Surviving Sedona.....January 8th is my new second birthday

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bvb

Social climber

flagstaff arizona

Jan 10, 2013 - 12:38pm PT

So Donini, does that make 7 or 8 of your nine lives?! Glad to see you still had some in reserve...

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Jan 10, 2013 - 12:39pm PT

I broke an old sling on a route on maverick buttress once. I was climbing third and the tr anchor was two pins with an old sling each backed up by a cam. My friend asked how the slings were and I said "okay." seconds later, while adjusting the rope I put ally weight on one of the slings a d it popped I to smoke! Needless to say I pulled up new sling and replaced that on both, anchors!
Be careful out there!
So Donini gets to start over again at 2?

zBrown

Ice climber

chingadero de chula vista

Jan 10, 2013 - 12:40pm PT

Hey Jim:

Happy rebirthday. I will quibble with an earlier statement you made about getting old. This event shows you're not (along with most every other aspectt of your life).

Bruce

MisterE

Social climber

Jan 10, 2013 - 12:43pm PT

Yep, it is listed as no fixed anchor in our book, with a notation that there is a bad anchor.

Never did that one, the start looks chossy but the upper crack looks pretty good. Meaning of Life is the continuation.

Glad you are OK, Jim - sounds like a close one.

Erik

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Jan 10, 2013 - 12:55pm PT

Crap Jim--I just read this.

I'm sure BITD, you have had other close calls, but at our "advanced" age, we really don't need anymore.

I'm sending this on to my daughter, who is on the way to Mexico to climb.

crunch

Social climber

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:06pm PT

Wow. Sobering. Glad you are still around, Jim.

Surprised at how easily the webbing parted. My experience is that bleached webbing is surprisingly strong (I did one about the last ascents of the Shield on the original RURP webbing on the Groove pitch; very, very scary. That webbing was a decade old, crispy, white, all gone but for a few strands, obviously severely damaged, still held my weight).

Do you have any idea how strong the rest of the broken webbing is? From the nice photo, it looks like you brought it down with you.

I'd be really interested in some kind of testing, either formally by the guys at BD or else just by making a loop, hanging (just over a bouldering pad or a couple inches off the ground or somewhere safe) and seeing how easy it is to break the remains just with bodyweight.

My hunch (hope?) is that your "inspection" was basically visual, and did not involve running your fingers all along the inside, unseen side of the webbing. And I kinda hope that where it broke it was either on a sharpish edge and/or an abrasive section of rock and the unseen, invisible side was severely worn/cut already from wind, etc.

Maybe wishful thinking on my part. If the rest is horribly weak then I'll be recalibrating, for sure.

And again, glad you survived to live and climb another day!

10b4me

Boulder climber

Somewhere on 395

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:16pm PT

glad to hear that you lived to tell the tale Jim.

Jebus H Bomz

climber

Reno, Nuh VAAAA duh

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:18pm PT

Very cool you listened to that little voice, Jim. It's funny how often it's right.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2013 - 01:28pm PT

Nice story Coz. Crusher, Bill Bellcourt from BD is coming to the Ouray Ice Festival. I'm giving him the sling to take back for testing. It broke in an area where there were no previous dings. I did run my fingers around the sling as part of my inspection, I'll post the test results.

Ron Anderson

Trad climber

Soon to be Nipple suckling Liberal

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:31pm PT

test results say youll be backin those up in the future.

I left a new sling even of there were 6 old ones..like many in the palisades..Quit being CHEAP! ;-)

Urizen

Ice climber

Berkeley, CA

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:35pm PT

So, Mr. Skeptic, does this make you born again?

Apparently the Lord of Creation intended for you to stick around!

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2013 - 01:40pm PT

I agree with you Ron. I'll bring some tied slings on future forays in my second climbing career.
The biggest danger for the experienced climber is becoming blasé. Gravity is a constant and there are no angels to catch you.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:42pm PT

Moral of the story NEVER assume that an older sling is good even after careful inspection.

Glad you made it! Still, not THAT careful an inspection as you can see the traces that used to be the color of the sling even in that photo. On the top of Church Tower in Yosemite, and rapping on Space Babble, I've encountered 1in tubular that I could rip in half easily with bare hands, even those it had no tears. I'm pretty liberal about rapping on older slings but completely bleached by uv is another story

Peace

Karl

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2013 - 01:45pm PT

My bad Karl, you are absolutely right......hopefully others will take note that even an experienced climber like me can make bonehead decisions.

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:50pm PT

Jim, so glad to hear you had a back up. Now you have TWO birthdays to celebrate....seems like that's enough! :-)
xxx

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2013 - 01:56pm PT

See you at the Ice Fest Pam.

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Jan 10, 2013 - 01:58pm PT

Dang, Jim!
Don't die yet, we have to do the NIAD together one of these days!,

Forest

Trad climber

Lafayette, CO

Jan 10, 2013 - 02:03pm PT

One of the first things the locals taught me when I moved to Tucson was that webbing dies incredibly quickly there in the sun. If there's visible fading, or the webbing is crunchy at all, it's absolutely not trustworthy.

People I'd climb with in Yosemite looked at me like I was crazy when I questioned using fixed webbing there.

"The biggest danger for the experienced climber is becoming blasé."

^^ This. A thousand times.