RRC Archives

Ultra is now banned.

Huh, what happened? This post is confusing. I just logged on and I can't make any sense of this...

The offensive post has since been edited by Ultra prior to the ban...hence your confusion now.

Ultra wrote a fictitious detailed account relating that the kid died and where to send condolences to the family. It was extremely believable and wasn't written with a hint of sarcasm. I read it and felt sick by it and it wasn't until I spoke with some other people last night that I learned that there was no way Ultra was telling the truth.

Sure, this kinda stuff isn't written in the rules of this site but should be common sense on any public forum. I just can't believe anyone can find humor in even suggesting another person's death.

thanks for the explanation Artsay; we get by with a lot on here and I love it but ...

do you really have to ban Ultra? the site is much more interesting with all of his posts. even though he may go over the top "a little"...

hes not nearly as bad as 512OW was when he got banned.

ynot wrote:Nah thats not it. I know both those characters and they arent gay.Thats whats disturbing.

Look at their faces . They seem so.... content. is that what "gay" means.'....I mean that doesn't seem so bad. They are close and happy and well...never mind I here my teapot going offf...

But pawilkes...did you see the post in question?
I hate banning anyone but dang if what he wrote wasn't just way over the top. He obviously thought so too because he edited his own post way before I banned him. I was really shocked and saddened after reading the update and I don't even know the kid. Imagine how a close friend or family member may have reacted if they read it? And as far as relating him to 512OW...well, considering that 512OW is a very close friend of ours, that fact that we banned him at all should say a lot about how much we care about the community on this board.

This thread may have been so far hijacked that no one is paying attention, but:

Spragwa wrote:None of the people who belay me would allow me to deck from the 5th bolt of a climb unless they fucked up pretty bad, which I don't believe they would. Sorry rhunt, I just don't believe it happens unless the belayer screws up. Not that people don't make mistakes.

Sunshine wrote:I pay very close attention to climbers and belayers as they tie in and rig the belay. Very few climbers check their belayers and I rarely see a belayer check to see that the climber has tied in properly or that his buckle is doubled back.

One of the advantages of doing a lot of gym climbing is that you tie in and rig up belay devices frequently - when I was an instructor at a 24' high wall, I may have tied in and rigged up GriGris a couple thousand times a year. Every so often, I would screw something up, and this is after climbing for years. Always having the belayer and climber check each other is critical. You may feel 'uncool' doing it, but you will catch problems like only tying into the waist or leg loops, or threading the belay device wrong. Don't be afraid to give the climber's rope a tug to check that the knot is complete or yank the rope to check that the Grigri/ATC is threaded correctly. No matter how long you've been climbing, you are going to screw up once in a while - maybe 1 in 1000 times, maybe 1 in 10,000 times - you need a partner to catch that mistake before it kills you or someone else.

In the fall at the lode, if the Grigri was threaded backwards, then I would say that the climber shares some responsibility for not having checked before leaving the ground.

Once you're off the ground, it's up to the belayer. The one groundfall I've seen in person was luckily at a gym with rubber chips. The belyer was using an ATC and was fumbling with a twisted up rope. Her hand came off the brake rope for a second - at the same time that the leader fell. The rope whizzed through the device (she did manage to clear the tangle, unfortunately), and the leader thudded to the ground. He hit feet first, and they sort of slipped out from under him, so he ended up on his butt, sitting up. I think that even though she didn't react quickly enough to grab the brake rope, there was enough friction that the falling climber was slowed down. He was fine, but the belayer ran off crying. I didn't know these people, so I don't know if she 'got back on the horse'.

Artsay wrote:It's just the percentages.

Exactly - no one is perfect, even the best climber. You need to take steps to decrease the probability of an accident.