Ground Fall @ Drive-By

[weber]

...

The first bolt on Breakfast Burrito is fairly high off the ground. Ten Feet? I know you have to climb a bit to get to it.

Ten feet is not "fairly high off the ground." Sixteen feet is. And 16 feet can be reached by almost all clipping sticks.

The most skillful and attentive belayer cannot prevent a leader from decking when he/she pops off while reaching high over head to clip the second bolt, when the spacing is 10' to #1 and another 10' to #2. Do the math.

...I guess someone fixing egregious first bolts will remove one small factor and pad the probabilities a tad, but again, the belayer and his/her attentiveness and skill is the final arbiter of deck or no deck.

"Fixing egregious first bolts" and second bolts will remove one HUGE factor and pad the probabilities enormously.

Still, if one chooses not to use a clip stick and pops off before clipping the first bolt at 16 feet, the decking can smart a bit, but not as much as popping off at the second bolt 20 feet up – AFTER stick clipping the first – and decking.

Free country - do whatever you want.

[vertical1]

I met and spoke with the climber at The Playground on Sunday. She seemed perfectly fine, and that she was airlifted for precautionary measures. She fell at the second bolt. She is a gym climber, seemed to have done little to no outside leading and was trying to do outside what her "gym" limit is. But the bolts were further that what she was used to. She panicked, got pumped and fell.

[michaelarmand]

Good to know she is ok. I totally agree with Rick about the 16 feet. A good belay is obviously important, but it can't overcome the math....

[the lurkist]

Yes, Rick makes a good point. Making sure the first bolts are high enough off the ground to protect the climber in the event the belayer can't react fast enough does add a level of second chance. As I said, I am all for fixing routes that would result in ground falls. I think it was Terry Kindred who was most adamant about this.
That said, there is no substitute for a heads up belay.

[Clevis Hitch]

Doesn't it cost like $5000 to get airlifted? She had a siezure and was climbing the next day? That seems like a miricle or something....

[vertical1]

She was not climbing, she was with her group from Chicago. She took pictures, walked around and joked about her experience as if it was something to brag about.

[wheelis]

5000 seems a little on the cheap side to get air lifted from the red to lexington?

[pigsteak]

I see a fundraiser in the works....

[maine]

Glad to know she is ok. Sad that this happened again ...

[clif]

Does anyone know if the person who decked is okay?

I asked around at Miguels and no one seemed to know.... Her name is christine (or maybe christina) lee from chicago. i'm not sure how the first or last name is spelled though.

well, surely she is a member of the rrgcc.