Oh yeah, instead you tried to kill me by throwing an enormous fucking rock at my head. Thanks, Greg.




tee hee hee

My only regret was that it wasn't big enough, both in size and surprise.


edit: I'm tired dammit, and haven't had my afternoon nap. I hate typos.

It wasn't that big a surprise. "Greg, wait! Don't throw that rope"
*rockfall ensues*

"What? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me TRYING TO END YOUR LIFE."

boymeetsrock wrote:I have two that stand out.

1) Lead the first of a two pitch climb and finished at a hanging belay. While hanging there @ 160' off the ground I noticed my harness felt loose. I thought to myself, 'I really though I snugged this up before leaving the ground.' Looked down and realized I hadn't doubled-back my buckles. The whole thing was sliding loose while I was hanging in it! I think I had my second on an auto-block, which made it easier to double-back the buckles while maintaining the belay.

2) In the gym and still new to lead belay with a gri-gri. I noticed I threaded the gri-gri backwards when my partner was already two or three clips up the wall. I immediately asked a third member of our group to give me a back up belay. Once the climber could clip in I re-threaded the belay. I also chastised both of us for not catching that pre-climb.


Perhaps it is the simple tasks that are most easy to overlook and that are often deadly if missed.

I've seen that gri gri screw a number of times over the years. I am very paranoid and triple check them every time. Great devices, but people seem to do this a lot.

heh, that was funny to read. not quite accurate, but funny.

if I remember correctly, you were specifically told not to start jugging the first pitch until after I finished jugging the second pitch, and you were hit with rockfall as I was jugging P2 after you didn't listen to us. hehe...ah, that was a great three days...

Yeah, I started early but the rockfall was from you throwing the rope. I was at the belay station and I defnitely remember first being hit by rope, looking up to shout at you then seeing the rock...

I have a suggestion for gri gri's that I do not see many climbers do, that will help mitigate gri gri failures. Everytime I lead a sport climb, I double check the knots and set ups like most people do/should. As most posters have hinted to, even with this double and tripple check, we all get distracted once in a while and glance over things and a back threaded gri gri doesn't jump out like "dude, your not tied in" does. My advice before every climb with a gri gri belayer, is to do your check on knots, biners, belay device, and harness, then do the tug test. I simply grab my tie in (to make sure I am tugging on the right end, and to tripple check that knot after making a knot mistake years ago), walk my hands along the rope to where it is connected to my belayer, then I give it a yank to verify the gri gri is threaded correctly, and is not gummed up or frozen. It gives my physical proof the device is working and will lock in a fall before I leave the ground.

And for my 2 stories that come to mind...

1. A bunch of years ago I worked out the moves to my first 5.12a climb but was too weak at the end of the day to send. The next morning I ran to my climb, tied in, threw my shoes on, and started rehearsing my moves in the air while my buddy caught up and set up the belay. After a quick safty check, I was off, and flashed it. Totally psyched I clipped the quick clips, yelled take in excitement, leaned back into my harness once I felt the rope go tight, and suddenly started to invert. Shocked I quickly grabbed my rope and corrected myself, then looked down and saw that I had only tied in to my leg loop tie in (the 8 was well dressed though!). Wouldn't have decked or anything, but could have had a nasty inverted helmetless whipper into a block had I blown the final crux. I went from pure excitement and joy, to ashamed and disapointed with myself, before I even got back to the ground. So my first 12a is actually an embarasing memory, not a triumphant one, and I flashed it none the less.

More recently really hung over, I went trad climbing with a buddy. He was on something well within his abilities, but was rehabbing an injury. Tired with a stiff neck i sat down on a natural chair that angled my head up, like I do for TR'ing often, still paying attention and locked off, but clearly not belaying as well if I was standing. My buddy got into the crux and got hung up for a minute, he looked down and yelled at me to get my ass up. I still feel embarased about this as I really should not be sitting for any belaying (although I still do for TR), nor climbing/belaying very hung over which I know plenty of climbers do even though we know we shouldn't, even the pro's do it... Just ask Jason Kruk how hangover went...)
http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/...r-for-the-weekend-56

No one is saying that these mistakes are normal, in the sense that you are saying. The purpose of this thread, as I see it, is not to be cathartic, but to admit your mistakes in the hopes that other people can learn from them. I don't want to speak for everyone, but I do not take lightly any mistake I have made. People make mistakes. If you are as perfect as you claim to be, then YOU are the unrepresentative sample.

Josh

p.s. for everyone reading, it is worth understanding that I waiting till Greg was *almost* done jugging it's just that he jugs slower then me so I finished P1 just after he finished P2.

Awesome story AND we got pictures!

Damn Gabe. That's a good one! Glad all were OK in the event.

Did you consider ascending to the anchor and redirecting again off of that, as apposed to ascending to the directional. Still would have been a longer fall for the second, but at least you wouldn't have flipped.

Good illustrations too.

A - double up the protection (now I ALWAYS do) on the redirect, and B - also redirect the rope through the anchors.

At least I didn't lose control of the belay as I got yanked over backwards and down the slab.

Yes




YES! Well done!

Well, as Jay would be the first to remind me, as a belayer, it's no big deal to keep control as you're being scraped forcibly and with great speed, head first, down a slab.

Seriously, though, it was, quite literally, the *least* I could do after screwing up so badly.

GO

Well, as Jay would be the first to remind me, as a belayer, it's no big deal to keep control as you're being scraped forcibly and with great speed, head first, down a slab.

Seriously, though, it was, quite literally, the *least* I could do after screwing up so badly.

GO

Hopefully that will be the effect of the thread, rather than, as implied by notapplicable, an opportunity for catharsis and to falsely convince ourselves that these mistakes are normal. No, they're not. Hopefully, this thread is an unrepresentative sample.

Jay

Thanks. Thought it would be too hard to explain without the pics.

GO

Hmm... Jay, you know I respect you, but I don't know how better to say this, so I'll just spit it out.

In my opinion, to think that you can have a long career of adventurous climbing and never be saved from your own mistakes by plain old good fortune displays something worse than the ability to make a mistake. It shows plain and simple hubris and overconfidence.

You can stack all the odds in your favor with a full bag of tricks, a good head on your shoulders for solving problems, and a lot of good habits, but... you cannot guarantee that you will never err.

GO

Hmm... Jay, you know I respect you, but I don't know how better to say this, so I'll just spit it out.

In my opinion, to think that you can have a long career of adventurous climbing and never be saved from your own mistakes by plain old good fortune displays something worse than the ability to make a mistake. It shows plain and simple hubris and overconfidence.

You can stack all the odds in your favor with a full bag of tricks, a good head on your shoulders for solving problems, and a lot of good habits, but... you cannot guarantee that you will never err.

GO

Hopefully that will be the effect of the thread, rather than, as implied by notapplicable, an opportunity for catharsis and to falsely convince ourselves that these mistakes are normal. No, they're not. Hopefully, this thread is an unrepresentative sample.

Jay