RRC Archives

Thanks for the info Lena. The belaying off the gear loop is scary and could have a had a far worse consequence. While I didn't experience any Elvis leg over the weekend I did see Elvis at the Wooly Worm Festival in Beattyville

Well, it has been 3.5 years since anything has been reported. Although I have nothing to offer, I sure would like to hear some stories. Anyone?

Though I wasn't in the Red, I was in Rumney last week and saw someone almost deck. A guy was climbing a route with a really steep first 4 bolts. Belayer was short roping the climber and looked to be pretty new. Each clip of the first 4 bolts, if botched, would result in an easy ground fall. Guy barely clips the 3rd bolt and climbs past to 4th, but can't clip and tells his belayer he is falling. The belayer took no slack out, which there was considerable slack, and the climber falls swinging, barely clearing the ground only because he pulled is feet up to his chest.

Funny caveat, neither climber or belayer thought it was a big deal, but a climber to the left of them was white as a ghost and politely mentioned that it was a close call. They simply replied, yeah I guess so.

saw a kid (soft) deck at the zoo the other day. he was trying to clip the last bolt on scar tissue (5th? - the one ppl clip from a right hand pocket), fell with slack out, and landed with his feet on the ground. in other words, he decked from about 40 feet. i would say he was a few feet of slack away from having broken legs/feet or worse. oh, should also mention that his belayer was using an ATC and didn't appear to know what he was doing. my favorite part about the incident, other than the kid miraculously not getting seriously hurt, is that neither him nor his belayer were fazed in the slightest. they kind of chuckled about it, he rested, and went up for another burn. my friend and i had walked over to the other side of the ampitheater but were keeping an eye on the situation. we looked back as he was nearing the same clip and he clipped off a right hand undercling (not a great hold), cruxing the fuck out as he did so, barely sneaking the rope in before he fell.

looking back on it, maybe we should have done more? i don't know. when it happened, we kind of tried to get them to acknowledge it was a big deal ("whoa that was close" kind of a thing) but i didn't know what else to do. make him promise that he wouldn't try to clip unless he was confident? give his belayer a belay test?

my apologies if you're that dude and/or the belayer and feel i am mischaracterizing the situation.

Don't be shy. If you feel something is unsafe say something.

I just heard some idiot was up on an almost 3,000 ft big wall and forgot his rope and harness. Luckily he made it off ok.

<<< Luckily he made it off ok.>>>
This time anyhow.

Gumbies.

So my buddy Vince was waiting to go through Nada tunnel yesterday. A few cars came through as it was very busy there. He looked to see that is was clear and began his drive through the tunnel. When he got halfway through the tunnel he saw a car with one headlight out enter the tunnel and it was driving towards him. Vince had about 5 cars behind him so he kept on driving through. Eventually he came to a halt as he met the driver head on at about 70% of the way through. The guy with the headlight out was in some kind of dune buggy with no doors or top on it. He just sat there. and waited....Eventually the 2 or 3 cars behind him must of realized that they did not have the right away just based on the position they were stopped in the tunnel so they backed out of the tunnel. Dune buggy dude just procedes to sit there. At this point there are now 10 or 12 cars behind Vince honking horns etc. Eventually the guy in the car behind Vince approaches the Dune buggy, "Hey man whats wrong? Is your reverse Broken?" This guy in the dune buggy responds "I was here first and I'm not moving!" He literally decided to just not move no matter how hard the guy behind Vince (Who i think his name was Joe) kept heckling him and trying to convince him to move. At this point it has been at least 15 minutes and Vince and many others are wondering about the effects of carbon monoxide in the tunnel and this guy was not budging. Joe starting walking back and informing the 15 cars they the guy was an ass and was not going to back out. Each of the 15 cars had to back up and clear a path for dune buggy dude. All this was going on and Joe decided to start moving pebbles out of the way for dune buggy dude. "Here ya go, you get your way now" as he moved every stick and pebble out of the way. People were clapping and thanking Joe the entire time and just scoffing at the guy in the Dune buggy dude and he drove through his Nada tunnel drive of shame. Lol, not climbing related but I thought it was funny