|
stevematthys
Jul 15, 2002, 6:08 AM
Post #1 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Sep 13, 2000
Posts: 1248
|
I am just getting into aid climbing and have heard a lot about the potential for some pretty nasty aid falls. i was just wondering what are some of the longest whips you guys have taken while aid climbing?
|
|
|
|
|
wildtrail
Jul 15, 2002, 6:14 AM
Post #2 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 6, 2002
Posts: 11063
|
Well, this doesn't pertain, but I took about a 26 footer once. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I don't go more than seven feet anymore without placing something if I can help it.
I'm getting into aid as well. My "mentor" took something like 30+. I think that is what he said. Guessed it to be in the 30+ range.
No thanks.
Steve
|
|
|
|
|
arsenalcrater
Jul 15, 2002, 6:17 AM
Post #3 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 28, 2002
Posts: 147
|
Good question...I have been doing alot of hard aid in soft sandstone. I guess I have been lucky because I have yet to take a huge whipper while trying to dial an A4 lead on soft sandstone. I take alot of deep breaths...and just concentrate. I work a sketchy job and that is a good trainer for me. Don't be in a hurry...don't whip if you don't have to. I've whipped plenty of times on trad, but on hard aid...DON'T DO IT!!! It is not an option.
|
|
|
|
|
philbox
Moderator
Jul 15, 2002, 6:25 AM
Post #4 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jun 27, 2002
Posts: 13105
|
I took a ten footer off a shallow sideways placed 0 RP. My belayer who was asleep at the time woke up with a start and grabbed the rope above the Gri Gri. There were so many pieces between him and me he held my fall with his bare hands. It was also a big surprise to me as well. My feet were skating down the wall, rather fun actually, mind you I ordinarily detest falling about the same as I loathe abseiling.
[ This Message was edited by: philbox on 2002-07-15 14:07 ]
|
|
|
|
|
bigdan
Jul 15, 2002, 6:35 AM
Post #5 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 12, 2002
Posts: 142
|
i took a 20-footer onto a #2 wired hex in tusher canyon near moab on a first ascent we were putting up earlier this year, totally clean though. more recently, i took an 18-footer onto an old star-dryve on an obscure route in garden of the gods, stopped about 6 inches off a ledge and scared the hell out of me!
|
|
|
|
|
brisboy
Jul 15, 2002, 11:01 AM
Post #6 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Sep 3, 2001
Posts: 40
|
it was small but it was still fun, ripped 2 wires after the ball nut i was stanig on blew (this was due to my lack of inexperince with ballnuts too small for the crack) this sent me for a pencil dive downwards. but before i knew what had happened i was swinging around, it took me a couple of seconds to realise what had happend. still not sure. Phil box might be able to help me out here?? phil??
|
|
|
|
|
radistrad
Jul 15, 2002, 2:09 PM
Post #7 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Feb 25, 2002
Posts: 800
|
I blew a tri cam and fell about 2 feet, was bounce testing ... POP... urgh... back to it!
ON easy aid its mainly pilot error, on hard aid you better not make any errors!
|
|
|
|
|
tim
Jul 15, 2002, 3:17 PM
Post #8 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Apr 4, 2002
Posts: 4861
|
I ripped about 35' on a old-school A3 (eg. easy) thin crack when I ran out of tie-offs for the knifeblades I was placing. These days it wouldn't happen because...
1) I try not to nail anymore (micro-camhook!)
2) I test things an awful lot better (thanks in large part to Chris Kalous, who did the 2nd ascent of the Reticent and told me "if your rack isn't flying up around your ears, you're not really bounce testing it"), and
3) I bought a whole lot more tie-off webbing.
Broke my finger on that fall. D'oh.
|
|
|
|
|
atg200
Jul 15, 2002, 3:39 PM
Post #9 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 27, 2001
Posts: 4317
|
howdy dan - can't wait for moab season to start again!
my worst aid fall was rope soloing a first hammerless attempt on devils tower. a camhook blew, and i blew a bunch of RPs and bronze offsets. went 35 feet, and my clove hitch system and a #2 HB offset caught me. totally clean fall, but that was my longest fall and happened while rope soloing so it scared me plenty.
the wildest fall i've ever seen was on my brother's first aid pitch ever. we were offroute on the first pitch of zenyatta entrada in arches national park(it is important to differentiate between left and right on topos when doing desert towers). we didn't have nearly enough big pieces for the variation we were doing, so he was backcleaning like a madman. near the top of the pitch, a large cam blew when the block it was behind moved.
he arced into a head first 45 foot swan dive, sailing past backcleaned placements and blowing a few tipped out cams along the way. ended up being at least a 45 footer, though it looked longer to me. his head was only about 10 feet above a huge block when he stopped. jesus.
andrew
|
|
|
|
|
beyond_gravity
Jul 15, 2002, 7:42 PM
Post #10 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 2, 2002
Posts: 5078
|
If hard aid climbing is so phsyco, why doesn't anyone die doing it?
|
|
|
|
|
glockaroo
Jul 15, 2002, 8:55 PM
Post #11 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 28, 2001
Posts: 149
|
My scariest aid fall was only 3 feet long. Why so scary? Welllll....
I had gone up about 30' from a ledge on nothing but #1 heads and #1 duckbills. The route was "Panic Value" at Looking Glass in NC.
Hanging from the last head I got a bathook in, just before the pitch's first bolt. I clipped the bathook with my daisy/aiders, but before I could get on it the head blew. I took a short daisy fall that almost straighted the bathook, but it held firm. I quickly scrambled up onto it and clipped the bolt.
Had that bit of chro-moly failed, there would unquestionably have been a 30' swan dive, smack ledge, then go for another 30' plus the rope stretch. Well, there's some overhang on the pitch so I might have missed the ledge. Comforting.
Since the ledge was 40' or so off the deck, it may have been a groundfall as well.
I rated the pitch A1+...
|
|
|
|
|
atg200
Jul 15, 2002, 9:17 PM
Post #12 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 27, 2001
Posts: 4317
|
very few aid climbers make gumbie mistakes on hard aid, which is really what kills most climbers. you don't hear of too many people dieing on a hard X rated free climbs like the Bachar-Yerian either - people tend to screw up while not paying attention on climbs well within their ability.
|
|
|
|
|
philbox
Moderator
Jul 15, 2002, 9:19 PM
Post #13 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jun 27, 2002
Posts: 13105
|
Brisboy asks me to comment on his aid fall off a ballnut.
He was climbing a crack system which ventured into soft rotten broken rock. he must have placed a ballnut in a very dodgy zone of shattered rock resulting in this piece blowing. The terrain was less than 90 degrees and contained some small ledges and blockyness his fall subsequently produced a less than perfect descent resulting in a spectacular flailing of arms and legs going in all directions at once. Yeah, nice fall, I wish I had the digy vid on him at the time.
...Phil...
|
|
|
|
|
bigdan
Jul 16, 2002, 12:44 AM
Post #14 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 12, 2002
Posts: 142
|
hey andrew, can't wait for fall, i've got some rivets now, i think i'll need a couple to finish that thing in tusher...
finally topped out on the inferno in garden of the gods on saturday. the top pitch was dicey, bro! at one point i was 6 rivets above a star-dryve, and 4 more rivets under that to the last good drilled pin that would have held! good stuff. also, we've been working on freeing the first pitch the last few weeks and it's cleaning up beautifully, it's gonna go soon and it's gonna be hard...
|
|
|
|
|
passthepitonspete
Jul 16, 2002, 3:08 AM
Post #15 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 10, 2001
Posts: 2183
|
My worst fall was a daisy-chain fall on my solo of Iron Hawk. This was before I had the adjustable daisies. I was on a traverse, and the chain caught me under the ribs. I might well have cracked one, cuz it hurt for the rest of the wall.
But going down was never an option.
When I soloed Zenyatta Mondatta last fall, I took a whipper when the block I was nailing pulled!
I took a twenty-five footer onto a sling around a block, which was rigged with a screamer.
You won't believe it!
You have to click here to see the actual sling and screamer that caught me!
The sling is cut almost completely through!
|
|
|
|
|
brisboy
Jul 16, 2002, 8:14 AM
Post #16 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Sep 3, 2001
Posts: 40
|
thanks phil, i was only asking as i was still unsure of what happened,
its quite suprsising to see how many people saw that i forget how many people i have run in to form those uni clubs, that come up to me and have a good laugh
|
|
|
|
|
sparky
Jul 17, 2002, 12:25 AM
Post #17 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 31, 2002
Posts: 438
|
Steve, you were there when my skyhook blew and the #1 rp caught me 4 feet later, good times
www.geocities.com/climb_eldorado/
|
|
|
|
|
karlbaba
Jul 17, 2002, 1:01 AM
Post #18 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 10, 2002
Posts: 1159
|
My third worst aid fall was on the Groove pitch on the Shield. I flew about 25 or 30 feet past a lot of mank that I didn't bother to clip (cause I didn't want to replace it if I fell) and was caught by a fixed rurp. A small fixed copperhead blew when I had already been standing on it for a while.read the trip report.
Second worst aid fall about 20 years ago when I tried to clean climb "stigma" on the cookie. Zippered crack-n-ups, hooks. broke a #4 stopper cable and was caught by a sideways #1 hex about 8 feet off the deck after falling about 35. When I went back to finish the pitch, the rock all around the hex shattered when I cleaned it. Woulda decked but not a scratch.
Worst aid fall when I grabbed the rope while falling farther than I should on the Muir. My partners had some kind of strange slack buildup going on. I burned my hands and we had to bail since they weren't able to lead anything. We had a ton of food and water and some booze so we had a party half on Heart Ledges on the way down and finished bailing in the morning
PEace
karl
Some of these fall were upside down. Folks remember that in aid climbing, it's important to keep that rope from between your legs even if your directly over your last piece since if you fall high in your aids the rope will catch in at the joining of your aiders and flip you over like a nunchuck!
[ This Message was edited by: karlbaba on 2002-07-18 16:04 ]
[ This Message was edited by: karlbaba on 2002-07-18 16:08 ]
|
|
|
|
|
hollyclimber
Jul 18, 2002, 3:58 PM
Post #19 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Apr 27, 2002
Posts: 124
|
Karl-
Those are some serious falls!
My worst fall was a 20 footer when I was not wearing a helmet and WAS wearing a homemade harness (I forgot mine that day). I pulled a couple of pieces, went upside down and scared my partner since he was actually thinking about the homemade harness and I had forgotten.
I didn't get hurt though, luckily. I even have a picture of that aid lead on my fridge...maybe I should scan it.
I always wear my helmet now (ok most of the time).
Holly
|
|
|
|
|
krustyklimber
Jul 19, 2002, 5:45 AM
Post #20 of 20
(3973 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 25, 2002
Posts: 1650
|
I have only taken two real falls while aiding, one was a fall from my jugs (the top one popped off during a lower out) which resulted in a badly ropeburned hand, and the other was an A3/4 seam I took a 40+ foot grounder off of, zippering everything I didn't back clean except for one piece.
Kids don't try that at your local crag or anywhere else!
Jeff
|
|
|
|
|
|
