jean
Trad climber
Cardiff-by-the-Sea
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Feb 23, 2005 - 01:41pm PT
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There have been a number of times I feared for my partner... Most of them probably only because I'm a scaredy cat :D
But the one time I feared the most, I was on the second pitch of Touchstone in Zion. My partner and I had blasted the first few pitches earlier in the week as prep for another (harder) wall, but came back to it after realizing that our other wall needed something as wide as a house to protect a long section high up. Not having brought the house, and running out of time, we decided to go back and just do the whole Touchstone route. :)
Just as my partner was pulling the little roof, I looked up and saw his piece blow. In slow motion, I saw him come down, hit the rock with one foot, flip upside down, and bounce his head off the wall a few times... HARD. Thank God he was wearing a helmet, but I worried that even his brainbucket couldn't possibly have kept him injury free from that. He never blacked out, and in a few minutes, seemed ok... He even said that he wanted to continue (which to a non-climber, would not have been "ok" but to me seemed reasonable!). When he tried to stand in his aiders, though, it was apparent to me that he had broken his ankle.
I lowered him to the belay, splinted his ankle, but still worried about his head -- he kept trying to untie and unclip everything at the belay! (That was another whole scarefest in itself!) Luckly, we weren't too far up, and after some xrays and a cast, the doctor declared him otherwise good to go.
Watching his head bounce, though, was scarier than the time I watched another partner take a 70 foot fall and land on me.
In the end, everyone lived to climb another day.
-j
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