Loose rock at Fortress

Post by **Huggybone** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:28 pm

I wonder if a #5 would kill you if dropped from 100 feet?

Probably no death from a quick draw. Would save you a knot on your head.

I hate wearing a helmet. 90% of the time I do. Why, Two reasons:

1) upside down falls. Don't give me no bullshit about helmet design.

2) Jerry Bargo- hit on the head with a loose rock about the size of a baseball. Sustained a pretty good concusion, even went to the hospital. He had a helmet on. injury would be more severe without it.

Post by **Canuck** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:43 pm

A climber (nicknamed Annoying Boy for all the stupid shit he did) dropped the biggest hex from his (gumby) rack on the helmetted head of a good friend of mine. Annoying Boy snickered the whole way home about how funny the "thunk" sounded. My friend had a stiff neck for a week.

Post by **pigsteak** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:21 pm

upside down falls????? ok, call me wierd, but in 15 years I have never taken an upside down fall, never even come close on one of thos steep clip ups..where are you climbing to find these lines, or should I say how many times do you have the rope running behind our leg?

Post by **ynot** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:14 am

You haven't popped off a laback then. Trust me, you will be looking at sky and thinking,"that's just not right".

Post by **mazzystr** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:29 pm

I agree with ynot.

You can fall upside down on traversing routes too...especially if you pop and land on the rope. It will flip you upside down and leave you with some raw meat looking skin.

The accidents reports on rockclimbing.com have repeated accidents of people getting clunked who were wearing no helmet. That alone should be enough reason but alas people trade safety for looks. They deserve what they get but unfortunately it affects all of us from negative media attention followed by draconian regulations.

A climber (nicknamed Annoying Boy for all the stupid shit he did) dropped the biggest hex from his (gumby) rack...

LOL, tell Royal Robbins that he is a gumby for promoting climbing free using clean passive gear (chocks and stoppers).

Post by **SCIN** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:39 pm

Trad climbers can fall upside down because they don't really learn how to fall. It's hard to learn how to fall when you're placing gear every 5 feet. I didn't learn how to fall until I started climbing sport and taking whips. To a trad climber a big whip is about 10-15 feet whereas to a sport climber at the Red a big whip is like 20-30 feet. On many of the harder sport lines you even end up skipping clips and facing even larger whips. Running it out 15-25 feet while pumped out of your freaking mind is something the Red River trad climber will rarely experience.

I highly recommend taking on sport for awhile if you want to learn how to fall big. I laugh at what I used to think was "running it out" or "taking a huge whip" when I was strictly a trad climber. There are some trad lines in the Red where you do run it out but geez...it's usually like 5.8 scrambling.

Post by **ynot** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:18 pm

Longest fall I ever took was pushing my limit on a sport route. It was tame compared to falls I've seen but it still rattled me. Falling upside down did too. It can happen other ways besides hooking your foot on the rope.

Post by **RRO** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:39 pm

to you mr dreamy guidebook author ray ellington its all feels like 5.8 scrambling

Post by **SCIN** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:10 pm

I love you, Matt. I love you more than life itself.

Post by **Ballss** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:01 pm

pigsteak wrote:upside down falls????? ok, call me wierd, but in 15 years I have never taken an upside down fall, never even come close on one of thos steep clip ups..where are you climbing to find these lines, or should I say how many times do you have the rope running behind our leg?

Another memory to drudge up... remember when Andy was "training for the runouts in Colorado" on the outside wall at the gym by skipping bolts? Clipping off an undercling and a foot spun.....I seem to remember his leg behind the rope, but he had soooo much slack that he was able to pull his foot from the deathly position and managed to slam into the wall with his back rather than his skull. The image burned into my head though was you feeding liberal slack for his clip while conversing with me. All of a sudden you were zipped up to the first bolt like it was a black hole. The look on your face was PRICELESS. =)