built from years of running.
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Tony
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Aug 15, 2011 - 11:35pm PT
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My longest fall was short of 100', but could well have been fatal if not for landing in the best possible position - on my butt. I fell near the crux of Dominion at Sugaloaf, my last "real" piece (#4 Friend) pulled from the left wide crack variation. I barely grazed rock, flew past my belayer and landed on a ledge ~20' off the deck. I got away with breaking 4 transverse processes of L1-4. I only returned to the scene of the crime about 25 years later and assumed that I had made an exaggerated estimate of 60', but was chastened to see that might even have been a conservative estimate.
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Decko
Trad climber
Colorado
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Aug 15, 2011 - 11:36pm PT
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100 footer to the ground......Ice climbing in 1997.....
OOUCH the ground hurts.........
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dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
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Aug 15, 2011 - 11:38pm PT
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Did not know there was a club nor did I want to be a part of it, but that's the way it goes.
Took well over a 100 foot fall topping out on El Cap last summer. Had my jumars pop as I was pulling my foot up on to the summit rim. Thought I was short tied and ended up going all the way to the end of the rope that was anchored to the top.
Don't ever want to do that again. Most painful jug of my life was getting back to the summit.
My partner Gomez just made me a rug from the rope I fell on. Thanks Steve!!
take care
dave
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BillWright
Trad climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Aug 16, 2011 - 12:44pm PT
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In 1999 I took a 75-foot groundfall that broke my back, but last June 26, my partner, Tom Karpeichik, took a 100+ foot fall while simul-climbing with me in Eldo. He spent a couple of months in the hospital with severe head trauma, but his helmet saved his life and he's back doing everything he used to do (climbing, paragliding, riding his motorcycle, mt. biking, trail running, etc.). He's recovered 100%. Report of the latter is here:
http://web.me.com/billwright510/Mobile_Me_Site/Climbing_Blog/Entries/2010/6/26_Tragedy_on_Link-Up_Attempt.html
Bill
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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Aug 16, 2011 - 12:56pm PT
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Haven't and don't want to. I have done plenty of routes with the potential but I have never gone more than about 30'.
And James, I don't think you qualify, you fell 60 and then 40, not 100.
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malachi
climber
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:10pm PT
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No 100 footers, but some long groundfalls.
Went roughly 60 feet to the ground from the last move to the ledge on Latest Rage at Smith (grigri v1 fail). Belayer suffered 2nd degree burns on his hand but managed to slow me enough that there was no long-term damage for me.
And went roughly 60 feet to the ground from the top of the Division Wall at American Fork. I got off route and ended up skipping some bolts - finding myself between two sets of anchors. Fell traversing when a hold broke. The tree slowed me down a lot and my belayer managed to do a running diving save so I hit the ground right after he caught me. Slowed me down enough that all I suffered was a sprained ankle (probably from the tree actually).
And then of course went about 50 feet to the ground in Norway. Didn't get so lucky and broke both legs among other injuries.
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Highlife
Trad climber
California
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:16pm PT
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Wasnt 100, but took a SOLID 60 footer on the Rostrum last friday resulting in some shatered Metatarsals and 6 hour self rescue...always place some gear guys, apparently it is possible to come out of a 5.9 handcrack.
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jfailing
Trad climber
Lone Pine
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:24pm PT
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And James, I don't think you qualify, you fell 60 and then 40, not 100.
I'd be inclined to let James into the club... Didn't you essentially bounce off the lower ledge, James?
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:40pm PT
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No, James landed and when he stood up (not a good idea after pitching 60 feet to a granite landing) he then pitched the next 40 to the ground. Quite remarkable that he is walking and talking, let alone climbing 5.12!
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Finn
Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:42pm PT
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I think I qualify.
From the top out of Commitment on Five Open Books. The wide straight up finish - I was doing it gumby layback style and my feet slipped. It was early in the season, Link suggested that the face could have been sandy. I picked, pulled the first piece (poorly placed small cam), the second piece either wasn't clipped or came unclipped due to gate flutter (it was on an extended sling), and the piece that caught me was a number 4 DMM Walnut well below that having run out the easy 5.6 section in the middle and confidently pulled the 'crux' directly off the second pitch anchors.
I fell from the top of the third pitch ALL THE WAY back to my belayer at the top of the second pitch.
Am I in? What's my prize?
For the record - self resucued w/ a compound right ulna and shattered radius. I did get the pleasure of a heli ride doped up on morphine from El Cap Meadows!
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yellowdog
Sport climber
Living in St. Louis but the Blue Ridge is home
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:46pm PT
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Dirka
I knew a couple of people who did the same thing, jumping off bridges with only climbing gear near the NC/TN line while I-26 was still under construction between Johsonson City and Asheville. I've also heard of people rigging the same kind of set up to "bungee" off the cranes perched at the top of tall buildings. Personally, I once took a 150ft whipper on top-rope.... ;)
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Sergio Colombo
Mountain climber
Red Rock
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:54pm PT
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Coming off LeConte, I traversed the center couloir in approach shoes. Went down like a rocket. I only had the time to think "what a dumb ass I am" and "my day has come". Still dunno how and why, but I stopped almost 300 ft below the point where I fell. Just thinking about that day still freakes me out.
Live and tell.
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whyme
Boulder climber
San Francisco
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:55pm PT
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I qualify, with a 115 ft unroped fall, head straight first!
Basically, done with climbing for the day with a long hike out... slipped on loose gravel on the top of a cliff face, and went head over heels. Clean fall into space, landed on a couch-sized and -shaped boulder below.
I remember slipping, blacked out for most of the fall (which I think saved me from the brunt of it), and regained consciousness enough to feel the impact of the my head against a boulder (my body joined my head on the boulder very quickly after!). Nasty metallic taste in my mouth soon afterwards as I pushed myself off the boulder.
Luckily (and to amazement to this day), came out of it with a few skin breaks/scratches. No broken bones or concussion (one of the my climbing partners was a ER doc). Walked out of the canyon to the car, minus a cat-life!
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from an ice pick and missing my mama.
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Aug 16, 2011 - 01:56pm PT
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I did a 70 footer and thank god it was John belaying... I trusted him enough to not have a heart attack in the process. It still hurt like hell... Swinging against the wall is never good, broke my ribs, etc. AFS
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caughtinside
Social climber
Davis, CA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 02:13pm PT
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so many of these stories smell of exaggeration, incompetence or outright BS.
Entertainment! Keep 'em coming.
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Toth
Sport climber
Redford MI
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Aug 16, 2011 - 02:42pm PT
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I haven't fallen 100 feet but I went for a 90 foot slide and hit the deck on some really runout slab when my foot slipped and my only piece of gear blew out the rock.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Aug 16, 2011 - 02:50pm PT
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About 50 feet climbing. About 700 feet bungee.
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Abissi
Trad climber
MI
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Aug 16, 2011 - 03:46pm PT
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Was doing a new climb in Pennsylvania back in 1976. I was 95 feet off the ground when I took a 90 foot face first fall on a sketchy "Titon" Lived through it but it was a pants loader.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Aug 16, 2011 - 03:53pm PT
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I miss being in this club by, oh, 20 to 25 feet.
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Kindredlion
Big Wall climber
4hrs too far from YNP
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Aug 16, 2011 - 03:59pm PT
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James, since your the chairman of the club..
does a 'jump' count the same as a 'fall'?
i don't think so..
rope jumping Dan O style? .. that's not falling..
bungy and skydiving.. also jumping..
counting all of those out - i feel so light having only whipped 50-60ft.. Shield Roof - ripped out the pitch from anchor to lip..
is that wood block with a baby angle hammered into it still there? (just over the lip of the shield roof)
Now if "Jumping" is ON - then I think we have a much less exclusive club..
Discuss..
Take Air!
Adam
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:48pm PT
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there are many, many such stories where no one survived to tell the tale
not sure we want to get into those ones...
how about the other end of these stories where you caught someone on the rope?
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pk_davidson
Trad climber
Albuquerque, NM
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:53pm PT
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On the third pitch of AbraCadaver on Rockfellow, came off trying to grab the now gone spike at top of layback part. Must have been close to 100', all air, wooshed past the belayer. Fortunately it was Grossman who timed his push just right so that I went past him instead of onto him and then came back up to where my head was about even with his knee. Very gentle fall, didn't feel a thing but sure put a flat spot in a brand new rope.
Steve then tied in to go up and lead the pitch. Got up to the little horn, looked down and realized he was only tied into his leg loops.
A week or two later, Fig went up to do the climb and took a minor slip and caught his foot on the little horn and ripped the shick out of his tendons, etc... Painful walk out.
Moral: don't try to lead 3rd pitch of abra in Green Shoenards with only wired nuts and about a year of climbing under your belt. Later did it with sticky shoes and tcu's and it was a blast, felt like lockers vs. rattling, sweaty, gripped liebacks.
As for catching... somewhere around is the story of the Evil Eye in Sabino Canyon and the near death experience of the trundling idjits.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:59pm PT
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Hey, caughtinside...I'd call mine willful ignorance. Just lucky to be alive.
If you live, sometimes you learn. Cheers.
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oldguy
climber
Bronx, NY
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Aug 16, 2011 - 06:20pm PT
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Well, there's Fitschen's Folly at Tahquitz--150' unbelayed into the talus (no helmet in those days). And there's Chouinard's 150' fall on the Crooked Thumb in the Tetons, ably caught by Bob Kamps that immediately led to the adaptation of the Swami Belt. The first long fall that I know of was Fred Martin on the Sahara Terror at Tahquitz, about 80' in the late 1950's. Fred was mostly unscathed but Frank Hoover, his belayer, got some serious rope burns while providing an automatic dynamic belay. It was then that we learned that a long leader fall was not necessarily a bad thing--just don't hit anything on the way down. Another fellow whose name I forget fell about 80' free but landed on his back in some sand and wasn't seriously hurt.
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BASE1361
climber
Yosemite Valley National Park
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Aug 16, 2011 - 06:55pm PT
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I fell 3,000 feet a few times from El Cap when I slipped walking too close to the edge......
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:40pm PT
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Joe, you didn't discuss the condition in which you arrived at the tree trunk in the talus; and also neglected to mention your first leader fall earlier in the day on your first piton on your first lead on Trader Horn.
Yvon taught me about the swami belt idea shortly after Crooked Thumb; so I was wearing one on my Tepee's Pillar flight.
Base, that makes it sound like you were pulling pretty low!
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S.Leeper
Sport climber
Pflugerville, Texas
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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James, do you have any permanent injuries from your fall?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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I fell 3,000 feet a few times from El Cap when I slipped walking too close to the edge......
Is that what they mean by BASE walking? Or Free BASE, in Dean's usage, if actual climbing is involved?
Out for a stroll or climb in a national park, as is everyone's legal right, falling, and self-rescuing? Thereby saving the public considerable mess and expense? That would make the apparatus simple safety equipment. All you need to do is swear with a straight face that your fall was entirely accidental. Intent is almost everything.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:48pm PT
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how about if you just happen to fall off near the top of the last pitch and your climbing harness isn't tied in properly?
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Bubba Ho-Tep
climber
Evergreen, CO
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:55pm PT
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I booked rather than hooked. Solid qualifying ride.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:57pm PT
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I'll take 100 feet of freefall to 50 feet of slab anyday. Thats gonna leave a mark.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Aug 16, 2011 - 08:47pm PT
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I'm too scared to fall that far!
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:07pm PT
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I probably took a 100 footer when I zippered an entire a4 pitch on the Prow while soloing it back in 1970. I thought I did the 2nd ascent but who knows.
I was nearly done with the pitch and zippered all the nested pins, most tied off with nylon shoe-lace cord, to reduce leverage. The bolt that Robbins put in at the belay stopped me.
A bunch of people were watching in a spotting scope, Dill, Donini, etc.
They said I completely fell out of view.
I remember the knot was pretty much welded shut and real hard to untie at the top. I guess luck was on my side. I was wearing a Whillians harness at the time. Lucky I wasn't tied into a swami belt.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:16pm PT
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Bloody 'ell, you guys are manic! Especially Tom Cochrane. Pretty cool to take a huge whipper on A4 on the Prow, when it's only C1 or so these days.
I'm with Mark Hugedong. Safe and happy and all. My longest fall in over thirty years of climbing has only been about thirty feet. I've taken a few of those.
NOT EVEN CLOSE to the Hundred Foot Club. Never intend to join! Prefer the Half My Age Club. {wink}
We await Kate and Ammon.
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mushroom
Trad climber
USA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:24pm PT
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Im close. I took one around 85 feet. Ice climbing no doubt. I stopped about 10 feet from the deck. Shook myself out, reverted and asked my belayer, "You on belay dude?" "No dude!". I broke an ankle that day. My crampon must of caught somewhere. Some days you win, other days you learn. Luckily that rope was 200' and the climb was move than 100'.
What does not kill you . . .
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JakeW
Big Wall climber
CA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 11:28pm PT
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James climbs 5.13 now, and learned how to bake, and can almost read and write again. Not bad for a permanently disabled retard.
I fell 100ish feet off the Mark of Zorro pitch on Zodiac, about 10 years ago...back when I was dumb enough to aid climb. Now I'm smart and I hangdog, much more elegant.
I was pissed that year cuz I had to work so much at the Tioga Pass Entrance Booth, and things never worked out on my weekends, so I hadn't climbed many walls. I decided I better just climb one after work.
I picked up Kriletich at the Tuolumne Store at about 7:30pm. We drove down to the valley, marched up to the base, and started climbing. At the white circle we blasted off some flare Scotty Burke gave us. We thought it'd be some little thing, but it turned out to be a full on Fourth of July rocket. It screached out over the Nose and lit up the whole meadow with sparkles...luckily nothing caught fire.
Now, we were trying to go pretty fast, since I had to be back at work the next morning, so we weren't exactly putting the necessary emphasis on safety...plus we were young. So I was just throwing sh#t in, yarding, and punching it. At the Mark of Zorro I clipped the bolt at the lip, but skipped clipping the heads afterwords since we didn't have a hammer to replace them should I whip and pull them out.
At the ledge above I woke up some dude that was bivied there, and continued on freeing up and right into that next corner where I shoved some more gear in and yarded. Eventually it all fell out and I plummeted into darkness.
I fell past Sean and my headlamp kept going. He thought it was me...going all the way as rope piled up in his lap. Eventually it fed back out though, and I came to a stop. After a few moments of gentle swinging my head conked the wall, but I couldn't touch it thereafter.
I wrapped some webbing around the rope and prusiked up, then lowered down to Sean and got his headlamp. Then I yarded back up and re-led past the bivied dude...who was laughing at me for some reason. He loaned Sean his headlamp as he jugged by in the dark.
We topped out a bit later, ran down and lounged in the meadow, and rallied back up to Tioga Pass in time for me to clock in at 11am for another shift.
Numerous times during the day I awoke to some dumbass tourist asking me if they needed to pay to go in...
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craig demartino
Trad climber
loveland, co
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Aug 16, 2011 - 11:43pm PT
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I'm in, 100 feet from the first pitch of Whiteman in RMNP. But I get awesome parking at the mall now.
Good seeing you in SLC James.
C
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MarkWestman
Trad climber
Talkeetna, Alaska
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:32am PT
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"JakeW":
If your Zodiac whipper was in the fall of 2000, like early September- then I'm about 100% sure that the long- like 4 or 5 full seconds long- and LOUD, scream that woke me and my partner up on Big Sur Ledge was yours!
I've told this story many times over the years. We saw your group starting up at dusk. Watched your progress, fell asleep. Middle of the night, a bunch of shouting kind of mixes with the dreams I'm having, but clearly I heard something like "MY HEADLAMP JUST DIED!". Then, about 20 seconds of silence, followed by the loud, creepy, death scream, which ended and echoed across the valley and back into the night's silence. My partner (Joe Puryear) and I bolted upright, looked at one another, and one of us said, "that didn't sound good...". A few days later I met the soloist- who I think was Aussie or Kiwi- who was bivied atop the Zorro pitch and saw the whole thing.
Small world. Glad you were okay- how far was it?
Cheers-
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bruce talbot
Trad climber
reno, nv
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:35am PT
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Mark Clements took at least a 100' freefall out of the top of the Meatgrinder in 71. He had his foot on a knob, ready to mantel up to the little ledge when it broke off, pulled the last pin below him. The friction at the pin that held melted the sheathing into a glaze and left the rope at about two thirds of it's original thickness.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:41am PT
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It would've been better if I hadn't joined the club. I thought I was so cool.
D'oh.
Only takes a second. You ain't so cool now, pal. Wakin' up in a litter can be, and is best avoided. Just sayin'.
Taught me a thing or two.
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M
Trad climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Aug 17, 2011 - 01:06am PT
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Charlie Fowler and I took a voluntary 120 ft fall from the top of the Diving Board in Edlorado Springs during the summer of 1977
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Jim Pettigrew
Social climber
Crowley Lake, CA
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Aug 17, 2011 - 01:07am PT
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I'm in! 450 footer on ice across valley from the Petite Grepon in Rocky Nat'l Park. Early free solo escapade! Walked to base camp with some assistance from two of the gals that were with. Medivac for check up. Serious road rash and stitches from ice hammer punctures!
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Jim Pettigrew
Social climber
Crowley Lake, CA
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Aug 17, 2011 - 01:10am PT
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Hey Bruce! I remember Mark's Meat Grinder fall. He burned his hands pretty bad too!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 17, 2011 - 01:36am PT
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M bitd that diving board plunge ws the stuff of legends. There was all kinds of lore about it. I talked to Charlie about it briefly once. You should write it up (right here would be fine) and set the story straight!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 17, 2011 - 01:38am PT
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Locker, did your shoe fetish begin with the Meat Grinder pair?
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Fogarty
climber
BITD
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Aug 17, 2011 - 10:08am PT
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300+ el cap 1985 all alr, thats why I can post this.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Aug 17, 2011 - 05:00pm PT
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I might be in the club, but I haven't been back to the scene to measure....
Ice climbing fall, Whitehorse Ledge, 1978. I think I went about 40' in the air, bounced off the icy slab, then slid down it until the rope caught. My pro was even with the belay. Spinal cord injury and broken leg - I don't recommend hitting objects like the ground in a big fall....
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Rusty Reno
climber
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Aug 17, 2011 - 05:58pm PT
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It's good to hear (read?) the voice of Russ Walling, who mentioned my misadventure on the Jolly Roger on El Cap back in 1984 or so. It was a long fall. 200 ft or so. Not recommended.
I was doing the route with Alex Lowe, and idiot that I was, I angled for him to lead an offwidth pitch that down lower, leaving me with an admittedly scary pitch. It involved penduluming over to a steep wall of chicken heads and then climbing up them for a long time to a "5.8" mantle that would put me in position to clip a bolt and launch out on hooks or copperheads or something of that sort. But I thought to myself, "Hey, it's only 5.8." My mistake was to fail to make the Steve Grossman adjustment. He had lead this pitch when doing the first ascent with Charles Cole.
In any event, I got to the "5.8" mantle with about 100 feet of rope out and Alex Lowe on a spacious belay ledge shouting words of encourage. Up I go to press out the mantle. Down I go back onto the final chickenheads. Up I go. Down I go. And so on for about five minutes. Jeez, I say to myself, this feels kinda hard and very scary.
Then I reassured myself: I can't afford to take this huge fall; therefore, I won't. This is what is known as an invalid inference. As I pressed out the mantle and put my foot way, way high next to my hand, I peeled off and plummeted down, down, down. Then the rope went tight, knocking the wind out of me, as I swung and banged into some corners (remember the pendulum to start?)
I was pretty beat up, but after five minutes or so I was able to jumar up to Alex. Ready to vomit from the adrenaline overload, I said to him, "I'll be OK." He had taken a 200 foot fall the year before in Alaska, so he knew that when the adrenaline wore off I would be pretty much catatonic, and he made the only reasonable decision: down immediately.
Took me a week before I could sit without aching. Charles Cole was sheepish about the "5.8" mantle, admitting that Grossman has a perverse streak. Soon thereafter I did the Zodiac with Charles. I wanted a route that I knew I wouldn't fall on!
Lessons? You would think that this huge fall would have made me more cautious, but it didn't. Perhaps I'm as perverse as Grossman. But the pyschological consequences of the fall were to reinforce my confidence in the rope, and I continued to savor long run outs, most of which worked out. But not all. I later fell about 100 feet on the last move of a climb at Cathedral Ledges in New Hampshire (California Girls) on a hot, humid day.
I wonder if others had the same reaction.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Aug 17, 2011 - 08:34pm PT
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M I want to hear the diving board story- I was in the Teton Climbers ranch-1977? and the story was told that " a couple of 14 year old kids bought a new 9 mm and jumped off thediving board so they could get psyched for A5 "
painters pants, rugby shirts, A5, Eb's and that cool set of pictures of Roger Briggs on Death and Transfiguration- total Colorado cool!
Oh yeah and piss on this club- I hold it as a point of pride for NOT falling 100 feet!
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Aug 17, 2011 - 10:02pm PT
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I fell short of your mark. 80' for me. But hit a lot of ledges. I'd been climbing 2 months at that time. It's been almost 40 years since then and nothing remotely like it.
BTW, wasn't your fall unroped James? The rest of us pussies had a rope I'd bet. I sure as hell did, thank the good lord or whatevar'.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Aug 17, 2011 - 10:24pm PT
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Was it Aischann Rupp who also took a big whipper on that same pitch of Jolly Roger? I "made" my rope gun, Jon Fox, lead that pitch!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Aug 17, 2011 - 11:07pm PT
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Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! I was too afraid to watch him, too!
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allapah
climber
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Aug 17, 2011 - 11:32pm PT
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McGinnis Peak in February, tumbling, then starting to rocket towards the abyss, rope held
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Zappa
Big Wall climber
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Aug 18, 2011 - 01:26am PT
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Devil's Tower. 1990. Solo aid. Twisted top-stepping on a tipped-off knife blade. Stupid.
Pin shifts. Try to step back down. BING! Airborn.
The pins sounded like some crazy man blasting away at me with a couple of 357s. I couldn't count them all. Zipper nightmare. My first and only.
Some vicious sadist backed up my legs to an industrial belt sander. Had the ropes sliced? Was this it? Was I going to go over one of the blades and gett sliced open? Was I going to stop?
BAM, I stopped upside down with a huge pile of gear jammed up on the rope next to my harness.
A few routes over a guy asked me if I needed help. He looked sick, google-eyed. I said I was OK. He said, "Really? You don't look OK." I was mad at being so stupid, so I acted even more stupid. "Yeah, OK". He left. I started to shock-out, shaking uncontrollably. There was blood. Raw hamburger butt to heal on both legs. "OK &#$$# fool. Get yourself out of this one", I cursed at myself. So, I rapped got down, shaking, angry, scared, and the pain started to claw my mind.
I walked out, got to my van, drove down to my campsite, crawled into the back and passed out for hours. I woke up bathed in sweat and hurting all over. Dried blood pasted the back of my legs hard to the carpet. Ouch.
The next day, Sunday. I could see infection starting. Wyoming was closed for church. I had to drive 100 miles to a hospital. It was a slack day, just me limping into the ER.
"Motorcycle accident?", the ER doc asked. "No, climbing", I said, stupidly proud of being stupid. They set me up, telling me that either they would admit me and scrub my wounds daily for a week or they would teach me how to do it myself and get me the right stuff to do it with. I loved them for saving me the bucks. I did the scrubbing for a week (intense!), climbing by day swaddled in bandages, grateful to follow, too stiff to lead.
I went to clean the gear a couple days later. I had been lying to myself about the fall, "60, maybe 80. No more." Oh, it was more, easily 100. Going back over the whole thing, cleaning a few solid pins that had the tie-offs rip out, I felt just sick. There was one last one way up there that I just left.
The moral of this story may be, "Don't go on a solo aid trip out west when your wife leaves you".
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 18, 2011 - 02:26am PT
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Zappa, did any of your tieoffs cut on the edge of knifeblades? No fun at all when that happens.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Aug 18, 2011 - 03:02am PT
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great story zappa!
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Zappa
Big Wall climber
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Aug 18, 2011 - 09:57am PT
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Good question about the tie-offs. Maybe. I can't remember. I bet some of them sliced.
As you know, knifeblades often have nasty hidden edges. On the Shield in 1977, despite fanatically deburring knifebaldes with my hammer, I missed a burr somewhere on a long line of short, tipped off blades. Just pulling the rope to clip, it sliced and stripped the sheath and sliced through three braids. Finishing the picth suddenly changed from an A3+ cruise to something a bit more sporty than I cared for. If I popped a pin then, it would have been officially bad.
Nice understatment, eh? At the time I swore savagely in raw terror, knowing only that there was "a hole in the rope". It felt more manly than shrieking. At least, I think my voice was somewhere well south of middle-C instead of high on the treble keys. Anyway, that is how lots of climbing stories go. "Bit of squeaker", he says telling the tale, beer in hand, but at the time he was so freaked that he would have gladly accepted a sex change and life in the convent as a fair deal to get out of there alive.
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YoungGun
Trad climber
Ottawa, ON
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Aug 18, 2011 - 10:15am PT
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This thread makes work so much more fun! Keep the stories coming. Awesome story Zappa!
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Aug 18, 2011 - 10:35am PT
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I trad climbed for 25 years. I took two 10 footers, and three 30 to 35 footers. I thought I might fall a bunch more times and some of them would have been death but it is amazing what you can hang onto with adrenaline.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 19, 2011 - 08:55pm PT
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I've only done a bunch of 30 footers, but I caught a guy that weighed 75 pounds more than me on a 65 foot air bomb. Thought I was gonna get pulled through the carabiner.
But my pet centipede is a shoe in for the club.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 19, 2011 - 08:56pm PT
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You should see my millipede. Not likely to get the boot from this thread.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 19, 2011 - 09:21pm PT
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Never took a 100ft. fall but I held a 200ft. one. Does that qualify me?
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jiff
Ice climber
colorado
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Aug 19, 2011 - 10:13pm PT
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The moral of this story may be, "Don't go on a solo aid trip out west when your wife leaves you".
great moral and great tale!!!
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 19, 2011 - 10:48pm PT
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FYI: I am not Russ (The Musskelunge) Walling, however. I am The Walleye, which is a far bigger fish and a superior species.. You, personally are a bigger fish, Walleye. I'll grant you that. But, superior species? Yer pushin' yer luck there, boyo! Muskies are fairly badass.
Excellent stories, huh? I can dig it. Even though mine sounds boring now.
Cheese Louise.;-)
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john hansen
climber
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Aug 19, 2011 - 11:00pm PT
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Any more on that 200 footer Donini?
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giegs
climber
Tardistan
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Aug 19, 2011 - 11:16pm PT
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Took an 80 footer into water off the 2nd to last move on a water solo in '07. Plunged another 15' down. I'm 6' tall, so that's 101 ft, dammit! Like the fish I saw in the creek the fall was bigger than simple measurement allows for.
Luckily I was at that perfect level of drunk where I couldn't quite walk or stand up, but I could (almost) climb 5.10 so I didn't get too beat up for it.
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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Aug 20, 2011 - 12:09am PT
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In 1978 I climbed the Kor-Ingalls on Castleton with my friend Tim Coats. At that time there wasn't much of an approach trail or anything and we wound up scrambling up the cone kind of on the Southwestern slopes. It wasn't easy getting through all the intermittent cliff bands and near the top we soloed up a couple that were tall enough to really scare me.
We finally made it to the climb, got up on top and entertained ourselves reading the summit register, checking out the famous names.
By the time we got back to the base it was pretty close to dark, short days I think it was December 29th. It was stormy and the sky was completely overcast. We went back down the way we came up, and we were able to do the two scary downclimbs before dark.
After that we lost our way in the dark. We had a couple of pretty crappy lights so we could only see our local area. We finally wound up getting cliffed out on something that looked about 30 feet tall. We walked it to the East until the slope on top got so steep and ball bearing that we were afraid we'd fall off, so we turned around and went West.
We were walking along and got to this point that gave us a view of the cliff ahead of us. What we could see of it looked the same, 30 feet that we couldn't downclimb. But on top just ahead we saw a big rock. We were elated since we could use it for a rappel anchor.
I grabbed a rope off the outside of my pack, quickly found the rough mid-point and threw it over the rock. I quickly got into a dulfersitz since my harness and all my gear was buried in the pack.
As I backed up to the edge it collapsed with me and I shot down the ropes far enough to burn holes in both my hands. Worse still, I was hanging in space not touching anything. Not being able to think about anything except the pain in my hands and getting off the rope I kept going. Bear in mind it is pitch black darkness.
I was going down the rope and wondering why I wasn't on the ground yet when one end of the rope passed through my lower hand. I immediately stopped and started screaming at Tim to help me out. I hung for a while but soon I got the realization I was going to fall off from the pain.
The reason the rock was there is that it was a drainage, and underneath it was one of those big, overhanging amphitheatres that erode in sandstone.
In desperation I hung from my upper hand and tried to tie a knot to make a loop I could sit in. Of course, I could not do this and wound up falling completely free of the rope.
As I fell I was waving my arms for balance trying to stay upright and out of the blue snagged the longer end of the rope. I held it as I fell and I could hear this high pitched wizzing noise as it pulled over the anchor. I'm sure it rode up and over the top of the anchor rock rather than pulling the whole rope, and all the rope wound up on the ground with me.
I fell perfectly, landing on my feet and collapsing onto my back. I had one of those Chouinard teardrop shape packs with the zipper top, and right in the top I had one of those rectangular Nalgene liter bottles. It was empty but capped, and my head crushed it flat. I'm sure it saved my life.
After I hit I was kind of paralyzed for a while. I couldn't move at all nor make any noise. I could hear Tim screaming from above but it was a while before I could answer and allay his fear I was dead. Apparently the noise when I hit was very impressive. I have no real idea how far I fell.
Since Tim wasn't coming down the same way he left to find a feasable passage. After a while I got it together enough to coil the rope and began half walking, half crawling back to the car.
Eventually I encountered Tim and we made it the rest of the way to the car.
I was never the same again. I badly damaged my back, I tore several of my ribs off my sternum and I broke my right pinky finger so badly I eventually had to have it surgically fused. I also got more than an inch shorter.
It was the first real climbing trip I had ever gone on and in surviving it I learned a lot. One thing I learned is what a bad idea falling off is. That knowledge guided the rest of my climbing career, even though I did all of the hardest and most dangerous climbs after this trip I have only taken a couple or three falls since. They were well protected and short.
Nick Danger
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 20, 2011 - 12:13am PT
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John, I held Malcolm Daly on a 200 ft. fall on Thunder Mountain in the Alaska Range. I received a deep puncture on my thigh from Mal's mono point. Malcolm suffered a compound fib/tib on his left leg and a shattered calcaneous on his right foot. Mal now gets around rather amazingly with a prosphetic.
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
California
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Aug 20, 2011 - 08:43pm PT
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Count me IN... at least 3 times.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 09:44pm PT
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1978. my partner sonny falls at the top of reeds direct right where that horizontal feature is and the hand crack ends. no big deal, a clean fall. but sonny just keeps coming at me and proceeds to take out half the belay tree i was sitting in at the top of pitch 1. i feel nothing on the lead rope and grab for others, somehow snagging the haul line. turned out he'd tied in wrong ( into loop ) to the old orange whillans harness and left the tie in knot at the top of reeds. caught him on the haul line about 10 feet above the deck. he walked out of the clinic at .01 mph later that evening like an old man. what is that - about 175'. sonny's last climb....
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:07pm PT
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does two 50's at the same time on the same rope count ?
on the glacier on chulu west in nepal in 1983. pemba is at the back and cuts off a corner leaving lots of slack in the rope. he goes big into a crevasse, just disappears in an instant. eric brand is in the middle of the rope and catches the fall. eric is now lying down in the snow holding the rope. i dump my pack. without thinking much, i decide to retrace my steps and get to the same side of the crevasse as eric - seemed like a good idea to be on the same side. i retrace my steps not worrying much, but also creating a lot of slack. i go big, like a road runner cartoon, so fast, into the same crevasse as pemba. eric's up top holding both of us now. i look around the icy blue corner, deep in the hole, and can see pemba in the same crevasse. fortunately we were both completely unhurt and chimneyed / tensioned out of there post haste. two 50's in one. hats off to eric, RIP, we miss you
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:37pm PT
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Wow, David. That sounds like a story from John Long's book. I thought it was urban legend that bacon had been saved by trail lines when the climbers parted company with their haul lines. To what was said haul line attached on Reeds? It sounds like you caught a 160? foot factor two fall with your bare hands from the description.
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Scott Thelen
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:39pm PT
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Scott Thelen
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:44pm PT
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Rick Linkert
Trad climber
El Dorado Hills CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:59pm PT
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If my memory serves me, I think Mark Klemens took his huge fall off the Meat Grinder with a rope that my partner and I used a few days eariler to rap off one of the climbs behind Camp 4. We borrowed the rope and it was horrendous condition - the sheath would flake off with just a bit of effort with a finger nail. It was rumored to have been fixed on El Cap for a season or so. It was so bad that I really was concerned about using it for a rappel. I guess the good news is that it made us feel much more confident about our lead ropes.
I also remember a tale of Jim Stanton taking a titanic fall off the second pitch of the Braille Book - something well in excess of 100 feet.
Rick
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 21, 2011 - 12:06pm PT
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melissa, the haul line was probably on a locker on one of the back leg loops. it was a very adrenaline infused event. he took out half the tree in the fall and likely slowed himself down. pat adams was at the base, got to him first and asked me to lower him the last ten feet to the ground. i lowered him on the haul line that must have been hung partially in the tree or the 160' catch would have been impossible...crazy lucky guy to survive that one
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 24, 2011 - 01:17pm PT
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Frosty Screamer Bump!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Dec 24, 2011 - 01:26pm PT
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Anybody know how big the Whistler that Sacherer took was? The one that Kamps caught? That fall was legendary when I started climbing. I think it was on middle cathedral?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I'm a booster but not a member...LOL
Big Screamer Bump!
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
the secret topout on the Chockstone Chimney
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There are some horrendous stories in here. Palms are sweating for sure!
The one time I really tried for membership the ground came up way too soon and ended my bid. If I'd have made the club it would've been the last thing I ever did.
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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A fellow climber (Hoxie Smith) survived about a 300' slide/plunge off the top of the peak on the right - Kagevah - about 12 miles into the Winds after we (along with Pete Nichols) had summited a probable FA. On our descent, Hoxie slipped on the summits' nearly flat hardening snow late in the afternoon, slid about 50' and launched off a ridge top rock outcrop. After at least 100' of air time, he crashed onto a steeply sloped snowfield below, tumbled another 200' and finally came to rest wedged chest-deep, unconscious with broken bones and severe facial lacerations in a crevasse precariously perched (thankfully) on the lip of another 300' of vertical rock. The resultant rescue, and all-night hike out for air support, made for a long 30+ hr day.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Dec 19, 2012 - 04:08pm PT
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luh dis sh#t
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Dec 19, 2012 - 04:18pm PT
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Snow counts? Okay. Fell about 150' on Glittertind in Norway in '49, stopped by some rocks. Superficial damage. Decided right then that if I was going to climb mountains I better learn how to do it right.
You never know the ultimate consequences of a mis-step.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Dec 19, 2012 - 06:19pm PT
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Chouinard certainly belongs. He took a terrific free fall off the north face of the Crooked Thumb in the Tetons in the late 50s or early 60s. Can't remember exactly, other than Bob Kamps telling me Yvon fell through space past him in a swan dive and that he didn't even feel the rope pull tight, Yvon had so many pieces in.
;>)
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 19, 2012 - 07:08pm PT
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A couple I can think of-
One, on Down East on Cannon Cliff as one of my first 5.10 leads back in 1978-- from the nearly last move to the top of the pitch, all the way back down to the belay. Maybe not quite 100', but it sure seemed it!
Another on Sheep Ranch where it joins the Sea of Dreams, an A4 pitch. The Sea pitches, having been climbed more often, seemed quite easy in comparison to the pitches we had just done, so I was climbing fast trying to make the natural ledges below Cyclops Eye by dusk--it was our fifth pitch of the day. I put a big claw hook on a flake, looked solid, jumped up on it, and the whole dinner-plate size flake, about 2" thick, broke off. Ripped a couple rivets and definitely went for a 100'er stopping only metres above a slab, well below the belay. Thanks to my topheavy rack, I was fully upside down the whole way, then the rope came taught, and I recall grabbing the rack with one hand as it continued accelerating from my upside-down body into the abyss below. If another rivet had popped, my skull would have been cracked like an egg and toast. No helmets back in those days. Fired back up and finished the pitch in an hour, doing some real A4 to get around the broken flake (above which I would definitely hit the sloping ledge had I fallen). There was no time for fear.
Then there's the 400-footer off the bridge near Lee's Ferry, but that's another story...
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Dec 19, 2012 - 07:58pm PT
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I'm famous for my huge whippers.
Oh yeah. On a slab. I lost about a yard of skin. One side of my ass and thigh skinned, my EB's worn through, every pad of my fingers and palms a scabby mess for days. You can read about it here:
http://wichitamountains.org/exposure1.html#anchor470997
It was awful. What saved me from total breakage was the belayer realing in fifty feet of rope while I was on the way down. The advantage of old hip belays.
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mechrist
Gym climber
South of Heaven
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Dec 19, 2012 - 08:02pm PT
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I've fallen doing the last move of an epic proj and tapped the ground... but the route was only 40' tall... okay, it was 30' tall... but it had 6 bolts on it, so it seemed long...
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 20, 2012 - 01:36am PT
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Down East on Cannon Cliff Cool. I led to the same spot in 1976 or 77, but for some reason didn't whip. Very glad I didn't, as it was so far out from the gear. As I recall my partner fell following?
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 20, 2012 - 02:32am PT
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Mark (Base104)--that one certainly doesn't count as your longest whipper if you've jumped the big ones...
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Dec 20, 2012 - 04:42am PT
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I seem to remember the Swan Slab slide in slow motion, the figure of JC floating out there above the tree limbs as I dropped, the ground flying up to almost meet me.
Broken left ankle, six or so weeks of cast and crutches, torn down jacket, that was a drop in the bucket compaared to that reckless Cochrane.
Shiite, Tom, you are sooooo lucky the Gong Flake co-operated! As it is, that particular one is a great "gee ain't climbing fun" story.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Dec 20, 2012 - 05:24am PT
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"Hey, it's only 5.8."
Yeah, I told myself the exact same thing on the 2nd pitch of the Free Blast around 1990. I had a Gunks rack with the biggest piec a ..5 Friend placed 10 feet above the belay. My partner says "when in doubt, run it out." So I proceed to run the 5.8 pitch out until I mantle onto some small holds out right of the steadily widening crack. I was probably 60 feet out from my gear, had three ropes attached ("Hey, it's only 5.8."), and a water bottle because we were trying to fix a bunch of pitches right near the end of the day.
Fortunately, I finished the pitch without incident. Otherwise, I'd either have a story or not be able to tell it.
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Dec 20, 2012 - 08:20am PT
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Yes John,
While climbing with Ivon and T.M. in the Tetons in 1971, Ivon told me the fall was at least 100'.
Ivon introduced me to you as well, at the climbers ranch, but I'm sure you don't remember it- good times!
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ryankelly
Trad climber
el portal
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Dec 29, 2012 - 03:24am PT
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These stories should be in a freakin book.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Dec 30, 2012 - 01:44am PT
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From Stone Crusade ... disenchanted by a 160 foot ground fall in Yosemite, (Chris) Jones gave up roped climbing ...
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| Messages 1 - 116 of total 116 in this topic |
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