Feb 17, 2008, 3:30 PM
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Re: [theguy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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I've only taken 2 lead falls(well, the first was several attempts at the same stance). The first was with gear at my waist, not much of a fall of course.
The second was actually a "real" fall, but still not far. Frog's head at the Gunks, first pitch. Everyone who knows the route knows where I fell....
I was probably just a foot over my gear. so not much more than 5 feet. But there is a ledge below, so a component of the fall involved evasion tactics(I scrunched my legs up toward my chest).
Man, what a glorious feeling, when the energy hit that nut, and nut sighed..."don't worry, I gotcha..."
I have a confession to make now. I'm sure I'm not the only one....
When I am walking along the trail and see a leader sketching, I simply have to stop and watch. Not that I wish any pain on them..... But come on! Watching the pre-show countdown to a whip does have a curiously peculiar intrigue about it.
The "best" I saw was a guy on The Dangler. He was going strong on the traverse(campusing the way through, no feet whatsoever). A thrill to see in it's own right. Then it came time to get up there, and I could tell he was having trouble. Not so much that it was a given he'd come off. Just enough to....well - the intrigue!!!
"Oooh," I says to my partner as we walked the carriage road. "Look, he's gonna come off the Dangler!" And it was a GOOD SHOW! The guy tried three or four times, different body language each attempt. And then.....he gets a good effort in....alllllmost makes it and - PING! - arcing through the air with the greatest of ease.
He did, unfortunately, smack on the landing though(into the wall). It didn't look like it from my vantage point, but later I saw him on the trail and he said he hit his head(helmet) on the swing. But he was a-ok. No real injury, and ready to get on something else.
Another one was on...oh, I'm forgetting the climb, some classic 5.6. This one was not such a one as you want to say was a "show"(except for Darwin factor).
I was up at the first belay, my leader just started on his way on P2. A guy starts to lead the climb next door, which at times comes very close to the one we are on, and all of a sudden I hear him grating down the cliffside, gear a janglin' and then...of course..... the sound we all dread(sack of potato thud).
He had gotten up a ways, no gear placed, and come off. Luckily not hurt. But then he got back on. He "had to", as he was "the experienced" one in his party of 3......
Unfortunately, he made it to where I was anchored before my partner had hit the next stance, so there I was, greeting the bastard with a "Good show, there! You okay?" hahahah.
He was STILL shaking like a leaf! How he made it up that far I cannot say.
Fallen leader continues on his way, weaving like a drunken sailor, seasick and hungover and sore from time on dry ground....
There was just no way I wanted to be anywhere near the guy, and he was having...routefinding....problems. Because he was so scared, he was afraid to take the route as it went and was coming over into what was our route as the moves were protectable and more obvious.
He slams a cam into the handhold I would have used.... He clips the rope and sets another, then weaves back and forth increasing friction on the sytem...I am watching. Just watching.
My partner calls down "Are you coming!?"
I tell him I want to let a leader get a ways up before I start.... I just can't help but feel this guy is going to shake himself off the wall and bowl me over on the way.
Feb 17, 2008, 4:24 PM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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took the big, scary whipper on Breakfast Burrito (5.10c), at the Red:
So, we were climbing at Drive-by and I decided i HAD to do the route on the cover of the guidebook - it's only 10.c, I've redpointed 12.a's here - although that one move does look scary.
I haul my way up to the alcove and take a good rest. Apparently the faint of heart call this the top - the bolt there has a permanant screw gate anchor biner on it. I should've seen this as a sign.
I go up and lean around the arete, scope out the bolt, then climb back down scared a couple times before finally taking a deep breath and going for it. I move out onto the face no problem, right hand on a decent sidepull crimp, both feet smeared fairly snugly. I chuckle morbidly as I notice the nice, right foothold has a good layer of rubber pasted to it where the previous 20 rookie leaders in-over-their-head have blown off. I'm on a decent overhang, I look down; it's scary.
I clip the draw to the bolt, no prob. So i reach down, grab the rope, feeling a little stressed, go to clip it, realize i'm holding it wrong, as the biner's faced toward me, try to switch the rope around in my hand, AND DROP IT! I'm freakin' by now, right arm shaking, crimp not feeling so secure anymore. I reach down and grab the rope again, and my right hand lets go.
Woooo-hoooo!
I come to rest about halfway down the route, 40 ft down, lip swollen where my left hand smacked me in the face because I was still holding the rope when it came tight, shaking, with a smile of relief on my face. I'd survived my first big whip!
Feb 17, 2008, 4:29 PM
Post #8 of 52
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Re: [happiegrrrl] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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happiegrrrl wrote:
...The second was actually a "real" fall, but still not far. Frog's head at the Gunks, first pitch. Everyone who knows the route knows where I fell...
For a 5.6, that one sees a lot of falls. I saw/heard two different parties fall at that same spot, consecutively. I watched the first fall from the belay at the top of the first pitch. In their defense, it was soaking wet that day. When we rapped after finishing the climb, the second guy was just getting started. He whacked his ankles pretty good on said ledge. The first thought through my mind was "well, we're helping carry this guy out". Surprisingly, he was OK, and continued up the climb. His gf felt pretty bad about him ledging. Wasn't her fault though, she gave a good belay. Kind of inevitable in that spot.
I was sure I was going to slip on lead that day. The rock was soaked.
Feb 17, 2008, 5:38 PM
Post #9 of 52
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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I took a 40 footer aid soloing the Finger of Fate on The Titan. I ripped out five pieces to an old Layton Kor bolt that was sticking out a 1/2 inch from the rock. Scary. That was my best piece.
Feb 17, 2008, 6:22 PM
Post #10 of 52
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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A bit over 40' on natural gear at Arapiles.... 20-25' on ice in New Zealand.... 15' down a crevasse in New Zealand.... It'd be interesting to compare climbers fall distance distribution curves.... I'm sure it would be skewed towards the shorter end. People who push their limits more will probably fall further on average though.
Sport climbing doesn't inherently have long fall potential unless you're doing something wrong or you're climbing somewhere like Stone Mountain or Enchanted Rock where the bolts are spaced a long way apart.
Feb 17, 2008, 6:39 PM
Post #11 of 52
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Re: [kachoong] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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I would expect that most people, myself included, probably tend to exaggerate their fall lengths.
that said, my longest fall WAS (for serious) between 50 and 60 feet. It was a combination of an attempt at a calculated enduro-runout, then blowing a clip, and having a lighter belayer giving me a soft catch. I was 2/3 the way up a 130 foot route, and I wound up about 30 feet off the ground after the fall, so you do the math.
And I'm not saying what route it was, either, but it was supposed to be easy :).
Feb 18, 2008, 3:10 AM
Post #14 of 52
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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well, there was this one time I was aid-soloing with a 100M Beal Joker on some 300M totally vert wall up in LCC. I was going to run the fourth fifth and sixth pitches together, since they're individually ~33M each, but I underestimated their actual length by less than I could stretch out of the rope, so trying to reach the anchor chains at the top of 6 required high-stepping in my aiders and stretching for all I was worth.
Well, as luck would have it, the fucking hook I was standing on skated off it's micro-crystal nubbin I had balanced it on, sending me for the ride. Unfortunately, I had cam-hooked the majority of the route up to this point, clipping only the copper-head anchors that some jackass had installed trying to make an A6 route out of a 5.10 finger/hands crack.
Well, needless to say, I whipped the ENTIRE length of that 100M rope. When rope stretch was factored in, by the time I came to a stop I was only a few feet off the ground, so I got a nice finger jam, cut the rope, and down-climbed the few feet to the ground.
I decided that day that I would never, ever again try to link three thirty-three and one-third meter pitches together again.
Oh, wait a minute. The SPRAY thread is over there.
Feb 18, 2008, 4:19 AM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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Broke a hold at the anchors of a new RRG route with two arms of slack and went about 62 feet on a 70 foot route. Meet the belayer at the first bolt.
Gone 50+ a couple more times from the top of some of the other rrg routes, but was usually much higher up, so still was 30+ feet from the ground.
The big air rides are not all that scary, but the slabbly, swing around an aerate, etc. ones, while maybe only 15 or so feet, are way more invigorating.
Gone maybe 35 or so feet on gear a couple times. Once at the creek on ananuki, I put a cam in the little roof at that top that was too shallow, and when I fell above it, it ripped, so that one was probably 30ish.
Feb 18, 2008, 4:31 AM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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My biggest lead fall was on CCK Direct at the Gunks. I wasn't intentionally following the direct route, it just looked like a feasible way to go. Anyway, by the time I got to the top of the flake just before the finish I was pretty pumped, didn't clip the fixed pin in the horizontal at the top of the flake and with a #1 Camalot about 7 feet below me I took about a 20-25 foot ride. Banged my shin a little when I stopped by a small overhang but no real injury. Scared the shit out of me. I lowered to the GT ledge, rested a few minutes, then went back and finished it up with the normal finish.
Feb 18, 2008, 5:18 AM
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Re: [stymingersfink] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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The outside corner at Quincy Quarry near Boston. I was teaching some new guys for most of the day and couldn't do any real climbing. I decided I was going to do at least one good climb that day, grabbed my trad gear and headed to one of the few few tradable routes in the quarry.
At around 30 ft I place a cam and look down and see to my dismay that the nut I had placed directly below had popped, resulting in one piece between me and the ground. Instead of backing it up, I decide to push on. I reach the one super manky bolt on the route, clip it, take a sigh of relief, and back it up. Crisis abated.
I get a little cocky and start charging through the last third of the climb. For those that know the route, the last 15 feet are exactly where it is a poor decision to start getting cocky. I place a perfect cam (black metolius powercam) and charge on. 5 feet from the top, 10 feet from my last cam, in a layback position, I botch a foot placement and send myself grunting into the abyss. I estimate around 20-25 feet of falling
Immediately afterwards I climb back up deciding to pay attention to my feet. Deciding that it was really my lack of attention, I don't bother backing up the cam I had fallen on, although I easily could have. I get to the same position, pop my foot the exact same way, and take the exact same fall. By this time there was a group watching the climb. I get a round of applause for the second fall.
Finally got that sucker on the third try.
My favorite falls are the ones that give you just enough time to think something is wrong. I was being belayed by a partner who, at my request, belayed me very loosely. Took a fall and had a split second where I was wondering why I hadn't been caught yet. I stopped about 7 feet from the ground.
(This post was edited by shoo on Feb 18, 2008, 5:22 AM)
Feb 18, 2008, 12:59 PM
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Re: [bobruef] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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bobruef wrote:
happiegrrrl wrote:
...The second was actually a "real" fall, but still not far. Frog's head at the Gunks, first pitch. Everyone who knows the route knows where I fell...
For a 5.6, that one sees a lot of falls. I saw/heard two different parties fall at that same spot, consecutively. I watched the first fall from the belay at the top of the first pitch. In their defense, it was soaking wet that day. When we rapped after finishing the climb, the second guy was just getting started. He whacked his ankles pretty good on said ledge. The first thought through my mind was "well, we're helping carry this guy out". Surprisingly, he was OK, and continued up the climb. His gf felt pretty bad about him ledging. Wasn't her fault though, she gave a good belay. Kind of inevitable in that spot.
I was sure I was going to slip on lead that day. The rock was soaked.
pretty sure that route is 5.5 (as if it matters), but I could be wrong.
First time I led that route it started raining in the middle of pitch 2. Pretty intense.
Feb 18, 2008, 3:23 PM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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I took a 50 to 60 footer in SoIll, almost cratered, that was the last time that I was belayed by that person. She just wasn't paying attention, and I fell at the chains.
The outside corner at Quincy Quarry near Boston. I was teaching some new guys for most of the day and couldn't do any real climbing. I decided I was going to do at least one good climb that day, grabbed my trad gear and headed to one of the few few tradable routes in the quarry.
At around 30 ft I place a cam and look down and see to my dismay that the nut I had placed directly below had popped, resulting in one piece between me and the ground. Instead of backing it up, I decide to push on. I reach the one super manky bolt on the route, clip it, take a sigh of relief, and back it up. Crisis abated.
I get a little cocky and start charging through the last third of the climb. For those that know the route, the last 15 feet are exactly where it is a poor decision to start getting cocky. I place a perfect cam (black metolius powercam) and charge on. 5 feet from the top, 10 feet from my last cam, in a layback position, I botch a foot placement and send myself grunting into the abyss. I estimate around 20-25 feet of falling
Immediately afterwards I climb back up deciding to pay attention to my feet. Deciding that it was really my lack of attention, I don't bother backing up the cam I had fallen on, although I easily could have. I get to the same position, pop my foot the exact same way, and take the exact same fall. By this time there was a group watching the climb. I get a round of applause for the second fall.
Finally got that sucker on the third try.
My favorite falls are the ones that give you just enough time to think something is wrong. I was being belayed by a partner who, at my request, belayed me very loosely. Took a fall and had a split second where I was wondering why I hadn't been caught yet. I stopped about 7 feet from the ground.
That's kinda of funny, I was just thinking about where mine was (the sloping staircase at Quincy Quarries, 5.10a and very sandbagged, as QQ climbers know).
The first bolt is maybe 20 feet off the ground, and is past the crux of the climb. I had repelled to clip the first bolt. Now, I did this route in the summer of 2006 and top roped it, only to find why it's the only completely bolted climb at the quarries (there is a ledge that sticks out towards the top, and gave me some nice dark blotches on the sheath of my rope). So I figured I would try to sport it this time. I was too sketched to do it ground up (since the crux is early and just high enough to be outside my comfort level). Well, I get up it a decent ways, clip the last bolt, and keep going. I stand up on the shelf above the bolt, reach up for another shelf, and was promptly reminded how slippery the rock at QQ is. As soon as I hand matched, I peeled before I even knew I was slipping. I probably didn't fall more than 10 feet... my knot was about 4 feet above the clip, and I pulled my belayer about up to where I came to rest. Gave me a good start, as it was my first real lead fall from above the clip.
Feb 18, 2008, 4:34 PM
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Re: [itstoearly] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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Mine was a 30 footer on the durance route of devils tower. It was also my first trad fall. I didn't have much of a rack at the time and I had less experience climbing offwidths. I was trying to link the first 2 pitches and ran out of gear 25 feet from the top. I climbed above my last piece (Maroon power cam) and thought I could see the top and so I climbed a few more moves, looked for gear, couldn't find any place to put something small so climbed a couple of more moves and get a good rest. While resting I think about if I should go for it, or down climb and then, my foot pops and I'm flying through the air yelling, "shit, shit, SHIT" It was the softest catch I've ever had because I had so much rope out, and I thought I felt a piece blow, but I think my cam slid some.
I asked the guys below us (anykine) how many times i had yelled shit and they confirmed it was a 3 shitter. i did get scraped up some on that climb, but it was all on the way up, the fall was totally clean, which is rare for 5.6.
Feb 19, 2008, 1:22 PM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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I took a 60-80 footer while doing the 2nd ascent solo, of the prow on Washington column. Ripped an entire A4 pitch. Jumared back up to the anchor, ( 1/4 inch bolt), and didn't make the same mistake twice! Finished the route several days later in a wild thunderstorm with plenty of hail and lightning. John Dill, prior to his running of Yosar, was watching me in a scope and said I went totally out of his view when I took the fall. I've taken a few 30 footers over the years as well.
Feb 19, 2008, 1:33 PM
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Re: [USnavy] What’s the longest lead fall you have taken?
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My longest one was my first trad fall onto a blue alien. Probably about 20 feet, but i am not certain. I have taken a bunch of falls 15 feet or less. Too many to count.
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