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sharpie
May 24, 2004, 2:16 PM
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http://www.dailycamera.com/...2423_2909579,00.html
The Daily Camera
Climber hurt in Eldorado Canyon fall
Lone climber stable after difficult rescue by emergency crew
By Todd Neff, Camera Staff Writer
May 24, 2004
A fallen climber was rescued in Eldorado Springs by Rocky Mountain Rescue Sunday. The climber apparently fell 40 feet, bounced and fell 20 feet more. The rescue involved several rescue climbers and took about 6 hours.
ELDORADO CANYON — He was freeclimbing alone on cliffs perhaps 1,200 feet above Boulder Creek, without the aid of ropes or the protection of a helmet, where one slip can bring disaster.
At about 2 p.m. Sunday, a 22-year-old male climber fell about 40 feet, struck a rock and fell another 20 feet before coming to rest on a ledge high on Eldorado Canyon State Park's Red Garden Wall, said Kent Sperry, tactical dispatcher for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. The climber's name was not released Sunday.
"He did everything wrong," Sperry said.
Within half an hour, the first rescuers had reached him. Sperry said the climber was in stable condition and conscious with a broken leg, but could not confirm initial reports that the climber had lost feeling below his waist.
The fall sent into action about 60 rescue workers from several agencies, who climbed, rappelled and otherwise worked to bring the climber to the access road as night fell more than six hours later. A medical-evacuation helicopter flew him to St. Anthony's hospital at about 8:45 p.m.
Sperry said it would be midnight before the last rescuers would be off the mountain.
"It is a very difficult evacuation," said Jay Stalnacker, emergency services coordinator for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, involving more than 1,000 feet of vertical drop, technically challenging terrain and, near the bottom, a need to rig pulleys to assist the crossing of Boulder Creek, swollen with runoff.
Those responding included about 40 volunteers from Boulder Mountain Rescue, who rigged hundreds of feet of lines from the climber's position to the creek.
Micah Stoker was watching the rescue from the southern bank of the creek. He had been on the mountain and said he knew the route the climber was on — called Smoke and Mirrors, he said.
"It's an infamous solo route," he said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Todd Neff at (303) 473-1327 or nefft@dailycamera.com.
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holmeslovesguinness
May 24, 2004, 2:28 PM
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If the report is accurate he was soloing a 10a. Considering where he was, he's lucky to be alive, hope he makes a full recovery.
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climbingnurse
May 24, 2004, 2:32 PM
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In reply to: "He did everything wrong," Sperry said.
There are certain risks I'm willing to accept when I climb, but I hope I never get hurt in such a way that someone says something like that about me in the paper.
I hope the guy is doing OK. He's one lucky dude if he gets away with no more than a broken leg.
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allarounder
May 24, 2004, 2:47 PM
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Especially a "tactical dispatcher"
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climboard
May 24, 2004, 2:52 PM
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My best wishes for a speedy recovery, he sounds very lucky.
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petsfed
May 24, 2004, 2:53 PM
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In reply to: Especially a "tactical dispatcher"
Indeed, as shown by the recent "rescue" in Garden of the Gods, the people they should be getting sound bites from are the trained mountain rescue personel, not the people who have high enough rank to be in charge. For all we know, a hold broke, a bird flew out startling the climber, or some less than considerate climber knocked rocks down on the soloist. To say definitively that everything the climber did was wrong is to woefully misunderstand the situation.
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coclimber26
May 24, 2004, 3:43 PM
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Good job to the rescue crew..by the photos it appears to be a very professional crew..Just mentioning that because I was witness to a very sketchy and unprofessional crew.
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petsfed
May 24, 2004, 3:45 PM
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Just saying that they should've quoted someone from the rescue crew. Not a dispatcher.
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petro
May 24, 2004, 3:47 PM
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Boulder creek must have really been raging to flow all the way over into eldorado canyon...
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sandbag
May 24, 2004, 5:33 PM
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In reply to: Boulder creek must have really been raging to flow all the way over into eldorado canyon...
Yeah, the 500 year flood......remember, they write this crap at the 6-8th grade level for a reason..... :shock:
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rockprodigy
May 24, 2004, 5:58 PM
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I hope the guy is alright, and he makes a quick recovery...
BUT:
I feel that if you make the choice to free solo, and you blow it, it's your fault. That is one of the most black and white truths in all of life. It cannot be anybody's fault but your own if you bite it while soloing.
When you choose to step off the ground without a rope, you are choosing to accept anything that might happen. If a bee stings you in the forehead at the crux...that's your fault. If there's an earthquake while you're tiptoeing across a slab...that's your fault. If an airplane wing falls out of the sky...that's your fault.
The code of the free soloer is that you make the decisions, you are in charge, and you accept the consequences. If you can't deal with all possible circumstances or you are not willing to accept the consequences of circumstances you can't deal with, then don't free solo.
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timstich
May 24, 2004, 6:01 PM
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In reply to: Good job to the rescue crew..by the photos it appears to be a very professional crew..Just mentioning that because I was witness to a very sketchy and unprofessional crew.
So what did you see happen specifically? Just curious.
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on_sight_man
May 24, 2004, 7:24 PM
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Frankly, I think a lot of people truly misunderstand the notion of risk and how it should be analyzed in the climbing game (and frankly in other parts of life too). Any fall you take, whether it's on TR, bolted lead, trad, or soloing for whatever reason, is an indication that you bet wrong. You placed your bet that you'd make it, and you lost. What changes is the consequences. The consequences of some things are so minor that we don't even think about them, while on others, they are life and death. Either way, we must take full responsibility for the effects of ALL our bets no matter the "cause" of our losing.
After that comes the judgement of whether a bet was "smart" or not.
[edited]
you shouldn't be soloing. People risking their lives for what exactly? I know it's a circular argument, but the fact that someone fell is highly indicative that they were on something too "hard" for them. Damit, the only stuff I've "soloed" was stuff where if a hold broke, I'd STILL be able to stay on. A bird COULD dive bomb me and I'd STILL have a fighting chance. The other problem I have with soloing is that it is usually SO easy to change the risk from one of your LIFE to one of "broken legs" or something of that level. No one wants broken legs of course, but we HEAL, unless we're dead.
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lostcause
May 24, 2004, 7:33 PM
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In reply to: Good job to the rescue crew..by the photos it appears to be a very professional crew..Just mentioning that because I was witness to a very sketchy and unprofessional crew.
That is a good point to recognize here. I've seen the rescue crew work a couple times in Eldo (not this time though) and God forbid I'd ever need them but would be confident in their abilities to help me out if I did.
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asandh
May 24, 2004, 7:34 PM
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:cry:
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timstich
May 24, 2004, 7:41 PM
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In reply to: So I guess another, pretty cold way to look at this is: Should climbers who deliberately forego the use of safety equipment (i.e. soloing) for the extra thrill it offers, have the right to have others risk their lives to save their ass when they screw up ?
No one has a "right" to be rescued. It is simply a courtesy extended by those that do the rescuing. And if rescue agencies used some sort of measure of stupidity to determine who was worthy of being rescued, they would just stay home.
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zozo
May 24, 2004, 7:50 PM
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Hey thanks for that info Skibabeage. Didn't even know about it!
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climbingnurse
May 24, 2004, 7:51 PM
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In reply to: So I guess another, pretty cold way to look at this is: Should climbers who deliberately forego the use of safety equipment (i.e. soloing) for the extra thrill it offers, have the right to have others risk their lives to save their ass when they screw up ?
That is a purely academic debate. Realize that it is basic human nature to want to help others in need. Rocky Mtn. Rescue (who I'm sure did most of the work on this rescue) are all volunteers. They like doing rescues so much that they do it for free.
What do you propose? That we leave this guy up there to bleed to death on the Red Garden Wall? People should just climb over him for the rest of the weekend? Or should someone hurl him off the edge into "Boulder Creek"?
Should ambulance crews refuse to pick up people who have OD'd on heroin?
The only way to prevent rescues of free soloists is to make the activity illegal... Oh wait... Heroin is illegal, isn't it?
Free soloing (like heroin use) is something that will happen whether we like it or not. And we will continue to rescue these people whether some of us like it or not.
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crimpandgo
May 24, 2004, 7:53 PM
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Show the injured some respect. Maybe this isn't the correct thread to be calling the injured an idiot. Whether you agree with his actions or not, he was a member of our climbing community and we need to do our best to help each other out a little more, and rag a little less. :(
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asandh
May 24, 2004, 8:03 PM
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:(
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timstich
May 24, 2004, 8:17 PM
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In reply to: What do you propose? That we leave this guy up there to bleed to death on the Red Garden Wall? People should just climb over him for the rest of the weekend? Or should someone hurl him off the edge into "Boulder Creek"?
Good Lord no! That would require a highline traverse over Shirtail Peak and peaks in between Eldorado Canyon and Boulder Canyon. Eldorado Creek is just fine. Perhaps we could build single use sleds out of plywood to launch such victims into the creek on an as-needed basis. Or we could simply apply copious amounts of peanut butter to the victims and let Nature take care of things.
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ambler
May 24, 2004, 8:39 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: What do you propose? That we leave this guy up there to bleed to death on the Red Garden Wall? People should just climb over him for the rest of the weekend? Or should someone hurl him off the edge into "Boulder Creek"? Good Lord no! That would require a highline traverse over Shirtail Peak and peaks in between Eldorado Canyon and Boulder Canyon. Eldorado Creek is just fine. Perhaps we could build single use sleds out of plywood to launch such victims into the creek on an as-needed basis. Or we could simply apply copious amounts of peanut butter to the victims and let Nature take care of things.
But on the question of sympathy.... Pretty much all of the serious climbers I know have soloed from time to time. I can understand how a nonclimber, rescuer or loved one might judge this harshly, but I can understand why he did it, as well.
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craggincragin
May 24, 2004, 8:40 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: So I guess another, pretty cold way to look at this is: Should climbers who deliberately forego the use of safety equipment (i.e. soloing) for the extra thrill it offers, have the right to have others risk their lives to save their ass when they screw up ? That is a purely academic debate. Realize that it is basic human nature to want to help others in need. Rocky Mtn. Rescue (who I'm sure did most of the work on this rescue) are all volunteers. They like doing rescues so much that they do it for free. What do you propose? That we leave this guy up there to bleed to death on the Red Garden Wall? People should just climb over him for the rest of the weekend? Or should someone hurl him off the edge into "Boulder Creek"? Should ambulance crews refuse to pick up people who have OD'd on heroin? The only way to prevent rescues of free soloists is to make the activity illegal... Oh wait... Heroin is illegal, isn't it? Free soloing (like heroin use) is something that will happen whether we like it or not. And we will continue to rescue these people whether some of us like it or not.
Comparing free soloing to heroin is pathetic. Having grown up in the shadow of Mt. Washington, I have seen, and taken part of, uncountable incidents of rescue teams risking their lives for the sake of one. Ambulance crews don't risk their lives to save those who OD, do they?
Any reasonable, experienced freesoloer knows the name of the game and the consequences of a smear gone wrong, a hold coming off in your hand - and shouldn't expect a rescue, but rather be grateful for the rescuers that are risking their lives so that the injured may live.
On a lighter note, I'm happy to hear that the injured man got off with something as minor as a broken leg - he shouldn't be alive. In the words of one of the great free soloers...... "You fall, you fail"
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