Saturday's Accident at PMRP

[caribe]

There was a guy at BuriseBrothers on Rising, the 11a roof pitch above CH4. He decided to skip both the roof bolt, AND the second bolt because they were glue ins and he "wasn't sure if they were good or not." He took a leader fall clipping the third bolt, fell approximately 40 feet, and hit the wall around the first bolt on the 7.

am i missing something here?

No Ahab, he wanted to make sure he was right about the bolts being worthless, by skipping the bolts he made sure that they were worthless. This climber sounds like an absolute idiot.

[Saxman]

I am curious how clipping suspect bolts could be bad? What are they going to do, cut the rope when they blow? Half the fun of climbing at Seneca is clipping 55 year old rusty pitons.

[dustonian]

He was afraid the glue was carcinogenic.

[Suf]

What area/route was this?

It sounds ike there was more than one accident at the Gorge this weekend?

My best wishes to the climber. I hope he makes a full recovery.

There was a guy at BuriseBrothers on Rising, the 11a roof pitch above CH4. He decided to skip both the roof bolt, AND the second bolt because they were glue ins and he "wasn't sure if they were good or not." He took a leader fall clipping the third bolt, fell approximately 40 feet, and hit the wall around the first bolt on the 7. Rick and I responded, and he went to the hospital in Winchester. I saw him yesterday back at BruiseBrothers with his friends, all wrapped up. He was EXTREMELY lucky to hobble away with only a hyperextended Achilles tendon. He's lucky he didn't ground out or break both his ankles.

I would swan dive on either of those glue-ins before i took a lead fall on the spinner that was on the route prior to their installation. that thing was scary as shit.

[Andrew]

DHB, have you actually seen anyone toprope before. All they do is hang on the rope on the way up. Sometimes even getting pulled up through the hard moves. Also, who in the world even topropes, that crap is scary and hard to do.

[caribe]

What area/route was this?
It sounds ike there was more than one accident at the Gorge this weekend?
My best wishes to the climber. I hope he makes a full recovery.

There was a guy at BuriseBrothers on Rising, the 11a roof pitch above CH4. He decided to skip both the roof bolt, AND the second bolt because they were glue ins and he "wasn't sure if they were good or not." He took a leader fall clipping the third bolt, fell approximately 40 feet, and hit the wall around the first bolt on the 7. Rick and I responded, and he went to the hospital in Winchester. I saw him yesterday back at BruiseBrothers with his friends, all wrapped up. He was EXTREMELY lucky to hobble away with only a hyperextended Achilles tendon. He's lucky he didn't ground out or break both his ankles.

I would swan dive on either of those glue-ins before i took a lead fall on the spinner that was on the route prior to their installation. that thing was scary as shit.

Of course the glue-ins are solid, but I hope we realize what a bad choice in just plain logic this person made despite the sturdiness of the bolts. I don't think there would be any way to show him how stupid he was. It would be like arguing religion with him. "I ain't going to clip glue-ins!" "That's against my religion" He would have free-soloed the entire route if all the bolts were glue-ins.

[bcombs]

IMO, there were two choices here. One was good, the other bad. He did the right thing by not wanting to clip into something he didn't trust / understand. If someone has zero knowledge of glue-in's, I could see how they might look more sketch than a normal bolt / hanger. So he made a good choice, not clipping them. The second choice was the bad one. Instead of skipping, he should have bailed.

[krampus]

I don't think there would be any way to show him how stupid he was.

I think he figured it out on his own.

Clevis Hitch, look at the join date of Co_jen. This person is obviously a troll, consider the bait taken.

[caribe]

I don't think there would be any way to show him how stupid he was.

I think he figured it out on his own. This person is obviously a troll, consider the bait taken.

What a great troll this was if indeed it is a troll! I hope it was a troll; that would partially restore some of my faith in the human being. Although the opinion of bcombs above does worry me. The math is pretty straight forward; the answer is if you are going to climb the route, the glue-in should be clipped no matter what your opinion of them is. See also Saxman's opinion.

[ReachHigh]

The math is pretty straight forward; the answer is if you are going to climb the route, the glue-in should be clipped no matter what your opinion of them is.

Much agreed, some gear is much better then no gear(some odd choss pile trad examples are exempt), if you don't really trust the gear back off.