Two weekends ago me and my buddies were climbing Sidekick when we heard a long "BAM," followed by a muffled "Uhhhh." We ran up to Hey Crude to find a very stunned guy bleeding from the leg and sprawled on the ground. 5-6 people were standing around him in amazement.
The guy appeared to be a littled banged up as he was not climbing the face of the route; he thought it would be easier to lead the arete itself. The problem with that idea is that the climb was not bolted for those shenanigans. He fell and landed on his back on the ledge where you clip the first bolt.
We told his friends to get him to the hospital to make sure he was alright. You know, fractured vertebra and internal bleeding are a bitch. So, was anyone else there to see that and did the guy survive? If so, I noticed they were videotaping his climb, any chance I can see the video?!
Although this is not supprising with the # of moderates at Oil Crak. Be prepared for more beginner shenanigans, as you so aptly put it, at this crag. Proof once again that bolts give too many people a "sense of security"... climbing is climbing and you gotta know what your doing to be safe...sometimes we forget this and stories like this are a good reminder.
It is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt on that ledge at the start of Blue Plate Special too. We all learn about climbing & gravity the hard way hopefully without serious reprecusions... and with any luck we learn from our mistakes and live to climb another day.
Man that sux. I hope this guy is alright. How high up was he?
I had the opportunity to witness a gumby belayer drop a climber at Torrent a few weeks ago. I was on Centerfire and heard a loud "THUD" to my right and turned to look at this old guy sprawled out on the ground at the base of that 5.7 slab. It looked like he fell from above the third bolt, but he got up and dusted himself off and appeared to be ok. He is lucky the ground is soft over there. His belayer was an old woman whom, judging by the clueless look on her face, I would bet he had just belay trained 5 minutes ago. She had a look of "Wow, I guess climbing is pretty dangerous. I bet he does this all the time though. I wonder if he's ok?"
Mj
...quitting drinking is kinda like washing your hands after you take a crap...why start now?
YEA, there has been way too many epics with TEAM SAFETY this year, people not tieing in correctly and getting up to the first bolt saying "junior, look @ this"....."Oh shit man".....others stuff like car size bolders falling on FAs, suicide snakes jumping off the top of clips trying to land on scobros head........jumping on routes that arent what we think they are leading to scrambles to the top of the cliff lines to rap and retireve gear........wow too many epics yall.........lets hear some other good stories..........
Who Me? I gotta hitch hike god damn 18 miles to get a god damn beer......that's bullshit.
Monkey... They said he was at the second bolt about to clip. He fell straight back barely missing his head and landed flat on his back on that ledge. It was the worst sound I have ever heard! When I got over there he was just sitting there dazed and confused saying he was ok. When they left , approx. 15 minutes later , he could barely walk and was saying he still didn't want to go.
"Hookers and drugs man. Money can't buy happiness but it's really hard not to smile when you're in a cheap hotel room surrounded by hookers and drugs." ~ Charlie
Ok, that boulder wasn't the size of a car. Johnny, Dking and myself were in Mariba minding our own business when we noticed a nice line that looked like it had never been done. We quickly convinced Dave to try his first Trad FA and started getting ready. Dave and Johnny started discussing the possibility of this huge section of rock coming off the route, I thought they were crazy. How can a boulder that is over 5 feet wide, 3 feet thick and 12 feet long " come off a route". Just to be funny I moved all my gear out of the way.
Next thing you know Dave sets a jam between this boulder and the wall ( about 30 feet or so off the ground) and it starts to come off. Dave has no idea it's moving and trys to reset his jam. Well this boulder is teatering off in slow motion as Dave falls and swings into the wall. THe rock flys past Dave and he bounces off the wall and swings back into the flight path of the boulder just after it passed him. Needless to say I was ready to sell my rack and wanted to go home and Dave claimed he would never do another Trad FA! Johnny was glad no one was hurt but didn't seem quite as fazed.
The funny part was the boulder fell on Johnny's rope and one of Dave's flip flops. I was able to save Johnny's rope after about 45 minutes of digging ( yes we still use it, so far so good ) unfortunately I was not able to save the flip flop. It's sticking half way out from under the boulder. I should have pictures soon.
Anyone want to go out and do some trad FA's with team safety?
Just wait till the golden piton people hear about this!!
"Hookers and drugs man. Money can't buy happiness but it's really hard not to smile when you're in a cheap hotel room surrounded by hookers and drugs." ~ Charlie
My old man was down at Drapers Bluff last fall climbing with an experienced belayer, and after clipping 3 bolts and a yellow alien he fell. Well I think we all know where this story is going, apparently the guy heard some other climbers near them talking and thought it was my dad saying clipping, when in fact it wasn't and my dad was dropped 40 ft. onto a tree stump! He hit so hard that the impact tore his shorts and underwear! Not to mention while at the hospital he realized he had shit himself on impact!!!! Lets just say the old man doesn't lead quite as much as he used to.
Oh man, he is messing that up. However, he is missing his left leg so that way would probably be harder for him. SCIN, just before spraying some beta for a climber doing a route the WRONG way.
Wow! Dave, you are my hero!! I alomst killed Kenny, I mean Kenton, this past saturday on whiteout. I chucked a large boulder at him from about 15 feet up. I was hoping to cash in on that homemade big bro of his, but no luck, he dodged it and I was forced to finish the pitch.
Give me a call if it dries out, I am living in the red/new/NC (where ever it is dry)
So, let's see - the guy is way left out on the arette of Hey Crude and blows the 2nd clip - yeup, that'll do it. Good to see that we haven't entirely defeated natural selection.
