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I'm pretty sure he fell going to the last bolt. The belayer had arrested most of the energy of the fall and left the ground in a manner that was not in the least out of the ordinary and when close to the 1st draw let go dropping himself and the climber. It wasn't a complete free-fall, but still damn lucky no matter how you slice it.

the dside incident has more shades of gray. in my opinion the bulk of the fault falls on the climber. the belayer would have had to rise above and beyond the standard call of duty to prevent this accident. it could've and has been done but would've been an amazing catch. he did not however move an inch, real in any slack, or attempt to spot. as opposed to a C- perhaps a "not in attendance" would be more appropriate. also....i know these things can happen fast (this one didn't really happen all that fast), but there was zero communication between climber and belayer. that is unless, of course, you count the climber telling the belayer that the first two bolts were casual.

anyone know if any of these climbers got mad at their belayer...if the lode fall guy was climbing later that day was it with the same belayer? May just be me but if i got dropped i'd be pissed as hell!

Stix wrote:The belayer had arrested most of the energy ....

Agreed, no way dude decked from the anchors and continued climbing. I was not there.
A Scenario more likely than a clean deck:
- Belayer is standing perhaps too far from the wall.
- Climber falls, partially arrested greater than 2/3 the distance, drags belayer forward and then up.
- At some point belayer lets go, climber falls the last 1/5 or perhaps 1/6 of the distance to the ground.

i'm coming up a little short of that nauseating vertigo feeling. wasn't there any physical damage?

Nothing gets the board stirred up like dropped climbers or closed crags. Now if someone would only drop a climber causing the crag to get closed... that would be the ultimate thread.

belayer doesnt even have to be standing far from wall..I pull Karen up all the time even with a snug belay...perhaps a weight differential was enough to get the mo flowing....plus, isnt it cool to give penalty slack high on a route...what would have been funny was if this was a victory whip from the chains, and then the show off decked...ok, not funny, well sort of....

pigsteak wrote:belayer doesnt even have to be standing far from wall..I pull Karen up all the time even with a snug belay...perhaps a weight differential was enough to get the mo flowing....plus, isnt it cool to give penalty slack high on a route...what would have been funny was if this was a victory whip from the chains, and then the show off decked...ok, not funny, well sort of....

no, that would be funny.

The root cause of both of these problems is inexperience and culture that has lost respect for belaying and falling. Steve Hong in a recent interview talked about how he had to work at loosing his trepidation of falling that was instilled early in his career through trad climbing. He contrasted that with his son, Matty, who was brought up with sport climbing and has no qualms at all with falling.
The crag culture embraces falling and a laissez-faire approach to belaying. Having arrogant kids in this culture is a recipe for disaster.

the lurkist wrote:The root cause of both of these problems is inexperience and culture that has lost respect for belaying and falling. Steve Hong in a recent interview talked about how he had to work at loosing his trepidation of falling that was instilled early in his career through trad climbing. He contrasted that with his son, Matty, who was brought up with sport climbing and has no qualms at all with falling.
The crag culture embraces falling and a laissez-faire approach to belaying. Having arrogant kids in this culture is a recipe for disaster.

Indeed. +7/4...I haven't seen that interview and evidently suck at google searching: was it in a mag? That's a hard crag family there...






Always a good reminder any time of year--esp. as the hordes gather; less than :10 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2QApwtE8zQ

climb2core wrote:Nothing gets the board stirred up like dropped climbers or closed crags. Now if someone would only drop a climber causing the crag to get closed... that would be the ultimate thread.

Especially if it was a crag close to a state hwy (with double digit odd numbers) and the owners sprained their vaginas over hippies, hammocks, and perma draws after inviting the same to come and climb and enjoy the property after gaining work and committments of labor and funds from climbers locally and nationally. That would be mega ultimate. If such a place and situation even could exist.