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Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:16 pm
by Silk
bentley wrote: its much easier to replace anchors than carry someone out of a crag on a stretcher. Please stop repelling off sport routes. There are too many things to mess up when repelling..
That's precisely what I was inferring.

Anchor=easy replace....You=not so much

Rapping may not be "the problem" but it seems to add "potentialities" to the equation...like the curious broken carabiner...

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/mobil ... -1.2343089

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:20 pm
by Silk
louisville_climber wrote: I learned to clean and rappel down when I first started climbing, and it's really just the best option, period.
That's fine...up to a point....

actually, technically....a degree

Mebbe I'm being obtuse. Really steep routes are pretty hard to clean en rap...

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:22 pm
by toad857
Silk wrote:...like the curious broken carabiner...

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/mobil ... -1.2343089
broken carabiner?

my guess is: nope.. just a shitty reporter.

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:27 pm
by toad857
climb2core wrote: I also like the idea of carrying a few extra quick-links or biners to donate to a route and will start making it a standard practice to do so.
Rocktoberfest folks:

How about selling some quicklinks at a booth? It would encourage the ethic, encourage the practice, and educate folks.

I bet they'd sell ~50-100 of them.

$3 each. Proceeds to RRGCC.

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:51 pm
by rhunt
"Actually, the top-roping isn't what does it because, for the most part, the rope isn't weighted. It's actually the lowering that wears the gear out." ~ I couldn't let that one go - as you guys like to say. Last time I top roped, I weighted the rope, in fact every time I top rope I weight the rope...pretty much the only way back down. So take some random 5.9 route at the Red on a holiday weekend. Some large group of beginners will set up a top rope on it all day - through the anchor hardware - how is that less abuse than lowering to clean?

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:05 pm
by DHB
rhunt wrote:Last time I top roped, I weighted the rope, in fact every time I top rope I weight the rope...pretty much the only way back down.
Weighting the rope as you go UP is pretty rare, therefore top-roping itself hardly affects the gear. And the only difference between lowering on top-rope and lowering to clean is, well, there is none. The rope is weighted in both cases, so I conclude that top-roping (going up), is not as harmful as lowering (when top-roping or leading).

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:24 pm
by LK Day
pawilkes wrote:i've been really surprised at the number of and specific people who say to lower and to not rappel. maybe all these strong climbers never get on a route that is vertical enough to reasonably clean on rappel. rappelling is a basic skill, every climber who can belay should know how to do it. doing it safely isn't any harder than belaying. knowing how to rappel will only I personally don't rappel that much because most of the time i'm climbing on steep sport routes. I rarely tie knots because i can see the rope is down. all these "tie knots in the end of your ropes or your an idiot" comments are good intentioned but by this logic everyone should keep a knot in the end of your rope when belaying which i guess almost no one does around here.
I think this comment is quite enlightening. Of course "everyone should keep a knot in the end of your rope when belaying"! I think one of the stupidest accidents of all is when the belayer performs what fly fishermen would call a "long distance release". That is they "release" the leader as the end of the rope zips through their belay device. That particular accident would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.

Don't forget that sport climbing is a subset of rock climbing, which is itself a subset of mountaineering. At one time we pretty much approached all climbs as if they were traditional multi-pitch climbs. The belayer was actually tied in to the end of the rope - always!. That way, no matter what, the one thing that could never happen was for the rope to simply zip through his device and be gone (along with the leader). Same thing for a knot in the end of your rap line. At least you knew one thing, you'd never fly off the end of the rope. Pretty simple stuff, really. The best part about doing it this way, YOU HAD TO CHANGE NOTHING ABOUT YOUR TECHNIQUE as you moved from one pitch climbs to big walls and high mountain routes. You'd already developed proper habits.

Today, in order to save a few seconds, I suppose, climbers ingrain all sorts of bad habits. Why on earth would you want to take short cuts at the crag that will almost guarantee your getting in trouble on multi-pitch routes and, as we have seen, will eventually bite you in the ass on short sport routes as well. Do everything "the right way" even at the sport crag and you won't have re-learn how roped technique is "correctly executed" later.

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:35 pm
by jrathfon
Silk wrote:
louisville_climber wrote: I learned to clean and rappel down when I first started climbing, and it's really just the best option, period.
That's fine...up to a point....

actually, technically....a degree

Mebbe I'm being obtuse. Really steep routes are pretty hard to clean en rap...
That's why many of us who advocate rapping have taken the time to add the little nuance of OBVIOUSLY if the route is super steep you lower. Does it really need to be said every time somebody advocates rapping? Yes, I think lowering and tramming to clean draws on a typical (slightly overhung) RRG climb is more convenient. If you are seconding and cleaning the anchor however, why aren't you rapping? Convenience? Lack of the bare bones requisite skills of the sport? Laziness?

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:53 pm
by Clevis Hitch
colorado_jen wrote:As being one of the first on the scene I will give my account of the day. I was in the party climbing next to the involved party.

The climber cleaned the anchors then prepared to rap off, collected 2 draws on his way down and then had not pulled sufficient rope through the anchors to get both ends of the rope on the ground. He ran out of rope at about 50 feet off the deck.

My friends took control of the scene, getting others around stabilizing the climber who was feet down on the hillside to keep from sliding down further and keep his spine in line and keep him from moving. Later found out that he had a fractured sacrum and C7 vertebrae.

I drove up to top of Bald Rock Rd and 498 and helped lead the ambulance and others down to the parking area.

This guy we later found out is called KY Joe or Clevis Hitch identified himself as an ER Nurse then refused to take over the scene from my friend who was an EMT many years ago. I thought he would be kind enough, being more qualified. He did however go prep his truck to use to bring rescue gear up to the crag, but ended up using another persons truck. I really feel like he could have been better utilized at the scene having more extensive medical background than my friend.

This same guy later suggested this terrible route to me and my friend as some sort of cruel joke at Shady Grove stating that is was a good warmup for other harder routes in the area. It was the most awful route on the whole dang wall and she will certainly tell him her opinion on that subject if she sees him again.

Another thing, some guy jumped in the truck with the patient in the back and identified himself as a doctor, supposedly delayed getting the patient in the ambulance b/c he too wants to assess the patient. Turns out this guy is a medical student, not a doctor, and is suing his medical school over some issue. Then I hear that this same guy is claiming that he was there for the whole rescue, that no one else knew what was going on, and taking claim for helping this guy. Sounds like he lied about being MD and delayed things.

Sorry, it started as what happened that day and what could be learned, but it turned into a vent session.
I sent you a PM to give you the chance to clear this mis-statement up. I even gave you a few days to edit your post. You seem content to leave the misinformation intact. Now I am making a public request that you go back and change your post and remove all references of me (Joe) and you can even substitute the correct persons name. Kevin Cox is his name. You can call him Major or you can call him Mr. Cox, but don't call him Kentucky Joe.


last chance....

Re: Saturday's Accident at PMRP

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:01 pm
by Toad
Regarding Rappelling...

Provided one has taken the time to actually have threaded the rope through the rappel device and has clipped the device
onto the correct part of the harness...just have somebody on the ground spot you with the ol' "fireman's belay". They can
tell you if the rope is down because they should be holding on to it. And, your hand is backed up in case you are cleaning
a slightly overhanging route and just can't fight the urge to let go with your brake hand. It's also nice to have this
"audience participation" if you are having trouble getting draws off the anchor after you have checked to make sure you
are weighted on your rappel.

Or lower.
Or quit climbing.