First, I hope the climber is ok. I'd be curious about details, as Birdsboro certainly isn't the sort of place where one can easily rap off the end of their rope, unless they were over on the new stuff on the other side of the quarry.

OT, but what is with doctors using staples instead of stiches? I, too, had about 12 put in my head a few years ago: "chk chk chk - there you go, that'll be 800 dollars please". Is that the skill level they teach to in med school these days? Leaves one hell of a train track scar as well.

TOTAL OFF TOPIC RANT:


glad ignorance runs rampant.

..rant rant rant..

The dude was on a less than 30' line....that's 30 feet to the anchors...MAX. He rapped off the end?!? of his line!?!
Apparently he's fine, gashed his eye and cracked 2 ribs. Someone got spooked and called emergency services because he couldn't "walk" out to his car.
I wasn't there but that's what I got.

Analysis: Gym climbing hardman got sandbagged by rap maneuver....wept like a pre-schooler after seeing the drippy red stuff, the sobbing hurt, so he gasped for mommy to make it all better again.
Result: FIASCO....
Empathy: Light
Sympathy: None
Lesson: Some people ain't supposed to climb

However, as the ER doctor applied 4 staples to my scalp without any sort of anaesthesia, he drove home the idea that under no circumstances should expediency take precedence over safety.

Thanks for the new sig. Hope you heal well.

The dude was on a less than 30' line....that's 30 feet to the anchors...MAX. He rapped off the end?!? of his line!?!
Apparently he's fine, gashed his eye and cracked 2 ribs. Someone got spooked and called emergency services because he couldn't "walk" out to his car.
I wasn't there but that's what I got.

Analysis: Gym climbing hardman got sandbagged by rap maneuver....wept like a pre-schooler after seeing the drippy red stuff, the sobbing hurt, so he gasped for mommy to make it all better again.
Result: FIASCO....
Empathy: Light
Sympathy: None
Lesson: Some people ain't supposed to climb

The dude was on a less than 30' line....that's 30 feet to the anchors...MAX. He rapped off the end?!? of his line!?!
Apparently he's fine, gashed his eye and cracked 2 ribs. Someone got spooked and called emergency services because he couldn't "walk" out to his car.
I wasn't there but that's what I got.

Analysis: Gym climbing hardman got sandbagged by rap maneuver....wept like a pre-schooler after seeing the drippy red stuff, the sobbing hurt, so he gasped for mommy to make it all better again.
Result: FIASCO....
Empathy: Light
Sympathy: None
Lesson: Some people ain't supposed to climb

REALITY CHECK

This week East Coast....

Died....guy fell off 5.3 at the Gunks NY
Died....49 yr old female Doctor blew #4BD micronut and decked 30' up a totally protectable 5.9G at Seneca WV
Died....24 yr old young woman unanchored on a 100% safe ridge walk near Seneca WV
Decked....guy rapped off the end of his rope on a 30' line at Birdsboro

Wake up....we are not talking about slipping on the sidewalk. If you are offended by the truth, not the facts, the truth....gravity is NOT your FRIEND....then stay on the couch and watch sports.

And to those who think name calling is rational discussion....grow up a little.

Look friends....climbing is inherently dangerous. Access to crags is a privilege. Injury and death are no-joke, and adverse publicity about our beloved activity results in crag closures.

Being responsible is not just about self. We are a community, what one foolish person does affects us all.
Let's not sugar coat the truth, you DO have a responsibility to the community.

Yes I am new to this forum...whoop-de-do

The dude was on a less than 30' line....that's 30 feet to the anchors...MAX. He rapped off the end?!? of his line!?!
Apparently he's fine, gashed his eye and cracked 2 ribs. Someone got spooked and called emergency services because he couldn't "walk" out to his car.
I wasn't there but that's what I got.

Analysis: Gym climbing hardman got sandbagged by rap maneuver....wept like a pre-schooler after seeing the drippy red stuff, the sobbing hurt, so he gasped for mommy to make it all better again.
Result: FIASCO....
Empathy: Light
Sympathy: None
Lesson: Some people ain't supposed to climb

The dude was on a less than 30' line....that's 30 feet to the anchors...MAX. He rapped off the end?!? of his line!?!
Apparently he's fine, gashed his eye and cracked 2 ribs. Someone got spooked and called emergency services because he couldn't "walk" out to his car.
I wasn't there but that's what I got.

Analysis: Gym climbing hardman got sandbagged by rap maneuver....wept like a pre-schooler after seeing the drippy red stuff, the sobbing hurt, so he gasped for mommy to make it all better again.
Result: FIASCO....
Empathy: Light
Sympathy: None
Lesson: Some people ain't supposed to climb

REALITY CHECK

This week East Coast....

Died....guy fell off 5.3 at the Gunks NY
Died....49 yr old female Doctor blew #4BD micronut and decked 30' up a totally protectable 5.9G at Seneca WV
Died....24 yr old young woman unanchored on a 100% safe ridge walk near Seneca WV
Decked....guy rapped off the end of his rope on a 30' line at Birdsboro

Wake up....we are not talking about slipping on the sidewalk. If you are offended by the truth, not the facts, the truth....gravity is NOT your FRIEND....then stay on the couch and watch sports.

And to those who think name calling is rational discussion....grow up a little.

Look friends....climbing is inherently dangerous. Access to crags is a privilege. Injury and death are no-joke, and adverse publicity about our beloved activity results in crag closures.

Being responsible is not just about self. We are a community, what one foolish person does affects us all.
Let's not sugar coat the truth, you DO have a responsibility to the community.

Yes I am new to this forum...whoop-de-do

...And if not my you choke on your 8 side dice while playing Dungeons and Dragons in your mom’s basement.

A little late on this but didn’t realize a thread had started already. I’m the climber’s partner from that day and would just like to thank those that helped out. My partner seemed to have covered all the details but doesn’t hurt to add my perspective.

It was our third and last climb of the day. We previously had climbed High Stepping and Like a Slabby Virgin on the long slab section. We then decided to do a short cool down climb. Headed over to the Zorro section where we decided on climbing the unnamed 5.8 to finish off the day. A nice easy relaxing climb. I lead the route and was lowered and then my partner TR to finish off the day. After going off belay, once he reached the shuts, I began to gather up our gear in prep for the walk back to the car. As stated before this is where we both agreed the mistake occurred. Had I been more vigilant until my partner had been on the ground safely this accident would have been completely avoided. As my head was down digging in my pack (facing in the direction of the newly bolted route Jenga with my partner above me to my left) he landed without any prior signal of distress or warning directly to my left nearly falling on me. Now for those who are family with this section of Birdsboro you know how unforgiving the ground is (i.e. many large boulders, jagged in nature strewn about). My partner was lucky enough to avoid two of the larger rocks on the ground in area of his landing but not all.

Not seeing what actually happened and not knowing from what height he had fallen from I had calmed him as much as once can as to prevent him from moving, as there was no knowledge to the extend of injury that was inflicted on his spine and neck (not to mention any internal damage). Once I had another party contact first responders I proceeded to dress the head wound. This brings me to another lessoned learned. First aid kits. I always threw mine in my pack thinking “when am I ever going to use this”. I’ll definitely never go any where without it. EMTS where very quick to respond and were on scene with in 10 minutes.

So what can be taken away from this?

Stay aware and stay in communication with your partner’s actions at all times whether they’re 100 feet up or 30 feet up. In sight or out of view. When learning a new skill and/or technique in climbing we all seem to go through a system of checks before confirming if the next action we perform will be safe. Regardless whether you have performed this task hundreds of times continue to perform those checks and analyses to safe guard pending actions. Don’t become complacent in what your are doing. As I just stated you are in harms way at 30 feet just as much as you are at 100 feet.

As for the troll b*tching to walk it off and rub some mud on it, when YOU see a fellow climber hit the ground in the manner in which my partner did, not knowing the height of which he fell or the extend of the injuries I guarantee YOU would take all the necessary precautions that were taken in this situation. And if not my you choke on your 8 side dice while playing Dungeons and Dragons in your mom’s basement.

If I’ve missed anything or something is unclear feel free to fire back any questions.

I don't know what's scarier....the fact that this happened, or the underlying tone of this thread that such mistakes are inevitable.

These types of mistakes DO NOT happen to competent climbers, sorry. We all make mistakes, but not like this. A total disregard for safety. There are MULTIPLE errors here. Not looking down to see where the ends of your rope are(!), not tying a knot in the ends, AND no rappel backup? If I were you, I'd think long and hard about some of your habits, while you still can.

This might be somewhat understandable if you were rapping off a 12 pitch climb in a thunderstorm, but a 30 foot crag? Geez.

This is false unless you mean that anyone who ever makes a mistake is not “competent”. This kind of circular reasoning has little value. This summer watching major league baseball, I saw an outfielder let a ground ball roll through his legs and a catcher throw to the wrong base. These are top-flight athletes carefully trained, coached, fully experienced and paid well for performing well. Under your definition they must be labeled as “incompetent”. In relation to baseball, they are more competent than most of here are relative to climbing.

In the summer of 1994, two well-known international climbing guides, one with a sterling international reputation, died in accidents “like this” including one on a 25-foot cliff and the other on a simple rappel accident. By your definition they were “incompetent”. I was acquainted with both. They are many similar accidents involving competent climbers.

The partner of the victim has made the obvious assertion that it pays to check what your partner is doing and in this thread he is chastised as if he committed a mortal sin. That is, the peanut gallery moralized the issue by using a lot of irrelevant “should’s”.

Belayer: Thanks for the post and the willingness to expose yourself to a lot of junk from the peanut gallery.

Gratias et valete bene!
RobertusPunctumPacificus

I'd agree with PosiDave...it's really easy to get distracted. I've rappelled hundreds (thousands?) of times but... The other week I was setting up to rappel and, in the middle of putting my ropes into my ATC got distracted by something...went on with what I was doing...and then I went to snug up on the ropes before unclipping and found that I'd put the ropes through the atc but not the locker and out of the ATC they came. Happily I was still clipped in at that point. But it made me even more of a believer in the other half of my setup, already in place, a backup friction device (you can use an autoblock knot, but I use a Petzl Shunt). So even if I HADN'T been clipped in, I was still clipped in!
People have talked a lot about knots in the ends and those are essential, but a backup can be useful in a lot of scenarios (tangled or stuck ropes, hand slips, rope burn, rockfall hits you in head, whatever). We're always building a lot of redundancy into our belay anchors...but it's not belay anchor failures that seem to be getting people killed and hurt. Consider adding more redundancy to your rappel setup, even though it can make for a bit more futzing around. And then check everything over a couple times before you cast off. Takes 6 seconds. Someday you'll be glad you did.