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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Nov 25, 2012 - 01:42am PT
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I have taken a bunch of falls on aid but most my gnarly freeclimbing falls have been on Middle Cathedral.
I was taking my boss from Curry Company, Tim Arnst, up FreeWheelin' on the Cathedral Apron. He only climbed with me but got pretty good as a second. I was one handhold away from completing the final move of the last 10b crux and the 1/4 inch bolt was down there somewhere. I leaned in a little too far (and the rock was gritty there) and my feet popped off. The rope caught under my led and flipped me upside down like a nunchuk just as I finished the 30 something foot arc.
Smacked my face in rock and felt half my front tooth sloshing in my mouth along with some blood. Took stock of my self and decided I was shook up but not otherwise hurt except the fat lip and tooth. Played it cool with Tim with a sorta "Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon?" attitude. We bailed and I went to the dentist and got a crown. He emplored me not to bite the rope when I clipped.
Years laters I went back for "Revenge" on that route. Got up to our previous high point and was looking for the protection bolt I feel on the last time. Took forever to find the broke off stud even with the wall. No Thanks, revenge is not that sweet.
Bailed.
Took a long one way high on the North Buttress of Middle with Tim once. That 5:10 thin face/shallow corner before the squeeze chimney. Didn't have fancy pro back then if there is any. He wasn't a leader and going down seemed worse than sucking it up so I just had to go up and do it
Peace
Karl
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Nov 25, 2012 - 01:46am PT
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I knew this would be a good thread. Always wondered what pitching off the end of the plank on Sidewinder would do.
There's a 10c pitch high on Shakey Flakes where you'd fly over a roof after an infinite fall if you blew it.
Was taking some guys up Stoners and whipped off this committing lieback (not as hard as most stoners climbing but weird and steep. I flew over backwards again and almost crashed into my belayers. They joked later than one of them pulled me off. Later I found out he did indeed pull me off (Not intentionally of course) There was a sicking smack on my back when I hit upside down and backwards looking right at their faces. Wondered if I was hurt but turned out to my my camera punching into my back. It didn't survive
peace
Karl
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Nov 25, 2012 - 01:58am PT
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Does anyone notice that these are pretty much all on slabs?
You all know the old rules. All bolts placed on lead, often from stances that you had to peddle on to keep from falling off.
What sucks about slabs is that you bounce and slide the whole way down.
I think even Bachar said that soloing a 5.9 slab was spookier than a nice 5.11 crack.
I was raised on slabs, so when I first visited the Apron we did nigh every route harder than 5.9 on the whole thing, except for some that we didn't know about. It was in the old Reid binder guide era.
Later on my slab ability was of zero use. I had to start doing pullups.
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Rudder
Trad climber
Costa Mesa, CA
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Nov 25, 2012 - 04:09am PT
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Three little ones I can remember...
1) Fred, out at Tahquitz, fell about 30' with only one piece in, an original #1 rigid friend... bounced on the end of the rope about 3' from the ground. The friend was bent like a C.
2) Run for your Life, out at Joshua Tree, fell about 35' getting ready to top out. Got startled by a girl sitting on top who gasped when she saw me and popped off.
3) Figures on a Landscape, Joshua Tree, fell about 20'. Amazing route. :)
When I was young I never worried about who was belaying me or how they were belaying me... how much rope was out or anything regarding the belay system. I just climbed and when I fell I took my licks. Oftentimes I fell way further than I would have with a great belayer. But, I didn't care or think about it... I do now. lol
One serious route for me, I remember, (sidewinder is exciting, but I can't imagine anyone coming off, nor would you want to, lol) is Cheap way to Die on Saddle Rock in Josh. I don't know if they ever put some bolts back on that thing, but when I did it you got one, maybe two, bolts right off the ground, in the first 10'. Then nothing but a rusty little stem (put a wired nut on it but it was good for absolutely nothing) for the next 70 or so feet... until you got to the roof. I put a cam under the super gravely crack under the roof... turned that roof knowing I was definitely going to deck from around 90' up if I didn't. Nothing after the roof for a few feet until you get to the hanging belay which was two rusty old 1/4"ers that look like they wouldn't hold my body weight, let alone a fall from my follower. Cheaply put up cheap way to die. lol The guidebook shows a bunch of bolts on it now... I don't know if they're really there or not. Anybody ever get on that thing?
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Nov 25, 2012 - 10:03am PT
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BASE104's fall on the Big Bite was legendary in the OK/TX area. Quartz slab routes were stout and run out. Some people claim they saw the smoke from the burning EB rubber all the way to Waco.
PTSS my ass. BASE went on to do a lot more radical things, like walls, jumping off cliffs and having kids.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Nov 25, 2012 - 10:29am PT
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Honestly never did take a big ride. A few 30' falls spead out over 25 years. Been scared to death a few times though.
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bajaandy
climber
Escondido, CA
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Nov 25, 2012 - 10:54am PT
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Hey Rudder, I (almost) know the feeling on Run for your Life. I was at the top out move when my foot popped. I smacked my chin so hard on the sloping top that it split wide open and was spewing blood all over the rock, but I didn't fall. Blood on the rock, blood down the front of my shirt, blood on the sleeve of my shirt trying to stop the bleeding. My climbing partners were asking "What the hell happened up here?" I still have the scar on my chin as a happy little remembrance. But supper glad that I didn't take that whipper.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Nov 25, 2012 - 10:57am PT
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Many moons ago a friend suggested I climb with Joe, a talkative large middle age man with a fair size front butt. Joe called both of us repeated in his quest for a climbing partner having just moved to the community and not knowing any of the local climbers besides my buddy Jon.
Finally Joe and I roped up at our local crag and I lead to a broken up section of rock on top of the first pitch. Joe scratched and cursed, kicked and gasped coming up the pitch arriving covered in persperation hyperventilating. I started to rack up for the second pitch which starts out in a steep off width when Joe says, let me lead this one. The ever talking Joe would hear nothing of my suggestion that I lead the OW and the sustained crack above insisting he take the sharp end. The idea seemed obsurd pointing out that the second pitch was harder and tricky, I finally relented to his repeated insistance.
I reexamined the anchors nerveously as I watched Joe feet road running in the poorly protected off width as my palms increasingly sweated as he gained more distance above his pro. Progress utimately stopped as poor Joe desparately fumbled with gear trying to protect the sustained crack above as pieces collected above my belay device. I realized if he were to pitch off which seemed imenant the landing in the broken rock was going to be horrific.
Poor Joe let out one last cry, "Oh God I'm coming off!" I turned my head away and yarded in the rope and on the second reel-in the rope refused me anymore and I looked up in disbelief to see Joe spread out nearly horizontal having pitched backward with his arms stemmed out catching the rock on the adjacent buttress a full body length and extended arms length away. Joe was over 6 feet in height with a huge reach.
Joe was in a hell of a fix, spread between two surfaces in what looked like the worse nightmare chimney you can imagine. Somehow the poor man managed to grab something on the butttress, let his feet drop, climb up and back onto the route. A physical feat that surely drained the last bit of energy he had stored in his body. I followed up and arrived at the belay where Joe sat silently with color slowly returning to his face. He finally mumbled, "Jesus, that was a close one."
My friend Jon later asked, "so how was it climbing with Joe?" and I replied, "really fun you should go out with him sometime" Joe never called me or Jon again.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 25, 2012 - 11:13am PT
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GEEEEEZUS!
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Nov 25, 2012 - 12:14pm PT
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Geebees Ron and you say your a Conservative. Sounds like you log pretty Liberal flight plans.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Nov 25, 2012 - 12:16pm PT
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Big rides? I’ve had a couple, one on a slab, one not.
The first was on the “Wave” third pitch of Greasy but Groovy on the Royal Arches Apron. I had just gotten the first bolt in at the only possible foothold that allowed a stance from the belay. I was quite pleased to have gotten that bolt in, and the next part looked more featured. I took off on small edges, some good, and some that creaked a little. I got a ways above the bolt, maybe 15 or 20 feet, pulled off a handhold, and slid a true 30 feet. I was physically unhurt, but my “go for it” went and I put an intermediate bolt in rather than try it again.
On a trip to Europe in 1977, Al Harris was our host in North Wales and Rob, Gib and I had some of the times of our lives. Rob and I did an early free ascent of Great Wall on Cloggy, which had recently been freed. We also went to Dinas Chromlech and the famous Cenotaph Corner. After Rob led the Corner, I thought I’d give Right Wall a go. Right Wall is dead vertical for about 150 feet. It was a Pete Livsey creation first climbed after a rappel inspection.
There was the enticing prize of the second ascent and first onsight to be had, so with Rob belaying, I started up. I had no idea where it went and it’s not obvious. Some of the holds are pockets and holes that are hard to see until you get within 10 feet of them. I fiddled with nuts and craned my neck to find the line, until my strength was failing. But the stoppers and hexes in cracks and holes were solid, so rather than lower off, I figured I’d just try for some big holds a ways up. Melted off and took flight, say 25-30. The nuts held and I didn’t hit anything, but landed only a short ways above Rob, what with the rope stretch in the 9 mil double ropes. A little swing in the catch caused me to flip upside down in my Whillans harness and this turn of events caused us both to laugh uncontrollably as he lowered me down.
Here a video taken looking down in the same vicinity, only on a much harder route (E8) between the Corner and Right Wall. My fall was nothing compared to the one in the video, but it gives an idea of the situation. There is a really big ride at the end of the clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLlxs0zP3E
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Nov 25, 2012 - 12:43pm PT
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My first trip to ERock was in 1986. I had just taken a two year teaching position at the Outdoor Education Center in Trinity Texas. My first weekend in the Lone Star StateI had been invited by Tom Lyde to experience Central Texas' best climbing area. By the time I got to Texas I was already a broke down has been of a once was but had enough huevos left to climb without embarrassing myself too badly. Right off the bat Tom suggest that Texas Radio is a classic and sics it on me. The lead went smoothly and as I was topping out I was hailed by the assembled Stupids and invited to join them for a guide's safety meeting at the anchors. They had no idea who I was but were immediately accepting and ingratiating to the dude from Colorado. From that trip on and for two years after I stayed at the Stupid house every weekend on the way to and from ERock. When my second Texas weekend was approaching I was planning on returning to ERock but I had no set partner. So the night before I taught one of my co-workers how to belay.
Having pulled off Texas Radio the week before I was fairly full of piss and vinegar and thought the French Route would be a good warm up. It was like a grade easier than Texas Radio so what could go wrong. In the parking lot that morning I was introduced to the quite talented and very gregarious James Crump. He said something about the Back Side being real slippery in the humid conditions at that time but I foolishly did not listen. At the base of the route I go over Belaying 101 with my partner one last time and launched off. Well I was climbing great and feeling self confident when I opted to forgo the little wired stopper in the overlap before the first bolt. Then, right as I was reaching for a quick draw, the most incomprehensible thing happened - both feet slipped and I fell. Incomprehensible to me at least as I just did not fall. In dozens of years of serious ascending I just never let myself log much airtime. In fact the fall from the French Route was likely only my 8th or 9th serious fall. So no one was surprised more than me when I so suddenly became a stunt dummy performing a gravity check. Well maybe my belayer. He was certainly surprised and sat helplessly watching me plummet, bounce and tumble a very long way before finally slithering to a disheveled stop way down below his stance.
The sound of a human body during a tumbling ground fall is disturbing to say the least. I can only imagine the thoughts running through the heads of James, the Stupids and their students as I plummeted like a haul bag just to the left of their class. One by one, with the guides leading the way, they scrambled over to see what was sure to be a mangled dead guy. Shaken not stirred, mangled not dead, I sat up and asked if anyone had seen my glasses. It was blurry but I do recall a few people crossing them selves having just witnessed a miracle and a few others making the cross with their fingers to ward off evil. I have a hard enough time believing it myself and believe me I was there. It went like this. When I slipped I immediately turned outward and hit my left hip harshly on a ledge 10 or 12 feet down. That impact eventually became a deep black and green horrid looking bruise from knee to armpit and wrapping half way around my body. But it was important to me to protect my surgically rebuilt right knee at all costs. So far so good but landing on my feet in the boulders below seemed impractical. So a few feet lower I thought I would tap off the wall with my feet and perform a tuck and roll onto my back into the one flat spot I could see below. Well anyway that was my plan. This was one of those times when time seemed to roll like a slo-mo replay and I had plenty of time to plan my next move. Somewhere along the line I just gave my self over to providence and accepted what ever outcome be fell me. Going limp like that kept me from completing my tuck but is probably what saved my live that day. It was either that or that weird space alien gravity that giant whacky batholith has. So as I was saying there I was, a Zen potato sack, half way through a tuck and with the ground the limit. I did at least manage to propel myself towards the door mat flat spot I had spied between the boulders but my futile half tuck had me making first contest with my face. And I mean I face planted hard. An improvement some would surely say but amazingly I broke nothing, not my face, my teeth nor even my glasses. In fact I bounced. I quite literally bounced five or six feet up landed on my back and poured like partially frozen pudding downhill for another 20 feet or so. I remember not wanting to fight it till I came to a complete stop come what may. And what came was the James Gang running to get there. Tyhe were all brought to a silenced stop when I unexpectedly sat up.Those guys were great, really really great. They were right there to help me when I so easily might have desperately needed it. When I stood up and started slowly moving it became clear I was hurt but that Flight4Life was unneeded and even Warren would not need to be disturbed. With my arms around their shoulders those big guys kept me from further injury helping me back to the campground and into semi legal delusions of painlessness. That was an interesting night at the campground and mind you this was just my 2nd time there. Surviving that fall made me a bit of a celebrity to the class of Yahoos until I passed out with a little help from my friends. In the morning I got up very, very slowly and took stock. I was beat down bad bad bad. Scathed but completely unbroken. I managed to stretch myself out by walking around to the back side again and checking out the hotties I mean students. No one seemed disturbed by thoughts of my fall the day before or my presence at that time. But then I might have gone just a wee bit too far. Having spent some good formative years with horses in my life I always viewed the "get back on the horse" adage as a sacred command. So I did. That wasn't the bad part. Most folks kind of thought it was good to see me facing my fears or what ever. What brought them to a second silence and had them crossing again was that in my process of getting back in the saddle I decided to solo ripple. Right in front of the same class I had cratered by the day before. Some surely thought I was insane or brain damaged most just sat there watching and waiting for the train wreck that never happened. By that time it was clear that for various reasons (which at the time I was not fully aware of) I was given the dubious distinction of being an Honorary Stupid Brother.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
SLO, Ca
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Nov 25, 2012 - 02:19pm PT
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I took the whipper off the Figures on a Landscape traverse. Minor leagues compared to some of the falls described on this thread, but thrilling nonetheless.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 25, 2012 - 02:22pm PT
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I took a runout 35 foot fall about 5 years ago.
The funny thing is, I was only 4 feet above my last piece of pro
and it didn't pull out.
They call this the Locker belay.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 25, 2012 - 02:25pm PT
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per Sidewinder - I looked at my climbing journal and the day I first led it I put down 5.8 as well, seemed much harder in the wind... sometimes things feel easier the first time because your psyched, and wayyy harder the second because you thought it was casual. Haha short sighted climbing, much like Onsigh climbing....
I'd say the scariest fall I've taken was actually seconding, on the second pitch moves right off the belay on The Vampire. Blew the first few crimps and went for a biiiiig swing down and around the corner, probably 12-15 feet down and another 10 sideways. Fun fun fun...
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cliffhanger
Trad climber
California
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Nov 25, 2012 - 02:36pm PT
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I saw this guy take a chilling whipper on the last pitch of the Royal Arches
While it looks like the obvious way to go, the long, low unprotected traverse he took is off route. The real route stays very high, taking you thru some class 4 blocks followed by a short, well protected 5.4 traverse across the slippery water course and to the forest.
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One time I was coiling up the rope in the forest as this guy's girlfriend leads across the low route. She freezes in the middle of the greasy water course, totally sketched out. The impatient, cocky boyfriend, comes walking out coiling the rope, no belay or pro, to see what's up. There was nothing to stop them from taking the final big ride to the Ahwahnee, if she slipped. She made it, however.
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Rudder
Trad climber
Costa Mesa, CA
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Nov 25, 2012 - 03:03pm PT
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I smacked my chin so hard on the sloping top that it split wide open and was spewing blood all over the rock,
Yikes, Andy! I wanna check out that scar next time I see you. lol :) That is a cool top out on that climb... and quite a ways out. ;) When I went back up and turned it the girl was gone. Totally anticlimactic for me.
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wstmrnclmr
Trad climber
Bolinas, CA
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Nov 25, 2012 - 03:09pm PT
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Hey Base...I bet the strong head you gained from the slabs kept you well in tight situations in other endeavors. No other form of climbing can give you that mind edge. EBGB's is relatively safe compared to some others. Take some of the pad people over to Cyclops and have them jump from the boulder (unless your tall) onto the first move of Surface Tension. You can't clip the first bolt like EBGB's. Or jump on When sheep ran scared...Ran scared all the way up that thing. I did take a 50' of a route while putting up an FA in Tahoe...Was wearing a sport harness. Was using a Bulldog on lead from stances (I'd read an article about Johnny Woodward putting up routes like this in an old Rock&Ice in Joshua Tree. He called it "neo-trad") when a foot and hand hold blew. My belayer was belaying the drill through a pulley on the back loop with one device and me with a gri-gri. When I hit the end, most of the gear loops blew including the thick one with the drill. Almost killed him as the drill buried itself next to him. I have pictures of the FA and will post when I find them. Neat climb.
Edit: Rick A..went up the first three of GBG last month. How on earth did you put those bolts in on lead? Amazing!
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ec
climber
ca
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Nov 25, 2012 - 05:18pm PT
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The last one I can remember was on a new route we were on at the obscure Bat Rock in the Kern (late 90's). I was at a point you get to during these endeavors where you have to just go for the next stance or go home; albeit a long way out from the last bolt. I came close, but lost traction while stretching for a hold and went at least 40-50 in a long downward, then sweeping arc and missed the deck by a foot with by shoulder and head; looking right into by belayer's astonished expression on his face. I went right back up to the last bolt, only to start feeling my scraped ankles and bruised knee. So, my partner Ron volunteered to finish it off, which he did in good style (he's taller, too). At the base of the route, there is a peculiar, natural intrusion that looks like the Roman Numeral, IX (or 'nine') which we named the route, not just for the inscription, but in jest as if Olympic judges had held up their cards to rate my fall. It definitely was a 'Nine.'
 ec
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