RRC Archives

What is the single stupidest thing you have ever done in your climbing life?

For me, it was getting dropped off the Red Rocks Canyon loop road with my partner. (This was before cell phones). We were about 8 miles from the ranger station. Our ride said he would be back in 8 hours. We were planning a trad climb, the name now escaping me. Well, as our ride pulled away, we snapped the complimentary pictures, as this was to be our first multi pitch trad climb. It was then we realized we had left the ropes in the hotel room, and had 1 nalgene between the two of us. So, we spent 8 hours getting sunburned. We saw one person all day, and he refused to give us a ride. Guess we looked shady.

Setting up a top-rope on Easily-Flakey at the New. Slung the trees, equalized, snapped the biners on the sling, threw the rope over the edge. Forgot to clip the rope into the anchor. Had to march myself down to the bottom and get the rope again. One of the newbs asked if that was part of a proper set-up and I said it was. It's always good to throw the entire rope down the cliff to make sure all the tangles are out.

A friend, his 14 year-old son, and I spent several hours hiking all over Blue Heron looking for remote climbs we had heard about. After we found the climbs we bush whacked back to my car only to realize that I had lost my keys somewhere in the woods. Now, let me advise you; you do not want to be in McCreary County Kentucky at dusk with no transportation. We were about five miles from the nearest homes, and since the sun had gone down, it was freezing. We met one car on the road heading down to the mine which is a state operated tourist area, and it was closed in the winter. I don't even want to know what one woman and four men were going down there for at that hour, but they wouldn't help us either. We finally found a house and the man drove us to a gas station. I called my sister who was 45 minutes away, and she broke into my house and got my spare keys. When we finally got to the car, a locksmith was waiting for us. Seems the partyof five took pity on us after all. The locksmith said that he was going to sit there all night if need be to make sure I got home okay. Though he didn't want it, I insisted that he take his usual $20 fee, and later dropped off some Cracker Barrell gift certificates for the man who drove us to the gas station. Dumbest thing I've ever done.

climbing roadside attraction after donating plasma. alomost passed out at the top and the only piece (the slung tree) wouldn't do much good.

rockstar wrote:climbing roadside attraction after donating plasma. alomost passed out at the top and the only piece (the slung tree) wouldn't do much good.

lol... donated plasma in college... tuckers a man out. I used to donate, get my twenty dollars, and immediately spend ten dollars on taco bell.

I ran 5 miles in Richmond once, then stopped at the ice cream parlor and ate a double dip of chocolate on my cool down walk home.

Getting lost and soloing out of Mariba and being chased by a gun packing local,would rank right up there.

donating plasma sucks, but then so does not having gas money.

I was going to donate plasma once in college. Some friends of the family freaked out when they heard and gave me money not to do it. Gotta love people sometimes!